1999–2000 FA Premier League

The 1999–2000 FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth season of the FA Premier League, and Manchester United secured their sixth Premiership title. Like the previous season, they lost only three league games all season. Unlike in the 1998–99 season, they won by a comfortable margin – 18 points as opposed to a single point.

FA Premier League

Season	1999–2000
Dates	7 August 1999 – 14 May 2000
Champions	Manchester United 6th Premier League title 13th English title
Relegated	Wimbledon Sheffield Wednesday Watford
Champions League	Manchester United Arsenal Leeds United
UEFA Cup	Liverpool Chelsea Leicester City
Intertoto Cup	Aston Villa Bradford City
Matches played	380
Goals scored	1,060 (2.79 per match)
Top goalscorer	Kevin Phillips (30 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Ed de Goey (16 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Newcastle United 8–0 Sheffield Wednesday (19 September 1999)
Biggest away win	Derby County 0–5 Sunderland (18 September 1999)
Highest scoring	West Ham United 5–4 Bradford City (12 February 2000) Tottenham Hotspur 7–2 Southampton (11 March 2000)
Longest winning run	11 games[1] Manchester United
Longest unbeaten run	16 games[1] Chelsea
Longest winless run	11 games[1] Sunderland Watford
Longest losing run	8 games[1] Wimbledon
Highest attendance	61,619 Manchester United 3–1 Derby County (11 March 2000)
Lowest attendance	8,248 Wimbledon 0–2 Sheffield Wednesday (12 April 2000)
Total attendance	11,677,585[2]
Average attendance	30,730[2]
← 1998–99 2000–01 →

Manchester United lost their defence of the European Cup following a 3–2 defeat against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals. The club had withdrawn from the 1999–2000 FA Cup to participate in the FIFA World Club Championship at the request of the FA who wanted Manchester United to compete to support England's bid to host the World Cup. Chelsea won the last FA Cup held at Wembley Stadium before its redevelopment. The League Cup final was won by Leicester City, for the second time in four seasons. In Europe, Leeds United reached the UEFA Cup semi-final and Arsenal were on the losing side to Galatasaray in the UEFA Cup final.

Only one newly promoted team suffered relegation: Watford, who finished in last place, and achieved a record Premiership low of just 24 points (a record since broken by Sunderland (twice), Derby County, Aston Villa, Huddersfield Town, Norwich City (twice), Sheffield United (twice), and themselves), despite a decent start to their campaign which saw them beat both Liverpool (at Anfield) and Chelsea. The most successful promoted team was Sunderland, who finished seventh in the final table and spent much of the season pushing for a place in European competition. Bradford City, back in the top division for the first time since 1922, secured their Premiership survival on the last day of the season with a 1–0 win over Liverpool. The result meant that Liverpool lost out on a Champions League place, and Wimbledon were relegated after 14 years of top-division football. Second-from-bottom Sheffield Wednesday were relegated in their penultimate game of the season, having spent 15 of the previous 16 seasons in the top division. Wednesday's season included an 8–0 defeat at Newcastle. Amazingly Coventry City went all season without an away win but still managed to secure 14th place due to an impressive home record which saw them win 12 out of their 19 matches.

As well as Premiership champions Manchester United and runners-up Arsenal, third placed Leeds United qualified for the 2000–01 Champions League. UEFA Cup places went to fourth placed Liverpool, F.A Cup winners Chelsea, and League Cup winners Leicester City.

Promoted to the Premiership for 2000–01 were First Division champions Charlton Athletic, runners-up Manchester City and playoff winners Ipswich Town. For the first time since the formation of the Premiership, all of the promoted teams had been members of the Premiership before.

Teams

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 Sunderland, Bradford City and Watford, who returned after absences of two, seventy-seven and eleven years respectively. This was also both Bradford City and Watford's first season in the Premier League. They replaced Charlton Athletic, Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest, who were relegated to the First Division. Charlton Athletic and Nottingham Forest were immediately relegated after a season's presence, while Blackburn Rovers' seven-year top flight spell came to an end.

Stadiums and locations

London

Aston Villa

Bradford City

Coventry City

Derby County

Everton

Leeds United

Leicester City

Liverpool

Manchester United

Middlesbrough

Newcastle United

Sheffield Wednesday

Southampton

Sunderland

Watford

London teams:
Arsenal
Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wimbledon

Locations of the 1999–2000 Premier League teams

Arsenal

Chelsea

Tottenham
Hotspur

West Ham United

Wimbledon

Greater London Premier League football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Arsenal	London (Highbury)	Arsenal Stadium	38,419
Aston Villa	Birmingham	Villa Park	42,573
Bradford City	Bradford	Valley Parade	25,136
Chelsea	London (Fulham)	Stamford Bridge	42,055
Coventry City	Coventry	Highfield Road	23,489
Derby County	Derby	Pride Park Stadium	33,597
Everton	Liverpool (Walton)	Goodison Park	40,569
Leeds United	Leeds	Elland Road	40,242
Leicester City	Leicester	Filbert Street	22,000
Liverpool	Liverpool (Anfield)	Anfield	45,522
Manchester United	Manchester	Old Trafford	68,174
Middlesbrough	Middlesbrough	Riverside Stadium	35,049
Newcastle United	Newcastle upon Tyne	St James' Park	52,387
Sheffield Wednesday	Sheffield	Hillsborough Stadium	39,732
Southampton	Southampton	The Dell	15,200
Sunderland	Sunderland	Stadium of Light	49,000
Tottenham Hotspur	London (Tottenham)	White Hart Lane	36,240
Watford	Watford	Vicarage Road	19,920
West Ham United	London (Upton Park)	Boleyn Ground	35,647
Wimbledon	London (Selhurst)	Selhurst Park[a]	26,074

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

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	Arsène Wenger	Tony Adams	Nike	Dreamcast/Sega
Aston Villa	John Gregory	Gareth Southgate	Reebok	LDV Vans
Bradford City	Paul Jewell	Stuart McCall	Asics	JCT600
Chelsea	Gianluca Vialli	Dennis Wise	Umbro	Autoglass
Coventry City	Gordon Strachan	Gary McAllister	CCFC Garments	Subaru
Derby County	Jim Smith	Darryl Powell	Puma	EDS
Everton	Walter Smith	Dave Watson	Umbro	One2One
Leeds United	David O'Leary	Lucas Radebe	Puma	Packard Bell
Leicester City	Martin O'Neill	Matt Elliott	Fox Leisure	Walkers Crisps
Liverpool	Gérard Houllier	Jamie Redknapp	Reebok	Carlsberg Group
Manchester United	Sir Alex Ferguson	Roy Keane	Umbro	Sharp
Middlesbrough	Bryan Robson	Paul Ince	Erreà	BT Cellnet
Newcastle United	Bobby Robson	Alan Shearer	Adidas	Newcastle Brown Ale
Sheffield Wednesday	Peter Shreeves (caretaker)	Des Walker	Puma	Sanderson
Southampton	Glenn Hoddle	Matt Le Tissier	Saints	Friends Provident
Sunderland	Peter Reid	Steve Bould	Asics	Reg Vardy
Tottenham Hotspur	George Graham	Sol Campbell	Adidas	Holsten
Watford	Graham Taylor	Rob Page	Le Coq Sportif	Phones4U
West Ham United	Harry Redknapp	Steve Lomas	Fila	Dr. Martens
Wimbledon	Terry Burton	Robbie Earle	Lotto	Tiny

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

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Wimbledon	Joe Kinnear	Resigned	9 June 1999	Pre-season	Egil Olsen	9 June 1999
Newcastle United	Ruud Gullit	Resigned	28 August 1999[3]	19th	Bobby Robson	2 September 1999[4]
Southampton	Dave Jones	Contract terminated	27 January 2000[a]	17th	Glenn Hoddle	28 January 2000
Sheffield Wednesday	Danny Wilson	Sacked	21 March 2000[5]	19th	Peter Shreeves (caretaker)	21 March 2000
Wimbledon	Egil Olsen	Sacked	1 May 2000[6]	18th	Terry Burton	1 May 2000

1. Jones was put on gardening leave on 27 January, with Glenn Hoddle taking over as interim manager. At the end of the season, Jones's contract was terminated, and Hoddle took over the position permanently.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	28	7	3	97	45	+52	91	Qualification for the Champions League first group stage
2	Arsenal	38	22	7	9	73	43	+30	73
3	Leeds United	38	21	6	11	58	43	+15	69	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
4	Liverpool	38	19	10	9	51	30	+21	67	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round[a]
5	Chelsea	38	18	11	9	53	34	+19	65
6	Aston Villa	38	15	13	10	46	35	+11	58	Qualification for the Intertoto Cup third round
7	Sunderland	38	16	10	12	57	56	+1	58
8	Leicester City	38	16	7	15	55	55	0	55	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round[b]
9	West Ham United	38	15	10	13	52	53	−1	55
10	Tottenham Hotspur	38	15	8	15	57	49	+8	53
11	Newcastle United	38	14	10	14	63	54	+9	52
12	Middlesbrough	38	14	10	14	46	52	−6	52
13	Everton	38	12	14	12	59	49	+10	50
14	Coventry City	38	12	8	18	47	54	−7	44
15	Southampton	38	12	8	18	45	62	−17	44
16	Derby County	38	9	11	18	44	57	−13	38
17	Bradford City	38	9	9	20	38	68	−30	36	Qualification for the Intertoto Cup second round
18	Wimbledon (R)	38	7	12	19	46	74	−28	33	Relegation to the Football League First Division
19	Sheffield Wednesday (R)	38	8	7	23	38	70	−32	31
20	Watford (R)	38	6	6	26	35	77	−42	24

Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Chelsea qualified for the UEFA Cup as FA Cup winners.
2. Leicester City qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners.

Results

Home \ Away	ARS	AVL	BRA	CHE	COV	DER	EVE	LEE	LEI	LIV	MUN	MID	NEW	SHW	SOU	SUN	TOT	WAT	WHU	WIM
Arsenal		3–1	2–0	2–1	3–0	2–1	4–1	2–0	2–1	0–1	1–2	5–1	0–0	3–3	3–1	4–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–1
Aston Villa	1–1		1–0	0–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	1–0	2–2	0–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	4–0	2–2	1–1
Bradford City	2–1	1–1		1–1	1–1	4–4	0–0	1–2	3–1	1–0	0–4	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–2	0–4	1–1	3–2	0–3	3–0
Chelsea	2–3	1–0	1–0		2–1	4–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	2–0	5–0	1–1	1–0	3–0	1–1	4–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	3–1
Coventry City	3–2	2–1	4–0	2–2		2–0	1–0	3–4	0–1	0–3	1–2	2–1	4–1	4–1	0–1	3–2	0–1	4–0	1–0	2–0
Derby County	1–2	0–2	0–1	3–1	0–0		1–0	0–1	3–0	0–2	1–2	1–3	0–0	3–3	2–0	0–5	0–1	2–0	1–2	4–0
Everton	0–1	0–0	4–0	1–1	1–1	2–1		4–4	2–2	0–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	4–1	5–0	2–2	4–2	1–0	4–0
Leeds United	0–4	1–2	2–1	0–1	3–0	0–0	1–1		2–1	1–2	0–1	2–0	3–2	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–0	3–1	1–0	4–1
Leicester City	0–3	3–1	3–0	2–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–1		2–2	0–2	2–1	1–2	3–0	2–1	5–2	0–1	1–0	1–3	2–1
Liverpool	2–0	0–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–1	3–1	0–2		2–3	0–0	2–1	4–1	0–0	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	3–1
Manchester United	1–1	3–0	4–0	3–2	3–2	3–1	5–1	2–0	2–0	1–1		1–0	5–1	4–0	3–3	4–0	3–1	4–1	7–1	1–1
Middlesbrough	2–1	0–4	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–4	2–1	0–0	0–3	1–0	3–4		2–2	1–0	3–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–0
Newcastle United	4–2	0–1	2–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	2–2	0–2	2–2	3–0	2–1		8–0	5–0	1–2	2–1	1–0	2–2	3–3
Sheffield Wednesday	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	0–2	0–3	4–0	1–2	0–1	1–0	0–2		0–1	0–2	1–2	2–2	3–1	5–1
Southampton	0–1	2–0	1–0	1–2	0–0	3–3	2–0	0–3	1–2	1–1	1–3	1–1	4–2	2–0		1–2	0–1	2–0	2–1	2–0
Sunderland	0–0	2–1	0–1	4–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–2	2–0	0–2	2–2	1–1	2–2	1–0	2–0		2–1	2–0	1–0	2–1
Tottenham Hotspur	2–1	2–4	1–1	0–1	3–2	1–1	3–2	1–2	2–3	1–0	3–1	2–3	3–1	0–1	7–2	3–1		4–0	0–0	2–0
Watford	2–3	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–3	1–2	1–1	2–3	2–3	1–3	1–1	1–0	3–2	2–3	1–1		1–2	2–3
West Ham United	2–1	1–1	5–4	0–0	5–0	1–1	0–4	0–0	2–1	1–0	2–4	0–1	2–1	4–3	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0		2–1
Wimbledon	1–3	2–2	3–2	0–1	1–1	2–2	0–3	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–2	2–3	2–0	0–2	1–1	1–0	1–1	5–0	2–2

Source: 11v11
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Sunderland's Kevin Phillips was the top scorer, with 30 goals.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Kevin Phillips	Sunderland	30
2	Alan Shearer	Newcastle United	23
3	Dwight Yorke	Manchester United	20
4	Michael Bridges	Leeds United	19
	Andy Cole	Manchester United
6	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	17
7	Paolo Di Canio	West Ham United	16
8	Chris Armstrong	Tottenham Hotspur	14
	Steffen Iversen	Tottenham Hotspur
	Niall Quinn	Sunderland

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Premier League hat-tricks

The 1999–2000 Premier League season would see Everton's Nick Barmby score his one and only hat-trick during his professional career.

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Michael Bridges	Leeds United	Southampton	3–0 (A)	11 August 1999	[7]
Andy Cole4	Manchester United	Newcastle United	5–1 (H)	30 August 1999	[8]
Kevin Phillips	Sunderland	Derby County	5–0 (A)	18 September 1999	[9]
Alan Shearer5	Newcastle United	Sheffield Wednesday	8–0 (H)	19 September 1999	[10]
Nwankwo Kanu	Arsenal	Chelsea	3–2 (A)	23 October 1999	[11]
Marc Overmars	Arsenal	Middlesbrough	5–1 (H)	21 November 1999	[12]
Ole Gunnar Solskjær4 P	Manchester United	Everton	5–1 (H)	4 December 1999	[13]
Nick Barmby	Everton	West Ham United	4–0 (A)	26 February 2000	[14]
Stan Collymore	Leicester City	Sunderland	5–2 (H)	5 March 2000	[15]
Steffen Iversen	Tottenham Hotspur	Southampton	7–2 (H)	11 March 2000	[16]
Dwight Yorke	Manchester United	Derby County	3–1 (H)	11 March 2000	[17]
Paul Scholes	Manchester United	West Ham United	7–1 (H)	1 April 2000	[18]
Dean Windass	Bradford City	Derby County	4–4 (H)	21 April 2000	[19]

Note: ⁵ Player scored 5 goals; ⁴ Player scored 4 goals; ^P Player scored a perfect hat-trick; (H) – Home; (A) – Away

Top assists

Manchester United's David Beckham was the joint top assist provider with 15 assists for the club in the 1999–2000 Premier League season.

Rank	Player	Club	Assists[20]
1	David Beckham	Manchester United	15
	Nolberto Solano	Newcastle United
3	Paolo Di Canio	West Ham United	13
4	Ryan Giggs	Manchester United	12
5	Dennis Bergkamp	Arsenal	9
6	Nick Barmby	Everton	8
	Thierry Henry	Arsenal
	Steffen Iversen	Tottenham Hotspur
	Wim Jonk	Sheffield Wednesday
	Paul Merson	Aston Villa

Awards

Monthly awards

Alex Ferguson was Manager of the Month three times during the 1999–2000 Premier League season, and was later named Manager of the Season.

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Alex Ferguson	Manchester United	Robbie Keane	Coventry City
September	Walter Smith	Everton	Muzzy Izzet	Leicester City
October	Peter Reid	Sunderland	Kevin Phillips	Sunderland
November	Martin O'Neill	Leicester City	Sami Hyypiä	Liverpool
December	Gérard Houllier	Liverpool	Roy Keane	Manchester United
January	Danny Wilson	Sheffield Wednesday	Gareth Southgate	Aston Villa
February	Bobby Robson	Newcastle United	Paul Merson	Aston Villa
March	Alex Ferguson	Manchester United	Dwight Yorke	Manchester United
April		Manchester United	Thierry Henry	Arsenal

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Premier League Manager of the Season	Alex Ferguson	Manchester United
Premier League Player of the Season	Kevin Phillips	Sunderland
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Roy Keane	Manchester United
PFA Young Player of the Year	Harry Kewell	Leeds United
FWA Footballer of the Year	Roy Keane	Manchester United

PFA Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Nigel Martyn (Leeds United)
Defence	Gary Kelly (Leeds United)			Jaap Stam (Manchester United)			Sami Hyypiä (Liverpool)			Ian Harte (Leeds United)
Midfield	David Beckham (Manchester United)			Roy Keane (Manchester United)			Patrick Vieira (Arsenal)			Harry Kewell (Leeds United)
Attack	Andy Cole (Manchester United)						Kevin Phillips (Sunderland)