Let's settle it right here!

Open up any debate surrounding the best team in England and you're in for hours of endless discussions! Well it's about time someone came up with a way to settle this issue once and for all - let's determine which team is officially (well, not really officially!) the most successful English team in recent history!

Before starting, a time period has to be set and I personally want to look at the past five seasons, from 02-03 up to 06-07. Okay, the way to do this is to look at each team's achievements over these seasons and award them points according to these achievements. The competitions we'll be looking at are the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, and Carling Cup (Note: Charity Shields and European Super Cups aren't put into account - they aren't real cup competitions!). It's simple, the team with the most accumulated points is declared the most successful of them all. Obviously, the teams in question are going to be Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Man United; however, determining the points system is where it gets tricky. A team can't be awarded the same points for winning the Champions League as they would be for winning the Carling Cup, for example. Therefore, I've come up with this points system which in my opinion is extremely fair and reflective of the achievement:

Premier League: Champs- 10 pts /// Runners-up- 8 pts /// 3rd- 6 pts /// 4th- 4 pts /// 5th- 2 pts

Champions League: Champs- 10 pts /// Runners-up- 8 pts /// Semi-finals- 6 pts /// Quarter-finals- 4 pts /// Round of 16/2nd group stage- 2 pts

These two competitions are allocated the same points simply because both are considered to be the hardest two competitions to win. Although the Champions League is obviously tricky due to the high caliber of teams taking part, a 38-game league is equally hard to win. Remember, managers of the so-called 'Big Four' always set these two competitions as the their highest priorities, and if anyone disagrees with these points allocations, I'd be happy to further justify them.

I'm sure all will agree the FA Cup is the next hardest competition available for English teams followed by the Carling Cup, and therefore the points allocated for winning these competitions are less than the previous two. Again these points simply reflect the standard of teams you come up against in each competition.

FA Cup: Champs- 8 pts /// Runners-up- 6 pts /// Semi-finals- 4 pts /// Quarter-finals- 2 pts

Carling Cup: Champs- 6 pts /// Runners-up- 4pts /// Semi-finals- 2 pts

After determining the points, it's simply a matter of plugging in the numbers. I'll skip the long math calculations and just show you the final results:

-------------02-03------03-04--------04-05--------05-06----------06-07
Arsenal: -----18----------20-----------18------------14--------------10
Man U: ------18----------16-----------16------------14--------------22
Liverpool: ----8-----------4------------16------------14--------------14
Chelsea: ------6----------14------------22------------16--------------28

And the winner is.....

Well, unfortunately for us Gunners its actually a tie between Man United and Chelsea both with 86 points! :( Then come Arsenal with 80, and finally Liverpool with an embarrassing 56 points! To be fair Liverpool did win the European Super Cup and were runners-up in the World Club Cup competition in 2005, but still should be considered the least successful of the four.

However, a consolation for all Arsenal fans, before last season we were by far the most successful English team, leading the pack with 70 points, followed by United at 64, Chelsea at 58, and Liverpool with 42! Be patient fellow gooners, we might have let our lead slip last season but hopefully the good times are about to roll again in North London!