"Yeah, we’d batter them!" said a supremely confident Wayne Rooney, after being asked how Mikel Arteta's current Arsenal side would fare against the dominant Manchester United team of 2008. "I think we would.”
Arsenal are flying at the moment, with many tipping the in-form Gunners to break their 20-year drought without a Premier League title as they sit six points ahead of second-place Manchester City with 22 games played.
Arteta's men are also on a seven-game unbeaten streak in Europe following their latest 3-1 win over Inter Milan but the question remains – could they snatch a win against a team some regard as the greatest in United's history?
Theo Walcott, who asked the question to Rooney during this week's Champions League coverage on Amazon Prime, went on to describe that United side from 2008 as "probably the best team that I’ve ever played against".
Advert
And it got us thinking. Which team is the greatest of the Premier League era?
RANKED: The 10 greatest teams in Premier League history
10: Leicester City - 2015/16
(Games: 38 / Wins: 23 / Goals Scored: 68 / Points: 81 / Top goalscorer: Jamie Vardy - 24)
––
At the start of the 2015/16 campaign, Claudio Ranieri's Leicester were 5000-1 with bookmakers to lift the Premier League title. In fact, the Foxes were relegation contenders following a pre-season campaign that featured uninspiring performances against Mansfield Town and Burton Albion.
However, after the Foxes recorded a 4-2 victory over Sunderland on the opening day of the Premier League campaign, Jamie Vardy and co. went on to defy the odds.
From the tireless N'Golo Kante and his midfield partner Danny Drinkwater, who was desperate to prove Manchester United wrong following his release, to the prolific forward line of Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Shinji Okazaki, Ranieri's men maintained their form and lifted the title.
Do they boast the most talented squad on this list? Absolutely not. But they deserve to be included for the journey alone. One of the greatest stories in football history.
9: Chelsea - 2016/17
(Games: 38 / Wins: 30 / Goals Scored: 85 / Points: 93 / Top goalscorer: Diego Costa - 20)
––
A few months after Leicester's unexpected triumph and Chelsea were on a mission to dominate English football once more following a disappointing tenth-place finish in 2015/16.
They brought in renowned disciplinarian Antonio Conte, as well as N'Golo Kante and David Luiz. It was a stroke of genius from the Chelsea hierarchy as they recorded a points total of 93, which remains one of the highest in Premier League history.
The season also saw Chelsea equal the Premier League records for consecutive wins in a season (13), fewest draws in a season (3), fewest home draws in a season (0), and home and away wins against different sides (12).
And on top of that, they managed to break the record for number of wins in a campaign (30). Diego Costa played a crucial role in their title win, scoring 20 goals, while Eden Hazard produced 16 goals and five assists in 36 appearances.
8: Arsenal - 1997/98
(Games: 38 / Wins: 23 / Goals Scored: 68 / Points: 78 / Top goalscorer: Dennis Bergkamp - 16)
––
Gary Neville previously described Arsenal's title-winning team from 1998 as the best he ever played against.
Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit pulled the strings from midfield as Dennis Bergkamp ran riot up top. "He [Bergkamp] was a wonderful player because he had all the attributes that you need to play in that number 10 role and more," Neville told Standard Sport.
As well as the previously mentioned Petit, Arsenal brought in Marc Overmars and the highly-rated Nicolas Anelka to Highbury in the summer of 1997, a spine of pace and power that guided Arsenal to a well-deserved domestic double.
7: Liverpool - 2018/19
(Games: 38 / Wins: 30 / Goals Scored: 89 / Points: 97 / Top goalscorer: Mo Salah - 22)
––
Ninety-seven points and they didn't win the league. Extraordinary.
Liverpool ended up with the third-highest points total in Premier League history and remained unbeaten at Anfield in the league; all while matching a club record 30 league wins in a season.
On top of that, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane shared the Golden Boot award after scoring 22 goals each, Virgil van Dijk helped lead a defence to 21 clean sheets, and still, they were pipped to the title by Manchester City.
In fact, City were the only team to record a win over eventual Champions League winners Liverpool.
6: Manchester City - 2018/19
(Games: 38 / Wins: 32 / Goals Scored: 95 / Points: 98 / Top goalscorer: Sergio Aguero - 21)
––
Pep Guardiola's side were the only team to beat Liverpool in the hotly-contested 2018/19 campaign as they became the first side since Manchester United a decade earlier to retain the Premier League title.
It was a record-breaking campaign for the Blues, who became the first side to hold all four of England's primary football trophies at the same time – the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Community Shield.
They also equalled the Premier League record for the most wins in a single campaign (32), and ended the season with 14 consecutive victories, breaking Arsenal’s record of 13 in 2001-02.
In total, they scored 95 goals in the league, with the prolific Sergio Aguero making a big contribution to that tally alongside Raheem Sterling (17), Leroy Sane (10), Bernardo Silva (7), Gabriel Jesus (7) and Riyad Mahrez (7).
5: Manchester United - 1998/99
(Games: 38 / Wins: 22 / Goals Scored: 80 / Points: 78 / Top goalscorer: Dwight Yorke - 18)
––
After finishing the previous season without winning a single trophy, United bounced back by becoming the first English club to win the continental treble, lifting the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League.
It is a below-average points total when compared to some of the other candidates on this list, but with the likes of David Beckham, Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Peter Schmeichel in their ranks, this Ferguson side would give any side a run for their money.
This one might be an unpopular choice with the SPORTbible audience. Back in 2022, United's treble-winning side was voted by fans as the greatest Premier League team of all time with 34.6 per cent of the overall vote.
Arsenal's 'Invincibles' finished in second place with 32.5 per cent, while City's 'Centurions' placed third with 19.6 per cent.
4: Manchester United - 2007/08
(Games: 38 / Wins: 27 / Goals Scored: 80 / Points: 87 / Top goalscorer: Cristiano Ronaldo - 31)
––
As mentioned above, Wayne Rooney said the Manchester United side of 2008 would "batter" the current Arsenal team, and it's hard to disagree when you look at the talent Sir Alex Ferguson had at his disposal.
Three players from that squad – Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo – were named in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year, with the latter picking up six individual awards, including the Premier League Golden Boot.
Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney also chipped in with 18 and 16 goals respectively.
"There were eight players, I would say at the time – Edwin Van der Sar, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez... you could put them in any team in the world. They were world-class," said Gary Neville.
"I don’t think Manchester United have ever had a team that had so many world-class players, and I look back at all the teams in history."
3: Chelsea - 2004/05
(Games: 38 / Wins: 29 / Goals Against: 15 / Points: 95 / Top goalscorer: Frank Lampard - 13)
––
Jose Mourinho became the youngest manager in English top-flight history to win the Premier League in 2005, when he delivered Chelsea's first league title in 50 years. It was a special campaign with a special team.
They conceded just 15 goals all season, including six at home as Claude Makelele sat in front of the dominant centre-back pairing of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. Petr Cech, meanwhile, was a monster in between the sticks, boasting an 87.3 per cent save percentage.
In total, they faced the joint-fewest shots on target (83) since records began in 2003/04 as they also set the record for the most clean sheets (25).
"We had great legs, great power, and we had the big man up front. Didier [Drogba] made such a difference," John Terry told Sky Sports. "We had that ball into Didier, and he could hold it up, with the runners off him [Damien Duff and Arjen Robben], and [Frank] Lampard would be box-to-box game after game."
2: Arsenal - 2003/04
(Games: 38 / Wins: 26 / Goals Scored: 73 / Points: 90 / Top goalscorer: Thierry Henry - 30)
––
Played 38, Won 26, Drawn 12, Lost 0. Invincibles.
The Arsenal squad that went unbeaten in the league were always going to have a chance in this list. In total, they racked up 90 points following 28 wins and 12 draws, scoring 73 goals and conceding just 26.
Arsene Wenger was blessed with a solid defensive line of Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure, Ashley Cole and Lauren, while Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva played a crucial role in the centre of midfield. Robert Pires was in his prime on the wing, combining with two all-time Premier League greats, Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.
“I won thirteen leagues, but I was never near going through a season undefeated," said Sir Alex Ferguson in an interview with Amazon Prime in 2023. "The achievement, it stands aside - stands above everything else and it was Arsenal’s.”
1: Manchester City - 2017/18
(Games: 38 / Wins: 32 / Goals Scored: 106 / Points: 100 / Top goalscorer: Sergio Aguero - 21)
––
The numbers behind Manchester City's first Premier League title under Pep Guardiola are unprecedented.
As well as winning 32 out of 38 Premier League matches, the most of any side in the competition’s history across a single season, they dropped just 14 points all season, surpassing the previous record held by Chelsea (95) in 2004/05.
They also scored a record 106 times, went on an 18-match winning run, and averaged just under 2.8 goals per game, not to mention the +79 goal difference, which is the largest in Premier League history.
Oh, and they finished 19 points ahead of second-placed Manchester United, the largest gap between the top two in the Premier League, and had already wrapped up the title by April, five matches before their final game of the season.
Standout performers from that season include Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero, who scored 21 goals in 25 appearances. Raheem Sterling (18), Gabriel Jesus (13) and Leroy Sane (10) also reached double figures.
Thoughts on our ranking? Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.
Topics: Premier League, Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leicester City
Jack Kenmare