FA Premier League 1996-97

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Premier League
Season	1996-97
Champions	Manchester United
Promoted	Derby County Leicester City Sunderland
Relegated	Middlesbrough Nottingham Forest Sunderland
Champions League	Manchester United Newcastle United
Cup Winners' Cup	Chelsea
UEFA Cup	Arsenal Aston Villa Leicester City Liverpool
Top goalscorer	Alan Shearer (25)
← Previous season 1995-96	Next season → 1997-98

This article describes the FA Premier League 1996-97 season.

The 1996-97 FA Premier League season was the fifth season of the competition, since its formation in 1992. The majority of the season was contested by the reigning champions, Manchester United, along with Newcastle United, Arsenal and Liverpool. The title was eventually won by Manchester United, after Liverpool and Newcastle's failure to win in their penultimate games of the season.

1 Promoted teams
2 Relegated teams
3 Managerial changes
4 Player and managerial awards
5 Final league table
- 5.1 Season statistics
6 Top goal scorers
7 See also
8 References and notes

[edit] Promoted teams

Promoted to the Premiership for the 1996-97 season were Sunderland and Derby County as Division One winners and runners up respectively. Leicester City were promoted as playoff winners.^[1]

[edit] Relegated teams

Middlesbrough, despite spending millions of pounds on high profile foreign players like Emerson Moisés Costa, Fabrizio Ravanelli (who scored 31 goals in all competitions), Branco and Gianluca Festa, were relegated on the final day of the season and were on the losing side in both the FA Cup and League Cup finals. Middlebrough finished in 18th place, however they would have been placed outside the relegation zone without a 3-point deduction imposed for cancelling a December 1996 fixture against Blackburn Rovers, with the Middlesbrough board blaming the decision on the absence of 23 players ill or injured.^[2]^[3] This sanction meant Coventry City, who had been in the top division since 1967, finished in 17th place and avoided relegation. The decision was very much frowned upon and has recently resurfaced as a major linchpin in the current West Ham saga. Ironically, West Ham were one of the very few clubs who insisted that Bryan Robson's men should be deducted points. The whole situation was turned into a farce by the FA after sanctioning the game to be canceled by Assistant Chief Exectutive and then for them to go back on their decision after this had been confirmed. If Middlesbrough had played the game against Blackburn with a team made up of youth and reserve players and lost, they still would have survived relegation quite comfortably which raised questions why they should be docked points for canceling the game to gain no advantage.

The other relegation places went to Nottingham Forest, who sacked manager Frank Clark in December. Stuart Pearce took over as temporary player-manager, spending three months in charge and winning the January 1996 Manager of the Month award. In March, Pearce quit as manager to be replaced by David Bassett, formerly of Crystal Palace. Also relegated were Sunderland, who were leaving Roker Park after 99 years and relocating to the 42,000-seat Stadium of Light on the banks of the River Wear.

[edit] Managerial changes

Arsenal appointed Arsène Wenger in September as permanent successor to Bruce Rioch, after Stewart Houston and Pat Rice had both temporarily served as caretaker managers.
Blackburn Rovers manager Ray Harford resigned in October and long-serving coach Tony Parkes was put in charge of the team for the remainder of the season, after which Roy Hodgson was named as manager.
Chelsea replaced Glenn Hoddle with 34-year-old Ruud Gullit as player-manager at the start of the season after Hoddle took the job as England coach.
Coventry City promoted Ron Atkinson from manager to Director of football in October and gave the manager's job to 39-year-old player-coach Gordon Strachan.
Everton manager Joe Royle resigned in March and 35-year-old captain Dave Watson was named as manager on a temporary basis. After the season was over, Howard Kendall began his third spell as manager of Everton.
Leeds United sacked manager Howard Wilkinson in September and replaced him with George Graham.
Newcastle United appointed Kenny Dalglish after Kevin Keegan quit in January 1997 after five years in charge.
Nottingham Forest manager Frank Clark resigned in December 1996 and Stuart Pearce was given the job on a temporary basis before Dave Bassett of Crystal Palace took over three months later.
Southampton manager Graeme Souness quit after just one season in charge and was replaced by Dave Jones of Stockport County.

[edit] Player and managerial awards

PFA Players' Player of the Year was Alan Shearer of Newcastle.^[4]
PFA Young Player of the Year was David Beckham of Manchester United.^[5]
Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year was Gianfranco Zola of Chelsea.^[6]
FA Premier League Manager of the Year was Alex Ferguson of Manchester United. ^[7]
Carling Premiership Player of the Year was Juninho Paulista of Middlesbrough.^[7]

[edit] Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Manchester United	38	21	12	5	76	44	+32	75	UEFA Champions League 1997–98 Group stage
2	Newcastle United	38	19	11	8	73	40	+33	68	UEFA Champions League 1997–98 Second qualifying round
3	Arsenal	38	19	11	8	62	32	+30	68	UEFA Cup 1997–98 First round
4	Liverpool	38	19	11	8	62	37	+25	68
5	Aston Villa	38	17	10	11	47	34	+13	61
6	Chelsea	38	16	11	11	58	55	+3	59	UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1997–98 First round¹
7	Sheffield Wednesday	38	14	15	9	50	51	-1	57
8	Wimbledon	38	15	11	12	49	46	+3	56
9	Leicester City	38	12	11	15	46	54	-8	47	UEFA Cup 1997–98 First round
10	Tottenham Hotspur	38	13	7	18	44	51	-7	46
11	Leeds United	38	11	13	14	28	38	-10	46
12	Derby County	38	11	13	14	45	58	-13	46
13	Blackburn Rovers	38	9	15	14	42	43	-1	42
14	West Ham United	38	10	12	16	39	48	-9	42
15	Everton	38	10	12	16	44	57	-13	42
16	Southampton	38	10	11	17	50	56	-6	41
17	Coventry City	38	9	14	15	38	54	-16	41
18	Sunderland	38	10	10	18	35	53	-18	40	Relegated to Football League Division One 1997–98
19	Middlesbrough	38	10	12	16	51	60	-9	39²
20	Nottingham Forest	38	6	16	16	31	59	-28	34

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

¹ Chelsea qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup winners

² Middlesbrough were deducted three points for failing to fulfill a fixture

Premier League 1996-97 Winners
Manchester United 11th Title

[edit] Season statistics

Total goals:	970
Average goals per game:	2.55

[edit] Top goal scorers

Scorer	Goals	Team
Alan Shearer	25	Newcastle United F.C.
Ian Wright	23	Arsenal F.C.
Robbie Fowler	18	Liverpool F.C.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær	18	Manchester United F.C.
Dwight Yorke	17	Aston Villa F.C.