Honestly this whole thing started because my nephew asked me who won the Premier League before he was born. Figured I kinda remembered Chelsea winning back-to-back around then, but couldn’t swear to it. Wanted to be sure, y’know? Didn’t wanna give the kid wrong info.
So, first thing was heading online…
I knew I needed a website showing old league tables. Went straight to the usual football stats sites. Problem is, loads of sites only have summaries, like just the top few teams or maybe the champion. I needed the full table, every single team, where they finished, points, all that jazz. Had to dig deeper. Found a few sites with archives, but sometimes the format was messy, hard to read quickly.
Then, the real work began…
Settled on one site that seemed okay. But I didn’t just trust it. No way. Grabbed my trusty old notebook and a pen. Started manually copying everything down. Went team by team:
- Copied Manchester United down as 1st.
- Chelsea in 2nd.
- Liverpool and Arsenal battling it out below.
Then kept going down the list. Made sure to get the points right. Noted that Chelsea only lost three times! Also cross-checked with another site for key stats, like goals scored against. Wanted to make sure Sheffield United really did go down after only one season back. Seeing Wigan at 17th place, just scraping it… wild how teams change.
Frustration popped up!
Trying to compare points totals between seasons? Was looking back at 2005/06 too, to see how Chelsea lost their crown. Noticed some minor differences between different websites on exact stats for middle-table teams. Got me scratching my head, had to dig a bit more to find a site I felt matched other records I knew were reliable.
Finally got it all down…
Jotted it all into a clearer list in my notebook. Made note of the big gaps: United winning by 6 points over Chelsea. Fulham doing well in 16th with plenty of draws. How close it got at the bottom! Needed to see Sheffield United confirmed as going down. Ended up with a neat written record, double-checked.
You know, it’s funny. Remembering that season now, the whole “Can Chelsea win three in a row?” vibe. Spoiler: Nope. United snatched it back. Looking at the points, it really was their resilience – they lost one less than Chelsea. That makes a huge difference. Seeing it all written out like that? Kinda satisfying. Clears up those fuzzy memories.
