FA Premier League 2003-04

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Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira lifting the trophy at Highbury

The 2003-04 FA Premier League season was mainly contended between Arsenal, Chelsea and to some extent, Manchester United. In the end, Arsenal went through the season without a single defeat (the first team to do so since Preston North End in 1889 - 115 years earlier) and were crowned champions once more, at the expense of Chelsea, who had spent heavily throughout the season.

Chelsea had been bolstered by a £100 million outlay on world-class players, a spree funded by the extensive financial resources of their new owner Roman Abramovich. Manchester United's attack was as strong as ever thanks to free-scoring Ruud van Nistelrooy, but the midfield was weakened following the pre-season £25million sale of David Beckham to Real Madrid, and the centre of defence suffered a more severe setback after Rio Ferdinand was ruled out for the final four months of the season after being found guilty of the "failure or refusal to take a drugs test". The case of Rio Ferdinand started a debate about punishments relating to drug testing in football, with there being differing views on whether the punishment was too harsh or too lenient. Ferdinand's club sought to make direct comparisons with an earlier case of Manchester City reserve player who had in fact committed a lesser drug testing offence and as a result escaped with only a fine. ^[1]

Arsenal, meanwhile, had only signed German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the 2003 close season, but French striker Thierry Henry was instrumental in Arsenal's success. Away from the Premiership, Arsène Wenger's team suffered disappointment in the cup competitions. They lost their defence of the FA Cup (which they held for two seasons in a row) after losing to eventual winners Manchester United in the semi-final. Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Chelsea (3-2 on agg). These two blows came with a few days of each other and it was feared that Arsenal might squander their lead of the Premiership for the second successive season, but Arsenal thumped Liverpool only days later and never looked back. Arsenal's Invincibles finished the season with 26 wins, 12 draws, 0 defeats and 90 points.

The three relegation points were occupied by three teams bracketed together on 33 points. Wolves and Leicester City followed the trend of many other newly promoted Premiership clubs and were relegated just one season after reaching the top division. But the other relegation place went to Leeds United, whose playing fortunes had dipped in the past two seasons after David O'Leary was sacked as manager and club debts had risen so high that many star players had to be sold. As a result, Leeds were finally relegated from the Premiership after 14 years of top division football - just three seasons after they had reached the Champions League semifinals.

In his third season as Middlesbrough manager, Steve McClaren had guided the Teessiders to their first ever major trophy - sealed with a 2-1 win over Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup final. McClaren was also the first English manager to win a major trophy since Brian Little guided Aston Villa to League Cup success in 1996. He was also the first manager to take Middlesbrough into European competition - they would be competing in the 2004-05 UEFA Cup.

2003-04 saw a number of managerial changes in the Premiership. Glenn Hoddle was sacked as manager of Spurs in September, with Director of Football David Pleat taking over as temporary manager until the end of the season. He was then replaced by French national coach Jacques Santini, who was in the charge for five months before being replaced by assistant first team coach Martin Jol. At the end of 2003-04, Frank Arnesen was appointed Director of Football for Spurs.

Leeds United sacked Peter Reid in November and installed first team coach Eddie Gray as interim manager until the end of the season, as they could not afford to buy another team's manager out of his contract. Gray was unable to save Leeds from relegation and was sacked by the club's new owners, who installed Gray's assistant Kevin Blackwell as their new manager.

Gordon Strachan quit as Southampton manager in March and was replaced by Plymouth Argyle's Paul Sturrock. Just after the start of 2004-05, Sturrock handed in his resignation and was replaced by Steve Wigley who spent three months at the helm before being replaced by Harry Redknapp.

At the end of 2003-04, Gérard Houllier was sacked as manager of Liverpool despite having won four cup competitions (including three in one season) during his six-year spell as manager. Liverpool then turned to ex-Valencia coach Rafael Benítez as the man they hoped could win the league title which has eluded Anfield since 1990.

Despite guiding Chelsea to runners-up position in the Premiership (their highest league finish for half a century) and to their first ever Champions League or European Cup semifinal, Claudio Ranieri was sacked after four years in charge at Stamford Bridge. Roman Abramovich then appointed José Mourinho as Chelsea's new manager. Mourinho, who won the 2004 Champions League with Porto of Portugal, was given a three-year contract.

1 Final league table
- 1.1 Season Statistics
2 Promoted teams
3 Relegated teams
4 Top goal scorers
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Final league table

Pos	Club	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Comments
1	Arsenal	38	26	12	0	73	26	47	90	Champions League Group Stage
2	Chelsea	38	24	7	7	67	30	37	79	Champions League Group Stage
3	Manchester United	38	23	6	9	64	35	29	75	Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round
4	Liverpool	38	16	12	10	55	37	18	60	Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round
5	Newcastle United	38	13	17	8	52	40	12	56	UEFA Cup 1st Round
6	Aston Villa	38	15	11	12	48	44	4	56
7	Charlton Athletic	38	14	11	13	51	51	0	53
8	Bolton Wanderers	38	14	11	13	48	56	-8	53
9	Fulham	38	14	10	14	52	46	6	52
10	Birmingham City	38	12	14	12	43	48	-5	50
11	Middlesbrough	38	13	9	16	44	52	-8	48	UEFA Cup 1st Round¹
12	Southampton	38	12	11	15	44	45	-1	47
13	Portsmouth	38	12	9	17	47	54	-7	45
14	Tottenham Hotspur	38	13	6	19	47	57	-10	45
15	Blackburn Rovers	38	12	8	18	51	59	-8	44
16	Manchester City	38	9	14	15	55	54	1	41
17	Everton	38	9	12	17	45	57	-12	39
18	Leicester City	38	6	15	17	48	65	-17	33	Relegation to Championship
19	Leeds United	38	8	9	21	40	79	-39	33
20	Wolverhampton Wanderers	38	7	12	19	38	77	-39	33

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

^1. Middlesborough qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners

Premier League 2003-04 Winners
Arsenal F.C. 13th Title

[edit] Season Statistics

Total Goals: 1012

Average Goals per game: 2.66

[edit] Promoted teams

These teams were promoted from the First Division at the start of the season:

Portsmouth (First Division Champion)
Leicester City (First Division runner-up)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (First Division playoff winner)

[edit] Relegated teams

These teams were relegated to the First Division at the end of the season:

[edit] Top goal scorers

Scorer	Goals	Team
Thierry Henry	30	Arsenal F.C.
Alan Shearer	22	Newcastle United F.C.
Ruud van Nistelrooy	20	Manchester United F.C.
Nicolas Anelka	17	Manchester City F.C.
Mikael Forssell	17	Birmingham City F.C.