Manchester City’s fall off this Premier League season needs to be studied… Pep Guardiola and his side are on track for his first trophy-less season with the club since the 2016/17 season – Guardiola’s first year in charge.
With just eight fixtures remaining, City are amongst a tight knit pack making up 4th to 9th on the Premier League table, 22 points behind league leaders Liverpool. They’re currently in danger of finishing outside of the top six and potentially missing out on European football next year.
In honour of City and their dramatic fall off I thought it would be a good idea to point out the other clubs that have failed miserably trying to defend their Premier League crown.
The highest point total City can achieve is 72, 19 points shy of their last season’s winning total.
Chelsea 2015/16
Chelsea’s title defence in the 2015/16 season is widely regarded as one of the most disappointing in the competition’s history.
The Blues entered the season with high expectations after blowing away the rest of the league the season before. We should’ve seen the signs from the start.
Their 2-2 draw with Swansea to kick the season off was rather deflating but it was overshadowed by Jose Mourinho’s public fallout with the team doctor Eva Carneiro. Mourinho criticized Carneiro for treating Eden Hazard on the pitch and set a toxic tone right from the beginning.
Things got worse as Chelsea only managed 15 points from 17 games leaving them in 16th. It was at this stage where Chelsea’s season had already been dubbed the ‘worst premier league title defence’
By the end of the season Mourinho had gone, Hazard and Diego Costa were on a downhill slide, and they were sitting in 10th spot with 50 points to their name.
Leicester City 2016/17
Leicester City 2016/17: The worst title defence since Chelsea in 2015/16.
After their fairy-tale title win in 2015-16, it was always going to be hard for the Foxes to replicate their form going into the 2016/17 season.
They copped what most lower tier teams must deal with when they do well, the departure of key players. You see it all the time when the smaller clubs have success… the key cogs tend to be shipped off the season after for a hefty sum of money.
In this case, N’Golo Kante left Claudio Ranieri’s squad to join Chelsea, leaving a gaping hole in the midfield.
They faced a harsh reality check in week one of the season, losing to Hull City and becoming the first reigning champs to lose their opening game. The club won just five of their opening 19 league games and were sitting in 17th by mid-February.
Raineri got the sack with Craig Shakespeare coming in and dragging them out of relegation with five straight wins. They eventually finished in 12th with 44 points, a massive 49 points behind eventual winners Chelsea.
What a magical move by N’Golo Kante who became a back-to-back Premier League Champion!
Blackburn Rovers 1995/96
A historic win in the 1994/95 season saw Blackburn end an 81-year wait for an English title. After their win, manager Kenny Dalglish stepped aside to become the Director of Football with Ray Harford stepping in as manager.
Under Harford, the Rovers experienced a challenging 1995/96 campaign finishing seventh with 61 points, the lowest ever finish by a defending champ at the time.
They started the season horribly winning just one of their opening six games. A stretch that saw a 2-1 home loss to Sheffield Wednesday and a 1-0 defeat to Bolton.
The squad was largely unchanged and included Alan Shearer who was the top goal scorer the previous year with 34. Shearer noted that they were fading towards the end of the previous season but just got over the line. Implying they were already stretched thin.
They bombed out of the Champions League in their first ever appearance finishing at the bottom of Group B with four points. Their season and title defence hopes hit rock bottom in December when they were thrashed 5-0 at Coventry City, a team that had only one win prior.
Their historic triumphs from the season before would’ve felt like a distant memory after what fans had to endure the following season.
Manchester United 2013/14
Having clinched their 20th English title with 89 points and sending off Sir Alex Ferguson in style they then crumbled the following season under David Moyes finishing in seventh with place with 64 points.
It was always going to be a tough act to follow Ferguson’s dominant reign, but Moyes copped it in the media and was fired in April of 2014 with just four games left and United mathematically unable to finish in the top four.
Moyes inexperience and a lack of summer signings leaving an aging squad was a toxic mix for United as the season quickly unraveled in front of them. A panic buy of Marouane Fellaini for €27 million on the deadline day left Moyes reliant on Rio Ferdinand (34), Nemanja Vidić (32, departing), and Michael Carrick (32).
“This wasn’t a title defence; it was a surrender” were the headlines at the end of the season and a mark of the United dynasty falling.
Leeds 1992/93
The 1992/93 season was a disaster for Leeds who won the English First Division the season before, the last of the old English top-flight era before the new Premier League’s inception.
From champions to 17th without recording a single away win in 92/93, talk about a fall from grace.
A wound they never healed from was selling Eric Cantona to the enemy for a fee of €1.2 million. Cantona won the title with United that year while Leeds’ attack spluttered, and they were just a shadow of the champions they were the season before.
Their title defence remains one of the weakest title defences in the history of the league.
Chelsea 2017/18
They’re back again.
After an impressive 2016/17 campaign under Antonio Conte, winning with 93 points which included a record-breaking 13 game winning streak, the expectations were always going to be high for the 2017/18 season.
The season couldn’t have started any worse after captain Gary Cahil saw a straight red in the 13th minute followed by Cesc Fàbregas being sent off later in the game leaving Chelsea with 9 men and losing 3-2 to Burnley in front of their home crowd.
The remaining 37 fixtures that followed saw a dysfunctional team both on and off the field limp towards to the end of the season, missing out on European football finishing in fifth – 30 points behind winners, Man City.
So there you have it, Man City on the back of four consecutive Premier League titles, a treble winning season and a star studded cast of players; Does that make this season the worst title defence in history?