What if every season was abandoned after 29 games?

Matt Stead

If seasons were ended after 29 games. We look at the last 20 years and the biggest consequences, making a few leaps along the way.

The headlines:
Four different champions
Nine different European qualifiers
15 different relegations

 

1999/2000:

* Arsenal would have missed out on the Champions League, Patrick Vieira would have left and the Invincibles season would never have happened. We warned you there might be a leap. In reality, Arsenal won eight consecutive games and Leeds had a mini-collapse, though they did make the Champions League through the qualifying stage.

* Bradford would have been relegated; after 29 games, the eventually relegated Wimbledon were six points clear.

 

2000/2001:

* Ipswich would have played in the Champions League third qualifying round instead of Liverpool. They probably would have signed somebody better than Marcus Bent, which would probably have saved them from relegation the following season.

* Sunderland would have played in the UEFA Cup. Bizarre.

 

2001/02

* Manchester United would have finished a narrow second to champions Arsenal and avoided the humiliation of losing to Zalaegerszegi in a Champions League qualifying clash the following season.

* Bolton would have been relegated just a few months after Sam Allardyce had boasted that they could win the title. Ipswich were the fall guys instead.

 

2002/03

* Arsenal would have won back-to-back titles for the first time since the 1930s instead of winning just one in five games and handing the title to Manchester United.

* Roman Abramovich would have invested in fourth-place Everton instead of Chelsea, who eventually claimed the final Champions League qualifying place. In reality, the Toffees slumped to a poor, poor seventh.

 

2003/04

* Liverpool would have qualified for the Champions League by virtue of scoring just one more goal than fifth-placed Newcastle. Not that they did anything with their Champions League place in 2004/05…

* Portsmouth would have been relegated and Harry Redknapp would have been sacked. His reputation in tatters, he would never have got the Tottenham job.

 

2004/05

* Charlton would have qualified for the UEFA Cup instead of Middlesbrough and would have presumably reached the final in their stead. Alan Curbishley would have made a fine England manager.

* Crystal Palace would have survived and may have escaped the financial problems that led to their administration five years later.

 

2005/06

* If the season had ended two months before lasagne-gate, Tottenham would have qualified for the Champions League and Arsenal would have opened the Emirates with UEFA Cup football.

* Portsmouth would have been relegated and Harry Redknapp would have been sacked. His reputation in tatters, he would never have got the Tottenham job.

 

2006/07

* Reading would have qualified for the UEFA Cup ahead of Tottenham so would almost definitely have signed Luka Modric instead of Spurs.

* An abject West Ham would have been relegated (they were ten points off safety), Sheffield United would have survived and lawyers would have not claimed millions of pounds as the Blades sought compensation.

 

2007/08

* Manchester United would have won the title by just one point from Arsenal.

* Fulham would have been relegated under Roy Hodgson and their road to the UEFA Cup final would have ended at the very first junction.

 

2008/09

* Fulham would not have finished seventh (that honour would have gone to West Ham) under Roy Hodgson and their road to the UEFA Cup final would have ended at the second junction.

* Stoke would have been relegated in their very first season of Premier League football and Tony Pulis would be consigned to a career as a lower-league specialist.

 

2009/10

* Arsenal would not have lost a first north London derby in over a decade and Arsenal’s players would not have been dumped at Wigan railway station as their season collapsed.

 

2010/11

* Arsenal would have finished a respectable second place (instead of fourth) and Cesc Fabregas/Samir Nasri might have been persuaded to stay another season for a title challenge.

* Wolves and Wigan would have been relegated instead of Birmingham and Blackpool. Wigan’s demise would have stopped Roberto Martinez’s career in its tracks. No FA Cup win? No Everton job? No Belgium in the World Cup semi-finals?

 

2011/12

* Manchester City would have been denied their first title by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United (by one point). Roberto Mancini would have been sacked and perhaps Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure would have been tempted elsewhere.

* Wigan would have been relegated instead of Blackburn. Wigan’s demise would have stopped Roberto Martinez’s career in its tracks. No FA Cup win? No Everton job? No Belgium in the World Cup semi-finals?

 

2012/13

* Tottenham would have finished in fourth ahead of Arsenal, catapulting them into the Champions League and keeping Gareth Bale at the club. Arsenal – in the Europa League – would never have signed Mesut f***ing Ozil.

 

2013/14

* Chelsea would have won the title in Jose Mourinho’s first season back at the Bridge, despite all his talk of the Blues being the ‘little horses’ in the race.

* Sunderland would have been relegated and Gus Poyet would have joined Paolo Di Canio on the scrap-heap.

 

2014/15

* Leicester would have been relegated and nobody could have argued; they were rock bottom and seven points from safety. Without survival there would have been no 5,000/1 odds and no Premier League title miracle.

 

2015/16

* Leicester would have won the title by five points from Tottenham while Slaven Bilic would have led fifth-placed West Ham to their best top-flight finish in 17 years.

* Liverpool would have qualified for the Europa League ahead of Southampton.

 

2016/17

* Pretty much nothing changed between the 29th game and the 38th game of a season which Antonio Conte found all-too easy at Chelsea.

 

2017/18

* Liverpool would have finished third and recorded genuine progress on the previous season’s fourth-place finish.

* Crystal Palace would have been relegated instead of Swansea with Wilfried Zaha sold to Arsenal or Tottenham.

 

2018/19

* Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have led Manchester United back into the Champions League ahead of Chelsea, just one point behind.

* Brighton would have kept faith with Chris Hughton, who was eight points clear of relegation.

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