The 2003–04 FA Premier League ( known as the FA Barclaycard Premiership for sponsorship reasons ) was the 12th season of the Premier League. Arsenal were the champions and Chelsea, who had spent heavily throughout the season, were the runners up. Arsenal ended the season without a single kill – the foremost team ever to do so in a 38-game league season and the second team overall ( the first was Preston North End in 1889, 115 years early, during a 22-game league season ) .
Season summary [edit ]
Having qualified for the Champions ‘ League the former season, Chelsea were bolstered by a £100 million outgo on first players, a spree funded by the across-the-board fiscal resources of their fresh owner Roman Abramovich. Manchester United ‘s approach was arsenic hard as ever thanks to free-scoring Ruud van Nistelrooy, but the midfield was weakened following the £25 million pre-season sale of David Beckham to Real Madrid, and the center of defense suffered a more dangerous reverse 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 excessively harsh or excessively lenient. Ferdinand ‘s club sought to make direct comparisons with an earlier case of Manchester City reserve actor who had in fact committed a lesser drug testing offense and as a result escaped with only a fine. [ 2 ] City themselves had just moved from Maine Road to the City of Manchester Stadium. [ 3 ]
Arsenal, meanwhile, had alone sign German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the 2003 close up season, but french hitter Thierry Henry was implemental in Arsenal ‘s success. away from the Premier League, Arsène Wenger ‘s team suffered disappointment in the cup competitions. They were knocked-out by League Cup eventual winners Middlesbrough in the semi-finals. They lost their bag on the FA Cup ( which they held for two seasons in a row ) after being defeated by eventual winners Manchester United in the semi-final. Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Chelsea ( 3–2 on sum ). These blows in the FA Cup and Champions League came within a few days of each other, and it was feared [ who? ] that Arsenal might squander their lead of the Premier League for the second consecutive season, but Arsenal easily defeated Liverpool only days later. Arsenal ‘s Invincibles finished the season with 26 wins, 12 withdraw, 0 defeats and 90 points. The relegation spots were occupied by three teams bracketed together on 33 points. Wolves and Leicester City followed the drift of many other newly promoted Premier League clubs and were relegated just one temper after reaching the top division. For Leicester City, they would not return to the top escape for another 10 years and became the league champions for the beginning meter ever in their history merely a season belated, whilst Wolves had been promoted back to the top flight in 2009-10 Premier League and slipped down again 3 years by and by. The other delegating plaza went to Leeds United, whose playing fortunes had dipped in the past two seasons after David O’Leary was sacked as coach and baseball club debts had risen so high that many leading players had to be sold. As a solution, Leeds were relegated from the Premier League after 14 years of clear division football – barely three seasons after they had reached the Champions League semifinals, and they would not return for another 16 years. In his third season as Middlesbrough coach, Steve McClaren had guided the Teessiders to their first always major trophy – sealed with a 2–1 win over Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup final. McClaren was besides the beginning English director to win a major trophy since Brian Little guided Aston Villa to League Cup success in 1996. He was besides the inaugural coach to take Middlesbrough into european competition – they would be competing in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup .
Teams [edit ]
Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the former temper and the three teams promoted from the First Division. The promote teams were Portsmouth, Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, returning to the clear flight after an absence of fifteen, one and nineteen years respectively. This was besides both Portsmouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers ‘ first season in the Premier League. They replaced West Ham United, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland after spend time in the top flight for ten, one and four years respectively .
Stadiums and Locations [edit ]
- ^Craven Cottage was still under refurbishment from the previous season and as a result, Fulham continued playing their home games at Loftus Road, which is also the home stadium of fellow West London club Queens Park Rangers
- ^ Manchester City moved to the City of Manchester Stadium after spending 80 years at Maine Road
Personnel and kits [edit ]
managerial changes [edit ]
League mesa [edit ]
The Premier League commissioned a unique gold trophy to commemorate Arsenal ‘s accomplishment of winning the league title without kill .
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
( C ) Champion; ( radius ) Relegated
Notes: source : Premier League Rules for classification : 1 ) points ; 2 ) finish difference ; 3 ) count of goals scored.Champion ; RelegatedNotes :
Season statistics [edit ]
| Total goals: 1,012 |
| Average goals per game: 2.66 |
Results [edit ]
overall [edit ]
peak scorers [edit ]
Awards [edit ]
monthly awards [edit ]
annual awards [edit ]
LMA Manager of the year [edit ]
The LMA Manager of the Year award was won by Arsène Wenger. [ 8 ]
PFA Players ‘ Player of the year [edit ]
The PFA Players ‘ Player of the Year award for 2004 was won by Thierry Henry of Arsenal for the second consecutive year. [ 9 ] The shortlist for the PFA Players ‘ Player of the Year award was as follows :
PFA Young Player of the year [edit ]
The PFA Young Player of the Year award was won by Scott Parker of Chelsea F.C. .
Read more: Thursday’s FIFA World Cup qualifying results
The short list for the award was as follows : [ 10 ]
PFA Team of the year [edit ]
goalkeeper : Tim Howard ( Manchester United )
refutation : Lauren, Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell ( all Arsenal ), John Terry ( Chelsea )
Midfield : Steven Gerrard ( Liverpool ), Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires ( both Arsenal ), Frank Lampard ( Chelsea )
attack : Thierry Henry ( Arsenal ), Ruud vanguard Nistelrooy ( Manchester United )
PFA Fans ‘ Player of the year [edit ]
Thierry Henry of Arsenal was named the PFA Fans ‘ Player of the year for the second back-to-back year. Henry was the beginning musician to win this prize twice. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]
The FWA Footballer of the Year award for 2004 was won by Thierry Henry. The Arsenal forward picked up a noteworthy 87 % of the votes. [ 13 ]
Premier League Fair Play Award [edit ]
The Premier League Fair Play Award deserve is given to the team who has been the most frolic and best behaved team. Champions Arsenal won this. [ 14 ] [ 15 ]
Behaviour of the Public League [edit ]
Given to the best-behaved fans, Arsenal won this, thus achieving a average play double. [ 14 ]
Premier League Manager of the class [edit ]
Arsène Wenger won the Premier League Manager of the Year award. His team won 26 games, losing none and drawing 12 scoring 73 goals, conceding 26. [ 16 ]