2003/04 Premier League season review

Arsenal won the 2003/04 Premier League without losing a game. They won 26 and drew 12 of their 38 league matches, finished on 90 points, 11 clear of Chelsea, and became the first team to go through a 38-game league season unbeaten. The title was clinched with a 2-2 draw at Tottenham on 25 April.

Thierry Henry scored 30 league goals and won the PFA and football writers' awards. Behind Arsenal, Roman Abramovich's money turned Chelsea into contenders, and Leeds United were relegated three seasons after reaching a Champions League semi-final.

You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 343 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.

Abramovich's summer

The biggest story before a ball was kicked was in west London. Ken Bates sold Chelsea to Roman Abramovich in July 2003, and Claudio Ranieri was given more than £100m to spend:

• Damien Duff from Blackburn for £17m, a club record
• Hernán Crespo from Inter for £16.8m
• Claude Makélélé from Real Madrid for £16.6m
• Adrian Mutu from Parma for £15.8m
• Juan Sebastián Verón from Manchester United for £15m
• Wayne Bridge, Geremi, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson for between £6m and £7m each

Scott Parker followed from Charlton for £10m in January.

Manchester United sold David Beckham to Real Madrid for £25m on 2 July and, on 12 August, signed an 18-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting CP for £12.24m. They also brought in the American goalkeeper Tim Howard.

Arsenal's summer was quiet by comparison. Their main signing was the goalkeeper Jens Lehmann from Borussia Dortmund for £1.5m, and the teenage Cesc Fàbregas arrived from Barcelona on a free transfer. José Antonio Reyes followed from Sevilla in January for £10.5m.

The promoted clubs were Portsmouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers, both playing their first Premier League season, and Leicester City, back after a year away. David O'Leary, sacked by Leeds a year earlier, took over at Aston Villa.

How Arsenal went the season unbeaten

The most famous of Arsenal's 12 draws came at Old Trafford on 21 September 2003. Patrick Vieira was sent off, and Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the bar with a penalty. The game finished 0-0 and ended in a brawl. Six Arsenal players were charged and the club was fined £175,000, the biggest fine the FA had imposed on a club at the time. Lauren was banned for four games, and Vieira and Ray Parlour for one each.

United were top of the table from 21 December until 11 January. They were second by 17 January, and two days later Rio Ferdinand began an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test the previous September. United were third by the end of February and finished there on 75 points, 15 behind Arsenal.

Arsenal's hardest week came in April. On 3 April they lost the FA Cup semi-final to United, and on 6 April Chelsea knocked them out of the Champions League at Highbury, Wayne Bridge scoring the winner. Three days later, on Good Friday, Liverpool led twice at Highbury before Henry completed a hat-trick in a 4-2 win.

The title came at White Hart Lane on 25 April. Vieira and Robert Pires put Arsenal 2-0 up, Tottenham drew level in the second half with the equaliser from a penalty, and the 2-2 draw was enough. On the final day, 15 May, Leicester scored first at Highbury before Henry and Vieira won it 2-1.

Arsenal finished on 90 points with 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats. Their nine-game winning run was the longest of the season, and Henry's 30 league goals, 39 in all competitions, won him the Golden Boot, the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the Football Writers' award. The Premier League later presented Arsenal with a gold version of the trophy, and Arsène Wenger was Manager of the Season.

Chelsea, United and the cups

Chelsea finished second on 79 points and reached the Champions League semi-finals, where they lost 5-3 on aggregate to Monaco. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scored 13 league goals and Frank Lampard 10, and William Gallas made 45 appearances. It still was not enough for Ranieri. He was sacked on 31 May and replaced by José Mourinho.

United went out of the Champions League to Porto in March, to a last-minute goal, but their consolation was the FA Cup. They beat Millwall, in their first major final, 3-0 in Cardiff on 22 May, with Ronaldo scoring before half-time and Van Nistelrooy twice after it. Van Nistelrooy finished with 20 league goals, and Louis Saha, signed from Fulham in January for £12.82m, added seven.

The rest of the top half:

• Liverpool took fourth and the last Champions League place on 60 points.
• Newcastle were fifth on goal difference ahead of Aston Villa, with Alan Shearer scoring 22 league goals, second only to Henry.
• Aston Villa finished sixth in David O'Leary's first season, missing out on the UEFA Cup on goal difference. Juan Pablo Ángel scored 16 league goals and Darius Vassell nine.
• Bolton were eighth and reached the League Cup final, where they lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough on 29 February. Joseph-Désiré Job and a Bolo Zenden penalty gave Boro the first major trophy in their history.

Leeds go down

All three relegated clubs finished on 33 points:

• Leeds United went down on 2 May after a 4-1 defeat at Bolton, ending 14 successive seasons in the top flight, three years after reaching a Champions League semi-final. Peter Reid was sacked in November with Leeds bottom, and Eddie Gray could not save them. Mark Viduka scored 11 league goals.
• Leicester City were relegated on 1 May after a 2-2 draw at Charlton, a season after promotion. Les Ferdinand scored 12 league goals for them, and Muzzy Izzet played 30 league games. Their season was overshadowed in March when three players were charged after an incident at a training camp in Spain. The charges were later dropped.
• Wolverhampton Wanderers, in their first top-flight season for 20 years, lost their first three games and did not win away from home all season.

Above them, Manchester City finished 16th in their first season at the City of Manchester Stadium, and Everton were 17th with 39 points.

Surprises and disappointments

Seasons to remember

• Juninho was Middlesbrough's top scorer with nine goals, eight in the league, and scored in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final against Arsenal on the way to the club's first major trophy.
• Scott Parker was named PFA Young Player of the Year for his performances at Charlton, who finished seventh, before his move to Chelsea in January.
• Mikael Forssell scored 17 league goals for Birmingham, fifth in the scoring chart, as they finished tenth.
• Portsmouth finished 13th in their first Premier League season and beat Leeds 6-1 in November, the joint biggest home win of the season.

Seasons to forget

• Tottenham sacked Glenn Hoddle on 22 September with the club 18th, and finished 14th under the caretaker David Pleat. In February they lost an FA Cup replay at White Hart Lane 4-3 to Manchester City, who came from behind to win.
• Manchester City finished 16th in their first season at the City of Manchester Stadium. Robbie Fowler and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored seven league goals each.
• Rio Ferdinand missed the last four months of the season through his ban, and United, second when it began, finished third.
• Southampton lost Gordon Strachan, who resigned in February with the club 12th.

2003/04 in Fantasy Premier League

In the second season of the official game, Muir O Connor won Fantasy Premier League with 2,151 points, playing as The lonely 11.

Henry was the top scorer again, with 242 points. Pires and Lampard led the midfielders on 216 each, and Shearer was the next-best forward with 185. Edwin van der Sar, who shared the most clean sheets in the league with Arsenal's Jens Lehmann, was the top-scoring goalkeeper with 171, and Sami Hyypiä led the defenders for the second year running with 168.

The PFA Team of the Year

The Invincibles supplied six of the players' Team of the Year: the whole back four bar one, two of the midfield and Henry.

The season's awards

• PFA Players' Player of the Year: Thierry Henry
• FWA Footballer of the Year: Thierry Henry
• PFA Young Player of the Year: Scott Parker
• Premier League Manager of the Season: Arsène Wenger
• Golden Boot: Thierry Henry, 30 goals

2003/04 quick answers

Who won the Premier League in 2003/04? Arsenal, with 90 points, 11 ahead of Chelsea.

Did Arsenal go the whole 2003/04 season unbeaten? Yes. They won 26 and drew 12 of their 38 league games, the first team to go a 38-game league season unbeaten.

When did Arsenal clinch the 2003/04 title? On 25 April 2004, with a 2-2 draw at Tottenham.

Who won the FA Cup in 2003/04? Manchester United, who beat Millwall 3-0 in the final.

Who was relegated in 2003/04? Leicester City, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, all on 33 points.

Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2003/04? Thierry Henry, with 30 league goals.

Who won Fantasy Premier League in 2003/04? Muir O Connor, with 2,151 points.