After his larynx destruction “AGUEROOOOO!!!!!” efforts to take Manchester City to the 2011/12 Premier League title in unforgettable fashion, Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler offered an observation.
“It could be the start of a dynasty,” he said, as Roberto Mancini’s players enjoyed the chaos.
The reality was different, as City failed to defend the title the following year and Mancini was sacked. Manuel Pellegrini won back the fans in 2013/14 but, after Pep Guardiola’s first campaign in charge in 2016/17, City had been champions only once in five years.
The panorama is very different now. After last season’s historic treble, City became the first team in English history to win four consecutive league titles.. There is also the possibility of a second consecutive domestic double as the FA Cup final against Manchester United on May 25 looms.
But how do they compare to the other great dynasties (teams that amassed multiple titles in various competitions and were widely recognized as the dominant force of their time) of the Premier League era?
5.Chelsea 2004-2007
Arsenal vs. Manchester United had been the terms of engagement in English football since around 1997 until Jose Mourinho strutted in from Porto to take charge of Chelsea. He emphatically backed his “Special” proclamation in a first season in which Chelsea amassed a huge total of 93 points to finish 12 points ahead of defending champions Arsenal. They also won the EFL Cup.
The Blues’ success was built on the Premier League’s stingiest defense of all time. They conceded only 15 times in 38 games and lost once. Chelsea backed up the result with another monstrous haul of 91 points, eight more than Manchester United, in the 2005/06 season. Alex Ferguson’s team beat them next time and, although Mourinho maintained his Chelsea record with the League and FA Cup double in 2006/07, Roman Abramovich’s infamous trigger finger left the Portuguese out of a job at the start of the next match. season, leaving him free to embark on a historic mandate at the helm of Inter Milan since 2008.
4. Arsenal 2001-2004
Arsene Wenger shook the English football establishment when Arsenal overcame Manchester United to win the Premier League and FA Cup double in 1997/98, but United responded with their most dominant period under Ferguson. Arsenal were trophyless for three years, but the arrivals during that time of Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg and Sol Campbell helped reshape Wenger’s team into a truly formidable proposition.
In 2001/02, they were at full strength and achieved a second double in memorable fashion: Sylvain Wiltord scored the winning goal at Old Trafford to dethrone United after a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in the Cup final FA. Arsenal scored in every league game that season and went unbeaten away from home. They looked set to claim back-to-back titles the following season, only to collapse under pressure from United.
However, Wenger’s men responded to prove they were the definitive team of the early years of this century with their unforgettable Invincibles season in 2003/04, going an entire Premier League campaign without defeat. Chelsea ended Arsenal’s interest in the Champions League that season and took the title the next time around. When inspirational captain Patrick Vieira scored the winning penalty against United in the 2005 FA Cup final in his final appearance for the club, it felt like the end of an era.
3. Manchester United 2006-2011
Ferguson’s last great team might be his most impressive achievement, even if it is not his most celebrated. Dominating through the 1990s and early 2000s cemented their aspirations for greatness, but then Wenger and Mourinho raised the bar, bringing a more cerebral touch to the traditional blood and thunder of English football.
There were teething problems as the likes of Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic took a while to settle in, but they would form half of one of the best defenses in Premier League history alongside Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville. Edwin van der Sar arrived in 2005 and Ferguson finally had a suitable heir to Peter Schmeichel. In midfield, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick helped add a more refined edge alongside stalwarts Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, helping United reach three Champions League finals during this period, beating Chelsea on penalties in Moscow in 2008 before clashing twice with Guardiola’s Barcelona.
It was attack that defined this United crop, with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo a truly terrifying proposition. When Carlos Tevez joined them between 2007 and 2009 to three consecutive titles, Ferguson’s team often looked unstoppable. Ronaldo and Tevez left in 2009, and Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea took advantage to break the streak, although the more laconic Dimitar Berbatov managed to win the Golden Boot in another march to glory in 2010/11, while Rooney continued his path to surpassing Bobby Charlton as United’s all-time leading scorer.
2. Manchester United 1995-2001
In terms of former Liverpool players going completely offline by telling exceptional coaches some important truths, Collymore was not the pioneer. After United handed over the Premier League to Blackburn Rovers in 1994/95, Ferguson embarked on a bold reboot: selling experienced trio Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis and putting his faith in a crop of highly talented young players, among them Scholes, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers.
A 3-1 opening day defeat to Aston Villa in August 1995, with United trailing 3-0 at half-time, led Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen to infamously proclaim: “You can’t win anything with children”. United achieved the double, beating Liverpool in the FA Cup final after defeating Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United. Beckham’s sensational goal from midfield at Wimbledon set the tone for the 1996/97 season. Newcastle, Arsenal and Liverpool were seven points behind the Red Devils in the final analysis.
Talisman Eric Cantona shocked Old Trafford with his retirement in 1997 and Arsenal prevented United from winning their third successive title while Wenger won his first Premier League title the following season. The same core regrouped when Dwight Yorke arrived for his formidable partnership with Andy Cole in attack in the 1998/99 season.
The striker duo inspired much of United’s success in their historic treble season, although it was Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who unforgettably led them to the finish line in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich to complete a feat which has never yet been repeated in English. football. United achieved success by margins of 18 and 10 points over the next two seasons to win five of six titles.
United’s treble came at a time when no English club had won the Champions League for 15 years. On the contrary, Guardiola’s team is the best team in a league that today is, by far, the strongest in Europe. This is still very much in play. A question of tastes, periods and various other elements. But while much of what City had achieved under Guardiola, apart from the mammoth points totals, could be seen as a continuation of Ferguson’s footsteps, they have now certainly broken new ground.
1. Manchester City 2017-2024*
“If you think you’re going to turn up and beat everyone in the Premier League, and that teams like Watford, Leicester City, Bournemouth, Southampton and Crystal Palace are going to let your Manchester City have the ball 90 per cent of the time, and let them pretty patterns so they can get a result, then you are absolutely deluded,” said Stan Collymore in a 2016 column for Mirrorat the time when Guardiola’s trophyless debut season at City was beginning to unravel.
Indeed, there is a fine line between deception and effective bloodthirsty mentality, and in the years since he was openly mocked for sarcastically asking “what are tackles?” In a post-match press conference, Guardiola has bent the English game to his will. City’s 100-point campaign in 2017/18 broke a succession of records and they backed them up with 98 in 2018/19 to lead a relentless Liverpool team to the post.
Their form dipped the following season, but City dominated pandemic football like no other team in 2020/21, going on an English-record 21-match winning streak in all competitions between December and March and breaking the foundation of the campaign.
In 2021/22 it was time for another brutal battle to the finish line with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, as Ilkay Gundogan offered his own version of Sergio Agüero’s heroics 10 years on amid incredible final day drama against Aston Villa.
There was no such drama in the 2022/23 title final as Arsenal collapsed down the stretch with just two wins from eight games before City’s victory was cemented. But that Gunners’ fall coincided with another of City’s imperious double-digit winning streaks (11 in a row in the league) that saw them grow in confidence and faith with each victory. A more robust Arsenal has encountered an equally brutal force this time. Since losing to Aston Villa last December, their record in the Premier League is 23 games, 19 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses.
Non-league, a run of four consecutive EFL Cups ended in 2021/22 and victory in the 2019 FA Cup completed an unprecedented domestic treble. This time, a particularly sweet FA Cup final victory over Manchester United preceded City finally climbing the mountain in Europe, becoming the tenth team in history to achieve the treble. Guardiola is the only coach to complete the feat with two clubs.
This continued success on the field comes against the backdrop of City facing 115 charges from the Premier League for allegedly breaching financial rules. A lengthy legal process is in its early stages. Although a significant number of the alleged breaches date back to before Guardiola’s tenure, any findings against the club would tarnish his incredible achievements.
