Keegan Walks and Fergie Struts - The 1996-97 Premier League Title race

The Entertainers are back. Manchester United are champions. And somehow, Liverpool and Newcastle are about to do it all over again.

The 1996/97 Premier League season began with Newcastle desperate to finish the job after the heartbreak of the previous year. But halfway through the campaign, Kevin Keegan suddenly walked away — leaving behind a title challenge and one of the great mysteries of the Premier League era.

In this episode of The Games That Decided the Season, we ask where the title was really won.

Was it United’s response to an extraordinary autumn collapse, when Ferguson’s champions suffered three consecutive league defeats — conceding 13 goals along the way — including that infamous 5–0 humiliation at Newcastle?

Or was it another extraordinary night at Anfield, when Liverpool and Newcastle somehow produced another 4–3 classic, almost exactly a year after the first?

We revisit Keegan’s shock departure, United’s ability to recover when seemingly in crisis, Newcastle’s attempt to keep their challenge alive without the man who had transformed the club, and a title race in which nobody seemed particularly keen on taking control.

So which game really decided the 1996/97 Premier League title?

This is The Final Countdown — football history and nostalgia, as we look back at the games where an entire season changed.