25 years ago the inaugural Premier League season kicked off with 22 teams competing for England’s richest prize.
Leeds United had headed into the season as the last winners of the old Division One but struggled badly in 1992-93, only finishing two points above the relegation zone.
Jack Walker had invested heavily into Blackburn Rovers which included the English record transfer fee of £3.6 million to bring Alan Shearer from Southampton.
However, it was Manchester United who became the first champions of the newly rebranded Premier League, winning the title by 10 points, ahead of Aston Villa. If online betting existed back then you can be sure you’d have had some nice odds with sites like Betfair football betting to back United!
In goal for the Red Devils was Peter Schmeichel, who was just coming off the back of winning Euro 92 with Denmark. Although the Great Dane did concede the first-ever Premier League goal, he went on to become arguably the greatest goalkeeper ever.
Here’s how a look at current Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea matches up to Schmeichel:
During the first Premier League season Peter Schmeichel started all 42 matches for Manchester United, and along with the likes of Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce, Denis Irwin and Paul Parker, they kept an impressive 18 clean sheets. That’s a 42% shut out rate.
José Mourinho’s first season at Manchester United wasn’t so successful in the Premier League having finished sixth. The defence was often rotated for one reason for another, but David de Gea still managed to keep 14 clean sheets in his 35 Premier League appearances.
The Spaniard is arguably the best goalkeeper they’ve had since Schmeichel retired, having tested out the likes of Mark Bosnich, Fabien Barthez, Roy Carroll and Tim Howard among others in between.
In all, Peter Schmeichel won five Premier League titles with Manchester United – the 1992-93 season being the first time the Red Devils had won the English top flight in 26 years. He was also a three-time FA Cup winner and the goalkeeper for their famous 1999 Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich.
David de Gea has one Premier League title in his six seasons with United, an FA Cup and Europa League winners’ medal whilst at Old Trafford.
Despite the constant rumours of de Gea moving to Champions League holders Real Madrid, he continues to remain the number one at Manchester United for the time being.
The below infographic looks at the differences between the 1992-93 and 2016-17 Premier League seasons:
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