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The 1993–94 FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the second season of the FA Premier League, the top division of professional football in England. Manchester United won the league by eight points over nearest challengers Blackburn Rovers, their second consecutive league title. Swindon Town finished bottom of the league in their first season of top-flight football and were relegated along with Sheffield United and Oldham Athletic. Manchester United also broke their own record of the most points in a season, set by themselves the previous season. This would be surpassed by Chelsea in the 2004–05 season.

Overview

New league sponsors

From the start of the 1993–94 season, the FA Premier League was sponsored by Carling Breweries.

Transfers

Just before the start of the season, Roy Keane became the most expensive footballer signed by an English football team. The 22-year-old Irish midfielder left relegated Nottingham Forest for Manchester United for a fee of £3.75 million.

During the 1993–94 season, many players were transferred between Premier League clubs for fees exceeding £1 million. They included David White (Manchester City to Leeds United), David Rocastle (Leeds United to Manchester City), Roy Wegerle (Blackburn Rovers to Coventry City) and Tim Flowers (Southampton to Blackburn Rovers). At £2.5 million, Flowers became the most expensive goalkeeper in English football.

Summary

Manchester United led the 1993–94 Premier League for almost all of the season, eventually finishing as champions eight points ahead of runners-up Blackburn Rovers. They also won the FA Cup after beating Chelsea 4–0 in the final, thereby becoming only the fourth team to achieve this feat in the 20th century (after Tottenham in 1961, Arsenal in 1971 and Liverpool in 1986). Their lead of the Premier League stood at 11 points by the end of October and peaked at 16 points at one stage, but a run of bad results in March was followed by defeat at Blackburn at the beginning of April, which meant that they now led the league merely on goal difference. A return to form towards the end of April then saw United seal the league title with two games still to play.

Norwich City, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Everton and Aston Villa were among the sides who showed promise early in the season before Manchester United established a runaway lead. Norwich reached the third round of the UEFA Cup after famously beating Bayern Munich in the second round, but their league form slumped after manager Mike Walker departed to Everton in January, and the Norfolk side finished 12th. Everton's brief lead of the league in the opening stages of the season was followed by a slump in form, and manager Howard Kendall stepped down at the beginning of December with the Toffees now in the bottom half of the table. They only narrowly avoided relegation on the final day of the season. Aston Villa finished a disappointing 10th in the league, but won the Football League Cup for the fourth time.

Finishing runners-up in the Premier League were Blackburn Rovers, whose top scorer Alan Shearer found the net 31 times in the league. In third place came Newcastle United, whose 22-year-old striker Andy Cole was the Premier League's leading scorer with 34 goals in 40 games, with a total of 41 goals in all competitions. In fourth place came Arsenal, who achieved success in European competition with a 1–0 win over Parma in the Cup Winners' Cup final.

Swindon Town managed just five league wins all season and were relegated in bottom place having conceded 100 league goals in 42 games; their record for the most goals conceded in a Premier League season would last for three decades before it was surpassed by Sheffield United in 2024. Oldham Athletic, who had avoided relegation on goal difference the previous season, were relegated on the final day of the season after failing to win at Norwich City. The final relegation place went to Sheffield United, who were relegated from the top flight after a 3–2 defeat at Chelsea, with the winning goal coming in injury time (a draw would have been enough to survive, and a loss would have still been enough had Everton not won their final match, 3–2 at home to Wimbledon after coming from 0–2 down). Ipswich Town, who failed to win any of their final 11 games, avoided relegation by holding Blackburn to a goalless draw at Ewood Park, and were less than a minute from being relegated, only to be saved by Chelsea’s late win over Sheffield United.

Teams

Twenty-two teams competed in the league—the top nineteen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the First Division. The promoted teams were Newcastle United, West Ham United and Swindon Town. Newcastle United and West Ham United returned to the top flight after absences of four and one year, respectively, while Swindon Town played in the top flight for the first and only time. They replaced Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest, who were relegated to the First Division after their top flight spells of four, one and sixteen years, respectively.

Stadiums and locations

1. Due to Wimbledon lacking a home stadium, they played their home games at Selhurst Park, which is the home stadium of Crystal Palace.

Personnel and kits

(as of 8 May 1994)

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	George Graham	Tony Adams	Adidas	JVC
Aston Villa	Ron Atkinson	Kevin Richardson	Asics	Müller
Blackburn Rovers	Kenny Dalglish	Tim Sherwood	Asics	McEwan's Lager
Chelsea	Glenn Hoddle	Dennis Wise	Umbro	Amiga
Coventry City	Phil Neal	Brian Borrows	Ribero	Peugeot
Everton	Mike Walker	Dave Watson	Umbro	NEC
Ipswich Town	John Lyall	Steve Palmer	Umbro	Fisons
Leeds United	Howard Wilkinson	Gordon Strachan	Asics	Thistle Hotels
Liverpool	Roy Evans	Ian Rush	Adidas	Carlsberg
Manchester City	Brian Horton	Keith Curle	Umbro	Brother
Manchester United	Alex Ferguson	Bryan Robson	Umbro	Sharp
Newcastle United	Kevin Keegan	Peter Beardsley	Asics	McEwan's Lager
Norwich City	John Deehan	Ian Butterworth	Ribero	Norwich and Peterborough
Oldham Athletic	Joe Royle	Mike Milligan	Umbro	JD Sports
Queens Park Rangers	Gerry Francis	David Bardsley	Clubhouse	CSF
Sheffield United	Dave Bassett	Brian Gayle	Umbro	Laver
Sheffield Wednesday	Trevor Francis	Chris Waddle	Puma	Sanderson
Southampton	Alan Ball	Matt Le Tissier	Pony	Dimplex
Swindon Town	John Gorman	Shaun Taylor	Loki	Burmah
Tottenham Hotspur	Osvaldo Ardiles	Gary Mabbutt	Umbro	Holsten
West Ham United	Billy Bonds	Steve Potts	Pony	Dagenham Motors
Wimbledon	Joe Kinnear	Vinnie Jones	Ribero	LBC

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Chelsea	David Webb	End of caretaker spell	11 May 1993	Pre-season	Glenn Hoddle	4 June 1993
Ipswich Town	John Lyall	Promoted to Director of Football	30 May 1993		Mick McGiven	1 June 1993
Swindon Town	Glenn Hoddle	Signed by Chelsea	4 June 1993		John Gorman	4 June 1993
Tottenham Hotspur	Doug Livermore Ray Clemence	Sacked	19 June 1993		Osvaldo Ardiles	19 June 1993
Manchester City	Peter Reid	Sacked	26 August 1993	20th	Tony Book (caretaker)	27 August 1993
	Tony Book	End of caretaker spell	28 August 1993	17th	Brian Horton	28 August 1993
Coventry City	Bobby Gould	Resigned	23 October 1993	14th	Phil Neal	23 October 1993
Everton	Howard Kendall		4 December 1993	13th	Jimmy Gabriel (caretaker)	4 December 1993
	Jimmy Gabriel	End of caretaker spell	6 January 1994	19th	Mike Walker	6 January 1994
Norwich City	Mike Walker	Signed by Everton		8th	John Deehan
Southampton	Ian Branfoot	Sacked	10 January 1994	21st	Dave Merrington (caretaker)	10 January 1994
	Dave Merrington	End of caretaker spell	20 January 1994	20th	Alan Ball	20 January 1994
Liverpool	Graeme Souness	Sacked	28 January 1994	5th	Roy Evans	30 January 1994
Ipswich Town	Mick McGiven	Became assistant manager	15 February 1994	14th	John Lyall	16 February 1994

League table

1. Arsenal qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as the defending champions.
2. Aston Villa qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners.
3. Chelsea qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup runners-up, as winners Manchester United qualified for the Champions League.

Results

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Andy Cole	Newcastle United	34
2	Alan Shearer	Blackburn Rovers	31
3	Matt Le Tissier	Southampton	25
	Chris Sutton	Norwich City
5	Ian Wright	Arsenal	23
6	Peter Beardsley	Newcastle United	21
7	Mark Bright	Sheffield Wednesday	19
8	Eric Cantona	Manchester United	18
9	Dean Holdsworth	Wimbledon	17
	Rod Wallace	Leeds United
10	Tony Cottee	Everton	16
	Les Ferdinand	Queens Park Rangers

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Micky Quinn	Coventry City	Arsenal	3–0 (A)	14 August 1993
Tony Cottee	Everton	Sheffield United	4–2 (H)	21 August 1993
Kevin Campbell	Arsenal	Ipswich Town	4–0 (H)	11 September 1993
Efan Ekoku	Norwich City	Everton	5–1 (A)	25 September 1993
Alan Shearer	Blackburn Rovers	Leeds United	3–3 (A)	23 October 1993
Peter Beardsley	Newcastle United	Wimbledon	4–0 (H)	30 October 1993
Robbie Fowler	Liverpool	Southampton	4–2 (H)
Bradley Allen	Queens Park Rangers	Everton	3–0 (A)	20 November 1993
Andy Cole	Newcastle United	Liverpool	3–0 (H)	21 November 1993
Kevin Campbell	Arsenal	Swindon Town	4–0 (A)	27 December 1993
Tony Cottee	Everton		6–2 (H)	15 January 1994
Jan Åge Fjørtoft	Swindon Town	Coventry City	3–1 (H)	5 February 1994
Dean Saunders	Aston Villa	Swindon Town	5–0 (H)	12 February 1994
Matt Le Tissier	Southampton	Liverpool	4–2 (H)	14 February 1994
Andy Cole	Newcastle United	Coventry City	4–0 (H)	23 February 1994
Ian Wright	Arsenal	Ipswich Town	5–1 (A)	5 March 1994
		Southampton	4–0 (A)	19 March 1994
Matt Le Tissier	Southampton	Norwich City	5–4 (A)	9 April 1994
Dean Holdsworth	Wimbledon	Oldham Athletic	3–0 (H)	26 April 1994

Note: – player scored 4 goals; (H) – Home; (A) – Away

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	David Seaman	Arsenal	19
2	Peter Schmeichel	Manchester United	15
3	Luděk Mikloško	West Ham United	14
4	Tim Flowers	Southampton	13
5	Dmitri Kharine	Chelsea	11
	Steve Ogrizovic	Coventry City
	Hans Segers	Wimbledon
	Neville Southall	Everton
9	Tony Coton	Manchester City	10
	Craig Forrest	Ipswich Town
	Bryan Gunn	Norwich City

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 10
  • Dane Whitehouse (Sheffield United)

• Most red cards: 2
  • Eric Cantona (Manchester United)
  • Chris Makin (Oldham Athletic)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 44
  • Sheffield United

• Fewest yellow cards: 12
  • Coventry City

• Most red cards: 4
  • Oldham Athletic
  • Sheffield United

• Fewest red cards: 0
  • Blackburn Rovers
  • Coventry City
  • Everton
  • Ipswich Town
  • Leeds United
  • Manchester City
  • Wimbledon

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		References
	Manager	Club
August	Alex Ferguson	Manchester United
September	Joe Kinnear	Wimbledon
October	Mike Walker	Norwich City
November	Kevin Keegan	Newcastle United
December	Trevor Francis	Sheffield Wednesday
January	Kenny Dalglish	Blackburn Rovers
February	Joe Royle	Oldham Athletic
March	Joe Kinnear	Wimbledon
April

Annual awards

Flowers Kelly Pallister Adams Irwin Ince McAllister Batty Shearer Cantona Beardsley PFA Team of the Year

Award	Winner	Club
Premier League Manager of the Season	Alex Ferguson	Manchester United
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Eric Cantona
PFA Young Player of the Year	Andy Cole	Newcastle United
FWA Footballer of the Year	Alan Shearer	Blackburn Rovers

PFA Team of the Year
Goalkeeper	Tim Flowers (Blackburn Rovers)
Defenders	Gary Kelly (Leeds United)			Gary Pallister (Manchester United)			Tony Adams (Arsenal)			Denis Irwin (Manchester United)
Midfielders	Paul Ince (Manchester United)				Gary McAllister (Leeds United)				David Batty (Blackburn Rovers)
Forwards	Alan Shearer (Blackburn Rovers)				Eric Cantona (Manchester United)				Peter Beardsley (Newcastle United)

See also

• 1993–94 in English football

References and notes

1. ^ "English Premier League 1993–94". statto.com. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
2. ^ "Match Report". Retrieved 14 March 2017.
3. ^ "Premier League 1994/1995 – Attendances - Home matches". WorldFootball.net. 3 March 2024. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
4. "Premier League Player Stats - Goals". Premier League. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
5. "On this week..." Coventry City F.C. 17 August 2007. Archived from the original on 8 December 2008. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
6. Dobson, Frank (22 August 1993). "Football: Cottee hits heights". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
7. "Arsenal 4–0 Ipswich". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 17 May 2005. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
8. "Everton 1–5 Norwich". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
9. Winter, Henry (24 October 1993). "Leeds upstage Shearer show". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
10. "Newcastle 4–0 MK Dons". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
11. "Liverpool 4–0 Southampton". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 27 August 2005. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
12. Houston, Bob (21 November 1993). "Football: Everton lose dignity". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
13. Culley, Jon (22 November 1993). "Football: Cole collects hat-trick to humble Liverpool: Strikers display their talents as Newcastle's passing game destroys weakened visitors and West Bromwich are punished for errors". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
14. "GGG35: Ian Wright v Swindon Town, 1993". Arsenal F.C. Archived from the original on 24 July 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
15. "Everton 6–0 Swindon". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
16. Slot, Owen (6 February 1994). "Football: The age of Fjortoft". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
17. Houston, Bob (13 February 1994). "Football: Sizzling Saunders". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
18. Haylett, Trevor (15 February 1994). "Football: Le Tissier sets up the rout of poor Liverpool". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
19. Dobson, Frank (24 February 1994). "Football: Newcastle lifted by brilliant Cole: Familiar figure helps youthful Magpies return to winning ways". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
20. "On this day in ..." Arsenal F.C. Archived from the original on 24 October 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
21. Slot, Owen (20 March 1994). "Football: Wright floors revivalists". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
22. Culley, Jon (10 April 1994). "Football: Le Tissier hat-trick keeps Saints afloat". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2009.
23. "MK Dons 3–0 Oldham". Soccerbase. 25 September 1993. Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
24. "Premier League Player Stats – Clean Sheets". Premier League. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
25. "Premier League Player Stats – Yellow Cards". PremierLeague.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
26. "Premier League Player Stats – Red Cards". PremierLeague.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
27. ^ "Premier League Club Stats – Yellow Cards". PremierLeague.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
28. ^ "Premier League Club Stats – Red Cards". PremierLeague.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
29. ^ "Carling Premiership Manager of the Month 1993/94". Premier League. Archived from the original on 9 December 2006.
30. "Alex Ferguson Manager Profile, Record & Stats | Premier League". Premier League. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
31. England Player Honours – Professional Footballers' Association Players' Players of the Year
32. England Player Honours – Professional Footballers' Association Young Players of the Year
33. England Player Honours – Football Writers' Association Footballers of the Year
34. Lynch, Tony (October 1995). The Official P.F.A. Footballers Heroes. Random House UK. p. 150. ISBN 978-0091791353.

External links

• League and cup results for all the 1993/94 Premier Division clubs at footballsite
• 1993–94 Premier League Season at RSSSF

• 1993–94 FA Premier League
• Premier League seasons
• 1993–94 in European association football leagues
• 1993–94 in English football leagues