2004–05 FA Premier League

FA Premier League

Season	2004–05
Dates	14 August 2004 – 15 May 2005
Champions	Chelsea 1st Premier League title 2nd English title
Relegated	Crystal Palace Norwich City Southampton
Champions League	Chelsea Arsenal Manchester United Everton Liverpool (as Champions League winners)
UEFA Cup	Bolton Wanderers Middlesbrough
Intertoto Cup	Newcastle United
Matches played	380
Goals scored	975 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Thierry Henry (25 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Petr Čech (24 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Arsenal 7–0 Everton (11 May 2005)
Biggest away win	West Bromwich Albion 0–5 Liverpool (26 December 2004)
Highest scoring	Tottenham Hotspur 4–5 Arsenal (13 November 2004)
Longest winning run	8 games[1] Chelsea
Longest unbeaten run	29 games[1] Chelsea
Longest winless run	15 games[1] West Bromwich Albion
Longest losing run	6 games[1] Bolton Wanderers Tottenham Hotspur
Highest attendance	67,989 Manchester United 2–1 Portsmouth (26 February 2005)
Lowest attendance	16,180 Fulham 1–0 West Bromwich Albion (16 January 2005)
Total attendance	12,882,140
Average attendance	33,900
← 2003–04 2005–06 →

The 2004–05 FA Premier League (known as the FA Barclays Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th season of the Premier League. It began on 14 August 2004 and ended on 15 May 2005. Arsenal were the defending champions after going unbeaten the previous season. Chelsea won the title with a then record 95 points, which was previously set by Manchester United in the 1993–94 season, and later surpassed by Manchester City in the 2017–18 season (100), securing the title with a 2–0 win at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton Wanderers. Chelsea also broke a number of other records during their campaign, most notably breaking the record of most games won in a single Premier League campaign, securing 29 wins in the league in home and away matches, which was later surpassed by themselves in the 2016–17 season.

Arsenal were the favourites to defend their title after finishing the previous season unbeaten, but they also faced competition in the form of regular challengers Manchester United and Chelsea, the latter under the new management of Portuguese José Mourinho, who had just won the UEFA Champions League with Porto. Liverpool also had a new manager in Spaniard Rafael Benítez, who had just won La Liga and the UEFA Cup with Valencia and were expected to challenge for the title too. Another managerial change at a club aiming for the top was at Tottenham Hotspur, who appointed Jacques Santini, who had just led France to the quarter-finals of the 2004 European Championship.

At the other end of the table, amongst those tipped for relegation were Norwich City, Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion, having all just been promoted from the First Division (rebranded this season as the Championship). Everton, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth were also tipped to struggle, the first three finishing just outside the relegation places the previous season and Portsmouth being in their second season.

Arsenal's record-breaking unbeaten streak of 49 games ended on 24 October 2004, when Manchester United beat them 2–0 at Old Trafford.

For the first time since the advent of the Premier League in 1992, no team was relegated before the final day of the season. In each of the last three weekends of the season, the team that was bottom of the table at the start of the weekend finished it outside the drop zone. The final round of the season began with West Bromwich Albion at the bottom, Southampton and Crystal Palace one point ahead and Norwich City a further point ahead, in the last safe spot. West Brom, who had been bottom of the table and eight points from safety on Christmas Day, did their part by beating Portsmouth 2–0. Norwich, the only side to have their fate completely in their own hands, lost 6–0 to Fulham and went down. Southampton took the lead against Manchester United within 10 minutes through a John O'Shea own goal, but ultimately lost the match 2–1 and were also relegated. Crystal Palace, away to Charlton Athletic, were leading 2–1 after 71 minutes, but with eight minutes to go, Jonathan Fortune equalised for Charlton to send their South East London rivals down. Had Palace won they would have stayed up; instead they became the first team to be relegated from the Premier League four times. As a result, West Brom stayed up, becoming the first club in Premier League history to avoid relegation after being bottom of the table at Christmas.

As all four matches ended, cameras focused on West Brom's home ground, The Hawthorns, as confirmation of other results began to filter through. Once the realisation dawned on the players and fans that survival had been achieved, a mass pitch invasion was sparked, with huge celebrations. The Portsmouth fans joined in the celebrations as, through losing, they had "helped" relegate arch-rivals Southampton.

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 Norwich City, West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace, returning to the top flight after an absence of nine, one and six years respectively. The promoted teams replaced Leicester City, Leeds United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, who were relegated to the newly branded Football League Championship. Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers were both relegated after a season's presence, while Leeds United ended their top flight spell of fourteen years.

London

West Midlands

Blackburn Rovers

Bolton Wanderers

Everton

Liverpool

Manchester City

Manchester United

Middlesbrough

Newcastle United

Norwich City

Portsmouth

Southampton

London teams:
Arsenal
Charlton Athletic
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Fulham
Tottenham Hotspur

West Midlands teams:
Aston Villa
Birmingham City
West Bromwich Albion

class=notpageimage|

Locations of the 2004–05 Premier League teams

Arsenal

Charlton Athletic

Chelsea

Crystal Palace

Fulham

Tottenham
Hotspur

class=notpageimage|

Greater London Premier League football clubs

Aston Villa

Birmingham City

West Bromwich Albion

class=notpageimage|

West Midlands Premier League football clubs

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	Arsène Wenger	Patrick Vieira	Nike	O2
Aston Villa	David O'Leary	Olof Mellberg	Hummel	DWS Investments
Birmingham City	Steve Bruce	Kenny Cunningham	Diadora	Flybe
Blackburn Rovers	Mark Hughes	Garry Flitcroft	Lonsdale	HSA
Bolton Wanderers	Sam Allardyce	Jay-Jay Okocha	Reebok	Reebok
Charlton Athletic	Alan Curbishley	Matt Holland	Joma	All:Sports
Chelsea	José Mourinho	John Terry	Umbro	Emirates
Crystal Palace	Iain Dowie	Michael Hughes	Diadora	Churchill
Everton	David Moyes	David Weir	Umbro	Chang
Fulham	Chris Coleman	Lee Clark	Puma	dabs.com
Liverpool	Rafael Benítez	Steven Gerrard	Reebok	Carlsberg
Manchester City	Stuart Pearce	Sylvain Distin	Reebok	Thomas Cook
Manchester United	Alex Ferguson	Roy Keane	Nike	Vodafone
Middlesbrough	Steve McClaren	Gareth Southgate	Erreà	888.com
Newcastle United	Graeme Souness	Alan Shearer	Adidas	Northern Rock
Norwich City	Nigel Worthington	Craig Fleming	Xara	Proton
Portsmouth	Alain Perrin	Arjan De Zeeuw	Pompey Sport	TY
Southampton	Harry Redknapp	Nigel Quashie	Saints	Friends Provident
Tottenham Hotspur	Martin Jol	Ledley King	Kappa	Thomson Holidays
West Bromwich Albion	Bryan Robson	Kevin Campbell	Diadora	T-Mobile

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Liverpool	Gérard Houllier	Mutual consent	24 May 2004[2]	Pre-season	Rafael Benítez	16 June 2004[3]
Chelsea	Claudio Ranieri	Sacked	31 May 2004		José Mourinho	2 June 2004[4]
Tottenham Hotspur	David Pleat (caretaker)	End of caretaker spell	1 June 2004		Jacques Santini	3 June 2004[5]
Southampton	Paul Sturrock	Mutual consent	23 August 2004[6]	10th	Steve Wigley	23 August 2004
Newcastle United	Sir Bobby Robson	Sacked	30 August 2004[7]	17th	Graeme Souness	6 September 2004[8]
Blackburn Rovers	Graeme Souness	Signed by Newcastle United	6 September 2004[8]	19th	Mark Hughes	16 September 2004[9]
West Bromwich Albion	Gary Megson	Sacked	26 October 2004[10]	16th	Bryan Robson	9 November 2004[11]
Tottenham Hotspur	Jacques Santini	Resigned	5 November 2004	11th	Martin Jol	8 November 2004[12]
Portsmouth	Harry Redknapp		24 November 2004[13]	12th	Velimir Zajec	21 December 2004[14]
Southampton	Steve Wigley	Sacked	8 December 2004	18th	Harry Redknapp	21 December 2004[15]
Manchester City	Kevin Keegan	Resigned	11 March 2005[16]	12th	Stuart Pearce (caretaker)	11 March 2005
Portsmouth	Velimir Zajec	Returned to director of football position	7 April 2005	16th	Alain Perrin	7 April 2005[17]
Manchester City	Stuart Pearce (caretaker)	End of caretaker period	12 May 2005[18]	8th	Stuart Pearce	12 May 2005

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	25
2	Andy Johnson	Crystal Palace	21
3	Robert Pires	Arsenal	14
4	Jermain Defoe	Tottenham Hotspur	13
	Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	Middlesbrough	13
	Frank Lampard	Chelsea	13
	Yakubu	Portsmouth	13
8	Andy Cole	Fulham	12
	Peter Crouch	Southampton	12
	Eiður Guðjohnsen	Chelsea	12

Month	Manager of the Month	Player of the Month
August	Arsène Wenger (Arsenal)	José Antonio Reyes (Arsenal)
September	David Moyes (Everton)	Ledley King (Tottenham Hotspur)
October	Harry Redknapp (Portsmouth)	Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace)
November	José Mourinho (Chelsea)	Arjen Robben (Chelsea)
December	Martin Jol (Tottenham Hotspur)	Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
January	José Mourinho (Chelsea)	John Terry (Chelsea)
February	Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)	Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
March	Harry Redknapp (Southampton)	Joe Cole (Chelsea)
April	Stuart Pearce (Manchester City)	Frank Lampard (Chelsea)

The PFA Player's Player of the year award was won by Chelsea captain John Terry.

The shortlist for the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, in alphabetical order, was as follows:^[21]

• Petr Cech (Chelsea)
• Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
• Thierry Henry (Arsenal)
• Andrew Johnson (Crystal Palace)
• Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
• John Terry (Chelsea)

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney was the recipient for this award.

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard won this award for the first time.

Goalkeeper – Petr Čech
Defenders – Gary Neville, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole
Midfielders – Shaun Wright-Phillips, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Arjen Robben
Strikers – Thierry Henry, Andy Johnson

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard won this award.

Chelsea's midfielder Frank Lampard won the Premier League Player of the Season award.

Arsenal and French striker Thierry Henry won the Premier League Golden Boot award for the third time in his career with 25 goals.

Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech won the Premier League Golden Glove, for 25 clean sheets, in his debut season as he set a remarkable record of 10 consecutive clean sheets, as Chelsea won the title.

José Mourinho was awarded the Premier League Manager of the Season award after he led Chelsea to their first Premier League title, second Top division title in their history.^[22][23] During his first season at the club, Chelsea won the Premier League title (their first league title in 50 years) and the League Cup. The season was also notable for the number of records set during the season: Fewest goals against in a Premier League season (15), most clean sheets kept in a season (25), most wins in a season (29), most consecutive away wins (9) and the most points in a season (95).

The Premier League Fair Play Award is merit given to the team who has been the most sporting and best behaved team. Arsenal won the award for the second year in a row, ahead of Tottenham.^[24] The least sporting side for 2004–05 was Blackburn Rovers, who achieved a significantly lower fair play score than any other side.^[25]

• 2004–05 in English football

• 2004–05 FA Premier League Season at RSSSF