Football News

Gary Neville scored a total of five Premier League goals across two decades. Two of those goals came in a seven-day hot streak in April 2004.

The 2003-04 Premier League season was not a vintage one for Manchester United.

Arsenal, the eventual champions, went the entire campaign without losing a match, and Chelsea saw immediate returns on their new investments, finishing second in their first season under Roman Abramovich.

The contrasts in the transfer market were stark: Arsenal improved an already strong squad by replacing David Seaman with Jens Lehmann, while Chelsea went for international superstars like Hernan Crespo, Claude Makelele and Neil Sullivan.

United, whose squad was a mix of fading Treble winners and underwhelming new players, made do with unknowns like Eric Djemba-Djemba, Tim Howard and a young Cristiano Ronaldo.

In hindsight, expectations should have been low.

There was, however, a silver lining to that cloudy Manchester United season. Not the unearthing of Ronaldo, who still showed limitations during his ‘pieces of straw in hair’ days.

Not even victory in the 2004 FA Cup final, the excitement of which was lessened by the quality of opponent (Millwall, led by player-manager Dennis Wise) and also by Alex Ferguson’s substitutions (Roy Carroll was given a six-minute cameo once United were 3-0 up).

No, the silver lining of Manchester United’s 2003-04 season was when Gary Neville — who across his career registered a goal every 7,000 minutes — scored twice in a week.

When United hosted Leicester City on 13 April, 2004, they occupied third place in the table.

And though that seemed shocking and unacceptable at the time, the starting XI facing Leicester was, all things considered, not one of a title-chasing side.

David

Alex Ferguson Gary Neville Jens Lehmann Ronaldo