Title Chasers

I think about all the time when I followed a football team as they went through a league title challenge. One of the most amazing title challenges was in 1989, and that was immortalized in the book and movie “Fever Pitch”, when Arsenal nicked Liverpool at the end to win the league title. It would also be near the end of Liverpool's imperious reign at the top of English football.

The first league battle that I witnessed was when Singapore got relegated in 1992. The most amazing thing was that they started that season with a few league wins and were at the top of the table in early rounds. I don’t know how and why, but we ended up sliding down the table and we got relegated to the second division.

In 1993, we had to climb back up. There were a few Singaporean stars who were playing for Malaysian state clubs. I think Singapore’s relegation guilt-tripped them into returning to Singapore to turn out for the Lions. It was a relatively easy thing to win that league, although for some reason, Selangor was relegated at the same year as we were, and we had to make sure that we didn’t finish the league second to Selangor.

The Malaysian League is not as important as it is in English football. It’s a lot like the regular season in American sports, just to figure out who qualifies for the knockout round at the end, and it’s the cup knockout that really matters. But in 1994, Singapore was challenging for the title, after getting their best players together and week in, week out, we were trying to stay ahead of Kedah, and I think we played Kedah in one of the final matches, and ended up beating them. The title run-in, I recall, was very exciting, especially when we were going to play at some of the stronger sides in the league, like Kedah or Sabah.

In 1995, one of the biggest catastrophes took place in Singapore football, when we were asked to leave the Malaysia Cup for the penultimate time. This coincided with the rise of the premier league. The local football scene was never the same after this.

So I turned my attention to the premier league race. The 94/95 season turned out to have a very exciting title race. It was Man U vs Blackburn. Blackburn were chasing their first title since before the first World War. Man U had done a great job of narrowing the gap to Blackburn, but were unable to win it. They could have won if they won their last match, but didn’t. The sight of Blackburn winning the league in spite of losing their final match is one of my first great football memories.

There was that Man U vs Newcastle during the following season, with Newcastle surrendering a lead that was 12 points at Christmas. Then there was the first of 7 Arsenal vs Man U title rivalries, which Arsenal won first in 97/98. It’s a bit hard to exaggerate how much of a shock it was to see Arsene Wenger come in from nowhere and run away with the title, especially since they were mid table over Christmas. The only other manager who came in and grabbed a team by the scruff of the neck and made them champions – the only team which did it so abruptly was Conte’s Chelsea, when he took the team that Mourinho built and then dismantled all the way to the title. Even the Leicester miracle wasn’t that much of a surprise because they were already in red hot form during the relegation escape the previous season.

In hindsight, Man U lost the title in 1998 because of an injury to Roy Keane, and Eric Cantona retiring. The following year they got Yorke, Blomquist and Stam. And got Roy Keane back. It was another tight league challenge, and only decided on the last day. Arsenal made it to the semifinals of the FA cup. It would have been another great season for them, but it was completely overshadowed by Man U seizing the treble.

Man U won the next 2 league titles easily. But in 01-02, Man U threatened to make it 4 in the row. Instead, Ferguson made a rare error of trying to get Veron into the famous Man U midfield. Instead, he broke up the great quartet of Keane-Scholes-Beckham-Giggs. Veron would have tried to introduce a slower, more tactical game, than what the rest of the team were used to. Arsenal, though, had a new generation of players blossoming into an extremely formidable attack: Ljungberg, Henry and Pires. There were title challenges that went all the way in 01-02 and 02-03. It was a shame that Arsenal never got their three-peat because they let the 02-03 title slip. But there was a time when it seemed that the balance of power had permanently shifted from Man U to Arsenal.

The invincibles season saw Arsenal march to the title without Man U or Chelsea being able to stop them. Then Chelsea came with the moneybags. Ranieri had done fairly well with Chelsea, and lifted them into 2nd, and knocked Arsenal out of the champions League. But he was fired, a little harshly, and replaced by Mourinho. (He would get his revenge more than 10 years later by winning the title with Leicester 1 year after Mourinho’s last title with Chelsea). I always thought that Ranieri was unlucky to get sacked as Chelsea manager but his title win with Leicester was a stroke of luck that balanced the earlier bad luck.

Chelsea won 2 league titles during Mourinho’s first 2 seasons. So for 3 years in a row, there was no proper title race. But during the 06-07 season, especially when Man U had an attack that had Ronaldo, Rooney, Saha and Tevez in it, Man U came storming back. The period from 01 to 06 saw Man U being relatively mediocre under Alex Ferguson, but he slowly put together a spine of another great team – probably his last great team. Man U and Chelsea were battling it out all the way. In 06-07. In 07-08, it was a 3 way struggle with Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea. In 08-09, it was Man U vs Liverpool. In 09-10, it was Man U vs Chelsea. Every year was a big title challenge. Then after a relatively easy title in 10-11, there was that amazing end to the season in 11-12 when it was finally clear that Man City’s era was beginning and Man U’s era was ending. Given Man City’s dominance in Manchester since Alex Ferguson’s retirement, it seems even quaint now that they ever called Man City the “noisy neighbours”.

There was an epic title race in 13-14. It may have been Brendan Rodger's greatest achievement to take Liverpool to within a whisker of the title. Steve Gerrard will always be associated with 3 runners up seasons in 02, 09 and 14. But the 14 season is probably the most tragic, because he gave away a crucial goal in the defeat to Chelsea and the draw against Crystal Palace. It was the slipping on his butt that was the most visibly tragic aspect of the whole thing. The 14 team had up and coming players like Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho: the 09 team had Mascherano, Torres, Pepe Reina and Xabi Alonso. Great players, almost good enough to win. Ultimately, you needed a team that was almost as good as Pep Guardiola's centurions, the Liverpool team in 2019 which won the champions league and got 97 points – and the next year you'd get over the line. The team which won in 19 may have been better than the one in 20, but the one in 20 won because Man City was undergoing a rebuilding that was between Guardiola's first and second great teams.

And now we have Arsenal again. The first year that Arteta was around, Arsenal failed to get any European competition at all, and they were behind Tottenham. Then he almost got them into the champions league places but failed. Then he got them within touching distance of the title in 2023, but, as in 1999, finished second to a side that won the treble. They came close again in 2024, this time being more defensive, but failing to score the goals that would win them enough games. In 2025, their nemesis Man City did not challenge for the title, but Liverpool, with the side that Klopp left behind, marched to the title without any major obstructions.

Finally, we have the Arsenal side of 25/26. For the first half of the season, they were clearly better than Man City. But Man City was merely transitioning from Pep's second great team to his third, and his rebuilding was starting to bear fruit towards the end. Arsenal had only ever had one great team during the premier league era. The George Graham side which won the league in 89 and 91 were a good but not great team, whose stars were actually the back line of Adams / Bould / Dixon / Winterburn / Keown. Wenger's side was exceptional in the sense that it was assembled cheaply and he managed to pick up bargain stars like Vieira, Petit, Overmars and Anelka, to add to Bergkamp, Wright and the defence of the old warhorses. But they were not clearly better than the Man U treble side. Only the side which had Henry, Campbell and company was clearly the best in the world and could win the league easily, no matter how short lived it was.

The trials and tribulations of this side has been mentioned earlier. They were 9 points clear at one point, albeit with a game in hand. Then they managed to lose a cup final and a league match to a resurgent Man City, which highly suggests that they can be challenging for the title next season. They also got knocked out of the FA Cup to a lower league Southampton. Man City, Liverpool and Man U will be stronger next season than this one. And that suggests that Arsenal's greatest and best chance to win the league will be this season. They dropped points against quite a few mid table sides. Wolves. Brentford. Bournemouth. Nottingham Forest. It's only that Man City were so bad that they could afford to do this.

In the UCL, they had an easy path to the final. Barcelona and Inter Milan were already eliminated, Real Madrid has Mbappe and Bellingham to destroy a good team spirit, and Bayern and PSG will thankfully eliminate one of the other, so Arsenal only has to beat one of them. But the winner of that tie will be the favourite because their attacking football is so irresistable.

But they have one foot in the UCL final, and could be looking at a great double. In the 22 years that Arsenal have not won the premier league, there have been relatively few title challenges. They were mostly content to take a champions league place. The title challenge of 08 fizzled out after the traumatic leg break of Eduardo and Gallas' tantrum. Then in 11, a promising season fizzled out after their nemesis Birmingham City upset them in the league cup final. And to add insult to injury, they lost 8-2 to Man U in the opener of the next season. (Although to their credit, they went out and bought Arteta the next day). There were good half seasons followed by collapses. There was 2016, when they beat Leicester City home and away, and after that, they celebrated, even though there was nothing to celebrate other than getting a title challenge back on track. They subsequently collapsed and left it to Tottenham to do the chasing. They had nothing to show in these 22 years other than 1 UCL final, 1 Europa league final, and a few FA cups.

25 26 is that season that resembles 2016, where the traditional title challengers are hibernating. Man U's rebuilding stalled when Ruben Amorim refused to change his tactics. Liverpool bought expensively and failed to make their squad gel as much as they should have (and maybe they were also mourning Diogo Jota). Man City were only putting the final pieces on their rebuild, although they did transition from a side that tried to park the bus against Arsenal to a free flowing and attacking side, although they'll now have to replace Bernardo Silva and John Stones.

The next few matches will determine their season. They look easy, but they've already slipped on a few banana peels. They do not have the luxury of slipping on any more. The next 2 matches are against Atletico Madrid at home, which is winnable but it is never easy against them. West Ham looks easy but it is a must win for West Ham in order to avoid relegation. Then Burnley and Crystal Palace look easy but Arsenal must not slip up. And if Arsenal are in the UCL final, then it will be against the side which can score goals for fun. 4 or 5 matches to define their season. If Arsenal win trophies, it will be one of their greatest ever seasons. If they don't then everything will be harder next year.

What I do remember about supporting a team which wins the title is what winning feels like. It feels like a steady march. Milestones go by, targets get hit. Lesser teams get swatted aside. There is this anticipation, this intense fixation against the teams they have to face. I still remember that during the 93 and 94 Malaysia cup and league seasons, people were anxiously studying the stronger sides like Kedah, Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang. I remember the live commentary on the radio.

Football is ergodic. That is mathematics speak for saying that every possibility will come up. We've seen improbable things. Mourinho is still celebrated for the last 2 times when dark horses won the UCL – in Porto and Inter. Man U got transformed from a juggernaut to a struggling team in the middle of maybe 2-3 decades of league title drought. Leicester City won a league, an FA cup, and then 2 relegations. Brentford / Bournemouth / Brighton are the new mid table sides. Bolton / Charlton / Stoke / Birmingham were the old mid table sides.

Southampton, Sunderland, Coventry and Ipswich have made returns to the premier league after long absences. Tottenham could still get relegated 1 season after breaking a trophy drought. Everton could escape relegation after a fight. Liverpool could break one of the most infamous league droughts of all time. West Ham, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Middlesborough, Wigan and Crystal Palace could win trophies.

We could witness Hearts winning the Scottish League, and the first time since Alex Ferguson that a team not from Glasgow did it.