The 2006–07 FA Premier League (known as the FA Barclays Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th season of the FA Premier League since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 19 August 2006 and concluded on 13 May 2007. On 12 February 2007, the FA Premier League renamed itself simply the Premier League, complete with new logo, sleeve patches and typeface. The sponsored name remains the Barclays Premier League. Manchester United ended the season as Premiership champions for the ninth time in fifteen years, after

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

failed to win against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on 6 May 2007. This left them seven points behind United, with two games to go, confirming the Manchester club as champions once more. The three relegation spots were occupied by

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

who each lasted one season in the league, along with

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

who went down after seven seasons.

Teams

Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. The promoted teams were

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

(playing in the top flight for the first time ever),

(playing top flight football for the first time in twelve years) and

(returning after a six-year absence). They replaced

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

and Sunderland, ending their top flight spells of four, two and one year respectively.

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and kits

(as of 13 May 2007)

Managerial changes

League table

Results

Season statistics

Scoring

*Biggest win: 6 goals – Reading 6–0 West Ham United (''1 January 2007'') *Highest scoring match: 8 goals – Arsenal 6–2 Blackburn Rovers *First goal: Rob Hulse for Sheffield United against Liverpool (''19 August 2006'') *Last goal: Harry Kewell ( pen.) for Liverpool against Charlton Athletic (''13 May 2007'')

Overall

*Most wins: 28 – Manchester United *Fewest wins: 5 – Watford *Most losses: 21 – West Ham United *Fewest losses: 3 – Chelsea *Most goals scored: 83 – Manchester United *Fewest goals scored: 29 – Manchester City and Watford *Most goals conceded: 60 – Fulham and Charlton Athletic *Fewest goals conceded: 24 – Chelsea

Home

*Most wins: 15 – Manchester United *Fewest wins: 3 – Watford *Most losses: 10 – Wigan Athletic *Fewest losses: 0 – Chelsea *Most goals scored: 46 – Manchester United *Fewest goals scored: 10 – Manchester City *Most goals conceded: 30 – Wigan Athletic *Fewest goals conceded: 7 – Liverpool

Away

*Most wins: 13 – Manchester United *Fewest wins: 1 – Fulham and Charlton Athletic *Most losses: 14 – Sheffield United *Fewest losses: 3 – Manchester United and Chelsea *Most goals scored: 37 – Manchester United *Fewest goals scored: 8 – Sheffield United *Most goals conceded: 42 – Fulham *Fewest goals conceded: 13 – Chelsea

Statistics

Goals

Historic goals

15,000th goal

The Premier League expected to have the league's 15,000th goal scored at some point in the period between Christmas and New Year. The target was reached on 30 December when Moritz Volz scored for Fulham against Chelsea. Barclays, the Premiership's sponsor, donated £15,000 to the Fulham Community Sports Trust in Volz' name. Additionally, a fan who correctly predicted that Volz would score the historic goal in a contest presented the player with a special award prior to Fulham's game against Watford at Craven Cottage on 1 January. The honour of scoring the 15,000th goal led to Volz being nicknamed "15,000 Volz".

Goalkeeper scores

On 17 March 2007, Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Paul Robinson scored against Watford from an 83-yard free kick, which bounced over his

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

teammate Ben Foster, who was in goal for the Hornets, leading Spurs to a 3–1 win at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

. This was the third goal scored by a goalkeeper in Premiership history. The other two were scored by

Peter Schmeichel Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, for Aston Villa against Everton on 21 October 2001, and Brad Friedel, for Blackburn Rovers against Charlton Athletic on 21 February 2004. In those two cases, the teams they played for lost. Robinson became the first keeper to score for the winning team in a Premiership match.

Relegation controversy

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

escaped relegation on the final day of the season with a 1–0 win over Manchester United, with

Carlos Tevez Carlos Alberto Tevez (; born 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. A quick, tenacious, powerful, hard-working and dynamic forward in his prime, Tevez was capable of playing as a striker, as a wing ...

scoring the winner.

were relegated, along with Charlton and

. Tevez was subsequently found to have been ineligible to play, as he was not owned by West Ham, but by a third party. Sheffield United sued to keep their Premier League status and, when that failed, went to an FA arbitration panel seeking up to £30m compensation. The arbitration panel found in favour of Sheffield United. The two clubs subsequently settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Monthly awards

Annual awards

This season's awards were dominated by Manchester United, who, as a team, picked up a total of eight individual awards, five of which went to

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

. They also had eight players in the Team of the Year.

PFA Players' Player of the Year

The

PFA Players' Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Men's Players' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Men's Players' Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year, or simply the Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is ...

award for 2007 was won by

. He had won the PFA Young Player of the Year award earlier on in the awards ceremony, making him the first player to win both awards in the same year since Andy Gray managed the same feat in 1977. Didier Drogba came second, while Paul Scholes was third. The shortlist for the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, in alphabetical order, is as follows: * Didier Drogba (Chelsea) *

Cesc Fàbregas Francesc "Cesc" Fàbregas Soler (; ; born 4 May 1987) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Italian Serie B club Como. Fàbregas came through ''La Masia'', Barcelona's youth academy, leaving at 16 when ...

(Arsenal) * Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) * Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) *

(Manchester United) * Paul Scholes (Manchester United)

PFA Young Player of the Year

The

PFA Young Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year (often called the PFA Young Player of the Year, or simply the Young Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the s ...

award was also won by

of Manchester United. Cesc Fàbregas came in second place, and Aaron Lennon was third. Wayne Rooney was going for a hat-trick of Young Player of the Year awards, having won this award for both of the two preceding seasons, but didn't even feature in the top three for the 2006–07 season. The shortlist for the award was as follows: *

Kevin Doyle Kevin Edward Doyle (born 18 September 1983) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played for Wexford F.C. (formerly Wexford Youths), St Patrick's Athletic, and Cork City in his homeland before he moved to Eng ...

(Reading) *

(Arsenal) *

Aaron Lennon Aaron Justin Lennon (; born 16 April 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger. Lennon began his career at hometown club Leeds United, making his first-team debut in 2003 and becoming the youngest player to play ...

(Tottenham Hotspur) *

Micah Richards Micah Lincoln Richards (born 24 June 1988) is an English former professional footballer, sports pundit for Sky Sports and BBC Sport, and as an ambassador of Manchester City. As a player, he was a right back who played in the Premier League and ...

( Man City) *

(Manchester United) *

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while ...

(Manchester United)

PFA Team of the Year

Goalkeeper:

Edwin van der Sar Edwin van der Sar (; born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch football executive and former professional player who is currently the chief executive of AFC Ajax, with whom he began his senior playing career in the early 1990s; he is considered to be a m ...

(Manchester United)
Defence: Gary Neville,

Patrice Evra Patrice Latyr Evra (; born 15 May 1981) is a French football coach and former professional player. Originally a forward, he primarily played as a left-back. Evra served as captain for both Manchester United and the France national team. His ...

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and w ...

Nemanja Vidić Nemanja Vidić ( sr-Cyrl, Немања Видић, ; born 21 October 1981) is a Serbian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is best known for his time at Manchester United, was part of the Serbia national team, and ...

(all Manchester United)
Midfield: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs,

(all Manchester United)
Attack: Didier Drogba (Chelsea),

Dimitar Berbatov Dimitar Ivanov Berbatov ( bg, Димитър Иванов Бербатов; born 30 January 1981) is a Bulgarian former professional footballer. A striker, he captained the Bulgaria national team from 2006 to 2010, and is the country's all-ti ...

(Tottenham Hotspur)

PFA Merit Award

The PFA Merit Award was awarded to Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United, for his commitment to the club, the Premiership, and as recognition of the nineteen major trophies he has won in his time in England.

PFA Fans' Player of the Year

This award was voted for in an online poll run by the PFA on their website. With four days of voting left before the closing date of midnight on 15 April, the five players with the most votes in the poll were

, Steven Gerrard,

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best player ...

and Frank Lampard, but it was Ronaldo who managed to fend off the challenges of the other four.

FWA Footballer of the Year

The

FWA Footballer of the Year The Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year (often called the FWA Footballer of the Year, or in England simply the Footballer of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the season in ...

award for 2007 was also won by Cristiano Ronaldo. The award is presented by the

Football Writers' Association The Football Writers' Association (FWA) is an association of football journalists and correspondents writing for English newspapers and agencies. It presents the Footballer of the Year Award, the oldest and most distinguished award given in the d ...

and voted for by its members. This year, Didier Drogba came second and Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes came third and fourth respectively.

Premier League Manager of the Season

The

Premier League Manager of the Season The Premier League Manager of the Season is an annual association football award presented to managers in England. It recognises the most outstanding manager in the Premier League each season. The recipient is chosen by a panel assembled by the l ...

award was presented to Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson before the club's final game of the season against West Ham United.

Premier League Player of the Season

The

Premier League Player of the Season The Premier League Player of the Season is an annual association football award presented to players in England, which recognises the most outstanding player in the Premier League each season. The recipient is chosen by a panel assembled by the ...

award was also presented before Manchester United's game with West Ham United on the last day of the season, and was awarded to

, granting him the sextuple of PFA Players' Player, Young Player, Fans' Player of the Year, Barclays Premiership Player of the Season, Football Writers' Association Player of the Year and a place in the Team of the Year.

Premier League Merit Award

Ryan Giggs was presented with this special award at the same time as the Manager and Player of the Season Awards were given out, in recognition of his record of nine Premier League titles.

Premier League Golden Glove

The

Premier League Golden Glove The Premier League Golden Glove is an annual association football award presented to the goalkeeper who has kept the most clean sheets in the Premier League. In football a team's defense or goalkeeper may be said to "keep a clean sheet" if the ...

award was presented to Liverpool's

Pepe Reina José Manuel "Pepe" Reina Páez (; born 31 August 1982) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Villarreal. The son of famed Barcelona and Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Miguel Reina, Pepe Reina began his ...

for the second successive season after keeping 19 clean sheets, ahead of Tim Howard of Everton (14) and

Marcus Hahnemann Marcus Stephen Hahnemann (born June 15, 1972) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. Graduating out of Seattle Pacific University, he played for the Seattle Sounders between 1994 and 1996. Between 1997 and ...

of Reading (13).