1989–90 Football League First Division

The 1989–90 season was the 91st completed season of The Football League.

Football League First Division

Season	1989–90
Champions	Liverpool 18th English title
Relegated	Sheffield Wednesday Charlton Athletic Millwall
European Cup Winners' Cup	Manchester United
UEFA Cup	Aston Villa
Matches played	380
Goals scored	986 (2.59 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gary Lineker (24 goals)[1]
Biggest home win	Liverpool 9–0 Crystal Palace (12 September 1989)
Biggest away win	Coventry City 1–6 Liverpool (5 May 1990)
Highest scoring	Liverpool 9–0 Crystal Palace (12 September 1989) Southampton 6–3 Luton Town (25 November 1989)
← 1988–89 1990–91 →

Overview

Season summary

Liverpool overhauled a greatly improved Aston Villa side to win their 18th league championship trophy and their fifth major trophy in as many seasons under Kenny Dalglish’s management. Having won their 18th title overall, and their 11th in 17 season, this title turned out to mark the end of their domestic dominance of English football in the 1970s and 1980s - they would not win the title again until the 2019–20 Premier League season, 30 years later.^[a] Gary Lineker’s arrival at Tottenham Hotspur saw the North Londoners occupy third place after a season of improvement. Defending champions Arsenal finished fourth, while newly promoted Chelsea finished an impressive fifth. Everton briefly topped the league in late autumn but were unable to maintain their title challenge into the second half of the season and finished sixth. Seventh placed Southampton enjoyed their highest finish for five years, while Wimbledon continued to thrive on limited resources and low crowds to finish eighth.

Nottingham Forest won the League Cup for the second successive season, but finished ninth in the league one year, having finished third during the previous two seasons.

Manchester United's season began well with a 4–1 win over defending champions Arsenal, but they were soon struggling in the league and finished a disappointing 13th in a season dominated by the collapse of Michael Knighton's takeover bid and continued calls from the fans for manager Alex Ferguson to be sacked. The season ended on a high note with a win over Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final - the club's first major trophy under Ferguson's management.

Newly promoted Manchester City secured survival back in the First Division with a 14th-place finish, having replaced Mel Machin as manager with Howard Kendall during the first half of the season.

Luton Town stayed up on goal difference at the expense of Sheffield Wednesday, while Charlton’s four-year spell in the First Division came to an end at the beginning of May. Millwall were rooted to the bottom of the division despite briefly topping the league in September, as they won just two more games in the league after their brief lead of the table vanished.

After the generally good behaviour of England fans at the World Cup in Italy, the ban on English clubs in European competitions was lifted for the 1990–91 season. Liverpool, who were present at the Heysel disaster which had prompted the ban in 1985, were denied a place in the European Cup, but runners-up Aston Villa entered the UEFA Cup and FA Cup winners Manchester United entered the European Cup Winners' Cup.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Manchester City	Mel Machin	Sacked	27 November 1989[2]	19th	Tony Book (caretaker)	29 November 1989
Queens Park Rangers	Trevor Francis	Sacked	27 November 1989[2]	18th	Don Howe	29 November 1989
Manchester City	Tony Book	End of caretaker spell	5 December 1989	20th	Howard Kendall	6 December 1989[3]
Luton Town	Ray Harford	Mutual consent	3 January 1990[4]	19th	Jim Ryan	11 January 1990[5]
Millwall	John Docherty	Sacked	13 February 1990[2]	20th	Bob Pearson	14 February 1990[6]
	Bob Pearson	Demoted to chief scout	16 April 1990	20th	Bruce Rioch	16 April 1990[7]

Personnel and kits

Background

First Division maps

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Charlton

Chelsea

Crystal Palace

Coventry City

Derby County

Everton

Liverpool

Luton Town

Manchester City

Manchester United

Millwall

Norwich City

Nottingham Forest

QPR

Sheffield Wednesday

Southampton

Tottenham

Wimbledon

Locations of the Football League First Division 1989–90 teams

Arsenal

Charlton Athletic

Chelsea

Crystal Palace

Millwall

Tottenham Hotspur

Queens Park Rangers

Wimbledon

Locations of the 8 Football League First Division London teams 1989–90, the largest contingent ever from London

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Liverpool (C)	38	23	10	5	78	37	+41	79	Disqualified from the European Cup[b]
2	Aston Villa	38	21	7	10	57	38	+19	70	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
3	Tottenham Hotspur	38	19	6	13	59	47	+12	63
4	Arsenal	38	18	8	12	54	38	+16	62
5	Chelsea	38	16	12	10	58	50	+8	60
6	Everton	38	17	8	13	57	46	+11	59
7	Southampton	38	15	10	13	71	63	+8	55
8	Wimbledon	38	13	16	9	47	40	+7	55
9	Nottingham Forest	38	15	9	14	55	47	+8	54
10	Norwich City	38	13	14	11	44	42	+2	53
11	Queens Park Rangers	38	13	11	14	45	44	+1	50
12	Coventry City	38	14	7	17	39	59	−20	49
13	Manchester United	38	13	9	16	46	47	−1	48	Qualification for the European Cup Winners' Cup first round[c]
14	Manchester City	38	12	12	14	43	52	−9	48
15	Crystal Palace	38	13	9	16	42	66	−24	48
16	Derby County	38	13	7	18	43	40	+3	46
17	Luton Town	38	10	13	15	43	57	−14	43
18	Sheffield Wednesday (R)	38	11	10	17	35	51	−16	43	Relegation to the Second Division
19	Charlton Athletic (R)	38	7	9	22	31	57	−26	30
20	Millwall (R)	38	5	11	22	39	65	−26	26

Source: World Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results table

Home \ Away	ARS	AST	CHA	CHE	COV	CRY	DER	EVE	LIV	LUT	MCI	MUN	MIL	NWC	NOT	QPR	SHW	SOU	TOT	WDN
Arsenal		0–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	4–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	3–2	4–0	1–0	2–0	4–3	3–0	3–0	5–0	2–1	1–0	0–0
Aston Villa	2–1		1–1	1–0	4–1	2–1	1–0	6–2	1–1	2–0	1–2	3–0	1–0	3–3	2–1	1–3	1–0	2–1	2–0	0–3
Charlton Athletic	0–0	0–2		3–0	1–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	0–4	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	2–4	1–3	1–2
Chelsea	0–0	0–3	3–1		1–0	3–0	1–1	2–1	2–5	1–0	1–1	1–0	4–0	0–0	2–2	1–1	4–0	2–2	1–2	2–5
Coventry City	0–1	2–0	1–2	3–2		1–0	1–0	2–0	1–6	1–0	2–1	1–4	3–1	1–0	0–2	1–1	1–4	1–0	0–0	2–1
Crystal Palace	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–1		1–1	2–1	0–2	1–1	2–2	1–1	4–3	1–0	1–0	0–3	1–1	3–1	2–3	2–0
Derby County	1–3	0–1	2–0	0–1	4–1	3–1		0–1	0–3	2–3	6–0	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	2–1	1–1
Everton	3–0	3–3	2–1	0–1	2–0	4–0	2–1		1–3	2–1	0–0	3–2	2–1	3–1	4–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	2–1	1–1
Liverpool	2–1	1–1	1–0	4–1	0–1	9–0	1–0	2–1		2–2	3–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	2–2	2–1	2–1	3–2	1–0	2–1
Luton Town	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–3	3–2	1–0	1–0	2–2	0–0		1–1	1–3	2–1	4–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–1
Manchester City	1–1	0–2	1–2	1–1	1–0	3–0	0–1	1–0	1–4	3–1		5–1	2–0	1–0	0–3	1–0	2–1	1–2	1–1	1–1
Manchester United	4–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	3–0	1–2	1–2	0–0	1–2	4–1	1–1		5–1	0–2	1–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	0–1	0–0
Millwall	1–2	2–0	2–2	1–3	4–1	1–2	1–1	1–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–2		0–1	1–0	1–2	2–0	2–2	0–1	0–0
Norwich City	2–2	2–0	0–0	2–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–1	2–0	1–1		1–1	0–0	2–1	4–4	2–2	0–1
Nottingham Forest	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–4	3–1	2–1	1–0	2–2	3–0	1–0	4–0	3–1	0–1		2–2	0–1	2–0	1–3	0–1
Queens Park Rangers	2–0	1–1	0–1	4–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	3–2	0–0	1–3	1–2	0–0	2–1	2–0		1–0	1–4	3–1	2–3
Sheffield Wednesday	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–1	0–0	2–2	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–1	0–2	0–3	2–0		0–1	2–4	0–1
Southampton	1–0	2–1	3–2	2–3	3–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	4–1	6–3	2–1	0–2	1–2	4–1	2–0	0–2	2–2		1–1	2–2
Tottenham Hotspur	2–1	0–2	3–0	1–4	3–2	0–1	1–2	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	4–0	2–3	3–2	3–0	2–1		0–1
Wimbledon	1–0	0–2	3–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	3–1	1–2	1–2	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–1	1–3	0–0	1–1	3–3	1–0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Individual awards

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[8]
1	Gary Lineker	Tottenham Hotspur	24
2	John Barnes	Liverpool	22
3	Kerry Dixon	Chelsea	20
	Matt Le Tissier	Southampton
5	David Platt	Aston Villa	19
6	Ian Rush	Liverpool	18
	Rod Wallace	Southampton
8	David Hirst	Sheffield Wednesday	14
	Kevin Wilson	Chelsea
10	Tony Cottee	Everton	13
	Mark Hughes	Manchester United

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Mark Hughes	Manchester United	Millwall	5–1 (H)	16 September 1989
Trevor Francis	Queens Park Rangers	Aston Villa	3–1 (A)	23 September 1989
Gary Lineker	Tottenham Hotspur	Queens Park Rangers	3–2 (H)	30 September 1989
Gary Lineker	Tottenham Hotspur	Norwich City	4–0 (H)	4 February 1990
Ronny Rosenthal	Liverpool	Charlton Athletic	4–0 (A)	11 April 1990
John Barnes	Liverpool	Coventry City	6–1 (A)	5 May 1990
Kerry Dixon	Chelsea	Millwall	3–1 (A)	5 May 1990	[9]

Note: (H) – Home; (A) – Away

See also

• 1989–90 in English football

Notes

1. Liverpool would not win the league again for thirty years after this season, as rivals Manchester United came to dominate domestic football, winning thirteen titles between 1993 and 2013, and surpassing Liverpool's record for domestic league titles. Liverpool would, however, win two UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA Europa League and one FIFA Club World Cup, in addition to a number of domestic cup competitions in the interim.
2. Liverpool were banned by UEFA from its competitions from the season 1985–86 on for 10 years, because of the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, involving Liverpool fans. The ban was eventually lifted for the 1991–92 season.
3. Manchester United qualified for the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup as the 1989–90 FA Cup winners.