Post by Carl LaFong on Nov 18, 2020 8:24:06 GMT
“If the founders of the Premier League had decided the title would be passed on like it is in boxing (so the first team to beat Leeds United in the 1992-93 season would have won their title, and the first team to beat that team would have taken it from them and so on), who would be the current champions?” asks Oliver Forrest.
It’s a good time to ask a question like this, as the Knowledge has little better to do during lockdown than trawl through hundreds and thousands of Premier League results going back to 1992. Before we come to the current incumbents, let’s look at those who finished each season as unofficial Premier League champions.
Chelsea have won the most titles with three and Liverpool have picked up two, when in reality they have only won the one they waltzed to last year. Manchester United have just one solitary unofficial title, as opposed to 13 in the real world. Their unofficial one came in 2004-05, a season when they didn’t win the real one.
The strangest finding is that Arsenal’s Invincibles did not win the unofficial title in 2003-04. They only faced the reigning unofficial champions twice during that season – Bolton in December and Newcastle in April – and drew both matches.
Sheffield Wednesday (in 1999-2000) and Newcastle (2015-16) were relegated from the real Premier League while also winning the unofficial one, which meant a couple of detours via the Championship, with Burton Albion, who only became a Football League club in 2009, perhaps being the smallest team to be wear the unofficial crown when they beat Brighton on 11 February 2017. We had to follow the 2016-17 Championship season into the play-offs, where Huddersfield brought the title back into the Premier League when they beat Reading on penalties.
Here’s the full list of champions:
1992-93 Norwich City
1993-94 West Ham United
1994-95 Nottingham Forest
1995-96 Newcastle United
1996-97 Aston Villa
1997-98 Derby County
1998-99 Leeds United
1999-2000 Sheffield Wednesday
2000-01 Sheffield United
2001-02 Birmingham City
2002-03 Leeds United (2)
2003-04 Portsmouth
2004-05 Manchester United
2005-06 Blackburn Rovers
2006-07 West Ham United (2)
2007-08 Chelsea
2008-09 Liverpool
2009-10 Chelsea (2)
2010-11 Tottenham Hotspur
2011-12 Everton
2012-13 Tottenham Hotspur (2)
2013-14 Chelsea (3)
2014-15 Arsenal
2015-16 Newcastle United (2)
2016-17 Huddersfield
2017-18 Crystal Palace
2018-19 Liverpool (2)
2019-20 Southampton
Southampton are still the current champions despite their loss to Crystal Palace on the opening day. Palace lost the title to Everton on 26 September but the Toffees’ defeat at St Mary’s on 25 October means Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side have regained their crown and take it to Wolves this weekend.
It’s a good time to ask a question like this, as the Knowledge has little better to do during lockdown than trawl through hundreds and thousands of Premier League results going back to 1992. Before we come to the current incumbents, let’s look at those who finished each season as unofficial Premier League champions.
Chelsea have won the most titles with three and Liverpool have picked up two, when in reality they have only won the one they waltzed to last year. Manchester United have just one solitary unofficial title, as opposed to 13 in the real world. Their unofficial one came in 2004-05, a season when they didn’t win the real one.
The strangest finding is that Arsenal’s Invincibles did not win the unofficial title in 2003-04. They only faced the reigning unofficial champions twice during that season – Bolton in December and Newcastle in April – and drew both matches.
Sheffield Wednesday (in 1999-2000) and Newcastle (2015-16) were relegated from the real Premier League while also winning the unofficial one, which meant a couple of detours via the Championship, with Burton Albion, who only became a Football League club in 2009, perhaps being the smallest team to be wear the unofficial crown when they beat Brighton on 11 February 2017. We had to follow the 2016-17 Championship season into the play-offs, where Huddersfield brought the title back into the Premier League when they beat Reading on penalties.
Here’s the full list of champions:
1992-93 Norwich City
1993-94 West Ham United
1994-95 Nottingham Forest
1995-96 Newcastle United
1996-97 Aston Villa
1997-98 Derby County
1998-99 Leeds United
1999-2000 Sheffield Wednesday
2000-01 Sheffield United
2001-02 Birmingham City
2002-03 Leeds United (2)
2003-04 Portsmouth
2004-05 Manchester United
2005-06 Blackburn Rovers
2006-07 West Ham United (2)
2007-08 Chelsea
2008-09 Liverpool
2009-10 Chelsea (2)
2010-11 Tottenham Hotspur
2011-12 Everton
2012-13 Tottenham Hotspur (2)
2013-14 Chelsea (3)
2014-15 Arsenal
2015-16 Newcastle United (2)
2016-17 Huddersfield
2017-18 Crystal Palace
2018-19 Liverpool (2)
2019-20 Southampton
Southampton are still the current champions despite their loss to Crystal Palace on the opening day. Palace lost the title to Everton on 26 September but the Toffees’ defeat at St Mary’s on 25 October means Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side have regained their crown and take it to Wolves this weekend.
