Sometimes it isn't enough to just win English football's greatest prize... you have to do it in style.
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00:00 To quote Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and you'd be surprised how often I do that, "The greatest
00:08 victory is that which requires no battle."
00:10 But to quote, literally me though, "The greatest victory is that which makes your opponents
00:15 look like complete chumps."
00:16 You see, it's not enough to simply win the Premier League, I mean even Blackburn have
00:20 managed that, but the key is to win it by absolutely miles.
00:25 That's how you get remembered in this game, and arguably even more important than that,
00:29 that's how you qualify for this list.
00:30 I'm Adam Cleary, this is 442, and these are the 10 most dominant Premier League champions
00:36 ever.
00:37 Number 10, Manchester United, 1994.
00:39 A mere two weeks into the '93-'94 season, Manchester United went away to Aston Villa
00:44 and won thanks to two goals from Lee Sharp, remember him?
00:48 This win sent them to the top of the league, and there they stayed for the remaining 38
00:53 games of that season.
00:54 With Eric Cantona somehow getting a five-match ban for sending off in consecutive games,
00:58 Alan Shearer's Blackburn almost offered a title chase.
01:02 But despite cutting their lead to mere goal difference at one point, ultimately came up
01:05 some eight points short.
01:07 Womp womp.
01:08 The title was secured with a 2-1 victory away to Ipswich Town, and only defeat to Aston
01:12 Villa in the League Cup final prevented them from doing a domestic treble.
01:16 Not bad.
01:17 Number nine, Leicester City, 2016.
01:18 I think everyone thinks about Leicester's shock Premier League win as something of a
01:22 plucky underdog story, but even a cursory revision of the numbers that year shows that
01:27 in reality, they battered everyone.
01:30 Despite starting the season as candidates for relegation, they romped home to the title
01:33 with an astounding 10 points to spare, and only three defeats all season.
01:39 Three.
01:40 Leicester.
01:41 Three defeats.
01:42 All season.
01:43 That is astonishing.
01:44 And yeah, sure, they were helped by several of the usual contenders having disastrous
01:48 seasons, Man United were fifth, Liverpool were eighth, and Chelsea were tenth, but their
01:51 81-point haul would have had them there or thereabouts in both the previous two seasons.
01:57 Annoyingly for a fairy tale, they clinched the title not by actually playing, but by
02:00 Chelsea stopping Spurs taking all three points in one of the final games of the season.
02:04 Although judging by the celebrations, I don't think anybody cared even one bit.
02:08 Number eight, Manchester United, 2001.
02:11 Just the 10-point winning margin for Manchester United two years after they won the treble,
02:16 and it likely could have been a lot more had they not somehow lost their last three games
02:20 of the season.
02:21 And just the 60 goals that campaigned for the forward options of Teddy Sheringham, Andy
02:25 Cole, Dwight York, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as well as one of David Beckham's most prolific
02:29 seasons in Manchester with nine.
02:31 Arsenal offered something of a challenge, but were practically as close to Man United
02:34 in first as they were to Sunderland in seventh, so not exactly what you'd call close, and
02:38 the Gunners getting thumped 3-0 at home somehow by Middlesbrough handed the title to Ferguson.
02:44 For a change.
02:45 Number seven, oh good, it's Man United again, 2013.
02:49 Yeah, look, right, Man United are on this list a lot because, to be blunt, Alex Ferguson
02:53 was very good at building some of the all-time great teams.
02:57 But the thing is, right, the thing, the thing about this team, the thing is, they weren't
03:02 one of them.
03:03 Sure, you've got Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney in here, but where a few years prior
03:07 they were in a team with Tevez, Vidic, and Ronaldo, here they were lining up with Tom
03:12 Cleverley, Danny Welbeck, and Phil Jones.
03:15 That Ferguson managed to extract not only a tune, but an emphatically championship winning
03:20 one out of them might honestly be the most impressive thing he did in his entire time
03:25 at that club.
03:26 And how did he do it, do you ask?
03:28 Well, it was very simple, he stole Robin Van Persie from Arsenal and 30 goals later, voila.
03:34 They had the worst defence in the entire top four, but still somehow managed 20 goals and
03:39 11 points more than Manchester City in second.
03:42 Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa, including, yes, that volley, sealed the title
03:46 in spectacular fashion and football's just… it's just really simple sometimes, isn't
03:51 it?
03:52 Yeah, Guardiola and the boys were barely challenged for the Premier League in 20/21, with Manchester
04:00 United their closest competitor a dismal 12 points behind.
04:04 Impressive, sure, but insanely so when you consider that on Christmas Day, they were
04:09 somehow 8th in the league.
04:11 Yep.
04:12 And yet, still, somehow it became a record-breaking season.
04:15 They achieved a remarkable winning streak of 82 days from December to March, they completed
04:20 the most consecutive wins by a top-flight English team in all competitions ever at 21,
04:25 they went 28 games unbeaten overall, and set the record for consecutive away league wins
04:31 at 12.
04:32 There's a life lesson in there somewhere about not giving up and just doing your best
04:37 and I dunno, find it yourself.
04:38 Number 5, Chelsea, 2005.
04:40 Now while it was immediately clear that new boss Jose Mourinho wasn't exactly lacking
04:45 in self-confidence, many in England still wondered whether he had the skills to back
04:49 up his "special" claims.
04:51 I'm not one of the bottle, I think I'm a special one.
04:58 And haha, he did, yes, because Chelsea promptly beat Manchester United in his first league
05:02 game in charge, didn't lose one until October, and then managed to avoid defeat for the entire
05:07 rest of the season.
05:09 They amassed a scarcely believable 95 points and shipped a ludicrous 15 goals, in fact
05:16 they were tighter at the back than…
05:19 Oh, sorry, two seconds.
05:21 Hello?
05:22 Oh hello my lawyer, you don't want me to do that joke, ok.
05:26 It was Chelsea's first title in 50 years and was achieved away to Bolton in late April
05:31 thanks to, fittingly, a brace from Frank Lampard.
05:34 The feeling at the time was that with this sort of team, having this sort of manager
05:37 and that sort of financial clout, that next season was probably just a foregone conclusion
05:41 and lo and behold, let me check, ah yes it was.
05:47 It says an awful lot about the teams currently occupying our top three spots here that this
05:51 Arsenal side, who no other team beat across an entire season, are somehow only sitting
05:57 in fourth.
05:58 Now immortalised as the Invincibles, they did something that no side had managed since
06:04 Preston in 1889, the year the drinking straw was invented.
06:09 Astoundingly, they went into 2004 somehow trailing Manchester United but a mid-January
06:14 2-0 win at Aston Villa the day after United had suffered a shock defeat to Wolves moved
06:19 them triumphantly to the top of the table and there they stayed.
06:22 Thierry Henry managed 30 goals which obviously helped but in truth this 11 point winning
06:27 margin was enabled more by the perfect balance of beauty and guile afforded by the squad
06:32 as a whole.
06:33 And just to make the perfect season even more perfecter, to think it is a word, they won
06:39 the league of all places at White Hart Lane.
06:41 3.
06:42 Liverpool 2020
06:43 Arguably one of the most imperious and dominant title wins in the history of English football,
06:48 Liverpool finished the season 18 points ahead of second place Manchester City but 33 points
06:54 ahead of Manchester United in third.
06:56 And all this despite the 2019/2020 season being disrupted by… well you remember the
07:03 Zoom calls, the sourdough, the hand sanitiser, let's not relive all that now.
07:08 In fact before that whole carry on started they were an eye-watering 25 points ahead
07:12 of Manchester City and had won 27 times after 29 games which is frankly ridiculous.
07:20 Their nearest challengers battering them 4-0 at the restart did nothing but deny them a
07:24 triple figure points haul finishing on 99.
07:28 But I mean it's just typical though isn't it, you wait 30 years for a league title and
07:32 not only does it happen without you kicking a ball after Chelsea defeat Man City but it
07:36 happens also at a time when you're technically not even allowed within 2 metres of your own
07:40 dad.
07:41 2.
07:42 Manchester United 2000
07:43 Now I'm not sure if they've ever mentioned it but the 1998/1999 season was a pretty big
07:51 deal for Manchester United on account of them winning a domestic and European treble.
07:55 But whereas they were just one point clear of Arsenal that year, they followed up in
07:59 1999/2000 with an 18 point winning margin.
08:04 A 1-0 victory over Middlesbrough in January moved the Red Devils into first place and
08:08 they remained there for the entire remainder of the season, losing just one of their final
08:13 18 fixtures.
08:14 They wrapped up their 6th and easily most convincing Premier League title with a 3-1
08:19 win away to Southampton but just, oh I'm pretty impressed here Adam but is there anything
08:24 you can say to somehow make this more of an achievement?
08:27 Well yeah it's funny you should ask that actually because I can.
08:30 They had Mark Bosnichan goal and this was the Massimo Ta'ivi season.
08:35 Wow wow wow wow wow.
08:37 1.
08:38 Manchester City 2018
08:41 Not to sound like Dr Evil here but 100 points.
08:45 That is over 2.6 points per game.
08:49 Second place Manchester United's 81 point haul would have been enough to actually win
08:54 them the league in previous seasons but still left them 19 points adrift here.
09:00 Just to really hammer this home, you would have to have given them another 7 games all
09:05 of which they'd need to win for them to catch City.
09:09 That is ridiculous.
09:11 And they broke all kinds of records that season as well.
09:14 Most away points at 50, most wins at 32, most away wins at 16, most goals at 106, biggest
09:22 goal difference at +79, most consecutive wins at 18, most consecutive away wins at 11 and
09:29 the joint earliest Premier League title win with 5 games to spare.
09:35 Aguero, Sterling, Jesus and Sane all struck double figures and even Fernandinho, a man
09:41 whose name translates from Portuguese as "I just pass it sideways, yes boss" got 5.
09:47 Now technically they secured the title when Manchester United suffered a shock home defeat
09:51 to West Brom but in truth it was over as a contest when they batted Watford 6-0 away
09:56 and went to the top of the table in only the 5th game of the season.
10:01 That is, plain and simple, how you do it.
10:05 And that's it, that's the video, thank you so very much for watching and making it all
10:08 the way till the end.
10:09 Somebody's keen.
10:10 While you're here, please do consider subscribing to the 442 YouTube channel, we've got loads
10:14 of awesome football content dropping all through the week as well as an amazing library of
10:18 documentaries, player interviews and performance guides as well.
10:22 Until next time though, thank you once again for watching, I do hope you enjoyed yourself
10:26 and I'll see you soon.
10:27 Goodbye!
10:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]