#3 Manchester United, 1997/98
Sandwiched between the successes of 1996/97 and the treble-winning 1998/99 teams, Man United’s 1997/98 side were arguably as good as either. The squad read like a who’s who of 90s Premier League stars – Schmeichel, Keane, Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Sheringham, Neville, Irwin – and didn’t really have a weak spot.
In the early part of the season, they looked as unstoppable as they sounded on paper, slaughtering the likes of Barnsley, Sheffield Wednesday, Wimbledon and Blackburn with multiple goals. A hammering of Chelsea in the FA Cup in January seemed to indicate their dominance over the rest of England, and by March they were 11 points clear in the league.
Slowly but surely though, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal side – a mix of their strong English spine of Seaman, Adams, Dixon et al alongside Wenger’s cosmopolitan signings like Overmars, Petit, Vieira and Anelka – began to creep up. They had three games in hand by March and capitalised, winning seven games in a row – including a 1-0 win over United – to overtake them as the Old Trafford outfit dropped points to Sheffield Wednesday and West Ham.
Arsenal’s winning run continued while United dropped more points against Liverpool and Newcastle, and in the end, the Gunners clinched the title on the first weekend of May. In any other season, this United side probably would’ve won the league at a canter, but were simply beaten to it by Arsenal’s brilliance.
