10 Most Dominant Premier League Champions Ever

FourFourTwo

Sometimes it isn't enough to just win English football's greatest prize... you have to do it in style.

Transcript

00:00To quote Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and you'd be surprised how often I do that,

00:07the greatest victory is that which requires no battle.

00:10But to quote, literally me though, the greatest victory is that which makes your opponents

00:15look like complete chumps.

00:16You see, it's not enough to simply win the Premier League, I mean even Blackburn have

00:20managed that, but the key is to win it by absolutely miles.

00:25That's how you get remembered in this game, and arguably even more important than that,

00:29that's how you qualify for this list.

00:30I'm Adam Cleary, this is 442, and these are the 10 most dominant Premier League champions

00:36ever.

00:3710.

00:38Manchester United, 1994 A mere two weeks into the 93-94 season, Manchester

00:43United went away to Aston Villa and won thanks to two goals from Lee Sharp, remember him.

00:48This win sent them to the top of the league, and there they stayed for the remaining 38

00:53games of that season.

00:54With Eric Cantona somehow getting a five-match ban for sending off in consecutive games,

00:58Alan Shearer's Blackburn almost offered a title chase.

01:02But despite cutting their lead to mere goal difference at one point, ultimately came up

01:05some eight points short.

01:07Womp womp.

01:08The title was secured with a 2-1 victory away to Ipswich Town, and only defeat to Aston

01:12Villa in the League Cup final prevented them from doing a domestic treble.

01:16Not bad.

01:179.

01:18Leicester City, 2016 Placing everyone thinks about Leicester's

01:21shock Premier League win as something of a plucky underdog story, but even a cursory

01:25revision of the numbers that year shows that in reality, they battered everyone.

01:30Despite starting the season as candidates for relegation, they romped home to the title

01:33with an astounding 10 points to spare, and only three defeats all season.

01:39Three.

01:40Leicester.

01:41Three defeats.

01:42All season.

01:43That is astonishing.

01:44And yeah, sure, they were helped by several of the usual contenders having disastrous

01:47seasons, Man United were 5th, Liverpool were 8th and Chelsea were 10th, but their 81-point

01:52haul would have had them there or thereabouts in both the previous two seasons.

01:57Annoyingly for a fairy tale, they clinched the title not by actually playing, but by

02:00Chelsea stopping Spurs taking all three points in one of the final games of the season.

02:04Although judging by the celebrations, I don't think anybody cared even one bit.

02:088.

02:09Manchester United, 2001 Just the 10-point winning margin for Manchester

02:13United two years after they won the treble, and it likely could have been a lot more had

02:17they not somehow lost their last three games of the season.

02:21And just the 60 goals that campaigned for the forward options of Terry Sheringham, Andy

02:25Cole, Dwight York and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as well as one of David Beckham's most prolific

02:29seasons in Manchester with nine.

02:31Arsenal offered something of a challenge, but were practically as close to Man United

02:34in first as they were to Sunderland in seventh, so not exactly what you'd call close, and

02:38the Gunners getting thumped 3-0 at home somehow by Middlesbrough handed the title to Ferguson.

02:44For a change.

02:457.

02:46Oh good, it's Man United again.

02:482013.

02:49But look, right, Man United are on this list a lot, because to be blunt, Alex Ferguson

02:53was very good at building some of the all-time great teams.

02:57But the thing is, right, the thing, the thing about this team, the thing is, they weren't

03:02one of them.

03:03Sure, you've got Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney in here, but where a few years prior

03:07they were in a team with Tevez, Vidic and Ronaldo, here they were lining up with Tom

03:12Cleverley, Danny Welbeck and Phil Jones.

03:15That Ferguson managed to extract not only a tune, but an emphatically championship-winning

03:20one out of them might honestly be the most impressive thing he did in his entire time

03:25at that club.

03:26And how did he do it, do you ask?

03:28Well, it was very simple, he stole Robin Van Persie from Arsenal, and 30 goals later, voila!

03:34They had the worst defence in the entire top four, but still somehow managed 20 goals and

03:3911 points more than Manchester City in second.

03:42Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa, including, yes, that volley, sealed the title

03:46in spectacular fashion, and football's just, it's just really simple sometimes, isn't it?

03:54Yeah, Guardiola and the boys were barely challenged for the Premier League in 20-21, with Manchester

04:00United, their closest competitor, a dismal 12 points behind.

04:04Impressive, sure, but insanely so when you consider that on Christmas Day, they were

04:09somehow 8th in the league.

04:11Yep, and yet still, somehow it became a record-breaking season.

04:15They achieved a remarkable winning streak of 82 days from December to March, they completed

04:20the most consecutive wins by a top-flight English team in all competitions ever at 21,

04:25they went 28 games unbeaten overall, and set the record for consecutive away league wins

04:31at 12.

04:32There's a life lesson in there somewhere about not giving up and just doing your best,

04:37and I don't know, find it yourself.

04:38Number 5, Chelsea, 2005.

04:41Now while it was immediately clear that new boss Jose Mourinho wasn't exactly lacking

04:45in self-confidence, many in England still wondered whether he had the skills to back

04:49up his special claims.

04:51I'm not one of the bottle, I think I'm a special one.

04:58And he did, yes, because Chelsea promptly beat Manchester United in his first league

05:02game in charge, didn't lose one until October, and then managed to avoid defeat for the entire

05:07rest of the season.

05:09They amassed a scarcely believable 95 points and shipped a ludicrous 15 goals, in fact

05:16they were tighter at the back than- oh, sorry, two seconds, hello, oh hello my lawyer, you

05:25don't want me to do that joke, okay.

05:27It was Chelsea's first title in 50 years and was achieved away to Bolton in late April

05:31thanks to, fittingly, a brace from Frank Lampard.

05:34The feeling at the time was that with this sort of team, having this sort of manager

05:37and that sort of financial clout, that next season was probably just a foregone conclusion

05:41and lo and behold, let me check, ah yes it was.

05:47It says an awful lot about the teams currently occupying our top three spots here that this

05:51Arsenal side, who no other team beat across an entire season, are somehow only sitting

05:57in fourth.

05:58Now immortalised as the Invincibles, I'm sure you've probably heard of them, they

06:01did something that no side had managed since Preston in 1889, the year the drinking straw

06:08was invented.

06:09Astoundingly, they went into 2004 somehow trailing Manchester United, but a mid-January

06:142-0 win at Aston Villa the day after United had suffered a shock defeat to Wolves moved

06:19them triumphantly to the top of the table, and there they stayed.

06:22Thierry Henry managed 30 goals, which obviously helped, but in truth this 11 point winning

06:27margin was enabled more by the perfect balance of beauty and guile afforded by the squad

06:32as a whole.

06:33And just to make the perfect season even more perfecter, to think it is a word, they won

06:39the league of all places at White Hart Lane.

06:413.

06:42Liverpool 2020 Arguably one of the most imperious and dominant

06:46title wins in the history of English football, Liverpool finished the season 18 points ahead

06:51of second place Manchester City, but 33 points ahead of Manchester United in third.

06:56And all this despite the 2019-2020 season being disrupted by… well, you remember the

07:03Zoom calls, the sourdough, the hand sanitiser, let's not relive all that now.

07:08In fact, before that whole carry-on started, they were an eye-watering 25 points ahead

07:12of Manchester City and had won 27 times after 29 games, which is frankly ridiculous.

07:20Their nearest challengers battering them 4-0 at the restart did nothing but deny them a

07:24triple-figure points haul, finishing on 99.

07:28But I mean, it's just typical though, isn't it?

07:29You wait 30 years for a league title and not only does it happen without you kicking a

07:33ball after Chelsea defeat Man City, but it happens also at a time when you're technically

07:39not even allowed within 2 metres of your own dad.

07:412.

07:42Manchester United 2000 Now, I'm not sure if they've ever mentioned

07:47it, but the 1998-1999 season was a pretty big deal for Manchester United on account

07:53of them winning a domestic and European treble.

07:55But whereas they were just 1 point clear of Arsenal that year, they followed up in 1999-2000

08:01with an 18-point winning margin.

08:04A 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough in January moved the Red Devils into first place and

08:08they remained there for the entire remainder of the season, losing just one of their final

08:1318 fixtures.

08:15They wrapped up their 6th and easily most convincing Premier League title with a 3-1

08:19win away to Southampton, but just, oh, I'm pretty impressed here Adam, but is there

08:23anything you can say to somehow make this more of an achievement?

08:27Well, yeah, it's funny you should ask that actually, because I can.

08:31They had Mark Bosnach in goal, and this was the Massimo Ta'ivi season.

08:35Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

08:371.

08:38Manchester City 2018 Not to sound like Dr Evil here, but 100 points.

08:45That is over 2.6 points per game.

08:49Second place Manchester United's 81-point haul would have been enough to actually win

08:54them the league in previous seasons, but still left them 19 points adrift here.

09:00Just to really hammer this home, you would have had to have given them another 7 games,

09:05all of which they'd need to win for them to catch City.

09:09That is ridiculous.

09:11And they broke all kinds of records that season as well.

09:14Most away points at 50, most wins at 32, most away wins at 16, most goals at 106, biggest

09:22goal difference at plus 79, most consecutive wins at 18, most consecutive away wins at

09:2811, and the joint earliest Premier League title win with 5 games to spare.

09:35Aguero, Sterling, Jesus and Sane all struck double figures, and even Fernandinho, a man

09:41whose name translates from Portuguese as I just pass it sideways, yes boss, got 5.

09:47Now technically they secured the title when Manchester United suffered a shock home defeat

09:51to West Brom, but in truth it was over as a contest when they battered Watford 6-0 away

09:56and went to the top of the table in only the fifth game of the season.

10:01That is, plain and simple, how you do it.

Category

Transcript

Recommended