Who are the biggest over-achievers?

The top five (starting with the biggest over-achievers) are:

1. Doncaster
2. Portsmouth
3. Reading
4. Hull City
5. Wigan Athletic

Donny topped the Achievers Index for the remarkable feat of rising from 21st in the Fourth Division at the end of the 1991-92 season, to promotion to the Championship in 2008.

If that wasn’t enough to justify top spot, let’s not forget that Doncaster Rovers were a Conference side as recently as 2003, and in the five years they’ve been back in League football they’ve finished no lower than 11th (between 1992 and 2000 they finished higher than 11th only once!).

The Owls take that unenviable award despite being a relatively successful Premiership side in the early 90s, finishing ahead of the likes of Liverpool on more than one occasion.

That’s one of the reasons Wednesday’s struggles in more recent seasons (remember that 16th place in Division Two in 2004?) are felt more acutely by Owls fans.

What about the Premiership’s ‘Big Four’ – have they under-achieved or over-achieved?

Arsenal were the biggest over-achievers of the so-called ‘Big Four’, largely because of their success in the late 1990s, but also because of the ‘Double’ achieved in 2002 and the undefeated Premiership season of 2003-04.

Chelsea certainly over-achieved during the late 1990s when, under Ruud Gullit and then Gianluca Vialli, they achieved successive top-four finishes and won domestic and European cups. Given their resources, today’s Blues can be expected to achieve to the same level as Manchester United, and despite two league titles they have slightly under-performed against that benchmark – particularly in the Premier League in the past two seasons.

As the world’s biggest club, Manchester United have to achieve, so anything less than a league title and at least one cup is under-achievement at Old Trafford. Fortunately for the club, that doesn’t happen too often. Failing to win the league title in three seasons between 2003 and 2006 was under-achieving by United’s standards.

Liverpool are the biggest under-achievers of the ‘Big Four’, the only ones without a Premier League title and only one runners-up spot to their name. On the plus side, they’ve continued their long tradition of cup success at home and in Europe, but that can’t make up for the lack of league silverware.

Who have been the biggest under- and over-achievers of this millennium?

Carlisle United, Hull City and Portsmouth are the biggest over-achievers since 2000, with Leicester City the biggest under-achievers. The Premier League’s biggest under-achievers of the millennium are Newcastle United.

Read on for more ‘league tables’ and a brief report on how each of the 92 clubs have performed since 1992.