2004-2005
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Despite doing well at Chelsea for the past 4 years and guiding them to Champions League semi-finals and a 2nd place finish the previous season, Claudio Ranieri was sacked and Jose Mourinho was appointed at Chelsea. He was arrogant, outspoken but a winner and that is exactly what he did. Chelsea won the title with a record 95 points, he did spend a lot on transfers but got the job done. Arsenal followed in 2nd with Manchester United and Everton finishing 3rd and 4th respectively.
Thierry Henry was the top goal scorer with Chelsea’s top goal scorer being Frank Lampard at 13 goals. This showed that Mourinho liked his teams to win on their defense which was evident with their 1-0 victories. United had recruited the young Wayne Rooney and their biggest achievement that season was beating Arsenal and ending their unbeaten run with a controversial 2-0 win with Ruud van Nistelrooy scoring a penalty! Liverpool appointed Rafael Benitez and City got Stuart Pearce.
Something to note is that both the Merseyside clubs made Champions League football the next season as Liverpool came back from being 3-0 down to A.C. Milan and won on penalties inspired by Steven Gerrard. Due to being winners, Liverpool made the next year’s competition despite finishing in 5th place. The relegation fight saw Crystal Palace, Southampton and Norwich City go down.
2005-2006
After ending Chelsea’s 50-year wait for a title, Jose Mourinho guided them to the title once again in 2005-06. Chelsea started like a machine and were clearly the favourites to win again, while Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool floundered and were waiting for Chelsea to slip up. Slip up they did in between but no one else could pounce and Chelsea took charge once again and won the title.
The season saw Arsenal leave Highbury and Thierry Henry confirmed winning the golden boot with a hat-trick in the final game there against Wigan. Alan Shearer too retired and is Newcastle United’s and the Premier League’s leading goal-scorer – A striker feared by almost every team in the league.
Manchester United recruited Edwin van Der Sar, Ji-Sung Park, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic over the course of the summer and winter transfer windows while Chelsea had acquired the services of Michael Essien and Shaun-Wright Phillips. The final day was dominated by Arsenal and Spurs as they looked to seal the 4th position which was ultimately claimed by Arsenal winning their game and Spurs losing theirs.
2006-2007
This season all eyes were on Manchester United as they looked to ‘unite’ Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney after Ronaldo had allegedly gotten Rooney sent off at the summer’s FIFA World Cup. The English Media were all up about it, but as Sir Alex did most of the time, he handled the situation and led United to a title after 3 years.
Manchester United had recruited Michael Carrick, Chelsea got Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko and Arsenal got William Gallas. Notable additions were also Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano at West Ham. Chelsea were closest to challenging United while Liverpool and Arsenal fought for the 3rd and 4th positions.
Both Ronaldo and Rooney were instrumental in United’s title charge with Rooney inspiring a 4-2 win against Everton when they went down 2-0 and Cristiano scoring a solo goal against Fulham to give United the 3 points. These two matches secured United’s position at the top. Xabi Alonso scored against Newcastle from inside his own half.
This was the season that saw a lot of branding and money being pumped into the Premier League as TV rights deals were done, many notable sponsors were brought in and FA Premier League became Premier League.
