Ranking the biggest Premier League title slip-ups
Norwich City , meanwhile, found themselves as unlikely leaders for 129 days of the inaugural Premier League season, despite having finished fifth-bottom the year before and sold striker Robert Fleck to Chelsea for a club record £2m. Reinvesting that in Mark Robins and Efan Ekoku, with a young Chris Sutton emerging at Carrow Road, the Canaries led until matchday 26, before an Eric Cantona-inspired Manchester United ploughed a route to the top. Norwich finished third.
Liverpool , in their pursuit of a first Premier League title, put up almost the perfect season in 2018-19, reaching 97 points, then the third-highest total in Premier League history. Their problem was that Manchester City went one better. Jurgen Klopp's rock'n'roll Reds racked up 30 wins and topped the league for 141 days - only five teams have spent longer there without winning it - while City were 10 points adrift in December.
But Liverpool 's one defeat of the league season came at City - John Stones making a famously crucial goal-line clearance - and that effectively decided the title. Four draws in six soon after that proved damaging, and not even nine wins in a row to close the league campaign was enough. Arsene Wenger's Arsenal managed to pass up almost identical leads five years apart in the 2000s, though Gunners fans could bathe in the glory of their Invincibles season in-between.
Wenger predicted an unbeaten campaign soon after he won the double in 2002, branding Arsenal 's triumph "a shift in power" after clinching the title at Old Trafford. 'Le Professeur' and his team spent almost five months on top the following term. United, though, put four past Liverpool and six past Newcastle to edge in front - while Arsenal were held at Villa - before a Highbury meeting in mid-April.
Theirry Henry scored twice after Ruud van Nistelrooy's opener, but Ryan Giggs, top to tail in blue, stooped to make it 2-2 in a classic under the lights. United never looked back, while Arsenal fumbled points against Bolton and Leeds . Arsenal and United played out a classic at Higbury in 2003, but a draw was not enough for the Gunners In 2008, now at the Emirates and with their Invincibles core gone, a fresh-looking Arsenal had lost just once by March and spent 156 days on top of the table.