1997/98 Premier League season review

Arsenal won the 1997/98 Premier League with 78 points, one ahead of Manchester United, in Arsène Wenger's first full season in charge. They were 12 points behind United going into March, with games in hand, then won ten league games in a row and completed the Double by beating Newcastle in the FA Cup final.

Michael Owen, 18 years old for most of the season, shared the Golden Boot with Chris Sutton and Dion Dublin on 18 goals. At the bottom, all three promoted clubs went straight back down.

You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 340 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.

Wenger's first full summer

Wenger had taken over at Arsenal in October 1996, so the summer of 1997 was his first chance to reshape the squad. He signed Marc Overmars from Ajax for £7.0m and Emmanuel Petit from Monaco for £3.5m, along with Gilles Grimandi, Luís Boa Morte, Matthew Upson and the goalkeeper Alex Manninger. Paul Merson left for Middlesbrough for £4.5m, a record for a club outside the top flight.

The champions changed too. With Eric Cantona gone, Manchester United signed Teddy Sheringham from Tottenham for £3.5m and Henning Berg from Blackburn for £5m.

Elsewhere:

• Chelsea spent heavily under Ruud Gullit. Graeme Le Saux returned from Blackburn for £5m, a national record for a defender, and Ed de Goey, Gus Poyet, Tore André Flo and Celestine Babayaro also arrived.
• Liverpool brought Paul Ince back to England for £4.2m.
• Tottenham signed Les Ferdinand for £6m and David Ginola for £2m, both from Newcastle.
• Newcastle lost Alan Shearer to a serious ankle injury in a pre-season friendly, which kept him out for half the season.
• New managers included Roy Hodgson at Blackburn and Dave Jones at Southampton, while Howard Kendall returned to Everton for a third spell.

The promoted clubs were Bolton Wanderers, Crystal Palace and Barnsley, who were playing their first season in the top flight.

How Arsenal caught Manchester United

For most of the season the title looked like United's. They beat Barnsley 7-0 at Old Trafford in October, and Arsenal's early promise faded: three defeats in four games in November and December left Wenger's side sixth before Christmas and 12 points behind at the end of 1997.

The first sign of a change came on 9 November 1997 at Highbury. Arsenal beat United 3-2, with Nicolas Anelka scoring his first goal for the club and David Platt heading a late winner after Sheringham had scored twice. United's season had already been hit by the loss of Roy Keane, ruled out for the rest of the campaign with knee ligament damage after the defeat at Leeds on 27 September.

United went into March 12 points clear, but Arsenal had three games in hand. The decisive game came on 14 March 1998 at Old Trafford, where Marc Overmars scored the only goal with about 15 minutes left. In the same month United went out of the Champions League to Monaco on away goals, after a 1-1 draw at home in the quarter-final second leg, and had already lost to Barnsley in an FA Cup fifth-round replay.

Arsenal went top in April, after United were held by Liverpool on Good Friday and Arsenal beat Blackburn and Wimbledon. They kept winning: ten league games in a row, a new record, and 18 unbeaten. The title was settled on 3 May 1998 with a 4-0 win at home to Everton, Arsenal's tenth straight home league win, with two games to spare. They lost both of those games, which is why the final margin was just one point.

A fortnight later, on 16 May, Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-0 at Wembley, with goals from Overmars and Anelka, to complete the Double. They were only the second club to win the Double twice, and Wenger became the first manager from outside the British Isles to win the English league. Dennis Bergkamp, who scored 16 league goals, was named both PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.

Owen, Chelsea's cups and a record nine clubs in Europe

Liverpool finished third on 65 points under Roy Evans, and the story of their season was Michael Owen. He scored 18 league goals in 36 appearances, shared the Golden Boot, and was named both PFA Young Player of the Year and the Premier League's Player of the Season. On 11 February 1998 he made his England debut against Chile at 18 years and 59 days, the youngest England player of the 20th century.

Chelsea finished fourth on 63 points, but their season was about the cups:

• 12 February 1998: Ruud Gullit was sacked after a dispute with chairman Ken Bates, and Gianluca Vialli, 33, became player-manager.
• 29 March 1998: Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2-0 after extra time at Wembley to win the League Cup, with goals from Frank Sinclair and Roberto Di Matteo.
• 13 May 1998: Gianfranco Zola came off the bench in Stockholm and scored seconds later to beat VfB Stuttgart 1-0 in the Cup Winners' Cup final.

Leeds were fifth, Blackburn sixth in Hodgson's first season, and Aston Villa seventh after John Gregory replaced Brian Little in February. A record nine English clubs qualified for Europe. Villa got their UEFA Cup place through the Fair Play ranking, and Newcastle reached the Cup Winners' Cup as beaten FA Cup finalists.

All three promoted clubs went down

For the first time, all three newly promoted clubs were relegated together:

• Crystal Palace finished bottom with 33 points and won only two home games all season. Attilio Lombardo took over as caretaker in March, with Steve Coppell moving upstairs.
• Barnsley, in their first top-flight season, finished 19th and conceded 82 goals. They lost 7-0 at Old Trafford and 6-0 at home to Chelsea.
• Bolton Wanderers went down on goal difference, level on 40 points with Everton.

Everton survived in 17th in Howard Kendall's third spell as manager, and Kendall left at the end of the season.

Surprises and disappointments

A three-way Golden Boot

Three players finished level on 18 league goals and shared the Golden Boot: Owen at Liverpool, Chris Sutton at Blackburn and Dion Dublin at Coventry. Dennis Bergkamp, Kevin Gallacher and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink were one step behind on 16.

The other two scored for clubs outside the top five. Sutton and Gallacher scored 34 league goals between them as Blackburn finished sixth. Dublin and Darren Huckerby, with 14, scored 32 for a Coventry side that finished 11th.

Other seasons to remember

• Leeds finished fifth. Hasselbaink scored 16 league goals, and Nigel Martyn was named in the PFA Team of the Year.
• Derby County finished ninth, with Paulo Wanchope scoring 13 league goals.
• Ian Wright broke Cliff Bastin's Arsenal goalscoring record with his 179th goal for the club, against Bolton.

Seasons to forget

• Newcastle finished 13th and scored only 35 league goals. Shearer missed half the season, Ferdinand and Ginola had gone to Tottenham, and Faustino Asprilla, whose hat-trick beat Barcelona 3-2 in the Champions League in September, left for Parma in January. Kenny Dalglish's side did reach their first FA Cup final in 24 years.
• Tottenham finished 14th. Gerry Francis resigned on 19 November 1997 and Christian Gross was appointed the same day. Jürgen Klinsmann scored four in one game, one of only two players to do so that season.
• Manchester United went from 12 points clear to second, and went out of the FA Cup and the Champions League within a month of each other.

The PFA Team of the Year

The champions were outnumbered in the players' own Team of the Year. Manchester United had five players in it, while Bergkamp was Arsenal's only representative.

The season's awards

• PFA Players' Player of the Year: Dennis Bergkamp
• FWA Footballer of the Year: Dennis Bergkamp
• PFA Young Player of the Year: Michael Owen
• Premier League Player of the Season: Michael Owen
• Premier League Manager of the Season: Arsène Wenger

Beckham led the league in assists for a United side that scored 73 league goals, the most in the division.

1997/98 quick answers

Who won the Premier League in 1997/98? Arsenal, with 78 points, one ahead of Manchester United.

When did Arsenal clinch the 1997/98 title? On 3 May 1998, with a 4-0 win at home to Everton and two games to spare.

Who won the FA Cup in 1997/98? Arsenal, who beat Newcastle 2-0 in the final to complete the Double.

Who was relegated in 1997/98? Bolton Wanderers, Barnsley and Crystal Palace, the three clubs promoted the previous summer.

Who was the Premier League top scorer in 1997/98? Michael Owen, Chris Sutton and Dion Dublin shared the Golden Boot with 18 goals each.

Who was PFA Player of the Year in 1997/98? Dennis Bergkamp. Michael Owen was Young Player of the Year.