2001/02 Premier League season review

Arsenal won the 2001/02 Premier League with 87 points, seven ahead of Liverpool, and completed the Double four days after beating Chelsea in the FA Cup final. They clinched the title at Old Trafford, went the whole league season unbeaten away from home, scored in every league game and won their last 13 in a row.

Thierry Henry won the Golden Boot with 24 goals, Ruud van Nistelrooy was the players' Player of the Year in his first season in England, and for the first time all three promoted clubs stayed up.

You can replay the season here with a £100m squad picked from 345 players across all 20 clubs, or read on for how it unfolded.

A summer of record fees

Manchester United started the season knowing it was meant to be Sir Alex Ferguson's last: he had announced in May 2001 that he would retire at the end of it. They spent heavily to send him off: Ruud van Nistelrooy arrived from PSV Eindhoven for £19m, and Juan Sebastián Verón from Lazio for £28.1m, the highest fee ever paid by an English club at the time. Jaap Stam was sold to Lazio for £16.5m in late August, and Laurent Blanc came in from Inter to replace him.

Arsenal's biggest signing cost nothing. Sol Campbell crossed north London on a free transfer from Tottenham, and Arsène Wenger also added Giovanni van Bronckhorst from Rangers, Francis Jeffers from Everton and Richard Wright from Ipswich.

Elsewhere:

• Chelsea signed Frank Lampard from West Ham for £11m and William Gallas from Marseille for £6.2m, along with Emmanuel Petit and Boudewijn Zenden from Barcelona.
• Newcastle bought Craig Bellamy from Coventry for £6m and Laurent Robert from Paris Saint-Germain for £10.5m.
• Liverpool added John Arne Riise from Monaco and the goalkeepers Jerzy Dudek and Chris Kirkland.
• Fulham, promoted under Jean Tigana, signed Steve Marlet from Lyon and Edwin van der Sar from Juventus.

The other promoted clubs were Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers. Middlesbrough started the season with a new manager, Steve McClaren, who had left his job as Ferguson's assistant at United that summer.

How Arsenal won the title at Old Trafford

For half the season nobody could hold on to top spot. Aston Villa went top at the end of October after beating Bolton 3-2, then won only one of their next 11 league games. Newcastle were top at Christmas after a 4-3 win at Elland Road on 22 December, with Nolberto Solano scoring the winner. Leeds went top on New Year's Day.

Manchester United had looked out of it. They lost five of seven league games in November and early December, including a 3-0 home defeat by Chelsea, and a 1-0 home defeat by West Ham on 8 December left them ninth. Then they won 5-0 against Derby, went top on 13 January and stayed there until late March. In February, Ferguson changed his mind about retiring and agreed to stay on.

Arsenal's autumn had its own wobbles: all three of their league defeats came at home, against Charlton, Newcastle and Blackburn. After that they did not lose again. They won their last 13 league games in a row, went 21 unbeaten, finished the season unbeaten away from home with 14 wins and 5 draws, and scored in every league match, something no club had done before.

They lost Robert Pires to knee ligament damage in an FA Cup replay against Newcastle on 23 March, and Freddie Ljungberg took over, scoring in five of their last eight league games. On 4 May Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0 in the FA Cup final in Cardiff, with both goals in the last 20 minutes. Four days later, at Old Trafford, Sylvain Wiltord scored the only goal in the second half to make Arsenal champions with a game to spare.

Thierry Henry finished with 24 league goals and the Golden Boot, one ahead of Van Nistelrooy, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Alan Shearer. Arsène Wenger was Manager of the Season, Ljungberg was the Premier League's Player of the Season and Pires, despite missing the run-in, was the football writers' Footballer of the Year. Tony Adams retired at the end of the season after almost 20 years at the club.

Liverpool, Newcastle and the race for Europe

Liverpool finished second on 80 points, their first top-two finish since 1991, in a season their manager spent five months away from. Gérard Houllier was taken to hospital with chest pains on 13 October 2001 and needed emergency heart surgery. His assistant Phil Thompson ran the side until Houllier returned on 20 March. Robbie Fowler left Anfield for Leeds for £11m at the end of November.

Below them:

• Manchester United were third on 77 points, ten behind the champions. Ferguson blamed six home league defeats. Van Nistelrooy scored 36 goals in all competitions, a club record, and United reached the Champions League semi-finals before going out to Bayer Leverkusen on away goals.
• Newcastle finished fourth on 71 points, their highest position for five years, under 69-year-old Bobby Robson in his third season.
• Leeds finished fifth after leading on New Year's Day, winning only 7 of their last 17 league games. Fowler scored 12 league goals for them and Mark Viduka 12, with Robbie Keane also in the squad. Nigel Martyn played every league game in goal. David O'Leary was sacked after the season.
• Chelsea were sixth in Claudio Ranieri's first full season and lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal. Hasselbaink scored 23 league goals and Eiður Guðjohnsen 14.
• Blackburn won the League Cup, beating Tottenham 2-1 in Cardiff on 24 February.
• Aston Villa won the Intertoto Cup and finished eighth. John Gregory resigned in January and Graham Taylor returned for a second spell.

Leicester's last season at Filbert Street

All three promoted clubs stayed up for the first time in the Premier League: Blackburn finished tenth, Fulham 13th and Bolton 16th. The three clubs that went down instead:

• Leicester City finished bottom with 28 points and only five wins, the fewest in the division. They went 16 games without a win between December and March, used three managers (Peter Taylor, Dave Bassett and Micky Adams), and were relegated on 6 April after a 1-0 home defeat by United. Their last game at Filbert Street, on 11 May, was a 2-1 win over Tottenham. Muzzy Izzet scored four league goals.
• Derby County finished 19th with 30 points. Jim Smith resigned in October, his successor Colin Todd was sacked in January, and John Gregory arrived from Villa. Derby also suffered the season's longest losing run, seven games.
• Ipswich Town had finished fifth the season before. They went down in 18th, four points from safety, after losing 5-0 at Anfield on the final day, and still played in the UEFA Cup the following season through the Fair Play ranking.

Sunderland survived in 17th on 40 points, despite scoring only 29 league goals, the fewest in the division. Kevin Phillips scored 11 of them. Everton, 15th, replaced Walter Smith with David Moyes in March.

Surprises and disappointments

Seasons to remember

• Darius Vassell had scored 7 goals in 58 appearances for Aston Villa before this season. He scored 12 in the league, level with Juan Pablo Ángel as the club's joint top scorer.
• Craig Bellamy was named PFA Young Player of the Year in his first season at Newcastle, where he formed a partnership with Shearer.
• Shay Given played every game for Newcastle and was the goalkeeper in the PFA Team of the Year.
• The promoted clubs all stayed up, and Blackburn won a trophy in their first season back.

Seasons to forget

• Ipswich Town went from fifth place and a UEFA Cup spot to relegation in twelve months.
• Manchester United paid a record fee for Verón, sold Stam, dropped to ninth in December and finished without a trophy for the first time in four years.
• Dwight Yorke made only four league starts for United and scored once, against Leicester in November.
• Dion Dublin scored four league goals for Villa and was loaned to Millwall in March.
• Leicester won five games all season and left Filbert Street as the bottom club.

The PFA Team of the Year

The players' Team of the Year was spread across seven clubs, with three players each from Arsenal and Manchester United. Fulham and Southampton, neither of whom finished in the top ten, had a defender each.

The season's awards

• PFA Players' Player of the Year: Ruud van Nistelrooy
• PFA Young Player of the Year: Craig Bellamy
• FWA Footballer of the Year: Robert Pires
• Premier League Player of the Season: Freddie Ljungberg
• Premier League Manager of the Season: Arsène Wenger

2001/02 quick answers

Who won the Premier League in 2001/02? Arsenal, with 87 points, seven ahead of Liverpool.

When did Arsenal clinch the 2001/02 title? On 8 May 2002, with a 1-0 win at Old Trafford, with a game to spare.

Who won the FA Cup in 2001/02? Arsenal, who beat Chelsea 2-0 in the final to complete the Double.

Who was relegated in 2001/02? Ipswich Town, Derby County and Leicester City.

Who was the Premier League top scorer in 2001/02? Thierry Henry, with 24 league goals.

Who was PFA Player of the Year in 2001/02? Ruud van Nistelrooy. Craig Bellamy was Young Player of the Year.