THE USURPER LEAGUEPremier League 1998/99.
A different title race.
Leeds United win our alternative 1998/99 Premier League with 54 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 1998/99 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 | Leeds United | 28 | 15 | 9 | 4 | 49 | 22 | 27 | 54 |
| 2 | Aston Villa | 28 | 12 | 9 | 7 | 39 | 28 | 11 | 45 |
| 3 | Newcastle United | 28 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 41 | 35 | 6 | 42 |
| 4 | Middlesbrough | 28 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 38 | 36 | 2 | 42 |
| 5 | West Ham United | 28 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 35 | 38 | -3 | 42 |
| 6 | Derby County | 28 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 33 | -3 | 42 |
| 7 | Everton | 28 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 36 | 26 | 10 | 41 |
| 8 | Southampton | 28 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 32 | 42 | -10 | 38 |
| 9 | Leicester City | 28 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 25 | 25 | 0 | 34 |
| 10 | Coventry City | 28 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 33 | 38 | -5 | 34 |
| 11 | Blackburn Rovers | 28 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 28 | 33 | -5 | 32 |
| 12 | Sheffield Wednesday | 28 | 9 | 4 | 15 | 32 | 32 | 0 | 31 |
| 13 | Wimbledon | 28 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 31 | 43 | -12 | 31 |
| 14 | Charlton Athletic | 28 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 32 | 38 | -6 | 30 |
| 15 | Nottingham Forest | 28 | 7 | 8 | 13 | 28 | 40 | -12 | 29 |
How the table changes
With everybody participating, Manchester United lead our all-club calculation. Removing Big Six fixtures puts Leeds United first in the alternative league.
Who's been excused?
Excluded clubs present in 1998/99: 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 | 22 | 13 | 3 | 80 | 37 | 43 | 79 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 38 | 22 | 12 | 4 | 59 | 17 | 42 | 78 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 38 | 20 | 15 | 3 | 57 | 30 | 27 | 75 |
| 4 | Leeds United | 38 | 18 | 13 | 7 | 62 | 34 | 28 | 67 |
| 5 | West Ham United | 38 | 16 | 9 | 13 | 46 | 53 | -7 | 57 |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 38 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 51 | 46 | 5 | 55 |
| 7 | Liverpool | 38 | 15 | 9 | 14 | 68 | 49 | 19 | 54 |
| 8 | Derby County | 38 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 40 | 45 | -5 | 52 |
| 9 | Middlesbrough | 38 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 48 | 54 | -6 | 51 |
| 10 | Leicester City | 38 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 40 | 46 | -6 | 49 |
| 11 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 11 | 14 | 13 | 47 | 50 | -3 | 47 |
| 12 | Sheffield Wednesday | 38 | 13 | 7 | 18 | 41 | 42 | -1 | 46 |
| 13 | Newcastle United | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 48 | 54 | -6 | 46 |
| 14 | Everton | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | 42 | 47 | -5 | 43 |
| 15 | Coventry City | 38 | 11 | 9 | 18 | 39 | 51 | -12 | 42 |
| 16 | Wimbledon | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 40 | 63 | -23 | 42 |
| 17 | Southampton | 38 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 37 | 64 | -27 | 41 |
| 18 | Charlton Athletic | 38 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 41 | 56 | -15 | 36 |
| 19 | Blackburn Rovers | 38 | 7 | 14 | 17 | 38 | 52 | -14 | 35 |
| 20 | Nottingham Forest | 38 | 7 | 9 | 22 | 35 | 69 | -34 | 30 |
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.