English Domestic Championship

[petewaring]

It's taken a while, but I have now completed an all-time championship for English domestic football. This includes: league matches, FA Cup and league cup matches, and all-English ties in Europe. It does not include the likes of charity shield, other leagues (eg. Southern League), wartime matches, LDV Vans Trophy etc.

Some stats:

Teams involved in the most championship matches:
Arsenal 482
Man United 425
Everton 373
Blackburn 363
Liverpool 339

Wembley matches:
24 4 1926 Bolton Man City 1-0 FA Cup Final
28 4 1934 Portsmouth Man City 1-2 FA Cup Final
20 5 1967 Tottenham Chelsea 2-1 FA Cup Final
19 5 1984 Everton Watford 2-0 FA Cup Final
24 4 1988 Luton Arsenal 3-2 League Cup Final
27 5 1990 Notts Co Tranmere 2-0 Div 2 Play-off Final
2 6 1991 Brighton Notts Co 1-3 Div 2 Play-off Final
18 4 1993 Sheff Wed Arsenal 1-2 League Cup Final
27 5 1996 Leicester Crystal Palace 2-1 Div 1 Play-off Final
6 4 1997 Middlesbrough Leicester 1-1 League Cup Final
17 5 1997 Chelsea Middlesbrough 2-0 FA Cup Final
25 5 1998 Charlton Sunderland 4-4 (7-6 pens) Div 1 Play-off Final
22 5 1999 Man United Newcastle 2-0 FA Cup Final
9 4 2000 Chelsea Newcastle 2-1 FA Cup Final

Cardiff matches:
25 2 2001 Liverpool Birmingham 1-1 League Cup Final 5-4 pens
27 5 2001 Walsall Reading 3-2 Div 1 Play-off Final
4 5 2002 Arsenal Chelsea 2-0 FA Cup Final
17 5 2003 Southampton Arsenal 0-1 FA Cup Final
21 5 2005 Man United Arsenal 0-0 FA Cup Final 4-5 pens
25 2 2007 Chelsea Arsenal 2-1 League Cup Final

The only Division 4 match:
Rochdale 1-0 Scnthorpe (August 1989) (I had to mis-spell it otherwise it comes up as Sthingythorpe for some reason, I can't possibly imagine why)

The only current Premiership side not to be champions this century: Reading (last champions in November 1997)

Biggest wins in championship games:
Royal Engineers 15-0 High Wycombe (FA Cup 1875-76)
Clapham Rovers 15-0 Finchley (FA Cup 1880-81)

Total number of sides to have competed in matches: 156
Total number of champions: 96

Most common pairings in championship matches:
Arsenal vs Man Utd 32
Arsenal vs Aston Villa 25
Arsenal vs Liverpool 24
Aston Villa vs Blackburn 21
Liverpool vs Man Utd 21

Last non-league champions: Swindon (March 1910)
Date on which the English domestic title and the world domestic title parted ways: 18/11/1958 (Wolves lost to Schalke)

Most successful defences in succession:
Man United 31 (1999)
Arsenal 29 (2002)
Arsenal 26 (2003-04)
Leeds 23 (1964-65)

Also note that Burnley were champions for over 4 years in a row due to WWI, and likewise Leicester for over 6 years in WWII.

Current champions (who took the title with a 3-1 win over Fulham in their last match of 2006-07; and whose first match of 2007-08 will be at home to Blackburn):

MIDDLESBROUGH

If anybody wants to know all 4967 matches, let me know.

[petewaring]

During 2007-08, the title has changed hands as follows:
11/8 Middlesbrough 1-2 Blackburn
23/9 Blackburn 0-1 Portsmouth
31/10 Portsmouth 1-2 Blackburn (Carling Cup 4th round)
11/11 Man United 2-0 Blackburn
24/11 Bolton 1-0 Man United
2/12 Liverpool 4-0 Bolton
8/12 Reading 3-1 Liverpool
29/12 Spurs 6-4 Reading
1/1 Aston Villa 2-1 Spurs
5/1 Aston Villa 0-2 Man United (FA Cup 3rd round)
10/2 Man United 1-2 Man City
25/2 Man City 0-2 Everton
16/3 Fulham 1-0 Everton (this was all-time match no 5000)
22/3 Newcastle 2-0 Fulham
11/5 Newcastle 0-2 Chelsea

Match no 5009 will be the first unofficial English domestic championship match ever to take place overseas: Chelsea defend their title against Man United in Moscow next week!

[gilvicente]

On a related note: a horribly shameless plug for my own site - tracking only English league results:
www.uflc.co.uk

[detlen]

Then of course Man Utd beat Chelsea in Moscow to take the title (assuming Pete counts penalty victories) to take the title.
21/5 Man Utd 1-1 Chelsea (6-5 pens) (Champions League Final)
13/9 Liverpool 2-1 Man Utd
So Liverpool are the current champions

[detlen]

Liverpool then went on a winning run before:
1/11 Liverpool 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
So Tottenham are the current champions

[petewaring]

Yes indeed, Spurs are my team so this is very exciting! They have just negotiated a challenge (victory over Man City) for the first time since 2001.

[ufwcstoke]

d**n, i post a record for the 08/09 season and then i see this :@

[petewaring]

Now that 2008/09 is over, here is the final record of the season. Man United, having won the 2008 Champions League final, started the season as champions. The title then changed hands as follows:

13/9 Liverpool 2-1 Man United
1/11 Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool
15/11 Fulham 2-1 Tottenham
18/1 West Ham 3-1 Fulham
8/2 West Ham 0-1 Man United
14/3 Man United 1-4 Liverpool
8/4 Liverpool 1-3 Chelsea (Champions League quarter-final).

Chelsea were then unbeaten throughout their remaining 10 games against English opposition, including their latest defence at Wembley against Everton. They will start next season as defending champions.

Incidentally, Man United won the Carling Cup during their stint as holders. This means that 2008/09 was only the second season ever (1996/97 was the first) where both domestic cup finals were championship matches.

[petewaring]

For the second season in succession, Chelsea take the title into the summer break. Having begun the season with the Blues as champions, the title changed hands as follows:

26/9 Wigan 3-1 Chelsea
3/10 Hull 2-1 Wigan
19/10 Fulham 2-0 Hull
21/11 Birmingham 1-0 Fulham
27/1 Chelsea 3-0 Birmingham
10/2 Everton 2-1 Chelsea
28/2 Tottenham 2-1 Everton
3/4 Sunderland 3-1 Tottenham
10/4 West Ham 1-0 Sunderland
19/4 Liverpool 3-0 West Ham
2/5 Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea

Thereafter, Chelsea held the title twice, an 8-0 win over Wigan which won them the league, and a 1-0 win over Portsmouth that won them the cup.

[petewaring]

Time for the annual update of the English Domestic Championship. Just like the real title, the unofficial title began the 2010-11 season in the hands of Chelsea, and ended it in the hands of Manchester United. However, plenty of other teams held it in between. The title changed hands as follows:

22/9 Chelsea 3-4 Newcastle (League Cup 3rd round)
26/9 Newcastle 1-2 Stoke
16/10 Bolton 2-1 Stoke
31/10 Bolton 0-1 Liverpool
13/11 Stoke 2-0 Liverpool
11/12 Stoke 0-1 Blackpool
1/1 Man City 1-0 Blackpool
22/1 Aston Villa 1-0 Man City
1/2 Man United 3-1 Aston Villa
5/2 Wolves 2-1 Man United
12/2 Arsenal 2-0 Wolves (surprisingly, this was the first time Arsenal had held the title since 2006)
27/2 Arsenal 1-2 Birmingham (League Cup Final, Wembley)
5/3 Birmingham 1-3 West Brom
16/4 West Brom 1-3 Chelsea
8/5 Man United 2-1 Chelsea

[stevestreet71]

Hi,

Have taken a bit of a break from the European competition and have looked at the English version which takes into account all competitions and leagues (non-league etc) depending on the results.

A slightly different route has been found but have ended up with the same end result.

All my results can be found at www.steve.footballfans.co.uk

Next match: Manchester United v Spurs

[stevestreet71]

Dear all,

Following Manchester City's 6-1 win over Manchester United today, City are now the unofficial champions for the first time 10th February 2008 when City beat United 2-1 in the Manchester derby.

It's the first change in the English unofficial league champions for 14 games.

[stevestreet71]

Following Chelsea's win over Manchester City last night, Chelsea have now become the English Unofficial Club Champions. This has brought City's run to an end after 8 matches. It is also the first time that Chelsea are champions since they lost to Manchester United back in May 2011.

Their next match will be on Saturday versus Wigan Athletic.

[stevestreet71]

Aston Villa have taken over as the English unofficial league champions following their surprising 3-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

This is the first time that Villa have been champions since November 2004 - a gap of over 7 years!

Villa's next game will be versus Swansea City at Villa Park on 2 January. It will be Swansea's first game in the unofficial championship since September 2000.

Depending on the results of this game, the FA Cup will then be up next for both teams; Villa away at League Two Bristol Rovers or Swansea away at Championship-side, Barnsley.

[stevestreet71]

Sunderland take over as English unofficial league champions following their 2-0 win against Swansea City yesterday.

Sunderland were last champions in December 2010 following their win against Bolton Wanderers.

Their next game is against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup 4th round next weekend. This will be Middlesbrough's first unofficial English game since January 2004 when they lost to Arsenal 4-1.

Will Middlesbrough be strong enough to take the title into the second tier of English football for the first time since September 2001.

Watch this space!