10 Most Dominant Premier League Champions Ever

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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 look like complete chumps.

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

00:21but the key is to win it by absolutely miles.

00:24That's how you get remembered in this game, and arguably even more important than that,

00:28that's how you qualify for this list.

00:31I'm Adam Cleary, this is 442, and these are the 10 most dominant Premier League champions ever.

00:36Number 10, Manchester United, 1994.

00:39A mere two weeks into the 93-94 season, Manchester United 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 games of that season.

00:54With Eric Cantona somehow getting a five-match ban for sending-offs 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 some 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 Villa in the League Cup final prevented them from doing a domestic treble.

01:16Not bad.

01:16Number 9, Leicester City, 2016.

01:19Placing everyone thinks about Leicester's shock Premier League win as something of a plucky underdog story,

01:24but even a cursory revision of the numbers that year shows that in reality, they battered everyone.

01:29Despite starting the season as candidates for relegation, they romped home to the title with an astounding 10 points to spare,

01:36and only three defeats all season.

01:39Three.

01:39Leicester.

01:40Three defeats.

01:41All season.

01:42That is astonishing.

01:43And yeah, sure, they were helped by several of the usual contenders having disastrous seasons,

01:48Man United were 5th, Liverpool were 8th, and Chelsea were 10th,

01:51but their 81-point haul would have had them there or thereabouts in both the previous two seasons.

01:56Annoyingly for a fairytale, they clinched the title not by actually playing,

02:00but by Chelsea 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.

02:08Number 8, Manchester United, 2001.

02:11Just the 10-point winning margin for Manchester United two years after they won the treble,

02:16and it likely could have been a lot more had they not somehow lost their last three games of the season.

02:20And just the 60 goals that campaigned for the forward options of Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole, Dwight York,

02:26and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as well as one of David Beckham's most prolific seasons in Manchester with nine.

02:31Arsenal offered something of a challenge, but were practically as close to Man United in first as they were to Sunderland in seventh,

02:36and so not exactly what you'd call close, and the Gunners getting thumped 3-0 at home somehow by Middlesbrough handed the title to Ferguson.

02:44For a change.

02:45Number 7, oh good, it's Man United again, 2013.

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

02:52Alex Ferguson was very good at building some of the all-time great teams.

02:56But the thing is, right, the thing, the thing about this team, the thing is, they weren't one of them.

03:03Sure, you've got Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney in here, but where a few years prior they were in a team with Tevez, Vidic and Ronaldo,

03:10here they were lining up with Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck and Phil Jones.

03:15That Ferguson managed to extract not only a tune, but an emphatically championship winning one out of them,

03:21might honestly be the most impressive thing he did in his entire time at 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 11 points more than Manchester City in second.

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

03:48and football's just, it's just really simple sometimes, isn't it?

03:51Number 6, Manchester City, 2021.

03:53Yeah, Guardiola and the boys were barely challenged for the Premier League in 20-21,

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

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

04:19They completed the most consecutive wins by a top-flight English team in all competitions ever.

04:24At 21, they went 28 games unbeaten overall, and set the record for consecutive away league wins at 12.

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

04:46many in England still wondered whether he had the skills to back up his special claims.

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

04:57And he did, yes, because Chelsea promptly beat Manchester United in his first league game in charge,

05:03didn't lose one until October, and then managed to avoid defeat for the entire rest of the season.

05:09They amassed a scarcely believable 95 points and shipped a ludicrous 15 goals.

05:15In fact, they were tighter at the back than...

05:19Oh, sorry, two seconds.

05:21Hello?

05:23Oh, hello, my lawyer.

05:24You don't want me to do that joke.

05:26Okay.

05:26It 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.

05:44Number four, Arsenal 2004.

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 beats 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 did

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

06:08invented.

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

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 as

06:33a whole.

06:34And just to make the perfect season even more perfecter, to think is a word, they won the

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

06:41Number three, Liverpool 2020.

06:43Arguably one of the most imperious and dominant title wins in the history of English football,

06:48Liverpool finished the season 18 points ahead of second place Manchester City, but 33 points

06:54ahead 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 of

07:13Manchester 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

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

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

07:412.

07:42Manchester United 2000

07:44Now, I'm not sure if they've ever mentioned it, but the 1998-1999 season was a pretty big

07:51deal for Manchester United on account of them winning a domestic and European treble.

07:55But whereas they were just one point clear of Arsenal that year, they followed up in

07:591999-2000 with an 18-point winning margin.

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

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

08:1318 fixtures.

08:14They wrapped up their 6th and easily most convincing Premier League title with a 3-1 win away to

08:19Southampton.

08:20Oh, I'm pretty impressed here Adam, but is there anything you can say to somehow make

08:25this more of an achievement?

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

08:30They had Marc Bosnich in goal, and this was the Massimo Taivi season.

08:34And number 1, Manchester City 2018.

08:40Not to sound like Dr Evil here, but 100 points, that 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 to have given them another 7 games, all

09:05of 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 11,

09:29the 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.

10:05And that's it, that's the video, thank you so very much for watching and making it all

10:09the way till the end, somebody's keen.

10:11While you're here, please do consider subscribing to the 442 YouTube channel, we've got loads of

10:14awesome football content dropping all through the week, as well as an amazing library of

10:18documentaries, player interviews and performance guides as well.

10:21Until next time though, thank you once again for watching, I do hope you enjoyed yourself,

10:25and I'll see you soon, goodbye!

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