Unofficial Champions of England: Arsenal 1-2 Ipswich Town, 01/11/2000

The Gunners reign as champions was brief at three games but the previous two were a London derby victory over West Ham United and a thumping 5-0 victory over Manchester City.

George Burley's Ipswich Town side arrived at Highbury for a Worthington Cup tie as the surprise package of the 2000/01 season. Early season relegation candidates, they would finish a brilliant 5th in the Premier League.

As was Arsene Wenger's tradition in the League Cup, many changes were made to the Arsenal line up though it still contained likes of Ashley Cole, Matthew Upson, Jermaine Pennant and Sylvain Wiltord.

Ipswich won it with goals from Jamie Clapham and James Scowcroft, though Igor Stepanovs did get one for Arsenal.

After four and a half years, Ipswich Town were English Champions for the third time.

Match Report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/worthington_cup/1000608.stm

Unofficial Champions of England: Arsenal 1-0 Aston Villa, 14/10/2000

An international break meant Aston Villa got to enjoy two weeks as English Champions.

When they returned to action, a single goal from Thierry Henry was enough to win it for the Gunners at Highbury.

Arsene Wenger's men were champions for the 5th time.

Unofficial Champions of England: Aston Villa 4-1 Derby County, 30/09/2000

Paul Merson celebrates scoring Villa's second

Derby County's time as English Champions was all too brief.

Their first defence of the title was away at Villa Park. Aston Villa hadn't exactly been flying at that point but they were far too strong for a poor Derby side.

The damage was done by two goals from Julian Joachim, one for Paul Merson and one from Alan Wright for John Gregory's men. Chris Riggott did get one back for Derby but it made no difference.

This was the first time Aston Villa had won the Unofficial English Championship.

Unofficial Champions of England: Oldham Athletic, Peterborough United, Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion, Derby County, 2000-01

Oldham Athletic 1-0 Huddersfield Town, 22/08/2000

Huddersfield Town's time as English champions would run to 3 matches before a League Cup tie against Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park. A 1-0 win for the Latics was enough for the win and brought the English championship back into Division 2 after a 2 year gap.

Oldham Athletic 1-4 Peterborough United, 26/08/2000

Oldham would immediately surrender the title however in a 1-4 home drubbing by Peterborough United, claiming their maiden English Championship.



Peterborough United 0-2 Swansea City, 28/08/2000

Peterborough's time at the top would only last two days however as they surrendered their title to Swansea City, the second side to bring the English Championship back to Wales (after Wrexham).
A 0-2 win was enough for the Swans.

I don't know what was going on with the fixture list at this time but this was the fourth title change in 9 days.



West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Swansea City, 06/09/2000

Swansea held on to the title for a little longer but a League Cup match at the Hawthorns where a 2-1 win was enough to gain West Brom the English Championship and take it back into Division One.



West Bromwich Albion 2-4 Derby County, 26/09/2000

West Brom done well to hold on to their title but another League Cup tie brought Premier League side Derby County to The Hawthorns.

A valiant effort by the Baggies but they couldn't stop the Rams from claiming the title.

Unofficial Champions of England: Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Huddersfield Town, 19/08/2000

Kevin Gallen extends Huddersfield's lead

Sheffield Wednesday were the first team to be relegated as English Champions. Life in Division One started relatively well with a draw away at Wolverhampton Wanderers but their second game was a Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town.

While Wednesday had struggled the previous season, by contrast Huddersfield had just missed out on the Division One play-offs. The moods around the two clubs couldn't have been more contrasting.

Huddersfield started like a house on fire and raced into a three goal lead by forty minutes thanks to two goals from Martin Smith sandwiching Kevin Gallen's effort.
Wednesday weren't going down easy though and came back with goals from Andy Booth and Andy Hinchcliffe but too little, too late.

A third English Championship for Huddersfield.

Unofficial Champions of England: Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 Leicester City, 14/05/2000

Alan Quinn scores Wednesday's first.

Leicester City were likely already on their summer holidays when they turned up at Hillsborough for the final game of the 1999-2000 season.

Sheffield Wednesday were already relegated, so it was a bizarre time for them to turn in one of their best performances of the season. Four goals from Alan Quinn (an excellent solo goal), Andy Booth, Niclas Alexandersson and Gilles De Bilde gave the rampant Owls the win.

So, it was some unwanted history for Wednesday as they became the first side to be relegated as England's Unofficial Champions.

Unofficial Champions of England: Leicester City 3-0 Bradford City, 06/05/2000

Matt Elliott celebrates his first goal.

Bradford City cemented their position as English Champions with a 3-0 win over fellow relegation battlers Wimbledon.

Their next game was away at Filbert Street to play Leicester City. The Foxes were in a comfortable mid-table position and had already booked their place in next seasons UEFA cup after winning the League Cup against Tranmere Rovers.
So, they had nothing to play for. Except the Unofficial English Championship, of course.

Bradford held on for an hour but were then undone by 3 goals in nine minutes. Two headed goals from Matt Elliott and a third from Tony Cottee won Leicester their 6th Championship to go along with their League Cup.