English Premier League 2008-09 Quiz

Answer: Stoke City

Stoke City, the oldest club in the Premier League having been founded some time between 1863 and 1868, were returning to the top tier of English football for the first time since suffering relegation from the old First Division in 1985. They exceeded many people's expectations for the season by finishing in twelfth place, well clear of the relegation zone.

Answer: Gianfranco Zola

Zola played for Chelsea from 1996 to 2003, making over 200 appearances and scoring more than 50 goals. He was appointed manager of West Ham six days after the departure of Alan Curbishley, who resigned in protest over the club's transfer policy when two of the club's defenders were sold without his permission.

It was Zola's first club management position; he had been coach of the Italian national under 21s side since 2006. One of his first actions as manager was to recruit his former Chelsea colleague Steve Clarke as West Ham's first team coach.

Answer: 14 games

Edwin van der Sar was the goalkeeper for each of the fourteen matches and broke several records in the course of the run. His eleventh clean sheet took the record of most consecutive clean sheets in the Premier League that had been previously held by Petr Cech at Chelsea. In the next game against Everton, van der Sar beat the record for longest time without conceding a goal which had previously been held by the magnificently named Steve Death of Reading who had kept the ball out of his net for 1,103 minutes in 1979.

Van der Sar was not in goal for the match against Blackburn that saw the run of clean sheets come to an end but in his next match away at Newcastle United, his personal run also came to an end when Peter Lovenkrands put one past him in the ninth minute.

Answer: West Bromwich Albion

West Brom had broken the "curse" of being bottom at Christmas in the 2004-05 season under the stewardship of Bryan Robson, when they managed to sneak into 17th place on the final day of the season. They never looked like matching their achievement in the 2008-09 season, although they kept their chance mathematically alive until defeat by Liverpool in the penultimate game of the season condemned them to the drop. West Brom finished the season in last place.

Blackburn Rovers were lying in 19th place at Christmas but the arrival of new manager Sam Allardyce galvanised them and they secured safety with a couple of games to spare, finishing the season in 15th place. Manchester City sat in 18th place at Christmas but soon pulled themselves away from the wrong end of the table whilst West Ham who were in 17th at Christmas did likewise.

Answer: Tony Adams

The second foray into club management for Tony Adams proved to be as unsuccessful as his first at Wycombe Wanderers. Promoted from assistant manager after Redknapp's acrimonious departure, Adams was given the boot after just fourteen weeks in charge with just ten points from sixteen games to show for his efforts.

After initially being appointed as a co-caretaker manager with Adams for one game, Joe Jordan left the club to join up with Redknapp at Tottenham.

Answer: Sunderland

Sunderland finished two places and two points above the relegation zone but immediately after their final match when safety was confirmed, manager Ricky Sbragia resigned his position, the second Sunderland manager to do so in the course of the season (Roy Keane had relinquished the position in December 2008).

Newcastle United had also changed manager several times in the course of the season. Kevin Keegan started the season in charge but resigned in early September following disagreements over the club's transfer policy. His replacement was Joe Kinnear who was initially appointed on a temporary basis, before being confirmed as manager until the end of the season. Unfortunately due to ill health, Kinnear had to take leave from his position and was replaced by his assistant Chris Hughton. Less than two months later, Hughton was also replaced when the club turned to their legendary former striker, Alan Shearer to provide the inspiration to guide them clear of relegation. Unfortunately for Newcastle he was unable to do so. Defeats in their last two matches against Fulham and Aston Villa saw their membership of the FA Premier end after 16 years.

Middlesbrough kept the same manager throughout the season but it did them no good. Their defeat at West Ham on the final day of the season confirmed a relegation that had long looked likely.

Answer: 3rd

After nine games Hull City were lying equal first in the table (third behind the top two, Chelsea and Liverpool, on goal difference) with 20 points. At Christmas they were still in sixth place but an appalling run of just one win in their last 22 games saw them slide desperately close to the drop zone.

They survived, just, on 35 points - a tally that in most Premier League seasons would have meant relegation. However, viewed from the perspective that the club had been in the fourth tier of English football just five years previously - to finish 17th represented a truly remarkable achievement.

Answer: Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard was the first English winner of the award since 2005, when it was won by Frank Lampard of Chelsea - Thierry Henry (France) of Arsenal won it in 2006, and the next two were won by Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) of Manchester United. Gerrard was the first Liverpool player to win it since John Barnes in 1990. Ashley Young of Aston Villa won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

Answer: Nicolas Anelka

In his first full season at Chelsea, Anelka claimed the golden boot for the first time in his career in England, finishing one goal ahead of Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo. Chelsea were Anelka's fifth English club after Arsenal (1996-1999), who he joined as a 17-year-old, Liverpool (2001-02), Manchester City (2002-05) and Bolton Wanderers (2006-08).

Answer: Fulham

Going into the last few weeks of the season, four teams were in contention for qualification for Europe; Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and West Ham United. Fulham maintained their form best of these four to the extent that going into the final weekend of the season, Fulham were guaranteed to claim the spot as long as Tottenham didn't win at Liverpool. Tottenham lost 3-1.

Fulham's seventh placed finish bettered their previous best ever finish in the league which had stood at ninth place in the 2003-04 season. The performance of the club over the course of the season was a credit to their manager, Roy Hodgson, who had taken over the management of the club the previous season when they had only avoided relegation with a victory on the last day of the season.