THE USURPER LEAGUEPremier League 1996/97.
A different title race.
Aston Villa win our alternative 1996/97 Premier League with 52 points from 28 matches. The usual suspects have been excused.
We removed every fixture involving the clubs on our exclusion list who actually played in the Premier League that year. We kept all other scores unchanged. That's 210 real matches and 15 competing clubs.
The new 1996/97 table
No imaginary fixtures. No points generously handed out. The other clubs keep their results against one another.
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aston Villa | 28 | 16 | 4 | 8 | 40 | 22 | 18 | 52 |
| 2 | Newcastle United | 28 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 49 | 29 | 20 | 50 |
| 3 | Sheffield Wednesday | 28 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 41 | 37 | 4 | 46 |
| 4 | Wimbledon | 28 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 37 | 33 | 4 | 42 |
| 5 | Leicester City | 28 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 37 | 34 | 3 | 41 |
| 6 | Leeds United | 28 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 26 | 23 | 3 | 40 |
| 7 | Southampton | 28 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 40 | 38 | 2 | 37 |
| 8 | Middlesbrough | 28 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 41 | 38 | 3 | 36 |
| 9 | Blackburn Rovers | 28 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 31 | 29 | 2 | 34 |
| 10 | West Ham United | 28 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 27 | 29 | -2 | 34 |
| 11 | Everton | 28 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 35 | 42 | -7 | 34 |
| 12 | Derby County | 28 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 28 | 39 | -11 | 34 |
| 13 | Sunderland | 28 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 26 | 31 | -5 | 30 |
| 14 | Coventry City | 28 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 28 | 40 | -12 | 30 |
| 15 | Nottingham Forest | 28 | 2 | 14 | 12 | 19 | 41 | -22 | 20 |
How the table changes
With everybody participating, Manchester United lead our all-club calculation. Removing Big Six fixtures puts Aston Villa first in the alternative league.
Who's been excused?
Excluded clubs present in 1996/97: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur. We removed 170 fixtures, along with every point and goal from those matches.
Historical footnote: Manchester City were not in the top flight that season, so naturally no matches involving those clubs were removed.
See the all-club calculated table for comparison
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 38 | 21 | 12 | 5 | 76 | 44 | 32 | 75 |
| 2 | Newcastle United | 38 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 73 | 40 | 33 | 68 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 38 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 62 | 32 | 30 | 68 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 38 | 19 | 11 | 8 | 62 | 37 | 25 | 68 |
| 5 | Aston Villa | 38 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 47 | 34 | 13 | 61 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 38 | 16 | 11 | 11 | 58 | 55 | 3 | 59 |
| 7 | Sheffield Wednesday | 38 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 50 | 51 | -1 | 57 |
| 8 | Wimbledon | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 49 | 46 | 3 | 56 |
| 9 | Leicester City | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 46 | 54 | -8 | 47 |
| 10 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 13 | 7 | 18 | 44 | 51 | -7 | 46 |
| 11 | Leeds United | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 28 | 38 | -10 | 46 |
| 12 | Derby County | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 45 | 58 | -13 | 46 |
| 13 | Blackburn Rovers | 38 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 42 | 43 | -1 | 42 |
| 14 | Middlesbrough | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 51 | 60 | -9 | 42 |
| 15 | West Ham United | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 39 | 48 | -9 | 42 |
| 16 | Everton | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 44 | 57 | -13 | 42 |
| 17 | Southampton | 38 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 50 | 56 | -6 | 41 |
| 18 | Coventry City | 38 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 38 | 54 | -16 | 41 |
| 19 | Sunderland | 38 | 10 | 10 | 18 | 35 | 53 | -18 | 40 |
| 20 | Nottingham Forest | 38 | 6 | 16 | 16 | 31 | 59 | -28 | 34 |
About the numbers
This is not an official Premier League table. We use real results to calculate an alternative competition. Wins earn three points; ties are ordered by goal difference and goals scored. This does not attempt every official historical disciplinary deduction or tiebreaker.
Original historical match results: footballcsv/england, CC0 public-domain licensed. Each source season was validated as a complete home-and-away league before inclusion.
That trophy never existed. The argument about who deserves it absolutely can.