The 94-95 season ended in shock with Blackburn Rovers winning the Premiership title from under Manchester United's noses. United were determined to bounce back with style and were made early season title favourites.
Their main rivals that season were to be Newcastle United. Kevin Keegan had spent £10 million on bringing Wimbledon defender Warren Barton and QPR forward Les Ferdinand to St James Park during the summer.
Elsewhere Liverpool paid Nottingham Forest £8.4million for Stan Collymore and Arsenal signed Dutch forward Dennis Bergkamp from Inter Milan for a fee of £7.5million.
At the bottom end of the table Bolton Wanderers and QPR were struggling and were eventually consigned to relegation. The last team to join them was Manchester City who dropped out of the league on the final day after Southampton and Coventry stayed up with superior goal difference, all three had finished on 38 points.
Sunderland, Derby County and Leicester City were promoted at the expense of Bolton, QPR and Man City.
Newcastle had made a brilliant start to the season mainly down to Les Ferdinand and David Ginola. By January the Geordies were 12 points clear at the top of the League.
Things began to slowly slip away from Newcastle and their grasp and the title began to lose grip. By the time Newcastle and Manchester United met in March, Newcastle lead by just four points.
A 1-0 win courtesy of an Eric Cantona strike cut the lead to just a single point. With the pressure on Newcastle, Kevin Keegan began to crumble and his rant directed at their title rivals and manager Alex Ferguson, did his team no favours.
On the final day Man United had a two point lead and a win against Middlesbrough would secure the title once again. A resounding 3-0 victory meant the title was returning to Old Trafford.
A week later Untied secured the double with a 1-0 win over Liverpool thanks to another vital goal from Cantona.
It was a season of very little European success for Premier League clubs. Manchester United, Liverpool and Leeds were all knocked out of the UEFA Cup early on. Balckburn finished bottom of their Champions League group and Everton were beaten in the second round of the Cup Winners Cup. Forest however managed to progress as far as the quarter finals in the UEFA Cup.
PFA Players Player of the Year was Newcastle striker Les Ferdinand, with young player once again going to Liverpool's Robbie Fowler and FWA Footballer of the Year was Eric Cantona.
Alex Ferguson took home the achievement of Manager of the Year, after his young teams miraculous turn around mid season.
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Man Utd | 38 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 73 | 35 | 38 | 82 |
| 2 | Newcastle | 38 | 24 | 6 | 8 | 66 | 37 | 29 | 78 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 38 | 20 | 11 | 7 | 70 | 34 | 36 | 71 |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 38 | 18 | 9 | 11 | 52 | 35 | 17 | 63 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 38 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 49 | 32 | 17 | 63 |
| 6 | Everton | 38 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 64 | 44 | 20 | 61 |
| 7 | Blackburn | 38 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 61 | 47 | 14 | 61 |
| 8 | Spurs | 38 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 50 | 38 | 12 | 61 |
| 9 | Notts Forest | 38 | 15 | 13 | 10 | 50 | 54 | -4 | 58 |
| 10 | West Ham | 38 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 43 | 52 | -9 | 51 |
| 11 | Chelsea | 38 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 46 | 44 | 2 | 50 |
| 12 | Middlesbrough | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | 35 | 50 | -15 | 43 |
| 13 | Leeds | 38 | 12 | 7 | 19 | 40 | 57 | -17 | 43 |
| 14 | Wimbledon | 38 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 55 | 70 | -15 | 41 |
| 15 | Sheff Wed | 38 | 10 | 10 | 18 | 48 | 61 | -13 | 40 |
| 16 | Coventry | 38 | 8 | 14 | 16 | 42 | 60 | -18 | 38 |
| 17 | Southampton | 38 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 34 | 52 | -18 | 38 |
| 18 | Man City | 38 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 33 | 58 | -25 | 38 |
| 19 | QPR | 38 | 9 | 6 | 23 | 38 | 57 | -19 | 33 |
| 20 | Bolton | 38 | 8 | 5 | 25 | 39 | 71 | -32 | 29 |
Source: DSG
