With the advent of the Premier League in 1992 came the age of dynasties in English soccer. With the exception of Blackburn Rovers, and a T.B.D on Leicester City this year, nearly every team that’s won the Premier League has brought in more than a few trophies over a few year period.
For the sake of this post, we’re going to define a mini dynasty as a three or four year range since once you put the core of a team together, you typically only get a three to four year run before things fall apart and need to be changed. It’s also important to remember the key term here is Premier League era, these teams are not being graded on just their Premier League performances but rather their performances in all competitions.
Here are the rankings for the five best mini dynasties of the Premier League era.
5. Manchester City (2010-2014)
Manchester City got their big money Abu Dhabi takeover in the summer of 2008 but it took them a few years to really get themselves going. The first few years of the new ownership was spent making the wrong signings and finishing outside of the top four.
The Manchester City we know now really started at the start of the of the 2010-2011 season when they signed David Silva, Yaya Toure, and Mario Balotelli. The team finished in the top four for the first time and won the FA Cup, ending their long trophy drought. The following summer they signed Sergio Aguero and won the Premier League on the final day of the season.
But the rest of their dynasty after those first two years was really underwhelming. The following year they put up one of the worst Premier League title defenses, allowing Manchester United to win the title in mid April and lost in the FA Cup Final to Wigan. When all was said and done this team won the Premier League twice, one FA Cup, the League Cup, and failed to get out of the Champions League group stage three times. Not that dominant.
4. Arsenal (2001-2005)
Of all the dynasties that have owned the Premier League for a period of time this Arsenal team is probably the most disappointing. They had the potential for so much greatness and they came away with almost nothing.
It started with winning the Premier League and FA Cup double in 2002, but the following year they finished nine points worse and lost the title to a not so great Manchester United team.
Then came the 2003-04 team. The Invincibles. The team that went undefeated over the entire Premier League season and naturally is considered the best Premier League team of all time.
LONDON – NOVEMBER 13: Thierry Henry celebrates a goal during the Barclays Premiership match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal at White Hart Lane on November 13, 2004 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)
Here’s my problem with the Invincibles. They weren’t the best team to ever play, they just had a never say die attitude, which don’t get me wrong is a very admirable quality that only a very teams have had. But what else did they win? Nothing. Sure they never lost in the Premier League but they lost in every other competition, not to mention Chelsea came one game away from replicating the exact same feat just a year later.
Look at the players on that 2004 team. That’s a loaded team. Arsenal should have been set up to win many trophies over the coming years but instead all they got was the 2005 FA Cup before going on a nine year trophy drought and though they reached the Champions League final in 2006, they never could achieve the sustained success that Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool had in Europe during that era. By 2006 they were already settling into their fourth place trophy phase. Ultimately they won just two Premier League titles and two FA Cups but it should have been a lot more.
3. Chelsea (2004-2008)
Ah the Jose Mourinho 1.0 era. Let’s give Jose credit before tearing him apart. Chelsea’s 2005 team earned the most points in Premier League history, had just one loss all season, and finished 12 points ahead of an Arsenal team that went undefeated the year before. Over the next three years they’d add another Premier League title, two League Cups, the FA Cup, three appearances in the Champions League semifinal, and one Champions League final.
LONDON – MAY 22: Jose Mourinho (L) sits on the team bus as it drives down New King’s Road during the Chelsea Football Club victory parade to show the League Champions with their FA Barclays Premiership and League Cup trophies on May 22, 2005 in Chelsea, London. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
I can’t put this team higher simply because of when they actually won as well as when and how they stopped winning. Yes the team eclipsed an undefeated Arsenal team, but a year later Arsenal had already begun their save money for a new stadium phase, while Premier League stalwarts Manchester United were in a massive rebuilding phase during those years. As soon as their young players developed, they knocked Chelsea right off from the top.
Then of course Chelsea were left with the same problem every Jose Mourinho team has. The mess he leaves in his wake. By the end of the Mourinho era Chelsea were falling, he left the club in September 2007 and while they made the Champions League final that year, they would ultimately come up short. The following year they finished third in the league, and it would take them four more years before they’d finally win the Champions League.
2. Manchester United (1997-2001)
We’ll start Manchester United’s first dynasty with the 1997-98 season as it’s the first one after Eric Cantona retired. United now needed to rebuild their image. The first post Cantona season ended with no silverware, as United missed out on a third successive Premier League title by just one point to Arsenal.
After the failure of 1998 it was one of the most successful periods in the club’s already rich history. United won the treble in 1998/99. Like the Invicibles at Arsenal, this wasn’t the best team to ever play, they only finished with 79 points winning the league by a single point. This team too had a never say die attitude, coming from behind almost routinely. What made this team great was that they did it in every competition. In the span of 10 days United had three matches that were all must wins in order to win the League, FA Cup, and Champions League. Despite the pressure, they won all three, being the only English side to do so.
The following year they won another Premier League a little more handily with 91 points as well as the Intercontinental Cup though the season was marred by not participating in the FA Cup. They’d add a third straight Premier League title in 2001, their sixth title in seven years before falling to third place in 2002 requiring the start of a rebuild.
Their final trophy haul included three Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup, the Intercontinental Cup, and had the greatest season in English football history. But that doesn’t make them the greatest dynasty.
1. Manchester United (2005-2009)
Nostalgic fans will rank United’s treble winning side as the best Manchester United team ever but don’t get me wrong the team Sir Alex Ferguson assembled in the late ’00’s is far better. The 2008 team may not have had the treble winning success of the 99 team but not only did they come close, but based on the eye test they were by far the better team. The team had one of the best defenses in European football’s history and a scary dangerous attack.
They were pushed to final day of the season by Chelsea and then defeated that same Chelsea squad in the Champions League final, solidifying both United and Chelsea as the two best teams in the world that year.
MOSCOW – MAY 21: Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs of Manchester United lift the trophy following their team’s 6-5 victory in the penalty shootout during the UEFA Champions League Final match between Manchester United and Chelsea at the Luzhniki Stadium on May 21, 2008 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
The previous year United announced they were back when their new young squad won the Premier League for the first time in three years. They made the FA Cup Final as well as the Champions League semi-final. In 2009 they won a treble of sorts adding the League Cup and FIFA Club World Cup to their Premier League title. They would again visit Wembley but this time bowed out of the FA Cup in the semifinal. They made a second straight Champions League final but this time fell to Barcelona.
Following the 2009 season, and after three Premier League titles, a Champions League title, the League Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, an FA Cup Final, three straight Champions League semifinals, and two straight Champions League finals, Cristiano Ronaldo left the club, marking the end of an era for Manchester United but not before pulling off the greatest three year stretch for any English club in the Premier League era.
