2001–02 FA Premier League

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The 2001–02 FA Premier League (known as the FA Barclaycard Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the tenth season of the competition. It began with a new sponsor, Barclaycard, and was titled the FA Barclaycard Premiership, replacing the previous sponsor, Carling. The title race turned into a battle among four sides – Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle United.

Arsenal clinched the title on 8 May 2002 after a convincing win against Manchester United at Old Trafford, in the penultimate game of the season. This new attacking Arsenal side had won the FA Cup five days before and made history by accomplishing their third double, their second under the reign of Arsène Wenger, who showed his commitment by signing a new four-year deal with Arsenal.

The season started on 18 August 2001 and ended on 11 May 2002.

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At the start of 2002 the title race was wide open, with the likes of Newcastle United and Leeds United contesting at the top of the table along with the usual likes of Arsenal and Manchester United. Newcastle, after back-to-back away wins at Arsenal and Leeds during the Christmas period, confirmed themselves as genuine title challengers and led the league at the turn of the year. Leeds had topped the table at Christmas prior to losing at Elland Road to Newcastle.

Despite being top of the table at the start of December – eleven points clear of Manchester United – Liverpool underwent a severe slump, falling to fifth place, five points behind United. Would-be contenders Chelsea, Newcastle United and Leeds United had by this point disappeared into the chasing pack.

January saw Liverpool travelling to both Highbury and Old Trafford in the space of a fortnight. Liverpool's Danny Murphy scored a late winner to give the Merseyside club all three points against United, and John Arne Riise then salvaged a point for Liverpool against Arsenal, allowing Manchester United to top the table for the first time that season.

In March, Arsenal were installed as strong favourites for the Premiership title after Liverpool's defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal's April triumph against Bolton Wanderers brought them to within three points of a second Premier League title under Arsène Wenger.

Fittingly, the Premiership title would be decided at Old Trafford as Arsenal and Manchester United faced one another in a decisive encounter. Arsenal only required a draw to guarantee their second title in five seasons to go with their FA Cup victory against London rivals Chelsea four days previously; United had to win to take the title race to the last day. In the end, Arsenal emerged victorious as their record signing Sylvain Wiltord scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal was confirmed Premiership champions with a game to spare. Manchester United's disappointment was compounded by Liverpool leapfrogging them into second place by virtue of their 4–3 victory against Blackburn Rovers.

On the final day of the season Liverpool confirmed second place, and in doing so, gaining automatic qualification to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, by thrashing Ipswich Town 5–0 at Anfield. Arsenal rounded off their successful league campaign in style, beating Everton 4–3 at Highbury. Manchester United limped to a poor draw against Charlton Athletic, completing a disappointing campaign for the deposed league champions, the first time since the Premiership had been formed that they had finished out of the top two places and they were required to play in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League the following season.

Newcastle joined Manchester United in those Champions League qualifying rounds by finishing in fourth, whilst a poor run of results at the beginning of the year saw Leeds United's title and Champions League hopes crumble, they were to finish five points adrift of Newcastle in fifth, and would be joined in the UEFA Cup by Chelsea, whose inconsistent form also put pay to their top four aspirations. Leeds controversially sacked their manager David O'Leary after the season concluded.

For the first time in the history of the Premier League, all three promoted teams avoided relegation – Fulham, Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn and Bolton spent eleven years in the Premier League, before they were both relegated in 2011–12; coincidentally, in that same season, the three teams promoted from the 2010–11 Football League Championship also stayed up. Fulham spent thirteen years in the top flight before their relegation in 2013–14.

Fulham had splashed out £34 million on new players during the close season, with their owner Mohamed Al-Fayed being one of the wealthiest benefactors in English football. He even boasted that they would win the Premiership title in 2001–02, and most pundits tipped Fulham, managed by former French international Jean Tigana, to push for a place in Europe. However, Fulham finished thirteenth, 47 points away from Arsenal.

Bolton Wanderers went top of the Premiership after winning their first three fixtures of the season, causing an upset by beating Gérard Houllier's Liverpool in the latter stage of the game. Manager Sam Allardyce was boasting that his side were good enough to win their first ever league title, but Bolton's league form slumped after the first two months of the season and they finished 16th place – their survival confirmed in the penultimate game of the season.

Blackburn Rovers were the most successful of the promoted sides. Graeme Souness' men beat Tottenham Hotspur 2–1 in the League Cup final to lift the trophy for the first time, and then climbed from 18th place in the Premiership in late February to finish in a secure 10th place – higher than any other newly promoted team that season. Blackburn secured a UEFA Cup place for 2002–03.

Leicester City was the first team officially relegated from the Premiership, finishing bottom of table with just five Premiership wins in their last season at 111-year-old Filbert Street before relocation to the new 32 000-seat Walkers Stadium. The club went through the regime of two managers during the season – Peter Taylor was replaced by Dave Bassett in early October. Under Bassett, the Foxes briefly climbed out of the relegation zone but a 16-match winless streak including six straight defeats between late January and the beginning of March ultimately sealed their fate. After relegation was confirmed at the beginning of April, Bassett joined the club's board to be replaced by former assistant manager Micky Adams.

Next to go down were Derby County, who had been promoted alongside Leicester six years earlier. Manager Jim Smith resigned in early October to be replaced by assistant manager Colin Todd, who was sacked three months later after Derby were knocked out of the FA Cup by Division Three strugglers Bristol Rovers. In his place came John Gregory, less than a week after he had resigned from Aston Villa but despite his best efforts, he was unable to prevent their relegation, which was confirmed with two games to spare following a 2–0 loss away at Liverpool.

The last team to be relegated were Ipswich Town, who had qualified for the UEFA Cup and earned manager George Burley the Manager of the Year award the previous season after finishing fifth. Ipswich made a terrible start to the season, winning just one of their first 18 Premiership games. They then went on a strong run of form, winning seven out of eight games, which looked to have secured their Premiership survival, but they then suffered another slump which they were unable to halt. Coincidentally, like Derby, they too were sent down by losing away at Liverpool, who thrashed them 5–0 on the final day. Bizarrely, despite their relegation, Ipswich's disciplinary record this season was the best of the teams that hadn't qualified for European competition via league position, thus giving them a second successive UEFA Cup campaign for the following season after England received one of the three additional slots awarded through the UEFA Fair Play ranking.

Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the First Division. The promoted teams were Fulham, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers, returning after a top flight absence of thirty-three, two and three years respectively. This was also Fulham's first season in the Premier League. The teams replaced Manchester City, Coventry City, and Bradford City, who were relegated to the First Division after their presences of one, thirty-four and two-year top flight spells respectively. As of the 2023-24 season, this is the most recent Premier League season not to feature the former of the three relegated teams.

London

Aston Villa

Blackburn Rovers

Bolton Wanderers

Derby County

Everton

Ipswich Town

Leeds United

Leicester City

Liverpool

Manchester United

Middlesbrough

Newcastle United

Southampton

Sunderland

London teams:
Arsenal
Charlton Athletic
Chelsea
Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United

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Locations of the 2001–02 Premier League teams

Arsenal

Charlton Athletic

Chelsea

Fulham

Tottenham
Hotspur

West Ham United

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Greater London Premier League football clubs

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	Arsène Wenger	Tony Adams	Nike	Dreamcast/Sega1
Aston Villa	Graham Taylor	Paul Merson	Diadora	NTL
Blackburn Rovers	Graeme Souness	Garry Flitcroft	Kappa	Time
Bolton Wanderers	Sam Allardyce	Guðni Bergsson	Reebok	Reebok
Charlton Athletic	Alan Curbishley	Mark Kinsella	Le Coq Sportif	Redbus
Chelsea	Claudio Ranieri	Marcel Desailly	Umbro	Fly Emirates
Derby County	John Gregory	Darryl Powell	Erreà	Pedigree
Everton	David Moyes	David Weir	Puma	One 2 One
Fulham	Jean Tigana	Andy Melville	Adidas	Pizza Hut
Ipswich Town	George Burley	Matt Holland	Punch	TXU Energi
Leeds United	David O'Leary	Rio Ferdinand	Nike	Strongbow
Leicester City	Micky Adams	Matt Elliott	Le Coq Sportif	LG
Liverpool	Gérard Houllier	Jamie Redknapp	Reebok	Carlsberg
Manchester United	Sir Alex Ferguson	Roy Keane	Umbro	Vodafone
Middlesbrough	Steve McClaren	Paul Ince	Erreà	BT Cellnet
Newcastle United	Bobby Robson	Alan Shearer	Adidas	NTL
Southampton	Gordon Strachan	Matt Le Tissier	Saints	Friends Provident
Sunderland	Peter Reid	Michael Gray	Nike	Reg Vardy
Tottenham Hotspur	Glenn Hoddle	Tim Sherwood	Adidas	Holsten
West Ham United	Glenn Roeder	Steve Lomas	Fila	Dr. Martens

• ¹ The Dreamcast logo appeared on Arsenal's home and third shirts while the Sega logo appeared on their away shirt

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Middlesbrough	Bryan Robson Terry Venables	Mutual consent	5 June 2001[3]	Pre-season	Steve McClaren	12 June 2001[4]
West Ham United	Glenn Roeder (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell	14 June 2001[5]		Glenn Roeder	14 June 2001
Leicester City	Peter Taylor	Sacked	30 September 2001	20th	Dave Bassett	10 October 2001
Southampton	Stuart Gray		1 October 2001	12th	Gordon Strachan	1 October 2001
Derby County	Jim Smith	Resigned	7 October 2001	19th	Colin Todd	8 October 2001[6]
	Colin Todd	Sacked	14 January 2002[7]	19th	John Gregory	30 January 2002
Aston Villa	John Gregory	Resigned	24 January 2002[8]	7th	Graham Taylor	5 February 2002
Everton	Walter Smith	Sacked	10 March 2002	16th	David Moyes	16 March 2002
Leicester City	Dave Bassett	Promoted to director of football position	6 April 2002	20th	Micky Adams	7 April 2002[9]

• First goal of the season:
  Kevin Nolan for Bolton Wanderers against Leicester City (18 August 2001)
• Last goal of the season:
  Paul Telfer for Southampton against Newcastle United (11 May 2002)

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	24
2	Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	Chelsea	23
	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United
	Alan Shearer	Newcastle United
5	Michael Owen	Liverpool	19
6	Ole Gunnar Solskjær	Manchester United	17
7	Robbie Fowler	Liverpool Leeds United	15
8	Eiður Guðjohnsen	Chelsea	14
	Marians Pahars	Southampton
10	Andy Cole	Manchester United Blackburn Rovers	13

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Robbie Fowler	Liverpool	Leicester City	4–1 (A)	20 October 2001	[10]
Paul Kitson	West Ham United	Charlton Athletic	4–4 (A)	19 November 2001	[11]
Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United	Southampton	6–1 (H)	22 December 2001	[12]
Robbie Fowler	Leeds United	Bolton Wanderers	3–0 (A)	26 December 2001	[13]
Ole Gunnar Solskjær	Manchester United	Bolton Wanderers	4–0 (A)	29 January 2002	[14]
Jimmy Floyd HasselbainkP	Chelsea	Tottenham Hotspur	4–0 (H)	13 March 2002	[15]
Fredi Bobic	Bolton Wanderers	Ipswich Town	4–1 (H)	6 April 2002	[16]

Note: ^P Player scored a perfect hat-trick; (H) – Home; (A) – Away

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Sam Allardyce	Bolton Wanderers	Louis Saha	Fulham
September	John Gregory	Aston Villa	Juan Sebastián Verón	Manchester United
October	Glenn Hoddle	Tottenham Hotspur	Rio Ferdinand	Leeds United
November	Phil Thompson	Liverpool	Danny Murphy	Liverpool
December	Bobby Robson	Newcastle United	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United
January	Gordon Strachan	Southampton	Marcus Bent	Ipswich Town
February	Bobby Robson	Newcastle United	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United
March	Gérard Houllier Phil Thompson	Liverpool	Dennis Bergkamp	Arsenal
April	Arsène Wenger	Arsenal	Freddie Ljungberg

Award	Winner	Club
Premier League Manager of the Season	Arsène Wenger	Arsenal
Premier League Player of the Season	Freddie Ljungberg	Arsenal
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United
PFA Young Player of the Year	Craig Bellamy	Newcastle United
FWA Footballer of the Year	Robert Pires	Arsenal

PFA Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Shay Given (Newcastle United)
Defence	Steve Finnan (Fulham)			Rio Ferdinand (Leeds United)			Sami Hyypiä (Liverpool)			Wayne Bridge (Southampton)
Midfield	Robert Pires (Arsenal)			Roy Keane (Manchester United)			Patrick Vieira (Arsenal)			Ryan Giggs (Manchester United)
Attack	Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United)						Thierry Henry (Arsenal)

• 2001–02 in English football

• 2001–02 FA Premier League Season at RSSSF
• 2001/02 FA Premier League Review