Arsenal’s 2001/02 Title Win Was the Premier League’s Most Intense Ever

It was a time of Filbert Street, Highbury, Upton Park and the Dell. Sir Bobby Robson was guiding Newcastle United into the Champions League, while Dave Bassett, in one doomed final hurrah, was taking Leicester City back down to the Football League.

Leeds United, fresh from a European Cup semi-final, were one of Europe’s most exciting young sides, Manchester City were fighting their way out of Division One under Kevin Keegan, and no-one had heard of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The late George Harrison was No. 1 in the Top 40, New Labour ruled at Westminster and Old Trafford ruled the Barclaycard Premiership.

Share Tweet

January 2002 was a fascinating moment in English football history. The Premiership (as it was then called) was still young, but suitably established to be contemplating its 10-year anniversary on the horizon, and the continental revolution Arsene Wenger is widely, and strangely unquestioningly, credited with ushering in had changed the game’s face, pace and temperament. English football had become European, while European football was about to become conspicuously English, with a clutch of Premiership teams coming to dominate the latter rounds of the Champions League following the fallow post-Heysel years.

Share Tweet

Meanwhile, a first-ever foreign manager for the national team had, after initial and predictable reservations, began to yield a tempered kind of excitement about the future, fuelled by a 5-1 win over Germany at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, which had moved Sven Goran Eriksson’s team to the brink of the World Cup finals in the Far East.

Marshalled by the metrosexual Metropolite David Beckham, and with Michael Owen, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand at the peak of their powers, England were desirable, consumable and utterly fashionable.

Notwithstanding the sleight of hand the past plays with our collective memory—the red-and-white-tinted spectacle we all keep in our breast pocket—football in England was burning with optimism in the snowy winter of 2002.

All this energy collected together to give the top flight perhaps its most intense, breathless title race in a generation, possibly of all time. It began in earnest on the night of January 22.

Liverpool, under Phil Thompson’s temporary stewardship, having been held to a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Southampton three days earlier, travelled to Old Trafford for a midweek showdown with the champions Manchester United. The game looked to be petering out until, with five minutes left, Steven Gerrard slipped in Danny Murphy to lob the winning goal over Fabien Barthez and claw Liverpool to within two points of United.

The following night, …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com