Liverpool beat Arsenal to 'team of the century' title
Liverpool are the champions of the 20th century, though only by a narrow margin over Arsenal. The table has been constructed by accumulating points for all games played in the First Division and the Premiership from Jan 1 1900 to Dec 28 1999, with three points for a win, one for a draw.
Liverpool have a clear advantage over Arsenal in terms of championships won - 18 to 11 - but this is offset by the eight wasted seasons Liverpool spent in the Second Division between 1954 and 1962. Arsenal have been ever-presents in the top division since 1919.
By 1930 Liverpool had gained four championships and they were more than 400 points ahead of a low-achieving Arsenal. The final table conceals a history of fluctuating fortunes over the course of the century. First, there was the ascendancy of Arsenal in the 1930s: five championships in eight years which coincided with Liverpool's decline.
The trend continued to the end of the 1950s, by which time Arsenal had not only written off the deficit but established a lead over Liverpool of more than 200 points. The rejuvenation of Liverpool in the 1960s and the ensuing domination of the First Division during the 1970s and Eighties brought 11 championships in 18 years, and re-established Liverpool's lead by 1990. Arsenal have outperformed Liverpool in the 1990s and at the end of the century they are just 21 points behind them. In fact, taking only completed seasons, August 1900 to May 1999, Arsenal would be six points ahead.
Of the other dominant clubs in the early years of the century - Newcastle, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Blackburn, the Sheffield clubs, Manchester City and Everton - only Everton have sustained a real challenge to Liverpool over the decades.
For Manchester United, overall leaders of a post-war table, the challenge has come too late with the decades of underachievement between the early promise of the 1900s, which produced two championships, and the 10 championships of the Busby and Ferguson teams.