THE USURPER LEAGUEPremier League 2003/04.
A different title race.
Aston Villa win our alternative 2003/04 Premier League with 48 points from 26 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 182 real matches and 14 competing clubs.
The new 2003/04 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 | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 41 | 23 | 18 | 48 |
| 2 | Newcastle United | 26 | 10 | 13 | 3 | 38 | 25 | 13 | 43 |
| 3 | Bolton Wanderers | 26 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 34 | 30 | 4 | 42 |
| 4 | Birmingham City | 26 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 37 | 29 | 8 | 40 |
| 5 | Charlton Athletic | 26 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 37 | 31 | 6 | 39 |
| 6 | Fulham | 26 | 11 | 5 | 10 | 39 | 35 | 4 | 38 |
| 7 | Blackburn Rovers | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 40 | 37 | 3 | 36 |
| 8 | Middlesbrough | 26 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 35 | 36 | -1 | 33 |
| 9 | Everton | 26 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 34 | 34 | 0 | 32 |
| 10 | Portsmouth | 26 | 8 | 6 | 12 | 33 | 34 | -1 | 30 |
| 11 | Southampton | 26 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 30 | 29 | 1 | 29 |
| 12 | Leicester City | 26 | 5 | 11 | 10 | 34 | 42 | -8 | 26 |
| 13 | Leeds United | 26 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 30 | 56 | -26 | 26 |
| 14 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 26 | 5 | 10 | 11 | 27 | 48 | -21 | 25 |
How the table changes
With everybody participating, Arsenal 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 2003/04: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur. We removed 198 fixtures, along with every point and goal from those matches.
See the all-club calculated table for comparison
| # | Club | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 38 | 26 | 12 | 0 | 73 | 26 | 47 | 90 |
| 2 | Chelsea | 38 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 67 | 30 | 37 | 79 |
| 3 | Manchester United | 38 | 23 | 6 | 9 | 64 | 35 | 29 | 75 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 38 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 55 | 37 | 18 | 60 |
| 5 | Newcastle United | 38 | 13 | 17 | 8 | 52 | 40 | 12 | 56 |
| 6 | Aston Villa | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 48 | 44 | 4 | 56 |
| 7 | Charlton Athletic | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 51 | 51 | 0 | 53 |
| 8 | Bolton Wanderers | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 48 | 56 | -8 | 53 |
| 9 | Fulham | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 52 | 46 | 6 | 52 |
| 10 | Birmingham City | 38 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 43 | 48 | -5 | 50 |
| 11 | Middlesbrough | 38 | 13 | 9 | 16 | 44 | 52 | -8 | 48 |
| 12 | Southampton | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | 44 | 45 | -1 | 47 |
| 13 | Portsmouth | 38 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 47 | 54 | -7 | 45 |
| 14 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 13 | 6 | 19 | 47 | 57 | -10 | 45 |
| 15 | Blackburn Rovers | 38 | 12 | 8 | 18 | 51 | 59 | -8 | 44 |
| 16 | Manchester City | 38 | 9 | 14 | 15 | 55 | 54 | 1 | 41 |
| 17 | Everton | 38 | 9 | 12 | 17 | 45 | 57 | -12 | 39 |
| 18 | Leicester City | 38 | 6 | 15 | 17 | 48 | 65 | -17 | 33 |
| 19 | Leeds United | 38 | 8 | 9 | 21 | 40 | 79 | -39 | 33 |
| 20 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 38 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 38 | 77 | -39 | 33 |
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.