Premier League: An account of the last two decades

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The 20 teams in EPL 2018-19

Premier League is one of the best leagues in football with many amazing and competitive teams. The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, with a TV audience of 4.7 billion people.

The League comprises of 20 teams and each play 38 matches every season. Every season it operates on promotion and relegation basis of the top and bottom teams. The all-time Premier League goalscorer goes to Alan Shearer with 260 goals and the most appearances in the EPL goes to Gareth Barry for 653 matches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League

Now let us take a look at how the English Premier League has been going for the past 20 years and who has been dominating it.


1999-2003

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Arsenal's captain Henry and coach Arsene Wenger

In these five years, Manchester United won the League four times and one went to Arsenal in 2002. United had a rock-solid team in these years and was really dominant in the EPL during this time.

The mind and architect behind this great team was none other than Sir Alex Ferguson. The year when Arsenal won the trophy Arsene Wenger was their coach and they pretty much had an 'invincible' season, when they recorded an unbeaten Premier League season. The team was led by their goalscoring genius, Thierry Henry, who scored 32 goals for them in all competitions.

2004-2008

Chelsea v Portsmouth - FA Cup Final
Chelsea v Portsmouth - FA Cup Final

During these five years, Arsenal won in 2004, Chelsea won twice in 2005 and 2006 with the help of Frank Lampard who was the top scorer for both the years along with their coach Jose Mourinho.

Manchester United won the league in 2007, 2008. In 2004, Henry just became a much better player and he was arguably one of the best players in the world at that time. This year, Arsenal became the EPL winners, FA Cup semi-finalists, League cup: semi-finalists and FA Community Shield: runners-up, all of these were because of Henry's form.

He scored 39 goals for Arsenal during this period. Chelsea and Man Utd continued their winning form for this time period too and these years were fruitful for both Chelsea and Man Utd equally.

2009-2013

Image result for Alex Ferguson Statue at Old Trafford
Sir Alex Ferguson's statue at Old Trafford

Once again Manchester United dominated this span of five years by winning thrice in the five chances and rest of two League titles went with Chelsea and Manchester City.

United won in 2009, 2011, 2013, Chelsea and Man City won in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Chelsea won under the managerial skills of Carlo Ancelotti and Man city under Roberto Mancini.

When Man Utd won in 2013, it was an end of an era as their coach Sir Alex Ferguson retired from coaching. He has been the historically and statistically the best manager in the EPL ever with 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two UEFA Champions League titles to his name in the 26 years.

2014-2018

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Coach Guardiola And top scorer Aguero

The last five years have seen the domination of both Chelsea and Manchester City. These years have seen a title-winning drought for Manchester United as both Chelsea and Man City won two each and Leicester City won one.

After Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement, United are struggling to get back to winning ways. In 2016, surprisingly Leicester City, out of nowhere played amazing football and went on to win the league under the manager Claudio Ranieri and their top scorer was Jamie Vardy.

Then in the 2017 season, Chelsea won under their manager Antonio Conte and last year, Manchester City won with the help of Sergio Aguero and their mastermind manager Pep Guardiola.

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EPL winners in the last 20 years

EPL for the past 20 years has been dominated by the one and only club Manchester United, who have won it nine times. Then comes Chelsea winning it five times, Manchester City with three titles, Arsenal with two, and Leicester City winning it once.

Premier League has now been won even by the likes of Leicester and every team is now fancying their chances. This year is expected to be a great season with a few new teams along with the old teams reinforcing their squads with mammoth signings.

The all-importnat question is, who is going to win it this year? Is it going to be the year of the defending champs or is it going to be another surprise package team this year?

We'll just have to wait and find out!

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Edited by Abhinav Munshi