Season 1993–94 Cup Winners' Cup ArsenalChelsea Start date 1993 | Goals scored 1,195 | |
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UEFA Cup Aston VillaBlackburn RoversNewcastle United Similar | ||
The 1993–94 FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the second season of the Premier League, the top division of professional football in England. Manchester United won the league by eight points over nearest challengers Blackburn Rovers, their second consecutive league title. Swindon Town finished bottom of the league in their first season of top-flight football and were relegated along with Sheffield United and Oldham Athletic.
Contents
New league sponsors
From the start of the 1993–94 season, the FA Premier League was sponsored by Carling Breweries.
Promoted teams
Newcastle United and West Ham United were promoted to the Premier League from the First Division as champions and runners-up respectively. The last promotion place was won by Swindon Town after their victory over Leicester City in the 1992–93 playoff final. Newcastle had been relegated from the old First Division in 1989 and West Ham United had been relegated the season before the start of the Premier League. Swindon had never played top-division football before. They had won the old First Division playoffs in 1990 but were later denied promotion because of financial irregularities.
Transfers
Just before the start of the season, Roy Keane became the most expensive footballer signed by an English football team. The 22-year-old Irish midfielder left relegated Nottingham Forest for Manchester United for a fee of £3.75 million.
During the 1993–94 season, many players were transferred between Premier League clubs for fees exceeding £1 million. They included David White (Manchester City to Leeds United), David Rocastle (Leeds United to Manchester City), Roy Wegerle (Blackburn Rovers to Coventry City) and Tim Flowers (Southampton to Blackburn Rovers). At £2.5 million, Flowers became the most expensive goalkeeper in English football.
Personnel and kits
(as of 8 May 1994)
Manchester United's Premier League and FA Cup double
Manchester United led the 1993–94 Premier League for almost all of the season, eventually finishing as champions eight points ahead of runners-up Blackburn Rovers. They also won the FA Cup after beating Chelsea 4–0 in the final, thereby becoming only the fourth team to achieve this feat in the 20th century (after Tottenham in 1961, Arsenal in 1971 and Liverpool in 1986). Their lead of the Premier League stood at 11 points by the end of October and peaked at 16 points two months later, but a run of bad results in March was followed by defeat at Blackburn at the beginning of April, which meant that they now led the league merely on goal difference. A return to form then saw United seal the league title with two games still to play.
Norwich City, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Everton and Aston Villa were among the sides who showed promise early in the season before Manchester United established a runaway lead. Norwich reached the third round of the UEFA Cup after famously beating Bayern Munich in the second round, but their league form slumped after manager Mike Walker departed to Everton in January, and the Norfolk side finished 12th. Everton's brief lead of the league in the opening stages of the season was followed by a slump in form, and manager Howard Kendall stepped down at the beginning of December with the Toffees now in the bottom half of the table. They only narrowly avoided relegation on the final day of the season. Aston Villa finished a disappointing 10th in the league, but won the Football League Cup for the fourth time.
Runner-up clubs
Finishing runners-up in the Premier League were Blackburn Rovers. In third place came Newcastle United, whose 22-year-old striker Andy Cole was the Premier League's leading scorer with 34 goals in 40 games, with a total of 41 goals in all competitions. In fourth place came Arsenal, who achieved success in European competition with a 1–0 win over Parma in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final.
Relegated teams
Swindon Town managed just five league wins all season and were relegated in bottom place having conceded 100 league goals in 42 games. Oldham Athletic, who had avoided relegation on goal difference the previous season, were relegated on the final day of the season after failing to win at Norwich City. The final relegation place went to Sheffield United, who were relegated from the top flight after a 3–2 defeat at Chelsea, with the winning goal coming in injury time (a draw would have been enough to survive, and a loss would have still been enough had Everton not won their final match). As of 2015, only one of these sides has returned to the top flight – Sheffield United in 2006, and they were relegated after one season, once again on the last day requiring only a draw to survive.
Player and managerial awards
Managerial changes
Final league table
Source: Barclays Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
1 Arsenal qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as defending champions.
2 Aston Villa qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners.
3Chelsea qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup runners-up.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
Results
Source:
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.