2012/13 Premier League season review
Manchester United won the 2012/13 Premier League with 89 points, 11 clear of Manchester City, in Sir Alex Ferguson's last season in charge. Robin van Persie, signed from Arsenal in August, scored 26 league goals, including a hat-trick against Aston Villa that clinched the club's 20th English title with four games to spare.
In Fantasy Premier League, Van Persie was also the top scorer, with 262 points, and Matt Martyniak won the overall game with 2,472 points from about 2.61 million managers.
You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 333 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.
Before the season: Van Persie moves to Old Trafford
Manchester City started 2012/13 as champions after winning the title on goal difference. United's answer came on 17 August 2012, when they signed Robin van Persie from Arsenal, the previous season's top scorer, for a reported £24m.
The summer also reshuffled the managers:
- Liverpool sacked Kenny Dalglish and appointed Brendan Rodgers from Swansea, who replaced him with Michael Laudrup.
- Aston Villa sacked Alex McLeish and appointed Paul Lambert from Norwich, who turned to Chris Hughton.
- Tottenham sacked Harry Redknapp and appointed André Villas-Boas.
- West Brom lost Roy Hodgson to the England job and appointed Steve Clarke.
The promoted clubs were Reading, Southampton and West Ham.
How Van Persie won Ferguson his last title
Van Persie made the difference from the start. The defining game of the first half of the season came on 9 December at the Etihad, where United won 3-2 with a late Van Persie free kick that deflected off Samir Nasri. United's lead grew to 15 points after wins over QPR, Norwich and Reading.
Europe went less well. United went out of the Champions League to Real Madrid in the last 16, losing the second leg 2-1 at Old Trafford after Nani was sent off in the 56th minute.
The title was settled on 22 April 2013. A day after City lost 3-1 to Tottenham, United beat Aston Villa 3-0 at Old Trafford with a Van Persie hat-trick, and were champions with four games to spare. It was their 13th Premier League title and 20th English league title in all.
The farewell followed:
- 8 May: Ferguson announced his retirement.
- 9 May: United named David Moyes, Everton's manager for 11 years, as his successor.
- 12 May: Ferguson's last game at Old Trafford, a 2-1 win over Swansea.
- 19 May: his last game in charge, a 5-5 draw at West Brom after United had led 5-2. It was the first Premier League match in which both teams scored five.
Ferguson was named Manager of the Season one last time.
The race for Europe and a crowded relegation fight
Behind United, the top seven looked like this:
- Manchester City finished second on 78 points. Joe Hart won the Golden Glove with 18 clean sheets, but City lost the FA Cup final to Wigan on 11 May, and Roberto Mancini was sacked two days later.
- Chelsea were third. Roberto Di Matteo, who had won them the Champions League the season before, was sacked on 21 November, and Rafael Benítez's appointment as interim manager was extremely unpopular. Chelsea still beat Aston Villa 8-0 in December and won the Europa League for the first time. Benítez left on 28 May and José Mourinho was appointed in June.
- Arsenal were well off the pace for much of the season, then a late run lifted them to fourth, one point ahead of Tottenham.
- Tottenham finished fifth on 72 points despite 21 league goals from Gareth Bale, and went into the Europa League.
- Everton were sixth in Moyes's last season.
- Liverpool finished seventh in Rodgers' first season. Luis Suárez scored 23 league goals, but bit Chelsea's Branislav Ivanović in a 2-2 draw at Anfield on 21 April and was banned for ten matches, which ended his season.
At the bottom, QPR and Reading went down together on 28 April after a 0-0 draw between the two clubs. QPR hadn't won a league game until December, and replaced Mark Hughes with Harry Redknapp in November. Reading had replaced Brian McDermott with Nigel Adkins in March.
The last place went to Wigan, who lost 4-1 to Arsenal on 14 May, three days after winning the FA Cup. It ended eight years in the Premier League. Sunderland survived in 17th after replacing Martin O'Neill with Paolo Di Canio at the end of March.
2012/13 Premier League final table
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 86 | 43 | +43 | 89 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 38 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 66 | 34 | +32 | 78 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 38 | 22 | 9 | 7 | 75 | 39 | +36 | 75 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 38 | 21 | 10 | 7 | 72 | 37 | +35 | 73 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 21 | 9 | 8 | 66 | 46 | +20 | 72 |
| 6 | Everton | 38 | 16 | 15 | 7 | 55 | 40 | +15 | 63 |
| 7 | Liverpool | 38 | 16 | 13 | 9 | 71 | 43 | +28 | 61 |
| 8 | West Brom | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 53 | 57 | -4 | 49 |
| 9 | Swansea | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 47 | 51 | -4 | 46 |
| 10 | West Ham | 38 | 12 | 10 | 16 | 45 | 53 | -8 | 46 |
| 11 | Norwich | 38 | 10 | 14 | 14 | 41 | 58 | -17 | 44 |
| 12 | Fulham | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | 50 | 60 | -10 | 43 |
| 13 | Stoke | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 34 | 45 | -11 | 42 |
| 14 | Southampton | 38 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 49 | 60 | -11 | 41 |
| 15 | Aston Villa | 38 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 47 | 69 | -22 | 41 |
| 16 | Newcastle | 38 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 45 | 68 | -23 | 41 |
| 17 | Sunderland | 38 | 9 | 12 | 17 | 41 | 54 | -13 | 39 |
| 18 | Wigan | 38 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 47 | 73 | -26 | 36 |
| 19 | Reading | 38 | 6 | 10 | 22 | 43 | 73 | -30 | 28 |
| 20 | Queens Park Rangers | 38 | 4 | 13 | 21 | 30 | 60 | -30 | 25 |
The bottom three were relegated. In the game, every result behind this table plays out as it really happened.
2012/13 top scorers
| Player | Goals | Assists | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robin van Persie Manchester United | 26 | 9 | £12.0m |
| Luis Suárez Liverpool | 23 | 5 | £10.5m |
| Gareth Bale Tottenham Hotspur | 21 | 4 | £11.5m |
| Christian Benteke Aston Villa | 19 | 4 | £9.5m |
| Michu Swansea | 18 | 2 | £9.5m |
| Romelu Lukaku West Brom | 17 | 4 | £9.0m |
| Frank Lampard Chelsea | 15 | 1 | £8.5m |
| Demba Ba Newcastle | 15 | 0 | £7.5m |
| Dimitar Berbatov Fulham | 15 | 3 | £8.0m |
| Rickie Lambert Southampton | 15 | 5 | £8.5m |
2012/13 assist leaders
| Player | Assists | Goals | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juan Mata Chelsea | 12 | 12 | £10.5m |
| Eden Hazard Chelsea | 11 | 9 | £8.5m |
| Santi Cazorla Arsenal | 11 | 12 | £9.5m |
| Wayne Rooney Manchester United | 10 | 12 | £10.0m |
| Theo Walcott Arsenal | 10 | 14 | £10.5m |
| Lukas Podolski Arsenal | 9 | 11 | £9.0m |
| Robin van Persie Manchester United | 9 | 26 | £12.0m |
| Steven Gerrard Liverpool | 9 | 9 | £8.0m |
| Carlos Tevez Manchester City | 8 | 11 | £9.0m |
| David Silva Manchester City | 8 | 4 | £7.5m |
League goals and assists only. Players who moved clubs mid-season are listed under the club they played most for.
Surprises and disappointments
Two cup runs gave the season its biggest surprises:
- Swansea beat Bradford City, then in the fourth tier, 5-0 in the League Cup final on 24 February, the first major trophy in the club's 101-year history. It made them the first Welsh club to qualify for a major European competition. Michu scored 18 league goals, and Swansea finished ninth under Laudrup.
- Wigan beat Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final, with Ben Watson heading in Shaun Maloney's corner in the last minute after Pablo Zabaleta had been sent off. It was the first major trophy in the club's history, and they were relegated three days later. Roberto Martínez then left for Everton.
There were good individual seasons outside the top clubs too:
- Christian Benteke scored 19 league goals for Aston Villa.
- Dimitar Berbatov scored 15 in 33 league games for Fulham, who finished 12th.
- Southampton took 19 points from their last 16 games after Mauricio Pochettino replaced Nigel Adkins in January, and finished 14th.
Others had seasons to forget:
- QPR won four league games all season and finished bottom with 25 points. One of the four was a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Loftus Road on 2 January, settled by Shaun Wright-Phillips's only goal of the season.
- Newcastle, fifth the season before, finished 16th.
- Manchester City finished 11 points behind United, lost a cup final to Wigan and sacked the manager who had won them the title a year earlier.
- Tottenham missed the top four by a point, despite Bale's 21 league goals.
2012/13 in Fantasy Premier League
About 2.61 million managers played Fantasy Premier League in 2012/13. Matt Martyniak won the game with 2,472 points, playing as Divine Mercy, and ran a charity FPL league until the 2016/17 season.
Van Persie's move to United showed up in the game as well as the league. He finished as FPL's top scorer with 262 points, ahead of Gareth Bale (249), Luis Suárez and Juan Mata (212 each) and Santi Cazorla (205). Michu (190) was the surprise name near the top. Leighton Baines (177) was the top-scoring defender and Joe Hart (158) the top-scoring goalkeeper, as he had been in each of the two previous seasons.
The PFA Team of the Year
Manchester United supplied four players to the players' own Team of the Year, Chelsea and Tottenham two each, and Bale swept the individual awards.
| Position | Players |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | David de Gea (Manchester United) |
| Defenders | Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City), Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Leighton Baines (Everton) |
| Midfielders | Gareth Bale (Tottenham), Juan Mata (Chelsea), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Eden Hazard (Chelsea) |
| Forwards | Robin van Persie (Manchester United), Luis Suárez (Liverpool) |
The season's awards: Bale won both PFA awards, Players' Player and Young Player of the Year, the third player to do so after Andy Gray in 1977 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2007. He was also the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year and the Premier League's Player of the Season. Ferguson was Manager of the Season, and Hart won the Golden Glove.
Most expensive players by position
The premium picks a £100m budget forces you to choose between in 2012/13.
Goalkeepers
- Asmir Begović£6.0m
- Petr Čech£6.0m
- Joe Hart£6.0m
Defenders
- Leighton Baines£7.0m
- Patrice Evra£6.5m
- Jan Vertonghen£6.0m
Midfielders
- Gareth Bale£11.5m
- Juan Mata£10.5m
- Theo Walcott£10.5m
Forwards
- Robin van Persie£12.0m
- Luis Suárez£10.5m
- Wayne Rooney£10.0m
2012/13 on Retro Fantasy Football
121 managers have finished a 2012/13 season on our leaderboard (as of October 2026). The best scores so far:
- 2,141 pts
- 2,115 pts
- 2,106 pts
- 2,095 pts
- 2,088 pts
Points follow our scoring rules. Think you can beat them?
2012/13 quick answers
Who won the Premier League in 2012/13? Manchester United, with 89 points, 11 ahead of Manchester City.
When did Manchester United clinch the 2012/13 title? On 22 April 2013, with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa in which Robin van Persie scored a hat-trick.
When did Sir Alex Ferguson retire? He announced his retirement on 8 May 2013 and his last game was a 5-5 draw at West Brom on 19 May.
Who was relegated in 2012/13? Wigan Athletic, Reading and Queens Park Rangers.
Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2012/13? Robin van Persie, with 26 league goals.
Who was PFA Player of the Year in 2012/13? Gareth Bale, who also won Young Player of the Year.
Who scored the most FPL points in 2012/13? Robin van Persie, with 262.
Who won Fantasy Premier League in 2012/13? Matt Martyniak, with 2,472 points.