2007/08 Premier League season review

Manchester United won the 2007/08 Premier League on the final day, beating Wigan 2-0 to finish on 87 points, two clear of Chelsea. Arsenal led for much of the season and finished third on 83, a record total for a third-placed side in a 38-game season. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 31 league goals, equalling the record for a 38-game season.

In Fantasy Premier League, Ronaldo was the top scorer with 283 points, and John Frisina won the overall game with 2,466 points from about 1.7 million managers.

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.

Henry leaves, Torres arrives

The summer of 2007 changed the look of the top four. Thierry Henry, Arsenal's captain and record goalscorer, left for Barcelona after eight years for a reported £16 million. Liverpool broke their transfer record to sign Fernando Torres from Atlético Madrid for £26.5 million.

Manchester United added Owen Hargreaves, Nani, Anderson and Carlos Tevez. Chelsea signed Florent Malouda, and Arsenal brought in Eduardo. Wenger also handed the Arsenal captaincy to William Gallas.

There were new faces further down the table too. Sam Allardyce took over at Newcastle and made Mark Viduka his first signing, on a free transfer. Mark Hughes brought Roque Santa Cruz to Blackburn from Bayern Munich. At Manchester City, Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed under a new owner, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Sunderland, Birmingham City and Derby County came up from the Championship.

How United overtook Arsenal

Arsenal made the faster start, winning eight of their first nine league games. Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice in a 3-1 win at White Hart Lane on 15 September, and Arsenal stayed top for much of the season.

Five days after that game, José Mourinho left Chelsea with 11 points from six matches. Avram Grant took over, and his first game was a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

At the turn of the year Arsenal led, having lost only once in 21 league games. United went top on goal difference at the end of January after beating Portsmouth 2-0. On 10 February, though, the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, they lost 2-1 at home to Manchester City, City's first win at Old Trafford in 34 years. A 2-0 win over Blackburn then put Arsenal five points clear with 12 games left.

The lead began to go at St Andrew's on 23 February. Three minutes in, Martin Taylor was sent off for a tackle that broke Eduardo's leg. Theo Walcott scored twice, but James McFadden equalised with a stoppage-time penalty to make it 2-2. At the final whistle Gallas, the captain, sat down on the pitch and stayed there for about two minutes until Wenger came over.

Arsenal won one of their next eight league games. They lost 2-1 to Chelsea in March and at Old Trafford on 13 April, which ended their challenge.

Chelsea kept it going to the end. Michael Ballack scored twice in a 2-1 win over United on 26 April, which put the two sides level on points. On the final day, 11 May, United won 2-0 at Wigan with a Ronaldo penalty and a goal from Ryan Giggs, while Chelsea drew 1-1 with Bolton.

United won their tenth Premier League title by two points. Ronaldo was named PFA Players' Player of the Year, Footballer of the Year and the Premier League's Player of the Season, and Sir Alex Ferguson was Manager of the Season. Later that month United beat Chelsea again, on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Moscow, in the first all-English Champions League final.

Liverpool, the cups and the rest of the top half

Behind the top three, the table looked like this:

• Liverpool finished fourth on 76 points. Torres scored 24 league goals, a record for a foreign player in his first Premier League season.
• Everton were fifth and Aston Villa sixth, with Villa's 71 goals the most outside the top four.
• Blackburn finished seventh, with Santa Cruz scoring 19 league goals in his first season in England.
• Portsmouth were eighth and won the FA Cup, beating Cardiff City 1-0 in the final. Their 7-4 win over Reading in September, with a Benjani hat-trick, is the highest-scoring match in Premier League history.
• Manchester City were ninth under Eriksson. They won at Old Trafford in February but lost 8-1 at Middlesbrough on the final day.

Tottenham sacked Martin Jol in October and appointed Juande Ramos. They finished 11th but won the League Cup, beating holders Chelsea 2-1 after extra time in the first final at the new Wembley. Dimitar Berbatov scored their equaliser from the penalty spot, and he and Robbie Keane scored 15 league goals each.

At Newcastle, Allardyce left in January and Kevin Keegan returned, 12 years after his first spell as manager. They finished 12th.

Derby's record low and Fulham's escape

Derby County finished with 11 points from one win, eight draws and 29 defeats. They scored 20 goals and conceded 89. A 2-2 draw with Fulham on 29 March made them the first side in Premier League history to be relegated in March.

The other two places went on the final day:

• Reading beat Derby 4-0 but went down on goal difference.
• Birmingham beat Blackburn 4-1 but went down too. Their manager, Steve Bruce, had left for Wigan in November.
• Fulham survived. Roy Hodgson took over at the end of December, and with three games left they were five points from safety. They came from 2-0 down with 20 minutes left to win 3-2 at Manchester City, beat Birmingham at home, and then won 1-0 at Portsmouth when Danny Murphy headed in a Jimmy Bullard free kick in the 76th minute.

Surprises and disappointments

Several of the season's best stories came from players and clubs nobody had tipped.

• Fernando Torres arrived from Spain and scored 24 league goals, level with Adebayor and behind only Ronaldo.
• Roque Santa Cruz scored 19 for Blackburn, the fourth-highest total in the league, in his first season in England.
• Portsmouth finished eighth and won the FA Cup. David James passed 500 Premier League appearances along the way and made the PFA Team of the Year.
• Fulham were 19th with two wins from 20 games when Hodgson arrived, and still stayed up.

Others had seasons to forget:

• Derby County set the Premier League's lowest points total, with one win all season.
• Chelsea lost Mourinho in September, then finished second in the league, lost the League Cup final and lost the Champions League final on penalties.
• Arsenal were five points clear in February and finished third, four points behind United.
• Newcastle won two of 11 league games after a 4-1 home defeat by Portsmouth in November, and Allardyce lasted until January.

2007/08 in Fantasy Premier League

About 1.7 million managers played Fantasy Premier League in 2007/08. John Frisina, from Australia, won with 2,466 points playing as FRISK UTD.

Ronaldo was the game's top scorer with 283 points. That was 78 more than anyone else. Cesc Fàbregas was next with 205, and Steven Gerrard and Adebayor had 200 each.

The top defender was Everton's Joleon Lescott, with 196 points. That was more than Torres managed (193), despite Torres's 24 goals. Portsmouth's David James was the top-scoring goalkeeper, with 167.

The PFA Team of the Year

Arsenal supplied four players to the players' own Team of the Year, even though they finished third.

Chelsea, who finished second, had nobody in the team.

The season's awards: Ronaldo was PFA Players' Player of the Year, Footballer of the Year and the Premier League's Player of the Season. Fàbregas was PFA Young Player of the Year, and Ferguson was Manager of the Season.

2007/08 quick answers

Who won the Premier League in 2007/08? Manchester United, with 87 points, two ahead of Chelsea.

When was the 2007/08 title decided? On the final day, 11 May 2008, when United won 2-0 at Wigan and Chelsea drew 1-1 with Bolton.

Who was relegated in 2007/08? Reading, Birmingham City and Derby County.

Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2007/08? Cristiano Ronaldo, with 31 league goals.

Who was PFA Player of the Year in 2007/08? Cristiano Ronaldo. Cesc Fàbregas was Young Player of the Year.

How many points did Derby get in 2007/08? 11, from one win and eight draws.

Who scored the most FPL points in 2007/08? Cristiano Ronaldo, with 283.

Who won Fantasy Premier League in 2007/08? John Frisina, with 2,466 points.