2005/06 Premier League season review
Chelsea retained the Premier League in 2005/06 with 91 points, eight clear of Manchester United, after winning their first nine games, the best start any Premier League side had made. Thierry Henry won the Golden Boot with 27 goals in Arsenal's last season at Highbury, and Liverpool won one of the great FA Cup finals.
In Fantasy Premier League, Henry was also the top scorer, with 239 points.
You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 341 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.
Chelsea spend again, and Wigan arrive
The champions strengthened. Chelsea made Michael Essien their record signing, at £24.4m from Lyon, and also bought Shaun Wright-Phillips from Manchester City for £21m and Asier del Horno from Athletic Bilbao for £8m.
Manchester United signed Edwin van der Sar and Park Ji-sung in the summer, then added Nemanja Vidić and Patrice Evra in January.
The promoted clubs were West Ham and Sunderland, both back after two years away, and Wigan Athletic, playing top-flight football for the first time in their history under Paul Jewell.
How Chelsea retained the title
Chelsea won their first nine league games, including a 4-1 win over Liverpool, before Everton held them to a draw. They won 20 of their first 22, and their first league defeat came at Old Trafford in November, to a Darren Fletcher header.
At one point the lead was 16 points. Manchester United cut it to seven with a nine-match winning run in the second half of the season, but their home draw with Sunderland, the division's worst side, ended their chances.
The title was settled on 29 April 2006, with two games to spare, when Chelsea beat United 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. William Gallas scored first, Joe Cole added a solo goal and Ricardo Carvalho got the third.
Chelsea finished on 91 points and set a string of marks:
- 29 wins, equalling their own Premier League record from the year before.
- 18 home wins and no home defeats.
- The first Premier League side to beat every other club in the division in a single season.
Frank Lampard scored 16 league goals, though his record run of 164 consecutive appearances ended when he missed a game with a virus on 28 December. Mourinho was Manager of the Season again. Europe was less kind: Chelsea went out of the Champions League to Barcelona in the first knockout round and lost the FA Cup semi-final 2-1 to Liverpool.
Highbury's farewell and the race for fourth
Arsenal's season was split in two. In the league they finished fourth on 67 points, 24 behind Chelsea. In Europe they reached the Champions League final, losing 2-1 to Barcelona.
Fourth place went to the final day. Tottenham started it a point ahead of Arsenal, but several Spurs players fell ill at their hotel the night before the game at West Ham. They lost 2-1, with Yossi Benayoun scoring the winner ten minutes from time. The illness was blamed on a lasagne at the time, though the Health Protection Agency later found norovirus.
At Highbury, in the last game at the ground, Arsenal beat Wigan 4-2 in redcurrant shirts. Henry scored a hat-trick and received his Golden Boot, and Arsenal finished two points ahead of Tottenham. He was also the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year for a record third time, and Dennis Bergkamp played his final season.
Elsewhere at the top:
- Manchester United finished second on 83 points and won the League Cup, beating Wigan 4-0 in the final.
- Liverpool were third on 82 points, helped by a run of ten straight wins, and Pepe Reina won the Golden Glove with 20 clean sheets. They beat West Ham in the FA Cup final in Cardiff: Steven Gerrard equalised at the very end of normal time to make it 3-3, and Reina saved three penalties in the shootout.
- Tottenham finished fifth, with Robbie Keane among the league's joint fourth-highest scorers on 16 goals.
- Newcastle finished seventh after Graeme Souness left in February and Glenn Roeder took over. Alan Shearer retired at the end of the season with 260 Premier League goals, having become Newcastle's all-time top scorer.
Sunderland's record low and Portsmouth's escape
Sunderland finished bottom with 15 points from three wins and 29 defeats, the lowest total in Premier League history at the time. Mick McCarthy left in March and Kevin Ball saw out the season as caretaker. West Brom (30 points) and Birmingham (34) went down with them.
Portsmouth were the escape act. Harry Redknapp returned in December, after Alain Perrin was sacked, but the team were still eight points from safety in March. Pedro Mendes scored twice against Manchester City on 11 March, Portsmouth won six of their last nine games, and they secured survival with a win at Wigan.
2005/06 Premier League final table
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 38 | 29 | 4 | 5 | 72 | 22 | +50 | 91 |
| 2 | Manchester United | 38 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 72 | 34 | +38 | 83 |
| 3 | Liverpool | 38 | 25 | 7 | 6 | 57 | 25 | +32 | 82 |
| 4 | Arsenal | 38 | 20 | 7 | 11 | 68 | 31 | +37 | 67 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 18 | 11 | 9 | 53 | 38 | +15 | 65 |
| 6 | Blackburn | 38 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 51 | 42 | +9 | 63 |
| 7 | Newcastle | 38 | 17 | 7 | 14 | 47 | 42 | +5 | 58 |
| 8 | Bolton | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 49 | 41 | +8 | 56 |
| 9 | West Ham | 38 | 16 | 7 | 15 | 52 | 55 | -3 | 55 |
| 10 | Wigan | 38 | 15 | 6 | 17 | 45 | 52 | -7 | 51 |
| 11 | Everton | 38 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 34 | 49 | -15 | 50 |
| 12 | Fulham | 38 | 14 | 6 | 18 | 48 | 58 | -10 | 48 |
| 13 | Charlton | 38 | 13 | 8 | 17 | 41 | 55 | -14 | 47 |
| 14 | Middlesbrough | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 48 | 58 | -10 | 45 |
| 15 | Manchester City | 38 | 13 | 4 | 21 | 43 | 48 | -5 | 43 |
| 16 | Aston Villa | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 42 | 55 | -13 | 42 |
| 17 | Portsmouth | 38 | 10 | 8 | 20 | 37 | 62 | -25 | 38 |
| 18 | Birmingham | 38 | 8 | 10 | 20 | 28 | 50 | -22 | 34 |
| 19 | West Brom | 38 | 7 | 9 | 22 | 31 | 58 | -27 | 30 |
| 20 | Sunderland | 38 | 3 | 6 | 29 | 26 | 69 | -43 | 15 |
The bottom three were relegated. In the game, every result behind this table plays out as it really happened.
2005/06 top scorers
| Player | Goals | Assists | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thierry Henry Arsenal | 27 | 8 | £12.0m |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy Manchester United | 21 | 3 | £10.5m |
| Darren Bent Charlton | 18 | 4 | £9.0m |
| Robbie Keane Tottenham Hotspur | 16 | 3 | £9.0m |
| Wayne Rooney Manchester United | 16 | 9 | £10.0m |
| Frank Lampard Chelsea | 16 | 8 | £11.5m |
| Marlon Harewood West Ham | 14 | 4 | £8.5m |
| Craig Bellamy Blackburn | 13 | 2 | £8.0m |
| Yakubu Aiyegbeni Middlesbrough | 13 | 6 | £8.5m |
| Didier Drogba Chelsea | 12 | 11 | £9.5m |
2005/06 assist leaders
| Player | Assists | Goals | Our price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Didier Drogba Chelsea | 11 | 12 | £9.5m |
| José Antonio Reyes Arsenal | 10 | 5 | £8.5m |
| Luís Boa Morte Fulham | 9 | 6 | £8.0m |
| Wayne Rooney Manchester United | 9 | 16 | £10.0m |
| Danny Murphy Charlton | 8 | 4 | £7.0m |
| Park Ji-sung Manchester United | 8 | 1 | £6.5m |
| Charles N'Zogbia Newcastle | 8 | 5 | £7.0m |
| James Milner Aston Villa | 8 | 1 | £6.5m |
| Thierry Henry Arsenal | 8 | 27 | £12.0m |
| Frank Lampard Chelsea | 8 | 16 | £11.5m |
League goals and assists only. Players who moved clubs mid-season are listed under the club they played most for.
Surprises and disappointments
Chelsea's second title was the headline, but several other stories stood out.
- Wigan Athletic, in their first top-flight season, were second behind Chelsea at one stage, reached the League Cup final and finished tenth. Their defender Pascal Chimbonda made the PFA Team of the Year.
- West Ham, newly promoted, finished ninth, reached the FA Cup final and ended Tottenham's Champions League hopes on the final day.
- Portsmouth stayed up after being eight points adrift in March.
- Darren Bent scored 18 league goals for Charlton, the third-highest total in the division.
Others had seasons to forget:
- Sunderland won three league games and set what was then a Premier League low of 15 points.
- Tottenham were a point ahead going into the final day and still missed out on fourth place.
- Arsenal finished 24 points behind Chelsea in the league, though they reached the Champions League final.
- Newcastle parted company with Souness in February, in Shearer's final season.
2005/06 in Fantasy Premier League
Tommy Wilson won Fantasy Premier League 2005/06 with 2,326 points, playing as Blue Bridge Brigade.
Thierry Henry was the game's top scorer with 239 points, from 27 goals and 8 assists in what turned out to be his last prolific season at Arsenal. Frank Lampard was next with 222.
The PFA Team of the Year
Chelsea supplied four players to the players' own Team of the Year, and Wigan's Chimbonda made it in his club's first top-flight season.
| Position | Players |
|---|---|
| Goalkeeper | Shay Given (Newcastle United) |
| Defenders | Pascal Chimbonda (Wigan Athletic), John Terry (Chelsea), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), William Gallas (Chelsea) |
| Midfielders | Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Joe Cole (Chelsea) |
| Forwards | Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) |
The season's awards: Gerrard was PFA Players' Player of the Year and Rooney PFA Young Player of the Year. Henry was the Football Writers' Footballer of the Year for a record third time and the Premier League's Player of the Season, as well as winning the Golden Boot. Reina won the Golden Glove, and Mourinho was Manager of the Season.
Most expensive players by position
The premium picks a £100m budget forces you to choose between in 2005/06.
Goalkeepers
- Paul Robinson£6.5m
- Petr Čech£6.0m
- Jens Lehmann£6.0m
Defenders
- Charles N'Zogbia£7.0m
- Matthew Taylor£6.5m
- William Gallas£6.5m
Midfielders
- Frank Lampard£11.5m
- Steven Gerrard£10.5m
- Cristiano Ronaldo£10.0m
Forwards
- Thierry Henry£12.0m
- Ruud van Nistelrooy£10.5m
- Wayne Rooney£10.0m
2005/06 on Retro Fantasy Football
75 managers have finished a 2005/06 season on our leaderboard (as of October 2026). The best scores so far:
- 2,093 pts
- 2,090 pts
- 2,065 pts
- 2,064 pts
- 2,064 pts
Points follow our scoring rules. Think you can beat them?
2005/06 quick answers
Who won the Premier League in 2005/06? Chelsea, with 91 points, eight ahead of Manchester United.
Who was relegated in 2005/06? Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland.
Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2005/06? Thierry Henry, with 27 league goals.
Who finished fourth in 2005/06? Arsenal, two points ahead of Tottenham after the final day.
Who was PFA Player of the Year in 2005/06? Steven Gerrard. Wayne Rooney was Young Player of the Year.
Who scored the most FPL points in 2005/06? Thierry Henry, with 239.
Who won Fantasy Premier League in 2005/06? Tommy Wilson, with 2,326 points.