United 12/13 were pretty damn poor for pl winners.
Best Teams in the Premier League Era (so far)
- Thread starter AaronRedDevil
- Start date
For some reason I remembered more personnel changes but it's essentially just the 3rd forward next to Rooney and Ronaldo. The rest is pretty consistent across the 3 seasons, agreed.
Yeah, hence I had a top 10 (that actually includes like 15-20 seasons probably) and the rest all thrown in together on the bottom.
The Arsenal invincibles don't deserve to be on any of these lists. What they achieved was a statistical quirk rather than measure of sporting greatness.
They had 12 draws in the league that season. It's like flipping a coin 12 times, getting 12 heads and then calling the coin the greatest coin of all time. It's a noteworthy event for how unlikely it was, but not worth declaring Arsenal all time greats. They had in an inordinate number of matches that could have gone either way, and the season was remarkable only because of how lucky it turned out to be that they didn't.
Arsenal also lost to Inter, Kyiev, Middleborough twice and United in the cups. Hardly invincible or a level above the competition, and extremely lucky that those off-days weren't for matches that were a part of their Premier League campaign.
And despite all that luck in the league, they only finished on 90 points. United achieved the same total in 08/09 whilst juggling the squad for a run all the way to the CL final.
You can't compare Arsenal's tunnel-vision luck-filled run in the league to teams in other seasons who got to the latter stages of the cups while achieving the same points totals. It was a good season and a good team, but their achievement were more about luck than greatness.
I think the United 99, United 08, Chelsea 05, Liverpool 20, City 18 and City 19 are all there or thereabouts. Arsenal 04 are nowhere near.
They had 12 draws in the league that season. It's like flipping a coin 12 times, getting 12 heads and then calling the coin the greatest coin of all time. It's a noteworthy event for how unlikely it was, but not worth declaring Arsenal all time greats. They had in an inordinate number of matches that could have gone either way, and the season was remarkable only because of how lucky it turned out to be that they didn't.
Arsenal also lost to Inter, Kyiev, Middleborough twice and United in the cups. Hardly invincible or a level above the competition, and extremely lucky that those off-days weren't for matches that were a part of their Premier League campaign.
And despite all that luck in the league, they only finished on 90 points. United achieved the same total in 08/09 whilst juggling the squad for a run all the way to the CL final.
You can't compare Arsenal's tunnel-vision luck-filled run in the league to teams in other seasons who got to the latter stages of the cups while achieving the same points totals. It was a good season and a good team, but their achievement were more about luck than greatness.
I think the United 99, United 08, Chelsea 05, Liverpool 20, City 18 and City 19 are all there or thereabouts. Arsenal 04 are nowhere near.
United 08 is the strongest side and would absolutely walk the league nowadays.
Agree with the Invincibles comment above. Also, I think Giggs, Scholes and Neville all said that Arsenal 98 was the best team they faced domestically. That was such a horrible team to play against.
If Man City are excluded from European competitions for the next 2 seasons and if 1-2 of their key players and/or Guardiola leave without getting good enough replacements, then at this moment in time you would have to say Liverpool would be favourites to win the next 2 Premier League titles and that sickens me!! 
Liverpool and Man City are currently quite far ahead of any other team in the league and the rest have a bit of catching up to do!
IF Liverpool do end up winning 2-3 League titles in a row and pick up 1 or 2 trophies from cup competitions in that time (they also won the Champions League last season and were finalists the year before) where would they rank on this list?
Liverpool and Man City are currently quite far ahead of any other team in the league and the rest have a bit of catching up to do!IF Liverpool do end up winning 2-3 League titles in a row and pick up 1 or 2 trophies from cup competitions in that time (they also won the Champions League last season and were finalists the year before) where would they rank on this list?
I know OP said PL era, but Last night on MNF Carra and Neville, using specific metrics came to the conclusion that Bob Paisley’s late 70’s Liverpool team is the best English side ever. Hugely subjective obviously. What do people think of their outcome ?
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It's incredibly hard to rank IMO. Do you rank it as just a single season? Or does the team have to have repeat success to be ranked higher? Do you factor in playstyle? Number of wins? Number of losses? All competitions? Just Premier League?
If you want to factor in everything, then honestly, the only correct answer for no.1 is United's treble winning side. It isn't my favourite side, as I think our 07/08 side was better personally. Arsenal going undefeated was amazing of course, but they didn't win the Champion's League or League Cup. Similar goes for Man City's 100 Points or winning all the domestic trophies. They both had more losses in all competitions than United's treble side. In fact, Man Utd's treble side played more games than any other side ever has when counting all competitions and lost fewer than any other as well! Yes, that includes all the teams in the OP and may even include Liverpool this season (United's treble side lost four games in all competitions that season, Liverpool have already lost three with a minimum of 13 games left to play, technically they could go out of the FA Cup and Champion's League without actually losing another fixture mind).
It's easy to overlook United's treble side despite the trophies as the Premier League points tally was so low, but realistically winning the three biggest trophies and only losing four(five) games out of 62(63)*
*(If we count the Community Sheild [then Charity Shield])
Still, opinions, everyone has one. I will say, if Liverpool somehow go on to win the FA Cup and Champion's League this season, whilst maybe only losing one or two more games overall, they're probably the best in a single season in the Premier League era surely? Long way to go though. Of course, they'd have to retain the Premier League title at least once as well to be classed as the true greats they probably deserve to be over a period of a few seasons and not just more of a one-season wonder, which is what I think is a reasonably fair assessment of Arsenal's invincible side.
If you want to factor in everything, then honestly, the only correct answer for no.1 is United's treble winning side. It isn't my favourite side, as I think our 07/08 side was better personally. Arsenal going undefeated was amazing of course, but they didn't win the Champion's League or League Cup. Similar goes for Man City's 100 Points or winning all the domestic trophies. They both had more losses in all competitions than United's treble side. In fact, Man Utd's treble side played more games than any other side ever has when counting all competitions and lost fewer than any other as well! Yes, that includes all the teams in the OP and may even include Liverpool this season (United's treble side lost four games in all competitions that season, Liverpool have already lost three with a minimum of 13 games left to play, technically they could go out of the FA Cup and Champion's League without actually losing another fixture mind).
It's easy to overlook United's treble side despite the trophies as the Premier League points tally was so low, but realistically winning the three biggest trophies and only losing four(five) games out of 62(63)*
*(If we count the Community Sheild [then Charity Shield])
Still, opinions, everyone has one. I will say, if Liverpool somehow go on to win the FA Cup and Champion's League this season, whilst maybe only losing one or two more games overall, they're probably the best in a single season in the Premier League era surely? Long way to go though. Of course, they'd have to retain the Premier League title at least once as well to be classed as the true greats they probably deserve to be over a period of a few seasons and not just more of a one-season wonder, which is what I think is a reasonably fair assessment of Arsenal's invincible side.
Without looking at stats I’m going to guess O’Shea featured/contributed more than G.Neville at RB during this period.
I could be wrong. I always remember it as
06 - Neville
07 - Brown
08 - O shea
09 - Rafa
I could be wrong though.
Hard to tell and compare. I think our team around 2008 was probably the best. Although current Liverpool and City might be objectivly better at the moment.
Objectively yes. But I feel like if they both faced the 08 united team. United may beat them. Comparing on paper, United beats them nearly every part of the pitch. Nearly
I think United’s side (or sides) 2006 - 2011 was the best English club side ever let alone in the EPL. If it wasn’t for the World’s greatest club side ever (ie Barca in that era) we would at least have won another CL. That side was full of World class players. Ronaldo, Rooney, Berbatov, Giggs, Scholes, Rio, Vidic, Evra, VDS and so on.
United’s treble winning squad, Arsenal’s invincibles and this Liverpool side are pretty special as well.
United’s treble winning squad, Arsenal’s invincibles and this Liverpool side are pretty special as well.
Someone should just list then rank all the PL winners since the beginning of the PL.
United's treble winning team is the best until further notice.
United's treble winning team is the best until further notice.
If we're talking about the teams performance in the league alone then City last year are the best, imo.
Taking European and domestic cups into account, too, United's treble winning team.
Taking European and domestic cups into account, too, United's treble winning team.
In terms of a single league season, City under Pep have had the best obviously but will likely be beaten by the scousers shortly.
In terms of overall seasons our 99 and 08 teams are top. If there was a one off game between any of the sides I reckon our 08 and 99 teams beat City and Pools best teams off the pitch. Whats more impressive about both our teams is their successes in Europe and also the fact they both did 3 in a row.
That 06-13 team(s) is scary good, but for a bullshit offside against Chelsea,Aguero and a freak game in the FA Cup in 08, there’d have been 7 in a row and another treble.
In terms of overall seasons our 99 and 08 teams are top. If there was a one off game between any of the sides I reckon our 08 and 99 teams beat City and Pools best teams off the pitch. Whats more impressive about both our teams is their successes in Europe and also the fact they both did 3 in a row.
That 06-13 team(s) is scary good, but for a bullshit offside against Chelsea,Aguero and a freak game in the FA Cup in 08, there’d have been 7 in a row and another treble.
18 Onwards. You are making assumption into the future, which you need to take into account of personnel change, manager change, luck, players having too many post-match party and so on. Just last summer people were screaming that City squad being the best in the era, this month we are speculating who will stay behind to pick up the trash....
Tierney Henry FC was a decent team in its day. Just imagine if they had 11 players at the time?
Treble winning team, every time. Just the scale of the achievement. Until someone else does the treble that’s the best team the Premier League has ever produced.
I agree with you point, suppose “present” would have been a better word for what I meant. But 2 consecutive CL finals winning 1 , 2nd with 97 points, followed by almost certainly a League title, is legacy stuff and they have a youngish squad and manager who is known for sticking around.
You are once again, predicting into the future. I would take it as it happens. Many things can and will happen, such as players movement, management movement, luck, players having too many post-match party. Just last summer we were talking about City being the best squad in the era, now we are speculating on who will stay behind to pick up the trash...
- Man United 98/99
- Man United 07/08
- Arsenal 03/04
- Man City 17/18
- United 08/09
- Leicester City 15/16
- Chelsea 04/05
- Man City 11/12
- Chelsea 16/17
- Liverpool 19/20 (default champion, no competition)
So Henry was the only good player in the team ?
NOW, we can resurrect this thread for discussion. If you look at purely a single season, MU 99 European Triple has to be the best, I will pick City 18 Domestic Triple as 2nd because it will be hard to repeat. Then MU 08 European Double, then move down the ladder.
Liverpool 2020, assuming we do get to complete this season (ha ha, more champagne Neville), is just a single Winner season, Top 10 at most, below Arsenal 04 Invincible and above Leicester perhaps. I think Chelsea did OK but their trophy were all over the places, in different years, under different managers.
Perhaps a different interpretation / conclusion. A good goalkeeper, is more important than a good CB.