5 of the best teams to not win the Premier League

#1 Leeds United, 2000/01

Leeds’ title challenge in 2000/01 may have been harmed by their European exploits

1999/00 saw David O’Leary’s young Leeds United side finish third in the Premier League thanks to some tremendous performances from up-and-comers such as Harry Kewell, Alan Smith, Jonathan Woodgate and Ian Harte. They’d captured a Champions League spot for 2000/01 and were fully expected to challenge for the title. The additions of Olivier Dacourt, Mark Viduka and Rio Ferdinand were supposed to be the final pieces of the puzzle.

Leeds kicked off the season in good form with two wins, and they also defeated 1860 Munich to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League. Drawn with Barcelona, AC Milan and Besiktas, getting out of the group seemed impossible. But a win over Milan at home and draws in Barcelona and Milan sent them through to an equally tough second group, coming up against the likes of Real Madrid, Lazio and Anderlecht.

Again Leeds made it through, this time beating Lazio away and Anderlecht twice, all the while playing some of the best football by any English team in the Champions League to that point. The young side made it all the way to the semi-finals before finally losing to Valencia.

In the Premier League though their form suffered due partly to exhaustion from their European exploits. A really sticky patch between November and January saw them lose six games, and while they went unbeaten from January 24^th to April 28^th, their poor start meant they ended up in 4^th place.

That doesn’t mean they weren’t a great side, though. Take away the European games and they could’ve been much fresher for the Premier League – it wasn’t a vintage season and so they definitely could’ve put together a much stronger title challenge, if not win the title.