The 2006–07 FA Premier League (known as the FA

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th season of the

FA Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football ...

since its establishment in 1992. The season started on 19 August 2006 and concluded on 13 May 2007. Chelsea were the two-time defending champions. On 12 February 2007, the FA Premier League renamed itself simply to the Premier League. The change introduced a new logo, sleeve patches and typeface. The sponsored name remains the Barclays Premier League. The 2006–07 season was the lowest-scoring season in Premier League history, with only 931 goals (with a 2.45 goals per match ratio, the poorest in the history of Premier League).

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

won their first Premiership title since

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, following Chelsea's 1–1 draw with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

on 6 May 2007. The result left the defending champions seven points behind United with two games left. It was their ninth title in fifteen seasons. The three relegation spots were occupied by

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

and Sheffield United who each lasted one season in the league, along with Charlton Athletic 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

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

. The promoted teams were

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

(playing in the top flight for the first time ever), Sheffield United (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 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. The team compete in the ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, who were relegated to 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 sys ...

after 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

Top scorers

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.

, 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 Craven Cottage is a football stadium in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...

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 In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Paul Robinson scored against Watford from an 83-yard free kick, which bounced over his

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

. This was the third goal scored by a goalkeeper in Premiership history. The other two were scored by Peter Schmeichel, 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 a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

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

, with

Carlos Tevez Carlos Alberto Tevez (; né Martínez; born 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. A dynamic forward (association football), forward in his prime, Tevez ...

scoring the winner. Sheffield United 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 Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

. 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 Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He is the Top international association football goal scorers by cou ...

(Chelsea) * Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal) *

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard MBE (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and a former player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players,Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) *

(Manchester United) * Paul Scholes (Manchester United)

PFA Young Player of the Year

The PFA Young Player of the Year award was also won by Cristiano Ronaldo 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 did not feature in the top three for the 2006–07 season. The shortlist for the award was as follows: * Kevin Doyle (Reading) * Cesc Fàbregas (Arsenal) * Aaron Lennon (Tottenham Hotspur) *

Micah Richards Micah Lincoln Richards (born 24 June 1988) is an English Association football, football pundit and former professional player who played as a right-back. Richards began his senior career with Manchester City F.C., Manchester City and made 245 a ...

(

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

) *

(Manchester United) * Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)

PFA Team of the Year

The Team of the Year featured eight Manchester United players. Goalkeeper:

Edwin van der Sar Edwin van der Sar (; born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch association football, football executive and former professional player who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He was most recently the chief executive of AFC Ajax, A ...

(Manchester United)
Defence:

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit, former coach and player, and co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. As a player, Neville was a right-back and spent his entire career with Manches ...

, Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidić (all Manchester United)
Midfield:

(all Manchester United)
Attack:

(Chelsea), Dimitar Berbatov (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 Premier League, and in recognition of the 19 major trophies he had 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

Frank Lampard Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of English club Coventry City. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, one of Chelsea's greates ...

, 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 award for 2007 was also won by Cristiano Ronaldo. The award is presented by the Football Writers' Association 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 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 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 award was presented to Liverpool's Pepe Reina 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 an ...

of Reading (13).