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Who has the best website in the Premiership?
In truth this contest was over at Christmas...

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Friday 09 May 2003

Chelsea have seized the crown won last year by Everton, claiming the accolade of top performing Premiership website for the 2002/2003 season.

Having dominated previous monthly league tables, Chelsea's website took its foot off the pedal in April to offer Leeds United a glimmer of hope. But strong performances throughout the season, as measured by web-monitoring firm Keynote, ensured Chelsea still took the second annual silicon.com Premiership website of the year award.

Throughout the season Chelsea's website was available within an impressive average time of 0.28 seconds.

While Leeds equalled that time during the run in to the end of season, previous months of poorer performance dragged the season's average time down to 0.67 seconds, leaving the Yorkshiremen in second place.

At the other end of the table, it's red faces all round for the big clubs - Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, who all failed to shine online. Arsenal finished rock-bottom of the table with an average time of 6.33 seconds. Manchester United were also left languishing in the relegation zone with an average time of 5.27 seconds.

While some may argue that these results are merely indicative of the fact that big clubs have to deal with greater demand for pages and higher levels of traffic, others may argue that larger 'catchment' is the very reason why they're site should sing, as from a business perspective these online properties play an important role in merchandising for major clubs with support spread nationwide, and even worldwide.

The full table for the 2002/2003 season looks like this (figures in brackets show average time taken over the season to access the website):

1. Chelsea (0.28 seconds) 2. Leeds (0.67) 3. Sunderland (1.96) 4. Aston Villa (2.29) 5. Everton (2.32) 6. Tottenham (2.44) 7. Blackburn (2.51) 8. West Brom (2.79) 9. Bolton (2.86) 10. Middlesbrough (2.91) 11. Birmingham (3.21) 12. Newcastle (3.23) 13. West Ham (3.71) 14. Southampton (3.96) 15. Liverpool (3.99) 16. Fulham (4.23) 17. Manchester City (4.71) 18. Charlton Athletic (4.82) 19. Manchester United (5.27) 20. Arsenal (6.33)