English Domestic Championship

[stevestreet71]

And so another English domestic season is brought to a close with Manchester City crowned as Premier League champions. But where did the English club title end up?

Here's what happened in a nutshell!

Tottenham Hotspur brought the title into the new season following their unbeaten run at the end of 2012-13
1 September 2013: Arsenal promptly beat them in the North London derby
29 October 2013: Chelsea beat Arsenal in the Capital One cup
2 November 2013: having held the title for 4 days, Chelsea promptly surrender it to Newcastle United
4 December 2013: Swansea City beat Newcastle to regain the title for the first time since January 2012
22 December 2013: Everton become champions with a win against Swansea
26 December 2013: Sunderland are champions with a win against Everton
1 January 2014: the new year sees the championship shift to the Midlands with Aston Villa regaining the title
4 January 2014: the championship moves cities (to Sheffield) and also tiers in the league hierarchy when Sheffield United beat Aston Villa in the FA Cup 3rd round to move the lineage to the 3rd tier for the first time in a while
11 January 2014: Notts County beat Sheffield United to become champions
21 January 2014: Peterborough United beat Notts County in League One by the odd goal in 7. It is Peterborough's first title triumph since 2001!
25 January 2014: having won the title, Peterborough then lose to Oldham by the odd goal in 9.
28 January 2014: Wolves, on their way to becoming League One champions, regain the title and hold it for 8 matches
18 March 2014: we have a newcomer to the list of champions! Crawley Town beat Wolves 2-1
21 March 2014: and then lose it back to Oldham in a 0-1 defeat.
Oldham continue to be the champions going into the 2014-15 season. What will happen next season?!

[petewaring]

Oldham's current run as champions was the longest run of any champions in 2013-14!

Prior to Sheffield United taking the title of Aston Villa in January 2014, the title's previous spell outside the top flight was in 2001. In March of that year, Wycombe (then of the third tier, known at the time as Division 2) beat Leicester (then of the Premier League) in the FA Cup. The title stayed in the third tier until the end of the season, when Walsall won the play-off final and took the title up a division with them. In October 2001, the title returned to the Premier League when Chelsea beat Coventry in a League Cup tie.

[stevestreet71]

Hi everybody,

Following Warrington Town's giant killing act in this year's FA Cup 1st round with their 1-0 win over Exeter City, the championship now makes an overdue journey into non-league football (tier 8 to be exact). Warrington go to Kendal Town next weekend.

Last time we had a non-league champion was Gateshead United in 1975.

Cheers,

Steve

[stevestreet71]

Current champions are Stoke City and has been on quite a journey all the way down in tier 7 following Warrington Town's win over Exeter City in the FA Cup during the 2014-15 season.

[petewaring]

In 2016-17, the title changed hands as follows:
20th August Stoke 1-4 Man City
2nd October Tottenham 2-0 Man City
25th October Liverpool 2-1 Tottenham (League Cup 4th Round)
4th December Bournemouth 4-3 Liverpool
10th December Burnley 3-2 Bournemouth
14th December West Ham 1-0 Burnley
31st December Leicester 1-0 West Ham
14th January Leicester 0-3 Chelsea
1st April Chelsea 1-2 Crystal Palace
5th April Southampton 3-1 Crystal Palace
15th April Southampton 0-3 Man City
23rd April Arsenal 2-1 Man City (FA Cup Semi-Final, Wembley)
30th April Tottenham 2-0 Arsenal
5th May West Ham 1-0 Tottenham
14th May West Ham 0-4 Liverpool

Liverpool are the current champions

[petewaring]

In 2017-18, the title changed hands as follows:
9th September Man City 5-0 Liverpool
14th January Liverpool 4-3 Man City
22nd January Swansea 1-0 Liverpool
24th February Brighton 4-1 Swansea
10th March Everton 2-0 Brighton
31st March Everton 1-3 Man City
4th April Liverpool 3-0 Man City (Champions League quarter-final 1st leg)
6th May Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool
13th May Newcastle 3-0 Chelsea

Newcastle are the current champions

Incidentally, Man City's run as champions between September and January incorporated 23 successful defences - the longest run as unofficial champions since Arsenal in 2003-04. The longest run of all time remains 31 successful defences, set by Manchester United in 1999.

[petewaring]

In 2018-19, the title changed hands a huge number of times, and it's not over yet!

11th August: Newcastle 1-2 Tottenham
2nd September: Watford 2-1 Tottenham
15th September: Watford 1-2 Man United
25th September: Man United 1-1 Derby (Carabao Cup, Derby won 8-7 on penalties)
The title then spent some time in the Championship:

29th September: Bolton 1-0 Derby
2nd October: Stoke 2-0 Bolton
20th October: Stoke 0-1 Birmingham
3rd November: Derby 3-1 Birmingham
10th November: Derby 0-3 Aston Villa
23rd December: Aston Villa 2-3 Leeds
29th December: Leeds 0-2 Hull
6th January: Millwall 2-1 Hull (FA Cup 3rd Round)
12th January: Millwall 0-2 Blackburn
15th January: Blackburn 2-4 Newcastle (FA Cup 3rd Round replay)
Back to the Premier League:

26th January: Newcastle 0-2 Watford (FA Cup 4th Round)
30th January: Tottenham 2-1 Watford
23rd February: Burnley 2-1 Tottenham
26th February: Newcastle 2-0 Burnley
2nd March: West Ham 2-0 Newcastle
9th March: Cardiff 2-0 West Ham
31rd March: Cardiff 1-2 Chelsea
14th April: Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea

Liverpool have retained the title since then (some consolation for being pipped to the official English title) but, just as in 2008, the title will go overseas to be contested in an all-English Champions League final when Liverpool take on Tottenham in Madrid on 1st June.

[petewaring]

The mammoth domestic season of 2019-20 is now finally over, and here is the annual update:
Liverpool, of course, beat Tottenham to win the 2019 Champions League and retain the unofficial club title. They then extended their tenure of the title to 26 matches, which is the fourth longest spell as champions of any club since 1872 (the top 3 being Man United 32 games in 1999, Arsenal 30 games in 2002 and Arsenal 27 games in 2004). The spell also included both the second and third ever unofficial title matches to be played overseas (the Champions League final in Madrid, and the Super Cup win over Chelsea in Istanbul; the first was the 2008 Champions League final in Moscow).

Their run finally came to an end with a 5-0 League Cup quarter-final defeat to Aston Villa on 17th December. This match was in fact played by a third-choice Liverpool line-up, as their entire first team squad was in Doha winning the FIFA Club World Cup. Since then, the title has changed hands as follows:

21st December: Aston Villa 1-3 Southampton
18th January: Southampton 2-3 Wolves
23rd January: Wolves 1-2 Liverpool
29th February: Watford 3-0 Liverpool
7th March: Crystal Palace 1-0 Watford (this was the last title match prior to the coronavirus hiatus)
24th June: Liverpool 4-0 Crystal Palace
2nd July: Man City 4-0 Liverpool
5th July: Southampton 1-0 Man City

Southampton have since remained undefeated in a further five games, and begin 2020-21 as title holders.

[petewaring]

Time for the 2020-21 season update. The title changed hands as follows:

12th September: Crystal Palace 1-0 Southampton (1st match of the season)
15th September: Bournemouth 0-0 Crystal Palace (League Cup 2nd Round, Bournemouth won 11-10 on pens; the highest-scoring penalty shoot-out in English Domestic Championship history)
24th September: Man City 2-1 Bournemouth (League Cup 3rd Round)
27th September: Man City 2-5 Leicester
4th October: Leicester 0-3 West Ham
31st October: Liverpool 2-1 West Ham
4th January: Southampton 1-0 Liverpool
16th January: Leicester 2-0 Southampton
31st January: Leicester 1-3 Leeds
3rd February: Leeds 1-2 Everton
14th February: Everton 0-2 Fulham
4th March: Fulham 0-1 Tottenham
14th March: Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham
3rd April: Arsenal 0-3 Liverpool

Liverpool have since remained undefeated in a further eight games, and begin 2021-22 as title holders.

[petewaring]

Time for the 2021-22 season update. The title changed hands as follows:

Liverpool extended their run from April 2021 to 21 games as title-holders.
7th November: West Ham 3-2 Liverpool
20th November: Wolves 1-0 West Ham
4th December: Wolves 0-1 Liverpool
28th December: Leicester 1-0 Liverpool
19th January: Leicester 2-3 Tottenham
23rd January: Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham
27th February: Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea (11-10 on penalties in the League Cup final)

Liverpool have now embarked on yet another lengthy run as holders (currently 16 games and counting, including victory in the FA Cup final).

[petewaring]

The 2022-23 season is now over, and there were several champions this season.
Liverpool began the season with two successful defences, but then:

22nd August: Man United 2-1 Liverpool
2nd October: Man City 6-3 Man United
16th October: Liverpool 1-0 Man City
22nd October: Nottm Forest 1-0 Liverpool (Forest become champions for the first time since 1998)
30th October: Arsenal 5-0 Nottm Forest
9th November: Arsenal 1-3 Brighton (League Cup)
13th November: Brighton 1-2 Aston Villa

Due to the World Cup, Aston Villa's first defence wasn't until 26th December, when they lost:
26th December: Aston Villa 1-3 Liverpool
2nd January: Brentford 3-1 Liverpool
7th January: Brentford 0-1 West Ham (FA Cup)
14th January: Wolves 1-0 West Ham
17th January: Wolves 0-1 Liverpool (FA Cup)
29th January: Brighton 2-1 Liverpool (FA Cup)
18th February: Brighton 0-1 Fulham
6th March: Brentford 3-2 Fulham
11th March: Everton 1-0 Brentford
8th April: Man United 2-0 Everton
4th May: Brighton 1-0 Man United
8th May: Brighton 1-5 Everton
14th May: Everton 0-3 Man City
28th May: Brentford 1-0 Man City

Brentford have been champions on three different occasions this season; the last time they were champions was in 2014, and they have never previously finished a season as champions. The longest run any team had as champions all season was Man United's four successful defences in April.

[petewaring]

An update for 2023-24. The title changed hands as followed:

16th September: Newcastle 1-0 Brentford
11th November: Bournemouth 2-0 Newcastle
31st December: Tottenham 3-1 Bournemouth
26th January: Tottenham 0-1 Man City (FA Cup)

Man City then had 21 consecutive successful defences. It was the 6th longest run in history, and the longest since Liverpool's 26 (April-December 2019). But it came to an end in the last match of the season:

25th May: Man United 2-1 Man City (FA Cup final). This was the first time since 2005 that the title had changed hands in an FA Cup final.