2000/01 Premier League season review
Manchester United won the 2000/01 Premier League with 80 points, 10 clear of Arsenal, for their third title in a row. They were the first side since Liverpool in 1983/84 to win three consecutive top-flight titles, and Alex Ferguson became the first manager to do it with the same English club.
The rest of the season belonged to others. Liverpool won the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup, Leeds reached the Champions League semi-finals, and newly promoted Ipswich finished fifth.
You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 344 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.
A busy summer
The champions' main addition was Fabien Barthez, signed from Monaco for £7.8m in May 2000 after a year of searching for a successor to Peter Schmeichel. Their rivals spent more:
- Arsenal signed Robert Pires from Marseille for £6m and Sylvain Wiltord from Bordeaux for £13m.
- Chelsea brought Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink back to England from Atlético Madrid, along with Eidur Gudjohnsen.
- Leeds paid Celtic £6m for Mark Viduka.
- Liverpool bought Nick Barmby from Everton for £6m and Christian Ziege from Middlesbrough.
- Everton took Paul Gascoigne on a free transfer from Middlesbrough.
Charlton, Manchester City and Ipswich came up. Two clubs changed manager before a ball was kicked: Martin O'Neill left Leicester for Celtic and was replaced by Peter Taylor, and Paul Jewell left Bradford for Sheffield Wednesday.
Chelsea's change came quickly. After one win in their first five games, Gianluca Vialli was sacked on 12 September, less than four months after winning the FA Cup, and Claudio Ranieri took over five days later.
How United made it three in a row
United beat newly promoted Bradford 6-0 at Old Trafford on 5 September, the biggest home win of the season. They had the season's longest winning run, eight games, and scored 79 league goals, more than anyone else.
The decisive game came on 25 February. United beat Arsenal 6-1 at Old Trafford, with Dwight Yorke scoring a first-half hat-trick, and went 16 points clear of Arsenal. The title was sealed in April.
Teddy Sheringham was United's top scorer with 15 league goals and won both the PFA and Football Writers' player of the year awards. Barthez kept 14 clean sheets, joint most in the league.
With the title secure, United lost their last three league games, to Derby, Southampton and Tottenham, which cut the final margin to 10 points. They also went out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals for the second year running, losing 3-1 on aggregate to Bayern Munich.
Arsenal finished second for the third season in a row, with Henry scoring 17 league goals. Patrick Vieira was named the Premier League's Player of the Season.
Liverpool's cup treble
Liverpool finished third, but their season is remembered for three cup finals in three months under Gérard Houllier:
- League Cup, 25 February: a 1-1 draw with Birmingham at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with Robbie Fowler scoring, then a 5-4 win on penalties.
- FA Cup, 12 May: Arsenal led 1-0 until Michael Owen scored twice late on to win it 2-1.
- UEFA Cup, 16 May: a 5-4 win over Alavés after extra time, after the Spanish side came back from 3-1 and 4-3 down.
They also took the last Champions League place, winning 4-0 at Charlton on the final day. Gary McAllister's long-range free kick in a 3-2 win at Everton was part of a run of 19 points from their last 21. Owen scored 16 league goals, Emile Heskey 14, and Barmby four in the UEFA Cup. Steven Gerrard was named PFA Young Player of the Year.
Leeds in Europe, Ipswich at home
Leeds were 14th in January but finished fourth and reached the Champions League semi-finals under David O'Leary. After beating Lazio, Anderlecht and Deportivo La Coruña, they drew the first leg of the semi-final with Valencia and lost the second 3-0 at the Mestalla.
Two signings helped. Rio Ferdinand arrived from West Ham for £18m, and Robbie Keane joined on loan from Inter in December, scoring nine league goals before the move was made permanent for £12m. Viduka scored 17 league goals, including all four in a 4-3 win over Liverpool at Elland Road in November.
Ipswich were the surprise of the season. Newly promoted, they were third until 21 April and finished fifth on 66 points, the highest total for a newly promoted side in the 20-club era. Marcus Stewart scored 19 league goals in his first top-flight season, Ipswich qualified for Europe for the first time in 20 years, and George Burley was named Manager of the Season.
Chelsea finished sixth to take the last UEFA Cup place, with Hasselbaink winning the Golden Boot on 23 league goals. Charlton, the other promoted side to stay up, finished ninth, their highest position since the 1950s.
The relegation fight
Bradford were the first club relegated, and two of the three went down after short stays:
- Bradford City finished bottom on 26 points, two seasons after coming up. They sacked Chris Hutchings in November, and Jim Jefferies replaced him.
- Coventry City went down in 19th, ending 34 consecutive seasons in the top flight.
- Manchester City, promoted alongside Ipswich, went straight back down in 18th.
Derby survived in 17th, level on 42 points with Middlesbrough, West Ham and Everton. At West Ham, Harry Redknapp left by mutual consent on 9 May, and Glenn Roeder took over.
2000/01 Premier League final table
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 38 | 24 | 8 | 6 | 79 | 31 | +48 | 80 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 38 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 63 | 38 | +25 | 70 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 38 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 71 | 39 | +32 | 69 |
| 4 | Leeds | 38 | 20 | 8 | 10 | 64 | 43 | +21 | 68 |
| 5 | Ipswich | 38 | 20 | 6 | 12 | 57 | 42 | +15 | 66 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 38 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 68 | 45 | +23 | 61 |
| 7 | Sunderland | 38 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 46 | 41 | +5 | 57 |
| 8 | Aston Villa | 38 | 13 | 15 | 10 | 46 | 43 | +3 | 54 |
| 9 | Charlton | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 50 | 57 | -7 | 52 |
| 10 | Southampton | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 40 | 48 | -8 | 52 |
| 11 | Newcastle | 38 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 44 | 50 | -6 | 51 |
| 12 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 47 | 54 | -7 | 49 |
| 13 | Leicester | 38 | 14 | 6 | 18 | 39 | 51 | -12 | 48 |
| 14 | Middlesbrough | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 44 | 44 | 0 | 42 |
| 15 | West Ham | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 45 | 50 | -5 | 42 |
| 16 | Everton | 38 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 45 | 59 | -14 | 42 |
| 17 | Derby | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 37 | 59 | -22 | 42 |
| 18 | Manchester City | 38 | 8 | 10 | 20 | 41 | 65 | -24 | 34 |
| 19 | Coventry | 38 | 8 | 10 | 20 | 36 | 63 | -27 | 34 |
| 20 | Bradford | 38 | 5 | 11 | 22 | 30 | 70 | -40 | 26 |
The bottom three were relegated. In the game, every result behind this table plays out as it really happened.
2000/01 top scorers
| Player | Goals | Assists | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink Chelsea | 23 | 9 | £11.5m |
| Marcus Stewart Ipswich | 19 | 4 | £9.5m |
| Thierry Henry Arsenal | 17 | 9 | £10.0m |
| Mark Viduka Leeds | 17 | 4 | £9.0m |
| Michael Owen Liverpool | 16 | 3 | £8.5m |
| Teddy Sheringham Manchester United | 15 | 6 | £9.0m |
| Emile Heskey Liverpool | 14 | 4 | £8.5m |
| Kevin Phillips Sunderland | 14 | 4 | £8.0m |
| Alen Bokšić Middlesbrough | 12 | 3 | £7.0m |
| Gus Poyet Chelsea | 11 | 7 | £10.5m |
2000/01 assist leaders
| Player | Assists | Goals | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| David Beckham Manchester United | 12 | 9 | £11.0m |
| Nolberto Solano Newcastle | 10 | 6 | £8.5m |
| Vladimír Šmicer Liverpool | 9 | 2 | £7.0m |
| Thierry Henry Arsenal | 9 | 17 | £10.0m |
| Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink Chelsea | 9 | 23 | £11.5m |
| Ryan Giggs Manchester United | 8 | 5 | £8.0m |
| Graham Stuart Charlton | 8 | 5 | £7.5m |
| Gus Poyet Chelsea | 7 | 11 | £10.5m |
| Hassan Kachloul Southampton | 7 | 4 | £7.0m |
| Roy Keane Manchester United | 7 | 2 | £6.5m |
League goals and assists only. Players who moved clubs mid-season are listed under the club they played most for.
Surprises and disappointments
Some of the season's best moments came away from the title race:
- Ipswich and Charlton both came up and finished in the top half, fifth and ninth.
- Matt Le Tissier scored his 100th and last Premier League goal, a half-volley in Southampton's 3-2 win over Arsenal in their final match at The Dell.
- Ledley King scored after just under 10 seconds in Tottenham's 3-3 draw at Bradford, the fastest goal in Premier League history.
- Paolo Di Canio won FIFA's Fair Play Award for catching a cross, stopping West Ham's attack, while Everton's keeper Paul Gerrard lay injured.
Others had seasons to forget:
- Chelsea sacked Vialli in September, months after he had won them the FA Cup.
- Tottenham sacked George Graham in March, with the club 13th, and brought in Glenn Hoddle from Southampton.
- Leicester, under Peter Taylor in his first season after O'Neill left, lost eight league games in a row, the longest losing run of the season, and slipped to 13th.
- Coventry were relegated from the Premier League for the first time, after 34 years in the top flight.
The PFA Team of the Year and the season's awards
The players' Team of the Year had six from the champions and three from Arsenal, the top two.
| Position | Players |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Fabien Barthez (Manchester United) |
| Defenders | Stephen Carr (Tottenham), Jaap Stam (Manchester United), Wes Brown (Manchester United), Sylvinho (Arsenal) |
| Midfielders | Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Roy Keane (Manchester United), Patrick Vieira (Arsenal), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) |
| Forwards | Teddy Sheringham (Manchester United), Thierry Henry (Arsenal) |
The individual awards:
- PFA Players' Player of the Year: Teddy Sheringham (Manchester United)
- PFA Young Player of the Year: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
- Football Writers' Footballer of the Year: Teddy Sheringham (Manchester United)
- Premier League Player of the Season: Patrick Vieira (Arsenal)
- Premier League Manager of the Season: George Burley (Ipswich)
- Golden Boot: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (Chelsea), 23 league goals
Most expensive players by position
The premium picks a £100m budget forces you to choose between in 2000/01.
Goalkeepers
- Fabien Barthez£6.0m
- Sander Westerveld£6.0m
- Richard Wright£6.0m
Defenders
- Ian Harte£6.5m
- Markus Babbel£6.5m
- Christian Karembeu£6.0m
Midfielders
- David Beckham£11.0m
- Gus Poyet£10.5m
- Lee Bowyer£10.0m
Forwards
- Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink£11.5m
- Thierry Henry£10.0m
- Marcus Stewart£9.5m
2000/01 on Retro Fantasy Football
21 managers have finished a 2000/01 season on our leaderboard (as of October 2026). The best scores so far:
- 2,046 pts
- 2,044 pts
- 2,036 pts
- 2,005 pts
- 1,998 pts
Points follow our scoring rules. Think you can beat them?
2000/01 quick answers
Who won the Premier League in 2000/01? Manchester United, with 80 points, 10 ahead of Arsenal. It was their third title in a row.
Who was relegated in 2000/01? Manchester City, Coventry City and Bradford City.
Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2000/01? Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink of Chelsea, with 23 league goals.
Who was PFA Player of the Year in 2000/01? Teddy Sheringham of Manchester United. Steven Gerrard of Liverpool was Young Player of the Year.
What did Liverpool win in 2000/01? A cup treble: the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup. They also finished third in the league.
Where did Ipswich finish in 2000/01? Fifth, on 66 points, the highest total for a newly promoted side in the 20-club Premier League era.