In pretty simple terms, the best team should always win the league, right? While it’s understandable that the best side might not win a knockout competition – the odd upset or flukey result can always happen – over the 38 games in a Premier League season, the cream should probably rise to the top.
While that tends to be the case, of course, some seasons have seen equally great teams that for whatever reason, didn’t quite manage to get over that final hurdle to win that elusive title. Perhaps they blew up late on, or simply lost one or two crucial games. Maybe the winning side were just that bit better, and in any other year, they’d have been champions. Here are five of the best sides to have never won the Premier League.
#5 Newcastle United, 1995/96
In any sort of list referring to the best sides that didn’t win the league, Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle of 1995/96 always deserve a mention. 1994/95 saw the Magpies finish sixth in the Premier League, and their fans were greatly annoyed when they sold top scorer Andy Cole to Manchester United in January.
The summer of 1995 saw Keegan spend the money the club had gained from the Cole transfer to strengthen the squad – in came French attacking midfielder David Ginola, QPR’s prolific striker Les Ferdinand, and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop. Slotting in alongside the likes of Rob Lee, Peter Beardsley and Philippe Albert, the team soon developed a wild, attacking style and were christened ‘The Entertainers’.
Newcastle surged to the top of the table and by January 1996, they’d built a 12-point lead over rivals Man United. Somehow though, the wheels started to come off – the Magpies dropped some vital points at West Ham and Man City while United started to claw the lead back, thanks mainly to the return of Eric Cantona.
In March, Newcastle were defeated by United at home, and soon after, the side lost to Liverpool 4-3 in one of the all-time classic Premier League games, living and dying by the sword due to Keegan’s gung-ho tactics. Suckered in by United manager Alex Ferguson’s mind games, Keegan began to lose his cool, and his side couldn’t sustain their run and were eventually overtaken, missing out on the top spot by four points.
#4 Liverpool, 2013/14
2013/14 was a somewhat odd Premier League season. Champions Man United lost their legendary manager Alex Ferguson and plummeted under David Moyes, and the title seemed like anyone’s for the taking. The first place spot changed hands 25 times, but as the season reached the final stages, it looked like Brendan Rogers’ Liverpool would claim the title.
Spearheaded by an attack featuring Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge – who scored 52 goals between them – and lead by legendary captain Steven Gerrard, they won 11 games in a row from February to April while playing some of the best football seen in the Premier League. Arsenal, Man United, Man City and Tottenham were all dispatched ruthlessly during this run.
A 2-3 win at Norwich put the Reds five points clear of rivals Chelsea on April 20th and the title was within their grasp, but then disaster struck – in their next game against Chelsea, Gerrard slipped and allowed Demba Ba to capitalise and score. Chelsea won 0-2 and cut Liverpool’s lead to two points, while Man City sat just three behind with a game in hand.
Liverpool’s momentum was crushed by the loss, and in their next game, they surrendered a 3-0 lead to Crystal Palace to only come away with a draw. Suarez was left in tears by the result and his side were leapfrogged by Man City, finishing second by just two points.
#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.
#2 Arsenal, 1998/99
After overhauling Man United to win the league in the previous season, Arsenal went into 1998/99 on a high and added Swedish star Freddie Ljungberg and Nigeria’s Nwankwo Kanu to their ranks for another title push. And basically, they were still brilliant. Unfortunately for them, Man United – strengthened by the signings of Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke – were somehow even better.
Arsenal pushed and pushed throughout the season, despite a slow-ish start that saw them draw four games in a row. They defeated United 3-0 at Highbury with goals from Ljungberg, Tony Adams and Nicolas Anelka, and only lost four games all season.
February’s 5-0 win over Leicester seemed to point to another title run and despite a draw in the next game against Newcastle, they then won eight of their next nine games, scoring five past Derby and six past Middlesbrough. But United were equally good, equally prolific, and equally unbeatable.
A loss to Leeds in the penultimate game of the season effectively torpedoed Arsenal’s title hopes and although they won their final game, they finished the season just one point behind United, who then went on to secure a historic treble. In any other season though, this Arsenal side would definitely have retained their crown.
#1 Leeds United, 2000/01
1999/00 saw David O’Leary’s young Leeds United side finish third in the Premier League thanks to some tremendous performances from up-and-comers such as Harry Kewell, Alan Smith, Jonathan Woodgate and Ian Harte. They’d captured a Champions League spot for 2000/01 and were fully expected to challenge for the title. The additions of Olivier Dacourt, Mark Viduka and Rio Ferdinand were supposed to be the final pieces of the puzzle.
Leeds kicked off the season in good form with two wins, and they also defeated 1860 Munich to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League. Drawn with Barcelona, AC Milan and Besiktas, getting out of the group seemed impossible. But a win over Milan at home and draws in Barcelona and Milan sent them through to an equally tough second group, coming up against the likes of Real Madrid, Lazio and Anderlecht.
Again Leeds made it through, this time beating Lazio away and Anderlecht twice, all the while playing some of the best football by any English team in the Champions League to that point. The young side made it all the way to the semi-finals before finally losing to Valencia.
In the Premier League though their form suffered due partly to exhaustion from their European exploits. A really sticky patch between November and January saw them lose six games, and while they went unbeaten from January 24th to April 28th, their poor start meant they ended up in 4th place.
That doesn’t mean they weren’t a great side, though. Take away the European games and they could’ve been much fresher for the Premier League – it wasn’t a vintage season and so they definitely could’ve put together a much stronger title challenge, if not win the title.
