Premier League season: 1994-95 - from football.co.uk

The third Premier League season, then known as the FA Carling Premiership.Having lifted the trophy in both the first two Premiership seasons, Manchester United were again looking strong going into the new season having recruited Andy Cole from Newcastle for £6million plus Keith Gillespie.Another major signing of the summer was Tottenham bringing in German International Jurgen Klinsmann from Monaco for £2million. Tottenham were fined over financial irregularities something which former owner Alan Sugar firmly challenged. They were deducted 12 points and banned from the FA Cup, this was later revoked.In January 1995, Manchester United's French striker Eric Cantona (then holder of the PFA Players' Player of the Year award) assaulted a Crystal Palace fan in his team's 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park. Cantona was banned from football for eight months, fined £20,000 and sentenced to 14 days in prison. The prison sentence was later reduced to 120 hours community service on appeal.The FA decided to reduce the number of teams in the League from 22 to 20. This meant 4 teams would be relegated and only two promoted. Ipswich Town and Leicester City were relegated in resounding fashion while early season title contenders Norwich City managed just one win in 20 games after Christmas and slipped out of the division along with Crystal Palace.They were replaced by Division one winners Middlesbrough and play off winners Bolton Wanderers.West Ham controversially sacked fans favourite Billy Bonds and replaced him with his long time friend Harry Redknapp. It was West Ham who played perhaps the biggest part in the deciding the League Champions.Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Leeds United and Newcastle were all at one point in contention to take the Premier League crown from United, but going into the final game of the season the title would be going to either Old Trafford or Ewood Park.Jack Walker had spent heavily to achieve success at Blackburn. The prolific strike force of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton was deadly and elevated Rovers to the top of the league. Despite losing the final game of the season 2-1 to Liverpool, Blackburn were crowned Champions after United failed to beat West Ham at Upton Park on the final day, despite their domination the game finished 1-1.Blackburn boss Kenny Dalglish was named Manager of the Year following the success but stepped down after the season ended.Blackburn forward and league top scorer Alan Shearer, with 34 goals, was given the PFA Player's Player of the Year award, while Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler was the PFA Young Player of the Year.Tottenham's controversial German Jurgen Klinsmann was named FWA Football of the Year before leaving England to return to Bayern Munich in the summer.#ClubPWDLFAGDP1Blackburn422787803941892Man Utd4226106772849883Notts Forest4222119724329774Liverpool42211110653728745Leeds4220139593821736Newcastle42201210674720727Spurs4216141266588628QPR421791661592609Wimbledon421511164865-175610Southampton421218126163-25411Chelsea421315145055-55412Arsenal42131217524935113Sheff Wed421312174957-85114West Ham421311184448-45015Everton421117144451-75016Coventry421214164462-185017Man City421213175364-114918Aston Villa421115165156-54819Crystal Palace421112193449-154520Norwich421013193754-174321Leicester42611254580-352922Ipswich4276293693-5727

Source: DSG