Over the 33 years of its existence, the Premier League has grown and grown, and surpassed both Serie A and La Liga as the world's strongest domestic league, and it has been home to some of the game's greatest ever players.
Many of those legendary players have come and conquered too, winning the Premier League title as part of some of the best teams ever seen in English football.
Mohamed Salah joined the very elite during the most recent season, helping Liverpool to the title, and sweeping the board for individual honours, but what other title winners from the Premier League era lay claim to being among the very best with the Egyptian?
Here, Sports Mole compiles the Premier League's greatest individual season title-winners XI.
GK: Petr Cech (Chelsea, 2004-05 & 2005-06)
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Chelsea's 2004-05 Premier League campaign remains notorious for the astonishing defensive numbers they put up under Jose Mourinho, but it is important not to forget that they virtually replicated that a year later, so it would be unfair to leave that season out too.
In the club's first title for 50 years, goalkeeper Cech was a colossus between the sticks, as Chelsea conceded just 15 goals and kept 25 clean sheets in the 04-05 season, two records which still stand to this day, and the following year saw Mourinho's men break the 90-point barrier again, letting in just 22 goals, after six straight clean sheets to start the season.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool, 2019-20)
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The default function of a full-back has changed dramatically over the past two decades, but few have had such a profound impact on that in the recent past than Alexander-Arnold, and especially during the 2019-20 season, when he set numbers that were scarcely believable for a full-back at that time.
On the way to Liverpool's first title in 30 years, Alexander-Arnold scored four goals and assisted a whopping 13, with his performance away to Leicester City in a 4-0 win on Boxing Day standing out as possibly the best by any player that season, and after winning 26 of their first 27 games, the title was all but wrapped by February for the Reds, and the right-back was awarded Premier League Young Player of the Year at its conclusion.
CBs: John Terry & Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea, 2004-05 & 2005-06)
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With Cech between the sticks, it is only fair to include the two defensive walls in front of him that also played a huge role in those two extraordinary seasons under Mourinho that saw Chelsea go back-to-back.
The defensive numbers Chelsea posted in that campaign played a huge role in the club also setting a then-record Premier League points tally of 95 in 2004-05, as they won a record 29 matches in the 38-game season, and Terry and Carvalho remained consistent throughout the entire two seasons, sparking a real glory period for the Blues.
LB: Ashley Cole (Chelsea, 2009-10)
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After Mourinho's exit, and messy spells with Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink, Chelsea lured Carlo Ancelotti to Stamford Bridge, and his first season brought more great success to the club, and few players thrived quite as much as Cole at left-back, who was named England's Player of the Year following this brilliant season.
A less rigid and restrictive defensive structure allowed Cole freedom to maraud up and down the left flank, and he was supreme throughout the 2009-10 season, when Chelsea won the title scoring 103 goals and conceding just 32, and it was the full-back who netted their goal of their season against Sunderland, as well as notching on the final day against Wigan Athletic when the title was secured.
CM: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City, 2021-22)
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In terms of longevity, few have played at an elite level in the Premier League for as long as De Bruyne, but in 2021-22, the brilliant Belgian took his game to an entirely new stratosphere, and over the course of the season, he was the reason why Man City edged out Liverpool to the title.
De Bruyne had already won Premier League Player of the Year in 2020, but in 2022, he won it alongside the title, and he done so by scoring 15 goals and assisting eight, and his performance away to Wolves in a tricky fixture on the road in May will go down in history, as he netted four in a 5-1 win, including notching his hat trick inside 24 minutes.
CM: Yaya Toure (Manchester City, 2013-14)
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While the likes of Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes were both extraordinary in many title-winning seasons for Chelsea and Man United respectively, it is fair to say Toure's campaign in 2013-14 eclipsed any those two Premier League legends managed.
Toure was the decisive factor in a three-horse title race that saw Man City beat Liverpool and Chelsea to finish top, scoring 20 goals from central midfield and winning the club's Player of the Season award, with his crowning moment being the lung-busting goal he got in the rain at home to Aston Villa in their penultimate fixture of the season which put City's fate in their own hands heading into the final day.
CM: N'Golo Kante (Leicester City & Chelsea, 2015-16 & 2016-17)
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Choosing between Kante's first two Premier League seasons is near-impossible, so both must be shown the respect they deserve, because as a little-known arrival from Caen, the French midfielder was arguably the decisive factor that took Leicester from being relegation candidates to league champions in the space of 12 months.
Kante moved to Chelsea the following season and won the title under Antonio Conte, with his all-action approach in midfield again being pivotal in winning the Premier League for a second season in a row, and he swept the board in terms of individual honours, winning the Premier League, PFA and FWA Player of the Year awards, as well as being named the French Player of the Year for 2017.
FW: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool, 2024-25)
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Salah was crucial in Liverpool's dominant 2019-20 league title, forming a formidable partnership with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, but in 2024-25, he must have taken inspiration from Luis Suarez's 2013-14 season at the club, as he virtually single-handedly catapulted the club up the standings, and going one better than the Uruguayan by winning the title.
Scoring a phenomenal 29 goals and assisting a further 18 means Salah finished top of both charts, and he is expected to add the PFA Player of the Year award to go with the PL and FWA gongs he has already received in a special season where he seemed to be Liverpool's match winner week in, week out.
FW: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, 2007-08)
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Ronaldo won the title in each of his final three seasons at Man United before moving on to Real Madrid for a world-record fee, but it was the middle campaign of the three where he was at his most unstoppable.
The Portuguese legend won the European Golden Shoe, scoring 31 league goals, and not only that, he would go on to win the Ballon d'Or at the end of 2008, largely thanks to his performances from this campaign, as well as FIFA World Player of the Year, and UEFA Club Footballer of the Year, aided slightly by the fact the club also won the Champions League in 2007-08.
FW: Thierry Henry (Arsenal, 2003-04)
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There simply had to be room in this XI for a member of Arsenal's Invincibles, and that honour goes to arguably the club's greatest ever player in Henry, who not only helped his team clinch the Premier League title without defeat, becoming the first club to do so since Preston North End in 1888-89, but he also won the European Golden Shoe.
Henry scored 30 league goals as they dominated the Premier League in 03-04, and it was no surprise that the Frenchman swept the board of individual honours too, taking home the Premiership, PFA and FWA Player of the Year awards, and he came second in FIFA's World Player of the Year for 2004, a year after coming second at the Ballon d'Or ceremony.
Andrew Delaney
