Premier League season: 2000-2001

Manchester United had won the FA Premier League in the both of the previous two seasons, on both occasions Arsenal finished as the runners-up.

Sir Alex Ferguson (who had been knighted in June 1999) and Arsene Wenger were set to do battle once again to determine the 2000/2001 Premier League Champions.

More than half of the 92 clubs in the Football League made at least one managerial change during the season.

A fair share of those occurred in the top flight, with Martin O'Neill being the first after leaving Leicester City for Celtic and being replaced by Peter Taylor.

Bradford City also replaced Chris Hutchings with Jim Jefferies after just 12 games and Gianluca Vialli was sacked by Chelsea who brought in another Italian, Claudio Ranieri.

Towards the end of the season Tottenham had replaced George Graham with Southampton boss Glenn Hoddle who in turn was replaced by Stuart Gray.

Bryan Robson resigned after seven years at Middlesbrough, with Steve McClaren taking the hot seat.

The most shocking of all was perhaps Harry Redknapp leaving West Ham under mysterious circumstances after seven years in charge.

He was sacked for making injudicious comments to a reporter from the club magazine and was replaced by inexperienced manager Glenn Roeder.

Despite doing extremely well to survive in the previous season, Bradford City were relegated after accumulating just 26 points all season.

They were joined in making the drop to Division One by Coventry City and Manchester City.

Fulham, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers were the three clubs who took their places in the Premier League for the following season.

At the top end of the table, Arsenal were yet again the closest competitors to Manchester United.

In February Arsenal suffered a 6-1 defeat at Old Trafford that crushed their slight hopes of winning the title.

With the race officially over by April, Arsenal focused their attention on the FA Cup after booking their place in the first ever FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

They beat local rivals Tottenham in the semi final before facing Liverpool in the final.

Despite being just five minutes away from lifting the trophy courtesy of a Freddie Ljungberg goal, Michael Owen struck twice late on to condemn Arsenal to a third season without a trophy.

Liverpool themselves had one of the most successful seasons in their history under Gerard Houllier.

Alongside the FA Cup they also won the League Cup and UEFA Cup as well as a third place finish in the Premier League.

Leeds United were below them in the table and they themselves had a successful European campaign, being eliminated in the semi finals of the Champion League by Valencia.

David O'Leary's side finished two points above the seasons surprise package, Ipswich Town.

Ipswich boss George Burley was named Premier League manager of the season in what was the Tractor Boys first season back in the top flight.

Ipswich also secured European football for the upcoming season, as did Chelsea.

Premier League Champions Man United celebrated another successful campaign and lifted their 7th Premier League title and 14th English League championship.

League Table 2000-2001

Pos	Club	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification/relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	24	8	6	79	31	48	80	UEFA Champions League 2001–02 1st group stage
2	Arsenal	38	20	10	8	63	38	25	70	UEFA Champions League 2001–02 1st group stage
3	Liverpool	38	20	9	9	71	39	32	69	UEFA Champions League 2001–02 3rd qualifying round
4	Leeds United	38	20	8	10	64	43	21	68	UEFA Cup 2001–02 1st round
5	Ipswich Town	38	20	6	12	57	42	15	66	UEFA Cup 2001–02 1st round
6	Chelsea	38	17	10	11	68	45	23	61	UEFA Cup 2001–02 1st round
7	Sunderland	38	15	12	11	46	41	5	57
8	Aston Villa	38	13	15	10	46	43	3	54	2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup 3rd round
9	Charlton Athletic	38	14	10	14	50	57	−7	52
10	Southampton	38	14	10	14	40	48	−8	52
11	Newcastle United	38	14	9	15	44	50	−6	51	2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup 3rd round
12	Tottenham Hotspur	38	13	10	15	47	54	−7	49
13	Leicester City	38	14	6	18	39	51	−12	48
14	Middlesbrough	38	9	15	14	44	44	0	42
15	West Ham United	38	10	12	16	45	50	−5	42
16	Everton	38	11	9	18	45	59	−14	42
17	Derby County	38	10	12	16	37	59	−22	42
18	Manchester City (R)	38	8	10	20	41	65	−24	34	Relegation to Football League First Division 2001-02
19	Coventry City (R)	38	8	10	20	36	63	−27	34
20	Bradford City (R)	38	5	11	22	30	70	−40	26

Source: DSG

---