The Premier League era
In 1992 England's top clubs broke away to form a new league, paid for by satellite television. More than three decades later, the Premier League is watched all over the world. These are the clubs, managers, players and title races that made it.
A breakaway in 1992
The First Division's clubs had long felt they deserved a bigger share of the game's money, and in 1992 they left the Football League to form the FA Premier League. A television deal with BSkyB paid for it, and live matches on satellite television changed the shape of the English weekend, with games moved to Sunday afternoons and Monday nights.
The first season had 22 clubs, and Brian Deane of Sheffield United scored its first goal. Manchester United won the title, their first league championship since 1967, and the signing that made the difference was Eric Cantona, bought from Leeds United that November. His upturned collar and his swagger became the image of the new league.
Ferguson, Wenger and a new kind of footballer
Alex Ferguson's United dominated the first two decades. Built around Cantona and then a group of homegrown players, among them David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, they won 13 Premier League titles under him, and in 1999 the league, the FA Cup and the Champions League in a single season.
Their great rival was Arsène Wenger, who arrived at Arsenal in 1996 and changed how English players ate, trained and recovered. With Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry, Arsenal won doubles in 1998 and 2002, and in 2003-04 they went through the whole league season unbeaten. No side has matched the Invincibles since. Foreign players, once a novelty, became the league's biggest names: Gianfranco Zola at Chelsea, Cristiano Ronaldo at United, and later Sergio Agüero, Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne.
New money, new champions
Money reshaped the top of the table. Jack Walker's fortune helped Blackburn Rovers to the 1995 title, with Kenny Dalglish as manager and Alan Shearer scoring the goals; Shearer went on to score 260 Premier League goals, still the record. In 2003 Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea, and a year later José Mourinho arrived and won the title at the first attempt, with 95 points, the club's first league championship in 50 years. Manchester City, bought by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi in 2008, won their first title for 44 years in 2012.
Not every surprise was bought, though. In 2015-16 Leicester City, who had only just escaped relegation the season before, won the league under Claudio Ranieri. Jamie Vardy scored in 11 matches in a row, N'Golo Kanté seemed to be everywhere at once, and Algeria's Riyad Mahrez became the first African player voted PFA Players' Player of the Year. It is still the league's most unlikely title.
The title races fans remember
Some seasons are remembered for the way they ended. In 1995-96 Kevin Keegan's Newcastle led by 12 points in January and still finished second to United. In 2012 City and United finished level on points, and City took the title on goal difference only because Sergio Agüero scored against Queens Park Rangers after 93 minutes and 20 seconds. In 2014 Liverpool looked set for their first league title in 24 years until Steven Gerrard slipped against Chelsea and City overtook them. In 2019 Liverpool lost once all season and finished with 97 points, one behind City. And on the final day of 2021-22 City came from 2–0 down against Aston Villa to win 3–2 and beat Liverpool by a single point.
Guardiola, Klopp and the modern league
Pep Guardiola arrived at City in 2016 and raised the standard again: 100 points in 2017-18, a treble in 2023 and four titles in a row from 2021 to 2024, something no English club had done before. Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool pushed them hardest, winning the Champions League in 2019 and the league in 2020, their first title in 30 years. Mohamed Salah, who made Liverpool a second home club for millions in Egypt and across the Arab world, scored 32 league goals in 2017-18, a record for a 38-game season, before Erling Haaland raised it to 36 in 2022-23.
Liverpool won again in 2025, in Arne Slot's first season, a 20th league title that matched Manchester United's record. A year later Mikel Arteta's Arsenal ended a 22-year wait to be champions again. Through all of it, one thing has not changed: no English manager has won the Premier League.
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