Any list that leaves out Paul Scholes is going to upset someone, and this one leaves him out, along with Roy Keane and Wayne Rooney. That's what happens when you pick from a decade where Arsenal went a whole league season unbeaten, Abramovich bought Chelsea and brought in Mourinho, and United still won five titles. Liverpool finished second twice in there and never quite got over the line. It was probably the strongest the league has been at the very top, which makes choosing one XI from it miserable.
I've only counted what players did in the Premier League between 2000-01 and 2009-10. Keane in 1999 doesn't count. Ronaldo at Real Madrid doesn't count. The years next to each name are his time at the club we're picking him from.
The XI
4-3-3. Vieira sits, Gerrard and Lampard get to run beyond, and the front three just play.
Goalkeeper
Petr Čech, Chelsea (2004 to 2015). In his first season Chelsea let in 15 league goals and he kept 24 clean sheets, and both of those were Premier League records.
Edwin van der Sar pushes him hard. His 1,311 minutes without conceding in 2008-09 is still a Premier League record. I'd take Van der Sar on his best season, but Čech was better for longer, even after the fractured skull at Reading in 2006 that put him in the headguard for the rest of his career.
Defence
If you want to know what Gary Neville, right back, Manchester United (1992 to 2011) was like, think of January 2006. Rio Ferdinand heads in a late winner against Liverpool at Old Trafford, it finishes 1-0, and Neville runs off to celebrate in front of the Liverpool end. He got fined for it. Five titles in the decade too, and captain from 2005. Lauren and Paulo Ferreira both won leagues, but neither was close to him over ten years.
Rio Ferdinand, centre back, Manchester United (2002 to 2014). United paid Leeds a British record fee for him in 2002 and got four titles out of him before the decade was done.
John Terry over Nemanja Vidić is the call people will argue with most at the back, and I can see why. Vidić played next to Ferdinand every week, and if you'd rather have the pairing United actually used, fair enough. I've gone Terry, centre back, Chelsea (1998 to 2017) because he captained the 2004-05 side that let in those 15 goals, and he was the PFA Players' Player of the Year that season. He and Ferdinand were England's pairing for a good chunk of the decade as well.
Ashley Cole, left back, Arsenal then Chelsea (1998 to 2006, 2006 to 2014). The easiest pick in the back four. He won the double with Arsenal in 2001-02 and the league unbeaten in 2003-04, crossed London in 2006, and won it again with Chelsea in 2009-10. I don't think there was a better left back in Europe for most of the decade.
Midfield
February 2005, the tunnel at Highbury before kick-off. Keane and Vieira have to be pulled apart before a ball's been kicked. That's the whole argument for this spot, really. Two captains squaring up, and you only get one of them.
I've gone Patrick Vieira, Arsenal (1996 to 2005), over Keane and Scholes. Keane's best years were mostly in the 1990s. He was still very good in 2000-01 and 2002-03, both title seasons, but he was gone by November 2005. Vieira, in this window, captained the Invincibles and won the double in 2001-02. His last kick for Arsenal was the winning penalty in the 2005 FA Cup final shootout against United.
Scholes is the one that hurts. Five titles in the decade. But in a three with Gerrard and Lampard, someone has to stay at home, and that was never his game.
Steven Gerrard, Liverpool (1998 to 2015). No league title, and some United and Chelsea fans will say that should rule him out. I don't agree. Liverpool never gave him a side good enough to win it, and he still got them close. He was the PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2006, and the Football Writers' pick in 2009, the season Liverpool pushed United all the way and finished second.
Frank Lampard scored both goals at Bolton on 30 April 2005, and that 2-0 won Chelsea their first league title in 50 years. Lampard, Chelsea (2001 to 2014), also played 164 Premier League games in a row between 2001 and 2005, which was a record, and won three titles. In 2009-10 he got 22 league goals from midfield, in a team where Drogba was scoring 29.
Yes, I know about England. Gerrard and Lampard never really worked together for the national team. With Vieira behind them, and nobody asking either of them to be the holding player, I think they would have.
Attack
Cristiano Ronaldo, right, Manchester United (2003 to 2009). He turned up in 2003 as a skinny teenager who did too many stepovers. By January 2008 he was hitting free kicks like the one against Portsmouth that month, and he finished that season with 31 league goals from the wing and the Ballon d'Or on top of the title. Three titles in a row from 2006-07, and two PFA awards.
Didier Drogba, centre, Chelsea (2004 to 2012). Golden Boot in 2006-07 and again in 2009-10, and three titles. What he gives this side is someone to hit and bully a centre half, so Henry and Ronaldo can play off him. That's the Drogba vs Rooney row, and I'll come to it.
November 2002, Arsenal vs Spurs at Highbury. Thierry Henry picks it up inside his own half, runs at the Spurs defence until there's nobody left to beat, scores, and then does the knee slide. Henry, left, Arsenal (1999 to 2007), won four Golden Boots in five seasons, 2001-02 and then 2003-04 to 2005-06, and scored 30 league goals in the unbeaten season. He spent a lot of his Arsenal career drifting in from the left anyway, so this is close to where he'd have chosen to play.
For me he's the best player the Premier League had in the 2000s. Ronaldo's 2007-08 was better than any single Henry season, but Henry did it for longer.
Manager
Sir Alex Ferguson. Five titles in ten seasons, and he rebuilt the side halfway through, from the Keane and Beckham team to the one with Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez.
Wenger has the unbeaten season, and you could argue that's the single greatest thing anyone did in the league in these years. Mourinho won two titles in his first two seasons. But five is five.
The ones that hurt
- Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 2004 to 2017). Rooney vs Drogba is a coin toss. Rooney scored 26 league goals in 2009-10 and won both player of the year awards. But for half the decade United used him wide or deeper, and this team needs a proper centre forward to play off.
- Paul Scholes and Roy Keane. Covered above. Either could take Vieira's place and I wouldn't argue for long.
- Edwin van der Sar (Manchester United, 2005 to 2011). That record, and three titles.
- Nemanja Vidić and Jamie Carragher. Vidić won three titles in a row. Carragher only misses out because of Terry and Ferdinand.
- Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United, 2001 to 2006). Golden Boot in 2002-03.
- Ryan Giggs. Still going at the end of the decade, and PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2009.
- Fernando Torres (Liverpool, 2007 to 2011). For two seasons nobody was better, and two seasons isn't enough here.
- Claude Makélélé, who Chelsea named a role after. Michael Essien, Robert Pirès and Dennis Bergkamp too.
Build your own
Plenty of you will want the Invincibles or Mourinho's first Chelsea side instead, and some of you will want the Bolton team with Okocha and Djorkaeff, which is fine by me.
Build your own version in the team builder. Prints are £99 or £149 framed, with free UK delivery. If you'd rather have a team that already exists, there are classic prints for Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool, or the whole range.