August
After a whole long summer break, transfer speculations of Ronaldo going over to Real Madrid, he finally decided to stay on at Manchester United, while Robbie Keane went over from Tottenham to Liverpool. Throughout the whole month, Gareth Barry seemed destined to join Keane at Anfield. But in the end, the deal was not meant to be and ended with no deal done. This was mostly due to Benitez not willing to spend the cash on Barry.
Chelsea went top of the table in this month. Well, for a short while of course. This was with the guidance of Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Manchester United had a good and steady start to their season. However, in Monaco, they lost to Zenit St. Petersburg in the European Super Cup.
September
Manchester City’s bank balance sky rocketed and signed Robinho for £32million. They managed to convince him over and thus snatched him right under Chelsea’s nose. Across town, Manchester United managed their own shopping with the signing of Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham. All these happened right before the transfer window closed, with the players signalling their transfers as their “dream”.
Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley left their hot seats at their respective clubs. Gianfranco Zola then stepped in as the Gaffer at West Ham. Joe Kinnear too came in at Newcastle, with the club’s sale looming.
September was Manchester United’s lowest point as they slipped down the table order at 11th place. Another dramatic event was when Hull beat Arsenal at their own turf.
October
This was the month when Joe Kinnear cursed and swore towards a group of journalists, with over 50 times.
Liverpool had a good run of results with 4 straight wins, with one of the win that broke Chelsea’s 86 unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool started to look like serious contenders for the title.
November
Arsenal’s young gunners edged Wigan’s experience side 3-0 in the Carling Cup. This cemented Wenger’s policy of breeding quality players from their youth academy.
The spotlight of the month was mainly on Arsenal, as they showed tremendous quality in the win against Manchester United. However, they lost to Aston Villa, who were by now strong contenders for the top teams of the table. Villa won got a 2-0 win against the Gunners at the Emirates.
Tottenham was in a high note since Harry Redknapp arrived. He even had a nickname at this point of time, as Harry Houdini. He managed to get a number of wins and good results after he arrived. However, his good streak of results ended when Fulham got a win against them at Craven Cottage.
December
Ex-Manchester United players were in the spotlight this month. Roy Keane’s facial hair was the talk of the town, and of course his departure from Sunderland. Paul Ince soon followed suit. Ricky Sbragia and Sam Allardyce were soon announced to be their respective replacements.
Stoke City’s Andy Griffin and Ricardo Fuller made headlines as well after their on pitch out burst. Ricardo Fuller slapped Andy Griffin before they were about to restart the game, after West Ham scored a goal.
One of the spectacle of the month was a not so glamorous event, when Hull City’s boss, Phil Brown, gave his side a half time team talk right on the pitch, in front of the travelling fans. No one has ever seen this before, well, not according to football fans. Despite Brown’s on pitch team talk, Hull went on to a 5-1 defeat to Manchester City.
Manchester United flew to Japan during his month, to compete in the FIFA World Club Cup. They ended up winning the tournament after defeating Liga de Quito 1-0 in the finals.
At Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas joined the injury list as Arsenal battle to get sufficient players to mount a serious contention for the title.
January
When the transfer window reopened, everyone was waiting for something miraculous to happen. This was when Manchester City announced that Kaka was on their shopping list. They offered AC Milan €110million for the transfer fee, and Kaka’s earnings would sky rocket to €82million over a period of 5 years. However, in the end, Kaka rejected the offer.
With so much money to be spent at Manchester City, Mark Hughes opted to sign Wayne Bridge from Chelsea
At Newcastle, Joe Kinnear’s misinterpretation of N’Zogbia as Charles Insomnia made the latter furious, eventually causing him to leave the club and join Steve Bruce’s Wigan.
At Arsenal, Arsene Wenger finally signed Russian Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St. Petersburg. And at the other side of London, Robbie Keane made a mockery of himself by rejoining back Tottenham.
Liverpool started to lose ground since the turn of the New Year. Manchester United took advantage of this and got a three points lead at the top of the table. Edwin van Der Sar broke Petr Cech’s record of 11 successive clean sheets, with a total of 14.
Cristiano Ronaldo won the World Player of the Year award.
Harry Redknapp got furious over Darren Bent’s unbelievable miss against Portsmouth. He stated that even his wife could have scored the goal.
February
At Chelsea, Luiz Felipe Scolari got the boot, with Guus Hiddink and Avram Grant immediately linked to the Stamford Bridge post.
Liverpool continued their poor form while Manchester United went all out for the title. Ryan Giggs, even at his age, continued his remarkable career of having scored in all his seasons in the Premier League since 1992.
At Arsenal, Eduardo, after the horrific broken leg incident caused by Martin Taylor’s tackle, came back after rehabilitation.
After so much hype, David Beckham got his 108th England cap against Spain. Spain eventually won 2-0.
March
Manchester United picked their third silverware of the season in the Carling Cup final against Tottenham. The match ended 0-0 after the final whistle. But Manchester United won the penalty shoot out 4-1.
However, not long after that, Liverpool thrashed them 4-1, thus reigniting their chances of winning the title.
Aston Villa, hoping to get the fourth Champions League spot, was dented after losing to Tottenham. That lose made it seven games without a win for Aston Villa. However, the silver lining for them would be the settlement of Carlos Tevez’s incident.
In the Champions League, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool all progressed into the quarter-finals.
Hot in the news was Wayne Rooney punching the corner flag after being sent off in a match against Fulham, which they lost 2-0. Paul Scholes was sent off as well.
Over at Arsenal, they themselves have a storm to fight. Cesc Fabregas was accused by Hull City’s Phil Brown, of spitting at his assistant Brian Horton.
April
At Newcastle, Alan Shearer replaced Joe Kinnear, to help battle relegation.
Federico Macheda at Manchester United was made an instant hero after a delightful performance against Aston Villa won all three points, putting them back on track for the title race.
Carlos Tevez began his rant about not being featured in Alex Ferguson’s plans, and thus doubting his future at Old Trafford.
Ryan Giggs was awarded a long awaited and well deserved PFA Player of the Year.
Not long after joining Arsenal, Andrei Arshavin has no doubt settled into the squad. He scored all four goals against Liverpool in a 4-4 thriller match.
Manchester City was knocked out of the UEFA Cup at the quarter-final stage, while I nthe Champions League, Chelsea won against Liverpool. Arsenal and Manchester United came through as well, making 3 English teams in the semi-finals along with Barcelona.
May
In the last month of the season, battle to avoid relegation boils up as it involves 7 teams at the bottom of the table.
Steven Gerrard got the Football Writers Player of the Year award, and Joey Barton of Newcastle got himself in hot waters again. Barton was told to stay away from the club following a furious dressing-room row with manager Alan Shearer in the wake of his dismissal in the 3-0 defeat at Liverpool, which ruled him out of the club’s fight against relegation.
Manchester United clichéd their 18th title after just managing a draw with Arsenal at the Emirates. This meant that all attention turned to the relegation zone.
With West Brom long relegated, Alex Ferguson fielded a weakened team against Hull City. But even so, Manchester United still managed to get a 1-0 win. This caused Newcastle and Middlesbrough to be relegated down.
In the Champions League, plenty of controversy was caused over at Stamford Bridge. Barcelona won on away goals rule when Iniesta scored in extra time. But what went on after the final whistle was where all the real drama began. Drogba sweared and cursed at the referee Tom Henning Overbo, as well as in front of live television camera. John Terry, Micahel Ballack, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, as well as Drogba were all in trouble for persistently protesting towards the referee for unfair judgements, including numerous penalty claims being turned away.
Manchester United had it easy with Arsenal, thus, setting up their meet up with Barcelona in the finals in Rome.
Even with 3 English teams, Barcelona still won the finals against Manchester United with magnificent performance displays by Iniesta, Xavi and of course, Messi.
In the FA Cup, Chelsea went against Everton, with the latter appearing in their first FA Cup finals in 14 years. Louis Saha made history, by scoring the all time fastest goal in 25 seconds. However, Chelsea still won 2-1, thanks to Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. A well deserving farewell gift to Guus Hiddink.