Nine of my eleven played for Manchester United. I tried hard to get more Arsenal and Newcastle in, and the honours list kept getting in the way.
The window is August 1992 to May 1999, the first seven Premier League seasons. I stop at Barcelona, because the treble felt like the end of something. Where two players were close, I gave it to the one who won more. That rule does most of the work below, and I break it once.
Seven seasons, three champions
United won it five times: 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1998-99. Blackburn pinched 1994-95 by a single point. Arsène Wenger's Arsenal did the double in 1997-98.
Everyone else came close and blew it. Kevin Keegan's Newcastle were 12 points clear in January 1996 and still finished second, then finished second again the year after. Good players on those sides lost a lot of my tie-breaks.
The XI
Peter Schmeichel
His last game for United was the 1999 Champions League final in Barcelona, and he was captain that night because Keane was suspended. Five league titles before that, and he was in goal for every one. Seaman was nearly as reliable for years.
Gary Neville
The hardest call in the side, and I went back and forth on it. Lee Dixon was Arsenal's right back for the whole decade. Neville didn't take over from Paul Parker until the middle of it. So on longevity it's Dixon, easily. But Neville played regularly in three title teams and Dixon in one, and that's the rule I set, so Neville gets the shirt.
Tony Adams
He captained the 1997-98 double side. And he scored the goal everyone remembers from it, against Everton in May 1998, the fourth in a 4-0 at Highbury that won the league. A centre back bursting through on to Steve Bould's pass and lashing it in with his left foot.
Gary Pallister
Steve Bruce left for Birmingham in 1996 and Pallister just carried on. He won another title in 1996-97 before Middlesbrough took him back in 1998, and Bruce had been next to him for the first three.
Denis Irwin
The game I always think of with Irwin is Anfield in May 1999. He scored a penalty, then got a second yellow, and the ban kept him out of the FA Cup final. United won that without him and won the league and the European Cup either side of it. Stuart Pearce has the bigger reputation, and he was Forest's captain until 1997. I still couldn't leave Irwin out. He played in all five of United's title sides.
David Beckham
For the first three seasons United's right wing belonged to Andrei Kanchelskis. When he went to Everton in 1995, Beckham took the spot and won three titles there. On the opening day of 1996-97 he scored from inside his own half at Wimbledon. He was PFA Young Player of the Year the following spring.
Roy Keane
Signed from Forest in 1993, double in his first season, captain by 1997. In Turin in April 1999 United were 2-0 down to Juventus in the semi-final. Keane headed the first one back, picked up a booking that ruled him out of the final, and played on like it didn't matter. United won 3-2.
Paul Ince
Vieira was the better player and I've still left him out. He only had three seasons in this window and one title. Ince won the first two titles with United and sat next to Keane in the 1993-94 double side. He went to Inter in 1995 and came back to play for Liverpool from 1997. Of everyone here, he's the one I'm least sure about.
Ryan Giggs
His goal of the decade was the FA Cup semi-final replay against Arsenal in April 1999. Extra time, United down to ten men, and he ran from halfway through the lot of them and took his shirt off. Six years earlier, in 1993, he'd become the first player to win PFA Young Player of the Year twice.
Eric Cantona
He scored the only goal of the 1996 FA Cup final against Liverpool, a volley from the edge of the box late on. By then he'd already changed the club. United hadn't won the league since 1967 when he arrived from Leeds in November 1992, and they won it that season. He won four titles in all. In 1994-95, the season he was banned for the second half, they lost it by a point.
Alan Shearer
Blackburn signed him from Southampton in 1992, and two years later Blackburn were champions. Three Golden Boots in a row followed, two at Blackburn and one after the world-record move to Newcastle. In December 1995 he became the first player to reach 100 Premier League goals.
By my own rule Andy Cole should be here. He won three titles in this window to Shearer's one, and he scored 34 league goals for Newcastle in 1993-94. I broke the rule for Shearer and I'd do it again.
The ones who nearly made it
- Andy Cole. See above. He scored the winner against Spurs on the last day of 1998-99 to clinch the league, which on a medals rule should probably have been enough.
- Dwight Yorke. Headed the second in Turin.
- Lee Dixon. Unlucky.
- David Seaman. In goal for the 1998 double. Schmeichel just won more.
- Patrick Vieira. Him and Emmanuel Petit in that double season were the best pair in the league for a year, maybe more. I'd have had him in a 2000s side without thinking.
- Steve McManaman. Scored both goals in the 1995 League Cup final against Bolton. Liverpool never finished in the top two in this window, though, and on my rule that cost him.
- Robbie Fowler. Same problem. PFA Young Player of the Year in 1995 and 1996.
- Matt Le Tissier. Spent the whole decade at Southampton and scored in the 6-3 against United in October 1996. If the rule was goals you'd watch again, he'd be first on the sheet.
- Gianfranco Zola. Came off the bench in the 1998 Cup Winners' Cup final and scored the winner against Stuttgart almost straight away.
- Ian Wright. Became Arsenal's record scorer in 1997.
- Teddy Sheringham. The equaliser in Barcelona.
- Dennis Bergkamp. PFA and Football Writers' player of the year in 1998.
- David Ginola. Same two awards in 1999, by then at Spurs.
The second XI, also 4-4-2: Seaman; Dixon, Bruce, Keown, Pearce; McManaman, Vieira, Petit, Ginola; Bergkamp, Cole. Martin Keown came back to Arsenal from Everton in 1993 and played in the double side. I'm not sure the first XI beats this lot every time.
Quick answers
Who won the most Premier League titles in the 1990s? Manchester United, five of the seven.
Who scored the most Premier League goals in the 1990s? Alan Shearer, the first to reach 100.
Make your own
If you're buying for a Rovers fan, build the 1994-95 title side. A Newcastle fan who still hasn't got over that 12-point lead might like the 1995-96 Newcastle XI as it is. For the United fan who stayed up for Barcelona there's the treble XI print, and Arsenal's double side lives in the Arsenal prints. Classic prints start at £69. Or build your own in the YourXI builder, from £149 framed with free UK delivery.