English football may never be quite the same again after a season in which the heights of Thierry Henry's talent and the depths of Roman Abramovich's pockets set new standards in the game.

Arsenal's mesmerising striker helped them win a league championship in which their skills proved literally unbeatable and set a fresh benchmark by which success is judged.

Off the pitch, the 200 million dollars invested in Chelsea by billionaire Abramovich fuelled them to second place and sent shockwaves through a premier league in which Manchester United are clearly no longer the dominant force.

Together, the French striker and Russian business tycoon shaped a season which looks like a turning point, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United destined to compete for honours in a mini-league of their own.

The extent to which Liverpool, Newcastle United and Aston Villa were left behind was dramatically revealed by the gap between third and fourth place.

By November, with only a third of the season gone, it was an ominous nine points. By the time Arsenal clinched the title in April, it had ballooned to a whopping 18.

Liverpool, still the most successful club in English history with a record 18 league titles and four European Cups, eventually sealed fourth slot and a place in the Champions League qualifiers.

However, they finished an astonishing 30 points adrift of the champions and were closer to relegation -- the bottom three clubs ended on 33 points -- than Arsenal's title.

All that was of no concern at Highbury, where Arsene Wenger's side savoured their moment on Saturday.

Arsenal became the first team since Preston North End's "Old Invincibles" in the Football League's inaugural 1888-89 season to remain unbeaten in the top flight.

KING HENRY

Henry won two player of the year awards and finished as the premier league's top scorer with 30 goals after a season in which he thrilled Arsenal fans and neutrals alike.

Skipper Patrick Vieira was imperious in midfield, while the grit of central defenders Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure was matched by the creative flair of 19-goal winger Robert Pires.

Yet Arsenal should have had more to celebrate before Henry, Vieira and Pires head off to defend France's title at Euro 2004.

United, and not Arsenal, will face first division Millwall in Saturday's FA Cup final after Wenger's side, winners of the last two editions, fell at the semi-final stage.

Arsenal's Champions League campaign stalled in the quarter-finals when they were hit by Chelsea's late winner in the second leg at Highbury.

Despite their subsequent defeat by Monaco, Chelsea can still look back on an impressive season.

Spurred by attacking midfielder Frank Lampard, they enjoyed the club's second highest league finish in its 99-year history, topped only by winning the title in 1955.

It is unlikely to be enough, though, to keep manager Claudio Ranieri in the job next season.

No changes at the top are expected at United, where Alex Ferguson is solidly in charge of a team in transition.

Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo, midfielder Darren Fletcher and defenders John O'Shea and Wes Brown can only get better, but Ferguson still needs the best from skipper Roy Keane and fellow midfielders Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.

FERDINAND'S TEST

Nine league defeats condemned the 2003 champions, though things might have been different had England defender Rio Ferdinand remembered to take a drug test in September.

Before starting his eight-month ban in January, table-topping United were a point ahead of Arsenal and making light of losing David Beckham to Real Madrid.

Further down the table, clubs split into those hoping for European football, those marking time and those desperate to avoid the relative poverty of division one.

The saddest case was Leeds United, who joined Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers on the way down.

Leeds, feared in the late 1960s to mid-1970s and who reached the Champions League semi-finals three years ago, were only just spared the embarrassment of administration.

But two years of enforced player sales by a heavily-indebted and loss-making club finally took their toll and there was no saving the last winners of the old first division title in 1992.

What links Chelsea's success and Leeds's fate is the common desire to live the dream; to join the elite in England and Europe. For Chelsea, it became reality. For Leeds it became a nightmare.