10 best squads in English Premier League history

In 1992, in a step that marked a new epoch in how football was viewed the world over, all 22 teams from the First Division of the English domestic football league resigned en-masse to form the English Premier League. More than two decades on, the Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in over 200 territories to more than 600 million homes.Nearly 50 clubs have since earned the privilege of competing for the most prestigious domestic title in world football. And only 6 clubs have managed to lay their hands on the coveted trophy – Manchester United 13 times, Arsenal and Chelsea thrice, Manchester City twice and Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers once each.Some teams have gone beyond simply being titled champions for a season though. Be it through clinically competitive and eye-catching performances brimming with flair or with attitudes that screamed out the desire to not turn out on the losing side, a few champion teams have earned the right of having lasting eulogies composed for them.We take a look at the 10 best teams to have ever been fielded in the Premier League; teams which overshadowed the rest of the pack for an entire season.

#10 Chelsea 2009/10

Didier Drogba and John Terry have a chance of repeating this feat in 2015

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Chelsea	38	27	5	6	103	32	+71	86

The season of 2009/10 saw the defensive winners in Chelsea rear their full power for the first time. Under manager Carlo Ancelotti, in his very first season, Chelsea managed some crucial wins and went on to win the Premiership and retain the FA Cup, thereby securing the famed double.

The managerial uncertainty that Chelsea had faced following Jose Mourinho’s departure was finally solved with the Italian’s arrival in a season when Chelsea had both convincing and impressive wins. Didier Drogba retained his starry usefulness and went on to become the highest scorer of the season with 37 goals.

Chelsea broke the record for most goals scored in a season with 103 goals, becoming the first Premier League club to cross the century mark. They also scored seven or more goals in four league matches, a record for both the club and the Premier League.

Key Players – Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Petr Cech, Florent Malouda

Manager – Carlo Ancelotti

On the last day of this season, Chelsea compounded an already brilliant season by registering an 8-0 victory over Wigan Athletic.

#9 Liverpool 2008/2009

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
2	Liverpool	38	25	11	2	77	27	+50	86

Every once in a while, Liverpool have raised a worthy stake for the Premier League title. Despite fielding several champion-material squads over the last 22 years, a 1st place finish has eluded them.

The 2008-09 Rafael Benitez team was the most complete of all the Liverpool teams, and came closest to securing champion’s spot. Despite losing out to eventual champions Manchester United, Liverpool could take away the psychological victory from the season, if any can be claimed in football, by winning many important matches.

They beat Manchester United on both occasions, ended Chelsea’s 86-game unbeaten run at home, beat Real Madrid 5-0 in a Champions League knockout match, among other notable feats.

Key Players – Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Jamie Carragher, Dirk Kuyt, Pepe Reina

Manager – Rafael Benitez

The champion spirit shown by this team was nowhere more in sight than this come-from-behind 4-1 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford.

#8 Blackburn Rovers 1994/1995

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Blackburn Rovers	42	27	8	7	80	39	+41	89

Blackburn Rovers had a sensational 1994-95 season, when they led the standings for most of the year and trumped Manchester United by a solitary point after results on the last day of the season favoured their unlikely charge. This was a special feat, considering that five years before this special day, Rovers had been struggling at the bottom of Division Two.

This was a team endowed with a brilliant striker who would go on to build record after record for the next few years – Alan Shearer – whose 34 goals in the 94-95 EPL season still stands as the highest scored by a single player in a single English season.

The team from Ewood Park were eliminated from other competitions at early stages, and were therefore free to concentrate all resources into the Premier League. Thus was completed a feat still sung about nostalgically in the Riverside.

This was also the culmination of a building process initiated by ex-Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish in 1991, who had taken a team of strugglers from the lower divisions, for the first time since 1966, to the very top of English football.

Key Players – Alan Shearer, Graeme Le Saux, Colin Hendry, Tim Sherwood, Chris Sutton

Manager – Kenny Dalglish

#7 Arsenal 1997/1998

Arsenal are crowned as the 1997-98 FA Carling Premiership champions

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Arsenal	38	23	9	6	68	33	+35	78

The 1997-98 season was a first at the London club in many ways – it was the first full season under the managership of Arsene Wenger, it was their first Premier League title, and by winning the FA Cup final, it was also the club’s first domestic double in three decades. In the process, Arsene Wenger also became the first manager from outside Britain to win the league title.

Wenger made high-profile transfer deals for Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit before the commencement of his first season, but by Christmas his team were languishing in sixth place and looking down the barrel. At February, Manchester United still held a 12-point lead over them.

Showing a lot of fighting spirit and intelligent organization, Arsenal went on a nine match winning streak from February onwards to win the title on the penultimate week of the season.

Dennis Bergkamp was the undisputed player of the season, with 22 goals from 40 matches in all competitions, but was ably helped by his newly arrived countryman Marc Overmars, who had a return of 16 goals from 46 matches.

Key Players – Dennis Bergkamp, Ray Parlour, Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, David Seaman

Manager – Arsene Wenger

#6 Manchester United 2007/2008

Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo flank trophy-wielding Ryan Giggs

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Manchester United	38	27	6	5	80	22	+58	87

Manchester United got off to a terrible start to the 2007-08 season and by the end of the first month were hovering around the relegation zone. Then, in a remarkable turnaround of fortunes, the United defence began to look impenetrable and goals started to arrive from expected and unexpected sources.

Cristiano Ronaldo racked up a record-breaking 31 goals in the domestic season. Ronaldo has said about this season, ”The high point of my career was winning the Champions League. No one will ever erase that from my memory, in the same way that no one will ever erase the fact that I did it in a Manchester United shirt.”

Ryan Giggs became the most capped player for United, and his team managed to end the year with the tags of victors of England as well as Europe, Chelsea being the nearest competitors to both.

Key Players – Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Edwin van der Sar, Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney

Manager – Sir Alex Ferguson

The 6-0 demolition of Newcastle United was a testament to the strength boasted by this United batch.

#5 Manchester City 2011/2012

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Manchester City	38	28	5	5	93	29	+64	89

Manchester City won their first Premier League title in sensational fashion on the last day of the 2011-12 season, voted the best season in the league’s history. It was Sergio Aguero’s goal in the last minute on the last day which clinched it for City and brought a crisis into the Manchester hierarchy.

For the sheer gumption shown by the team who could only be called pretenders till then, this squad brings up the last five on the list.

A citadel was built around the Etihad Stadium and City did not lose at home all season long, with a team which could be called hurriedly but efficiently assembled at best. Aguero and Samir Nasri, both of whom had joined the very season, did not lose any time before getting into their best forms for their new team.

The left-footed David Silva continued to be in dazzling form in the attacking third, while Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany continued to hold the team together in the rest of pitch.

Key Players – Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Joe Hart, Gareth Barry

Manager – Roberto Mancini

Here are the nerve-wracking last few moments of that fateful season, with perspectives from both the Manchester clubs.

#4 Manchester United 1993/1994

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Manchester United	42	27	11	4	80	38	+42	92

In the second ever edition of the English Premier League, Sir Alex Ferguson had already started to inculcate in his team a set of ethics, the rewards of which would be reaped for years at the bigger Manchester club.

This season saw the rise of the 20-year-old Ryan Giggs into instant stardom, to stand alongside the erratic genius Eric Cantona as United’s leading stars. They led the table from the fourth week onwards, and had an eventual 8-point lead over their closest competitors Blackburn Rovers.

Manchester United won the Premier League and FA Cup to become only the fourth club in the 20th century to win the famed double. It was only a defeat to Aston Villa in the League Cup Final that prevented them from winning a domestic treble.

Key Players – Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce

Manager – Alex Ferguson

This Ryan Giggs goal shows with what speed and precision United had taken world football by storm.

#3 Manchester United 1998/1999

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Manchester United	38	22	13	3	80	37	+43	79

The 98-99 season is remembered as the most succesful season in the history of this club so proud of its heritage. At the end of the season, tens of thousands of fans lined the streets of Manchester to give a hero’s welcome to the returning team. By 1999, United had also become the world’s richest football club and the most valuable sports brand in the world.

There was a long an arduous season behind such sweet spoils though. It was an year characterized by a never-say-die attitude, the highlight of which came in the 1999 Champions League final when the English team came up with a match-winning goal in the last minute of injury time in the final match, to let all hell break loose.

This team lost only 5 matches in the season, and had an unbeaten run for 33 matches from December onwards in all competitions.

Defender Jaap Stam and striker Dwight Yorke were the notable additions to this team from the previous season, but it was the flowering of Alex Ferguson’s “Class of ‘92” that decided the outcome of the year in United’s favour. For his contribution, Ferguson received the knighthood and thus was born the legacy of Sir Alex.

Key Players – Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Peter Schmeichel, Dwight Yorke, David Beckham

Manager – Alex Ferguson

#2 Chelsea 2004/2005

John Terry and Frank Lampard with new owner Roman Abramovich

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Chelsea	38	29	8	1	72	15	+57	95

Jose Mourinho’s first season at Chelsea saw many records being made for the south-west London club as they rose to prominence for the first time in the Premier League as a side which not only had memorable wins but also won the trophies.

The 2004-2005 season not only brought Chelsea’s first title in half a century, it made a championship contender out of a team of individuals.

The season was notable for Chelsea’s expensive signings – a hitherto unseen occurence at Stamford Bridge. Players who would later be associated with the club’s style and identity joined the team this season. Among them were Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho, and Paulo Ferreira – players who would form Jose Mourinho’s dream squad in future years.

With a 1-0 win over Manchester United inaugurating the season, Chelsea went on to have the most number of clean sheets in a season (25), most number of wins in a season (29), most number of consecutive away wins in a season (9) and most impressively, the most points in a season (95).

Key players – Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, John Terry, Damien Duff

Manager – Jose Mourinho

#1 Arsenal 2003/2004

Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Ashley Cole and Gilberto Silva

Pos	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	GF	GA	GD	Points
1	Arsenal	38	26	12	0	73	26	+47	90

Of all the great teams which have been showcased in the Premier League, “The Invincibles” stand a shoulder above the rest because of the sheer fact of their invincibility. There have been other teams who have not lost at their home ground all season, but to remain unbeaten all over the country for a season is a feat that has no equal in recent history.

No major transfer was made in the prelude to this famous Arsenal season, but new contracts were negotiated with senior players Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires. Stability attained, this side went on a veritable rampage for one whole year.

At the turn of the year, the team won nine league matches in a row to pull ahead of the rat-race for points and consolidate first position.

There were 15 different sources of goals for Arsenal but the player of the season, without a trace of doubt, was the French striker Thierry Henry, who had 39 goals from 51 matches.

Key Players – Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Jens Lehmann, Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira

Manager – Arsene Wenger

Arsenal let know their intentions early on in the season with this 4-0 victory over Middlesbrough.