The Premier League is 20 years old and has enjoyed plenty of highlights. Here, Total Football continues its new series looking back at some of the highs and lows.
The 2001/2002 campaign saw one of the more open title races for many years. Bolton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Leeds United all had stints leading the way.
However, the main contenders turned out to be Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool, with the Gunners taking the main prize by seven points.
After finishing fifth last season, Ipswich Town underperformed and were relegated. Midlands clubs Derby County and Leicester City also lost their lengthy Premier League statuses.
CHAMPIONS: Arsenal
RUNNERS-UP: Liverpool
THIRD PLACE: Manchester United
RELEGATED: Ipswich Town, Derby County, Leicester City
TOP SCORERS: Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 24, Ruud Van Nistlerooy (Manchester United) 23, Alan Shearer (Newcastle United) 23, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Chelsea) 23, Michael Owen (Liverpool) 19, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United) 17, Robbie Fowler (Liverpool & Leeds) 15, Eidur Gudjohnsen (Chelsea) 14, Marian Pahars (Southampton) 14, Andy Cole (Manchester United & Blackburn) 13, Freddie Ljungberg (Arsenal) 12
BIGGEST WIN: Blackburn Rovers 7-1 West Ham United (14 October 2001)
HIGHEST SCORING GAMES: Tottenham Hotspur 3-5 Manchester United (29 September 2001), Charlton Athletic 4-4 West Ham United (19 November 2001), West Ham United 3-5 Manchester United (17 March 2002)
PFA PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Ruud Van Nistlerooy (Manchester United)
PFA YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Craig Bellamy (Newcastle United)
Losing just three games all season, finishing unbeaten away from home throughout the campaign and scoring in every single Premier League match, Arsenal’s domestic feats in 2001/2002 were phenomenal.
The irresistible Gunners took their second Premier League crown, breaking Manchester United’s three year stranglehold on the main prize and it was the perfect way for both Tony Adams and Lee Dixon to bow out of professional football.
The biggest mover in pre-season was Sol Campbell, who made a very controversial switch from Tottenham to Arsenal on a free transfer, under the Bosman ruling.
Wenger spent the cash after three years of silverware famine, to bring in Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Francis Jeffers and goalkeeper Richard Wright from Ipswich Town.
Manchester United broke the British transfer record twice, to sign Ruud Van Nistlerooy for PSV Eindhoven for £19m and then, Sir Alex Ferguson paid Lazio £28m for Argentine Juan Sebastian Veron.
Teddy Sheringham returned to Tottenham on a free transfer after rejecting a new contract at Old Trafford. He was joined at White Hart Lane by Gus Poyet from Chelsea and Christian Ziege from Liverpool.
Chelsea might have lost Poyet but the chequebook came out again at Stamford Bridge, this time to bring in Frank Lampard for £11m from West Ham, defender William Gallas for £6m and unhappy Barcelona duo, Bolo Zenden and Emmanuel Petit.
Premier League new boys Fulham spent £34m on new players, including Steve Marlet and Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Wise was sold by Chelsea to Leicester City, John Arne Riise joined Liverpool from AS Monaco and Middlesbrough acquired Gareth Southgate from Aston Villa.
In the managerial dugout, Stuart Gray became the permanent choice at Southampton, former Manchester United assistant Steve McLaren succeeded Bryan Robson at Middlesbrough and West Ham appointed their former first team coach, Glenn Roeder.
ITV became the new home of Premier League highlights, with ambitious plans to screen Saturday night highlights at 7pm in ‘The Premiership’. Lastly, the league had a new sponsor as credit card supplier Barclaycard replaced Carling. The league was now known as the FA Barclaycard Premiership.
Bolton’s brilliant start
Bolton Wanderers were the surprising pacesetters in the opening weeks of the season.
Sam Allardyce masterminded his side to a stunning 5-0 away win on the first weekend at Leicester City. Their brilliant start continued with victories over Middlesbrough and Liverpool.
Dean Holdsworth’s stoppage time winner at the Reebok Stadium against the Reds came courtesy of a dreadful error from Sander Westerveld.
It was Westerveld’s final game for the club, as Gerard Houllier swooped for Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland but that didn’t stop the men from Anfield being beaten 3-1 at home in their next game by Aston Villa, with Steven Gerrard seeing red.
Another big name to exit the Premier League was Jaap Stam. Revelations in Stam’s autobiography Head to Head, saw Sir Alex Ferguson shock him, by selling him to Lazio for £15.3m.
Laurent Blanc was brought in as replacement but his age meant defensively, there were a lot of wobbles around at Old Trafford. An own goal saw them rescue a point at Villa Park in the dying moments in August.
Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season, when they were defeated 2-1 at home by Leeds, who had both Danny Mills and Lee Bowyer sent off.
The Gunners were also held at home by Bolton in September, when Michael Ricketts came off the bench to score the equaliser. Ricketts was a surprise package this season, scoring 11 goals and earning international recognition from England.
The first managerial casualty was Peter Taylor at Leicester City, after just one win in the Foxes first seven matches. Dave Bassett took over but the club looked doomed from the early weeks.
Fulham had been welcomed into the Premier League family and they made a good start, with Louis Saha scoring twice in a close fought game with Manchester United. Their solid consistency had Jean Tigana’s side in the top half for the majority of the first half of the season.
Red hot Manchester
On 29 September, Manchester United visited Tottenham and caved in during the first 45 minutes. A debut goal for Dean Richards, Les Ferdinand and a flying Christian Ziege header had Spurs 3-0 up at half-time and in dreamland.
The response from the champions was red hot. Andy Cole, Blanc, Van Nistlerooy, Veron and David Beckham all scored in the second half to complete a remarkable 5-3 turnaround at White Hart Lane.
Cracks though were appearing in United’s armour, as they lost 4-3 in a thriller at Newcastle and had Roy Keane sent off again. Then, they lost 1-2 at home to Bolton before a stoppage time header from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rescued a point when Leeds visited Old Trafford.
Time ran out on Jim Smith at Derby in October and he was replaced by former Bolton manager, Colin Todd. Form at Pride Park didn’t improve under his reign either.
Stuart Gray was sacked by Southampton after just three months in the job, with Gordon Strachan accepting the call at St. Mary’s. He inspired the side to their first victory in the new stadium in November, beating Charlton 1-0.
Liverpool’s season was thrown into turmoil when Gerard Houllier was taken ill at half-time of their 1-1 draw with Leeds on 13 October. The Frenchman needed major heart surgery, which meant assistant manager Phil Thompson took caretaker charge.
Thompson did a brilliant job though, steering the club to top spot in November, following a run of six wins in seven. This included a fine 3-1 success over Manchester United, with John Arne Riise scoring one of the most memorable free-kicks of all-time.
In every season, shock results happen now and again and there was one on 4 November, when Charlton Athletic stunned Arsenal to win 4-2 at Highbury. The Addicks were full of goals in November, as they then shared eight with West Ham infront of the Sky cameras.
Paul Kitson came out of the doldrums to score the most unlikely hat-trick of the season for the Hammers at the Valley and there was a notable first Premier League strike too, from Jermain Defoe.
West Ham recovered well from a slow start, which included a 5-0 demolition by Everton, followed by a 7-1 battering at Blackburn Rovers to finish a creditable seventh.
Newcastle end the London jinx
Come 18 December and Newcastle’s winless run in the capital had stretched to four years and a month. That jinx ended in an explosive match at Highbury.
Both Ray Parlour and Craig Bellamy were harshly sent off, whilst Sol Campbell probably should have been sent off for bringing down Laurent Robert when the Frenchman was in on goal.
Second half efforts from Andy O’Brien, Alan Shearer and Robert saw the Magpies overturn a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1 and vault to the top of the table.
A similar fightback at Leeds days later, where Norberto Solano scored a stoppage time winner to win the match 4-3, meant Sir Bobby Robson’s team were sitting in first position on Christmas Day.
It was the end of an era at Anfield, as Robbie Fowler completed an £11m move to Leeds United. He scored his first hat-trick for his new club on Boxing Day, in an impressive 3-0 win at Bolton.
After their bright start, Bolton struggled to a run of just one win in 11 games. Going in the other direction was Ipswich Town.
Having made a dismal beginning, which saw the Tractor Boys win just one from their first 17, they began a run around Christmas of seven wins in eight, which took them upto 11th. It included a 5-0 trouncing of Sunderland.
Things got tough for Liverpool over the winter months, as they dropped to fifth following a run of one win in nine games. Michael Owen did have reason to celebrate though, as scored his 100th goal for the club and won the prestigious European Footballer of the Year award.
Manchester United’s struggles continued, when a couple of Fabien Barthez howlers presented Arsenal and Thierry Henry with a couple of gifts. That 3-1 reverse at Highbury, was followed by a 3-0 home defeat to Chelsea and a 1-0 loss to West Ham.
Having slipped to as low as ninth, Ferguson’s men were about to go on a deadly run of form to get back into the title race, with some goalscoring history being made along the way.
Record breaking Ruud
It started in a 5-0 romp of Derby on 12 December and concluded with a penalty in United’s 2-1 triumph over Blackburn on January 19.
Ruud Van Nistlerooy became a scorer in eight successive Premier League matches, which was a new record. He ended with 23 in total and the PFA Players Player of the Year award, in his first season at Old Trafford.
Meanwhile, Sir Alex Ferguson decided to change his mind about retirement at the end of 2001-02 and signed on as manager for another three seasons.
Not such good news for Aston Villa fans though, as John Gregory finally had enough of his tempestuous relationship with Chairman Doug Ellis and walked out on the club in January.
Gregory turned up at his former club Derby, who had dismissed Colin Todd after just 18 games in charge. Villa also went down the old guard route, with Graham Taylor leaving the ITV On The Ball sofa to work again with Ellis. Neither change worked out.
After four frustrating years at Goodison Park, Everton sacked Walter Smith in March, replacing him with rising star, David Moyes from Preston North End. Also on the move was Andy Cole, who swapped Manchester United’s bench for Blackburn Rovers first-team.
Cole would go onto win the League Cup and be part of a spring revival, which saw Graeme Souness’s side climb from 18th at the end of February into a respectable tenth place finish on their Premier League return.
Despite setting the pace, Manchester United’s questionable home form continued to dog them and losses to Liverpool in January and another Danny Murphy winner and Middlesbrough in March, handed the title initiative to Arsenal.
Newcastle fell away from title pace, following consecutive defeats to Arsenal and Liverpool in the space of four days in March. In the match with the Gunners, Dennis Bergkamp scored one of the best goals in Premier League history, when he back-heeled and turned past Andy O’Brien, before slotting the ball past Shay Given.
Leeds briefly went top over New Year but their form faded away badly in the second half of the season and David O’Leary lost his job once the season concluded.
Midlands’s misery
Leicester City’s fate was sealed on 6 April, when an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer goal saw Manchester United win 1-0 at Filbert Street, consigning the Foxes to Division One.
Dave Bassett moved upstairs, allowed his assistant, Mickey Adams to take charge.
Derby also dropped out of the Premier League, following a 2-0 defeat at Anfield.
Seven defeats from their final eight games meant John Gregory couldn’t save the Rams from the dreaded drop too.
As Everton improved under Moyes, Ipswich got dragged back into the relegation picture. A 4-1 defeat at Bolton saw them back in the bottom three and in deep trouble.
George Burley’s team won just one of their last 13 games and despite winning a UEFA Cup place through the Fair Play award, they went down after a 5-0 drubbing by Liverpool on the last day of the season.
Bolton survived, as did Sunderland, as they dropped from seventh to 17th in one season. The chants at the Stadium of Light calling for Peter Reid’s head meant it was a sign of things to come on Wearside.
Meanwhile, Alan Shearer became the first and only player so far to score 200 Premier League goals, when he scored in Newcastle 3-0 win at home to Charlton.
Days later, a double at his former side Blackburn ensured Newcastle would be playing Champions League football next season.
Despite an FA Cup final appearance and another 23 goals from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, it was another inconsistent season from Chelsea, as they languished in sixth place.
The title is won at Old Trafford
Liverpool might have had Gerard Houllier back in the dugout at the end of March but their lingering hopes of the title disappeared when Gus Poyet’s first-half goal saw them lose 1-0 at Tottenham in late April.
It meant it was down to the usual two; Arsenal and Manchester United. It was set up for the title decider at Old Trafford on May 8.
Arsenal had already won the FA Cup and chased a historic double. A point would have been enough with the Red Devils needing all three to take the race to the wire.
The Gunners had won 11 in a row and their 12th came at Old Trafford. Barthez pushed out a Freddie Ljungberg shot in the second half but only into the path of Sylvain Wiltord, who slotted home the only goal.
Arsenal had won the championship with an unbeaten away record and they wrestled the trophy from Manchester United in their own backyard of Old Trafford. Simply, it doesn’t get more conclusive than that.
On the final day, a double from Thierry Henry in a 4-3 triumph at home to Everton sealed the Golden Boot for the enigmatic Frenchman, one ahead of Shearer, Van Nistlerooy and Hasselbaink.
Liverpool’s 5-0 blitz of Ipswich combined with a Manchester United 0-0 home draw with Charlton meant the Anfield side finished in a superb second place, meaning United chalked up their lowest position in the league, since 1990.
This season, the best team had been Arsenal and rightfully, they won the major prizes.
It was a fitting way for Lee Dixon and Tony Adams to end their careers and the start of a great period of fantastic football in North London.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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