FA Premier League 2002-03
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This article describes the FA Premier League 2002-03 season.
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Outline
The 2002-03 season of the FA Premier League ended with Manchester United as champions for the eighth time in 11 years, an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that defending champions Arsenal had led by eight points at the beginning of March. Arsenal, who surrendered their title with a 3-2 home defeat against Leeds United in the penultimate game of the season, had some consolation in the form of a 1-0 win over Southampton in the FA Cup final.
Newcastle United further progressed by finish third in the Premiership and qualifying for the Champions League for the second season in a row. The fourth Champions League place went to Chelsea, who were later purchased for £150million by 36-year-old Russian oil industry tycoon Roman Abramovich. Qualifying for the UEFA Cup were fifth placed Liverpool, sixth placed Blackburn Rovers and FA Cup finalists Southampton. In contention for a place in Europe right up to the last game of the season were Everton, who finish seventh (their highest league finish for eight years) despite being over £30million in debt and being knocked out of the F.A Cup by Shrewsbury Town FC - who were eventually demoted from Division Three to the Conference. Everton's 17-year-old striker Wayne Rooney was the biggest new talent of the season, and became England's youngest ever full international.
Liverpool won the League Cup for the seventh time after beating Manchester United 2-0 at the Millennium Stadium in early March. This was fair compensation for Gerard Houllier's team, who had led the Premiership during the early part of the season but then gone 11 first team games without a win and slipped into ninth place come November.
At the other end of the Premiership, Sunderland finished bottom of the division and were relegated after four successive seasons of top flight football. Their season began badly and manager Peter Reid was sacked in early October, after an eight-season tenure at the club which had seen two promotions to the Premiership as Division One champions as well as two successive seventh place finish. F.A technical director and former Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson was appointed as his replacement. Working under Wilkinson, as assistant manager, was 38-year-old Steve Cotterill - who had resigned as Stoke City manager after just four months in charge, having previously won three promotions in six seasons with Cheltenham Town FC. In early December, Sunderland chairman Bob Murray announced that the club was £25million in debt, but around the same time the team managed a 1-0 home win over Liverpool which suggested that they could avoid relegation. This was their fourth league win of the season - and their last. The nearest Sunderland came to success in 2002-03 was reaching the Fifth Round of the F.A Cup, and on the Premiership scene things went from bad to worse. Wilkinson and Cotterill were sacked in March and replaced by former Republic of Ireland national coach Mick McCarthy, who could only make plans for the future as Sunderland's final 15 Premiership games all ended in defeat and they went down with a record Premiership low of four wins, 21 goals and 19 points. Sunderland later lost their first two games of the 2003-04 Division One campaign, thus recording a second worst of all time record of 17 successive league defeats. The record of 18 successive defeats had been set by Darwen, 110 years earlier.
Next to go down were West Bromwich Albion, who had initially looked promising in the Premiership after winning three successive games in September. But Gary Megson's men managed just three more wins all season and were relegated with 26 points.
The final relegation place from the Premiership in 2002-03 went to West Ham United, who were relegated on the last day of the season despite accumulating 42 Premiership points - more than any other side relegated from the Premiership since the 20-club format was introduced in 1995-96.
A month before the end of the season, manager Glenn Roeder collapsed during a game and had to undergo emergency surgery to remove a brain tumour. Roeder returned to West Ham for the 2003-04 season but was sacked after just two Division One games.
One promotion place to the Premiership at the end of 2002-03 went to a team who had been relegated the season before. Leicester City had overcome £30million debts and a transfer embargo to secure promotion to the Premiership as runners-up in Division One.
The two other promotion places went to teams who had both spent a long time out of top division football. Champions Portsmouth, managed by Harry Redknapp, were crowned runaway champions of Division One after a 15-year exile from the top division. Playoff winners Wolves, who had narrowly missed out three times in the previous eight seasons, won the playoffs after a 3-0 win over Sheffield United at the Millennium Stadium brought top division football back to the Molineux stadium after a 19-year absence which began in 1984. After £50million of investment on players and facilities since 1990, owner Sir Jack Hayward's contribution to the club finally paid off.
Promoted teams
Relegated teams
Final League Table
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P = Games Played; W = Games Won; D = Games Drawn; L = Games Lost; F = Goals For; A = Goals Against; Pts = Points
Top goal scorers
| Scorer | Goals | Team |
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| Ruud van Nistelrooy | 25 | Manchester United F.C. |
| Thierry Henry | 24 | Arsenal F.C. |
| James Beattie | 23 | Southampton F.C. |
| Mark Viduka | 20 | Leeds United F.C. |
| Michael Owen | 19 | Liverpool F.C. |
See also
| FA Premier League seasons | ||
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1992-93 |
1993-94 |
1994-95 |
1995-96 |
1996-97 |
1997-98 |
1998-99 | ||
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League competitions |
Cup competitions | |
| FA Premier League | FA Cup | |
| The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) | England (men) | League Cup |
| Football Conference (Nat, N, S) | FA Community Shield | |
| Northern Premier League (Prem, 1) | (women) | Football League Trophy |
| Southern League (Prem, 1W, 1E) | List of clubs | FA Trophy |
| Isthmian League (Prem, 1, 2) | FA Vase | |
| English football league system | Records | FA NLS Cup |
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