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The Premier League has gifted us unforgettable drama in its three decades
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From the comedic to the crazy to the unbelievable, these moments have become iconic
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The Premier League’s greatest moment of all reverberated around the globe
This year, the Premier League celebrates its 30th birthday, born an elaborate idea that soon exploded into a phenomenon the scale of which sport has never before seen.
In those three glorious decades we have been treated to thousands of goals along with drama by the bucketful.
There have also been moments, unforgettable and often unbelievable moments, that will stay with us forever. Here are ten that brightened our world while shaking it on its axis.
10) Let’s Be ‘Aving You (2005)
Norwich City supporters are presumably swerving the Premier League Odds markets right now, with their team so heavily backed to drop this term.
Back in 2005 they were averting their gaze from the pitch instead as their majority shareholder and all-round national treasure Delia Smith took to the pitch at half-time to bellow out an unforgettable call to arms.
Unsteady in her high heels the legendary cook was responding to her beloved Canaries conceding two first-half goals to Manchester City as they battled against relegation. In her opinion, more atmosphere was needed to inspire the hosts.
“Where are you?” she implored, holding the mic like Karen from accounts on a works night out that ends in a karaoke bar. “Let’s be ‘aving you.”
Not for the first time in her life, Smith had found the recipe for TV magic.
9) Pizza-gate (2004)
Also known as the ‘Battle of the Buffet’, the infamous fracas that took place down Old Trafford’s tunnel in the autumn of 2004 will forever be shrouded in rumour, accusation, and counterclaim.
What we know for certain is that following a highly contentious Manchester United victory over Arsenal – that ended a remarkable 49-match unbeaten streak by the Gunners – a jubilant Sir Alex Ferguson was struck in the face by a flung pizza, the culprit much later being confirmed as Cesc Fabregas.
Ferguson, it is claimed, was breaking up a scuffle at the time involving Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and Ruud Van Nistelrooy, the striker pleading his innocence after injuring Ashley Cole during the fractious clash.
These two Premier League giants created a rivalry for the ages but here it descended into farce. Wonderfully so.
8) Cantona Goes Kung-Fu Fighting (1995)
Close your eyes and it’s still so easy to conjure up the surreal proceedings that shocked the watching world at Selhurst Park over a quarter of a century ago.
There’s King Eric, striding towards the tunnel having been sent off. His collar up. His face a picture of unnervingly calm incandescence after kicking out at Richard Shaw, his man-marker for the evening.
There’s Matthew Simmons, racing down the steps to the advertising hoardings, shouting out – or so he later claims – “Off! It’s an early bath for you Mr Cantona.”
And then there’s the instant snapping of logic as the Manchester United legend awkwardly lunges through the air, his boot connecting with Simmons’ chest.
It was English football’s JFK gunshot and even today it resonates.
7) Beckham Announces Himself (1996)
David Beckham was undoubtedly the Premier League’s first homegrown megastar, a player whose face and fame transcended the sport, gaining permanent residence in the tabloids.
Marrying a Spice Girl and becoming celebrity royalty didn’t exactly help in this regard.
With a ball at his feet however, we were regularly reminded of who he really was, beyond the glamour and the headlines and that dodgy sarong.
On the opening day of the 1996/97 season, with the teenage Beckham at that point barely established in Manchester United’s first eleven, he attempted the impossible and impossibly it came off, when he lobbed Wimbledon keeper Neil Sullivan from all of sixty yards.
It was a goal from the gods, struck inside his own half, that declared something important only back then we didn’t know precisely what.
“When my foot struck that ball, it kicked open the door to the rest of my life,” Beckham later related in his autobiography though let’s be honest, he probably didn’t write that line.
6) A 4-3 Classic (1996)
Kevin Keegan’s buccaneering Newcastle United side of the mid-Nineties were adopted by a great many fans, loved for their sense of adventure, and refreshing philosophy that amounted to: you score two and we’ll score three.
In this instance, on a famous night at Anfield, Les Ferdinand, David Ginola and Tino Asprilla fulfilled the Magpies’ end of the bargain but alas their title rivals Liverpool went one better, finding the net four times in one of the most engrossing and frankly ridiculous games of football ever witnessed on these shores.
When Stan Collymore slotted home the Reds’ late winner Keegan slumped in the dug-out. His team had aimed for the heavens but shot themselves in the foot.
5) Di Canio’s Fair Means & Foul (1998 and 2000)
It feels like a cheat to merge two moments a couple of years apart and count them as one, but each incident could be included on merit while together they illustrate the polar extremes of a player who placed a rocket up English football’s posterior.
In 1998, Sheffield Wednesday’s fiery striker Paolo Di Canio saw red on seeing red and shoved referee Paul Alcock in the chest, the official falling to the ground in increments. The very Italian Italian was banned for 11 games and fined ten grand.
Two seasons later and now at West Ham, the sinner-turned-saint found himself in the game’s good books after catching the ball and eschewing a goal-scoring opportunity at Goodison on seeing the opposition keeper down injured.
His act of sportsmanship earned Di Canio a FIFA Fair Play Award.
4) Keegan Combusts (1996)
The titanic title-tussle that played out between Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle and a formidable Manchester United in the mid-Nineties unquestionably made this one of the best seasons in Premier League history. It was unmissable. Iconic.
After the Magpies had relinquished a 12-point lead post-Christmas, it was now neck-and-neck and with just a handful of fixtures remaining tensions were rising.
It was at this juncture that Sir Alex Ferguson turned to mind games, suggesting their rival’s next opponents, Leeds would go easy on them.
The resulting meltdown from Newcastle’s emotive manager – unravelling live on Sky with over-sized headphones on to give it a comedic bent - has consequently become so seared into popular culture that almost every line is committed to memory.
“He went down in my estimation when he said that”. “He’s got to go to Middlesbrough and get something”. “I will love it if we beat them”. As stated, it was iconic.
3) Foxes Fairytale (2016)
The football odds had Leicester City down as 5000/1 to win the Premier League in 2016. That was the same price as Elvis to return from the grave and put on a one-man show in Vegas.
The previous May, the recently-promoted Foxes had escaped an immediate return to the Championship by the skin of their teeth, having spent exactly half of their campaign rock bottom of the league.
But now Claudio Ranieri took the reins, signing unknown midfielder N’Golo Kante soon after. Now there was a new beginning.
Kante was magnificent that year as too Riyad Mahrez who won the PFA Player of the Year. Jamie Vardy meanwhile bagged 24 in the league alone as he and his team-mates embarked on a fantastical adventure.
Even now it’s difficult to explain how or why everything clicked so dramatically for the East Midlanders bar putting it down to once-in-a-lifetime alchemy.
2) Slippy G (2014)
If a Hollywood scriptwriter had penned the fate and fortune of Steven Gerrard throughout the spring of 2014 they would have been laughed out of every studio.
It was all too apt; too perfectly cruel for even a screen villain to endure, never mind a bona fide legend.
After Liverpool had hunted down Manchester City in a thrilling title-race they now stood on the precipice of a first Premier League crown. All that stood between them and historic renown was Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Newcastle.
“We do not let this slip,” the Reds skipper intoned, caught on camera in a team huddle after a crucial late-season victory over Norwich, only Gerrard did slip one week later against Chelsea.
First came the mis-touch, then the panicked clamour to re-address his balance. Then Demba Ba hared away and scored. Lastly, we got the memes. The perfectly cruel memes.
1) Aguerooooo! (2012)
According to our Premier League predictions, Manchester City are favourites to lift this season’s crown, their fourth in five years. There will be celebrations. There will be plaudits.
Nothing however, can or will ever surpass the ludicrous manner in which the Blues attained their first league trophy for nearly half a century back in 2012, coming from behind to beat QPR with two last-gasp goals, the second a strike by Sergio Aguero that reverberated around the globe.
“I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again”. That’s what Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler shrieked in sheer disbelief as the Etihad erupted into bedlam.
At 3.48pm on Sunday, May 13th 2012, 93 minutes and 20 seconds into Manchester City’s final game of their season, a million and more minds were blown.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 23rd March 2022
