Champions three times in a row: Manchester City join elite group
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Manchester City joined an elite group of clubs to have been crowned English champions three times in a row after Arsenal lost to Nottingham Forest on Saturday night.
With Pep Guardiola’s side winning the title for the fifth time in six seasons, we look back at the four clubs that have already managed the rare achievement of three successive triumphs.
Huddersfield Town
It is nearly a century since Huddersfield became the first team to win the top flight of English football for three successive seasons.
Legendary manager Herbert Chapman masterminded their rise to the pinnacle of the English game and was manager for their first two titles in 1924 and 1925.
His departure to Arsenal at the start of the 1925-26 season did not stop the Terriers from being top dogs once again and Cecil Potter was in charge as they finished five points clear of Chapman’s Gunners to complete the hat-trick of titles.
🏆 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖈𝖊 𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖒𝖕𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘#OnThisDay in 1928, #htafc were presented with the Thrice Championship Shield. pic.twitter.com/z8an1IKrlz
— Huddersfield Town (@htafc) June 4, 2020
To mark the achievement, the club were presented with the Thrice Championship Shield and in 2000 the club added three stars to their badge.
Huddersfield went close to winning a fourth successive title in 1927 but failed to win any of their last three games and finished runners-up behind Newcastle.
Arsenal
Chapman’s move to Arsenal eventually saw the Londoners become the dominant force in England and they won the First Division, as it was then known, for four years out of five in the 1930s.
Under Chapman, Arsenal were crowned champions in 1931 but then finished runners-up behind Everton the following year before returning to top spot in 1933.
Chapman died of pneumonia on January 6, 1934, but the team he had built went on to win two more titles under his successors Joe Shaw and George Allison, therefore joining Chapman’s former club in winning the league three times in a row.
Arsenal’s run of success ended in 1936 when they could only finish fourth.
Liverpool
Liverpool were the third team to complete a hat-trick of First Division titles, although they had to wait until their third attempt to do so.
Bob Paisley’s team were denied a third successive title in 1978 by Nottingham Forest and by Aston Villa in 1981 but they again won back-to-back championships in 1982 and 1983 before Paisley retired.
His assistant Joe Fagan took over and enjoyed a dream season as Liverpool not only won a third league title in a row but also the European Cup and League Cup.
Merseyside rivals Everton, under Howard Kendall, denied the Reds a fourth successive title in 1985.
Manchester United
English football’s top flight became the Premier League at the start of the 1992-93 campaign and the name change coincided with a changing of the guard as Manchester United became the team to beat under Alex Ferguson.
Like Liverpool in the 1970s and 1980s though, they needed three attempts at winning a hat-trick of titles, having first been denied by Blackburn in 1995 and then Arsenal in 1998, with United finishing runners-up on both occasions.
Arsenal gave them a good run for their money around the turn of the millennium but finished second for three successive seasons as United claimed a third straight title in 2001.
One of Ferguson’s biggest strengths was his ability to rebuild a team and with the Scot still in charge, United became the first club to be crowned champions three times in a row for a second time in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Chelsea put an end to that run in 2010 before Fergie’s United went close to a third hat-trick as they were crowned champions in 2011 and 2013 but missed out in dramatic fashion on the final day to Manchester City in 2012.
