Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

1994–95 FA Premier League

Football season in England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

The 1994–95 FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the third season of the competition, since its formation in 1992 as the top division of professional football in England. Due to the decision to reduce the number of clubs in the FA Premier League from 22 to 20 starting from the following season, four clubs were to be relegated.

Quick Facts Season, Dates ...
Remove ads

Overview

Summarize
Perspective

Transfers

Just before the start of the season, the English transfer record was broken when Blackburn Rovers paid £5 million for 21-year-old Norwich City striker Chris Sutton. But that record was broken again in January when Manchester United paid £6 million for Newcastle United's Andy Cole, in a deal which also saw £1 million-rated Keith Gillespie move to Newcastle. Other significant transfers before and during the 1994–95 season included: Vinny Samways (Tottenham to Everton, £2 million), David Rocastle (Manchester City to Chelsea, £1.25 million), Jürgen Klinsmann (Monaco to Tottenham Hotspur, £2 million), John Scales (Wimbledon to Liverpool, £3 million) and Paul Kitson (Derby County to Newcastle United, £2.2 million).

Summary

The title was won by Blackburn Rovers, whose last title success was in 1914, and also was Blackburn's first major trophy in 67 years (the last being 1927–28 FA Cup).[3] Kenny Dalglish's side secured the championship on the last day of the season despite losing 2–1 at his former club Liverpool, as Manchester United could only manage a 1–1 draw at West Ham.[4] This meant that Blackburn Rovers qualified for the European Cup for the first time in their history, while Manchester United finished second earning a UEFA Cup place. A single point separated the two sides, who for more than half of the season enjoyed a wide gap in terms of point between themselves and the rest of the league, despite the likes of Nottingham Forest, Liverpool and Newcastle United looking like title contenders during the first three months of the season.

Also qualifying for the UEFA Cup were Nottingham Forest (who finished third in their first season back in the Premier League), Liverpool (who finished fourth and won their fifth League Cup in the club's first full season following the appointment of Roy Evans) and fifth placed Leeds United.

The number of teams in the league for the following year would be reduced to 20. This was to be achieved by increasing the number of teams facing relegation to four, and reducing the number of teams being promoted from Division 1 to two. Ipswich Town were relegated in bottom place after winning just seven league games and conceding 93 goals. Newly promoted Leicester City also went down, winning just six times in the league and never being outside the bottom two after November. Norwich City, who had been in contention for a UEFA Cup place halfway through the season, suffered a nosedive in form during the second half of the season and were relegated just two seasons after being title contenders. The final relegation place on the last day of the season went to Crystal Palace, who still lost 3-2 despite a strong fightback at Newcastle after being 3-0 down.

Controversial incidents

In January 1995, Manchester United's 28-year-old French striker Eric Cantona (then holder of the PFA Players' Player of the Year award) assaulted a Crystal Palace fan who verbally abused him[5] in his team's 1–1 draw at Selhurst Park. Cantona was banned from football for eight months, fined £20,000 and sentenced to 14 days in prison. The prison sentence was later reduced to 120 hours community service on appeal.

Chelsea midfielder Dennis Wise was convicted of criminal damage and assault, relating to a fight with a taxi driver in London. He was given a three-month prison sentence but the conviction and prison sentence were quickly overturned on appeal.

Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson admitted in November 1994 that he was an alcoholic and was also addicted to cocaine and gambling. He underwent a three-month drug rehabilitation programme before being allowed to resume his playing career.

Crystal Palace striker Chris Armstrong failed a drugs test in February 1995 but admitted that he had done wrong and returned to action after just four weeks undergoing rehabilitation. Armstrong was Palace's leading goalscorer in 1994–95, helping them reach the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated back to the First Division just one season after winning promotion.

Arsenal manager George Graham was sacked in February 1995 after nearly nine years in charge, when it was revealed that he had accepted an illegal payment of £425,000 from Norwegian agent Rune Hauge relating to the purchases of Norwegian and Danish players Pål Lydersen and John Jensen three years earlier. Graham was later banned from football for one year by the FA.

Remove ads

Teams

Summarize
Perspective

Twenty-two teams competed in the league – the top nineteen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the First Division. The promoted teams were Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest (both teams returning to the top flight after a season's absence), and Leicester City (returning after a top flight absence of seven years). This was also Leicester City's first season in the Premier League. They replaced Sheffield United, Oldham Athletic and Swindon Town, who were relegated to the First Division after their top flight spells of four, three and one year respectively. This was the final season to be contested by twenty-two teams as all seasons after were contested by twenty teams.

Stadiums and locations

  1. Due to Wimbledon lacking a home stadium, they played their home games at Selhurst Park, which is the home stadium of Crystal Palace.

Personnel and kits

(as of 14 May 1995)

More information Team, Manager ...

Managerial changes

More information Team, Outgoing manager ...
Remove ads

League table

More information Pos, Team ...
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:
  1. Leeds United were rewarded entry to the UEFA Cup through UEFA Fair Play ranking.
  2. Everton qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup winners.

Results

More information Home \ Away, ARS ...
Source: 11v11
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Remove ads

Season statistics

Top scorers

Thumb
Blackburn's Alan Shearer was the top scorer in the 1994–95 Premier League season, with 34 goals.
More information Rank, Player ...

Hat-tricks

Thumb
In addition to his hat-trick, Manchester United's Andy Cole became the first player to score five goals in a Premier League match.
More information Player, For ...
Note: 5 – player scored 5 goals; (H) – Home; (A) – Away

Clean sheets

More information Rank, Player ...

Discipline

Player

Club

  • Most yellow cards: 72[23]
    • Wimbledon
  • Fewest yellow cards: 35[23]
    • Liverpool
  • Most red cards: 8[24]
    • Leicester City
  • Fewest red cards: 0[24]
    • Leeds United
    • Southampton
Remove ads

Awards

Thumb
Tottenham's Jürgen Klinsmann was the inaugural Player of the Month.

Monthly awards

More information Month, Manager of the Month ...

Annual awards

Quick Facts
More information PFA Team of the Year, Goalkeeper ...
Remove ads

Attendances

Manchester United drew the highest average home attendance in the third edition of the Premier League.

More information #, Football club ...
Remove ads

See also

References and notes

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads