The 1997–98 season was the 118th season of competitive football in England.
Overview
Premier League Arsenal overhauled Manchester United's lead during the final weeks of the season to win the Premiership title. They added the FA Cup two weeks later to become only the second English club to repeat the double.
All three newly promoted teams – Bolton Wanderers, Barnsley and Crystal Palace – were relegated after just one season in the Premiership.
Everton endured their most difficult season for some 50 years. They finished 17th in the Premiership and only avoided relegation because they had a stronger goal difference than 18th-placed Bolton, although Bolton had a goal wrongfully disallowed against Everton in the first ever match played at The Reebok Stadium. Manager Howard Kendall's third reign at the helm came to an end soon afterwards and he was replaced by Walter Smith.
Leeds United and Blackburn Rovers made good progress in the Premiership and achieved UEFA Cup qualification.
Division One Champions Nottingham Forest and runners-up Middlesbrough won promotion back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. Charlton Athletic won the playoffs to end an eight-year absence from the top flight.
Reading were relegated in bottom place. They were joined on the last day of the season by Manchester City and Stoke City. The blue half of Manchester endured relegation to the third tier of the English league for the first time in its history, despite beating also doomed Stoke 5–2 away on the last day of the season, but neither fans took lightly to relegation, as mass football violence outside outshone the match. Portsmouth and Port Vale won their games to avoid the drop.
Division Two Graham Taylor's second spell as manager brought instant success as Watford won the Division Two championship. They were joined by runners-up Bristol City and playoff winners Grimsby Town.
Going down to Division Three were Brentford, Plymouth Argyle, Carlisle United and Southend United. Brentford had been losing playoff finalists just 12 months earlier, Plymouth had been promoted to Division Two just two seasons earlier, Carlisle were newly promoted and Southend had endured their second successive relegation.
Division Three In their first season as a Football League club, Macclesfield Town finished runners-up in Division Three to gain their second successive promotion, a year after winning the Conference. They were joined by champions Notts County, who won the title by 17 points and became the first team since World War II to secure promotion in March, third-placed Lincoln City and playoff winners Colchester United.
Doncaster Rovers suffered an English league record of 34 defeats and won just four games to lose their league status. They were replaced by Conference champions Halifax Town, who regained their league status five years after losing it.
FA Cup Arsenal became only the second club to have won two doubles after they beat Newcastle United 2–0 and added the FA Cup to their Premiership title triumph.
League Cup Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2–0 to give new manager Gianluca Vialli his first major trophy just weeks after being appointed.
Award winners and statistical leaders Dennis Bergkamp played in Arsenal's double-winning team and was voted both PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year.
Liverpool's 18-year-old striker Michael Owen scored 18 Premiership goals and became the youngest England player of the 20th century. He was voted PFA Young Player of the Year. Owen shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Chris Sutton of Blackburn Rovers and Coventry City's Dion Dublin.
Owen's Liverpool teammate Steve McManaman had 12 assists in the league, placing him behind Manchester United's David Beckham, who was the top goal assists maker in the league.
Successful managers Arsène Wenger won his first major trophy as Arsenal manager by guiding them to Premiership and FA Cup glory.
Gianluca Vialli, 33, kicked off his management career by winning the League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup with Chelsea.
Alan Curbishley finally succeeded in getting Charlton promoted to the Premiership after seven seasons of trying on limited resources.
Dave Bassett succeeded in getting Nottingham Forest promoted back to the Premiership at the first time of asking.
Bryan Robson returned Middlesbrough to the Premiership as Division One runners-up, as well as taking them to runners-up spot in the League Cup.
Graham Taylor began his second spell as Watford manager by winning the Division Two championship and giving his club their first successful season since they were league runners-up back in 1983.
Sammy McIlroy achieved a second successive promotion for Macclesfield Town in their first season of league football.
Alan Buckley achieved promotion for Grimsby Town after their relegation from Division One. Also took the team to Wembley for the first time in its history to win the Associate Members Cup against AFC Bournemouth.
Sam Allardyce took Notts County to the Division Three title with 99 points, the highest tally in any division this season.
Shane Westley won promotion to Division Two just weeks after taking over as manager of Lincoln City.
George Mulhall, 62, returned Halifax Town to the Football League as Conference champions five years after they had been demoted.
Events
Double glory for Arsenal and Chelsea Arsenal equalled Manchester United's record of two league championship and FA Cup doubles when they overhauled Alex Ferguson's men in the Premiership title race and beat Kenny Dalglish's Newcastle United in the FA Cup final in Arsène Wenger's second season at Highbury.
Chelsea completed the other half of the London double by beating Middlesbrough in the League Cup final and VFB Stuttgart in the Cup Winners Cup final, within three months of 33-year-old striker Gianluca Vialli taking over as player-manager after Ruud Gullit was sacked for arguing about transfer funds with chairman Ken Bates.
Stoke and Man City relegated
Manchester City were relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history. City had started the Division One campaign badly and manager Frank Clark (footballer) was sacked in March, with former Everton manager Joe Royle being appointed as his successor. City went into their final game of the season at Stoke, with both sides knowing that they had to win to stand any chance of avoiding relegation. In the end City won 5–2, but both teams were relegated because Portsmouth and Port Vale won their games. Stoke were relegated in the first season of their new home, the Britannia Stadium.
National team
In October 1997, England achieved automatic qualification for the 1998 World Cup after drawing 0–0 in Rome with Italy, who then had to navigate a two-leg playoff. The following February, Michael Owen became the youngest-ever England international when he played in the nation's 2–0 defeat against Chile.
England took on Argentina in the Second Round of the World Cup in France, with a goal by 18-year-old striker Michael Owen giving them an early lead. The score was 2–2 with 45 minutes played, and early in the second half Diego Simeone fouled David Beckham and sent the 23-year-old midfielder falling to the ground. Beckham, still lying on the ground, reacted by kicking Simeone in the shins and was sent off. The game finished 2–2, and England lost the resultant penalty shoot-out after David Batty and Paul Ince's shots were saved. The trophy was finally won by hosts France.
Women's football
Women's Premier League
National Division
Northern Division
Southern Division
FA Women's Cup
Final
FA Women's Premier League Cup
Famous debutants
8 August 1997: Robbie Keane, 17-year-old striker, scores on his debut for Wolverhampton Wanderers against Norwich City in Division One. On the same day, defender Paul Konchesky makes his debut for Charlton Athletic and becomes their youngest ever player in a competitive match, just 93 days after his 16th birthday.
10 January 1998: Aaron Hughes, 17-year-old defender, makes his debut for Newcastle United their 2–1 away defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in the Premier League.
2 May 1998: Wes Brown, 18-year-old central defender, made his debut for Manchester United as a substitute against Leeds United in the penultimate game of the Premier League season.
2 May 1998: Gareth Barry, 17-year-old Central defender, made his debut for Aston Villa against Sheffield Wednesday in the Premier League
Honours CompetitionWinnerFA Premier LeagueArsenal (11/1)FA CupArsenal (7)Football League CupChelsea (2)Football League First DivisionNottingham ForestFootball League Second DivisionWatfordFootball League Third DivisionNotts CountyFA Community ShieldManchester United
Notes = Number in parentheses is the times that club has won that honour (First Division & Premier League). Number after slash is Premier League only. * indicates new record for competition
League tables
FA Premier League
Arsène Wenger became the first foreign manager to win an English top division title when his Arsenal side went on a storming run in the second half of the season to overhaul a Manchester United side who had looked uncatchable until well into March. Liverpool, inspired by brilliant teenager striker Michael Owen, managed a third-place finish, while fourth place went to a Chelsea side who enjoyed their first top-five finish since 1990 and also added the League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup to their honours list soon after Ruud Gullit was suddenly sacked in favour of Gianluca Vialli. Leeds United finished fifth to earn a return to European competition after two difficult seasons, while Blackburn Rovers also qualified for the UEFA Cup with a sixth-place finish, as did seventh placed Aston Villa whose new manager John Gregory had taken them from the fringe of a relegation battle in the space of three months.
Newcastle United, handicapped by the pre-season departures of Les Ferdinand and David Ginola, as well as the injury-enforced absence of Alan Shearer in the first half of the season, endured a disappointing season in the league as they finished 13th. Ferdinand and Ginola's new club Tottenham could only manage a 14th-place finish.
Going down were all three newly promoted clubs; Crystal Palace, Barnsley and Bolton Wanderers. It was the first occasion when all three newly promoted clubs were relegated from any division, and would not occur again until 2024. Barnsley remains the most recent of six clubs that so far have only completed one season in the top flight.The others are Glossop North End in 1899–1900, Leyton Orient in 1962–63, Northampton Town in 1965–66, Carlisle United in 1974–75 and Swindon Town in 1993–94.
Everton, who had been in the top flight since 1954, only survived relegation on goal difference.
Leading goalscorers: Dion Dublin (Coventry City), Michael Owen (Liverpool), and Chris Sutton (Blackburn Rovers) – 18
First Division The three sides that had been relegated from the Premier League the previous year would (in reverse order) make up the top three teams in Division One this season, resulting in Nottingham Forest being promoted as champions and Middlesbrough as runners-up. The play-offs were won by Charlton Athletic, who beat Sunderland (the third side that were relegated from the previous season's Premier League) in one of the most exciting play-off finals to date, in order to avoid the first-ever feat of a carbon copy of the same teams competing in the Premier League.
FA Cup semi-finalists Wolves missed out on the playoffs, while their local rivals Birmingham only missed out by a single goal – the closest the St Andrew's side had come to reclaiming their top flight place since losing it in 1986. Stockport County finished eighth in their first season at this level for decades, while Crewe Alexandra finished eleventh in their first second tier campaign since 1895–96.