Winning the Premier League is a huge achievement, but defending it is often even harder. History shows that the reigning champion usually fails to retain their crown the following season. And of course, there are many levels to how badly a title defence can go.
Some champions have fallen just short of repeating their success, while others have completely collapsed and lost all hope just weeks into the campaign. Here, our focus is on the latter as we look at the five worst Premier League title defences.
How We Judged the ‘Worst’
There are several ways to measure the worst Premier League title defences, such as lowest finish, lowest points total, or biggest drop in points. Each has its merits, but for this list, we’ve focused on the points gap between the defending champions and the team that finished first.
To us, this seems like the fairest method, as it highlights how close, or rather how far, a club was from defending its title. The flaw with using a decrease in points is that it doesn’t reflect how competitive the title race was. A defending champion could finish with 20 fewer points yet still narrowly miss out on retaining the crown. Likewise, looking at league position alone doesn’t tell the full story. A team finishing fourth might have been in genuine contention or have been miles off the pace.
By measuring the gap to first place, we get a clearer sense of how convincingly each title defence fell apart. Based on this, here are the five worst Premier League title defences.
Blackburn Rovers (1995/96) – 21 Points Off 1st Place
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Manchester United | 82 |
| 2nd | Newcastle United | 78 |
| 3rd | Liverpool | 71 |
| 4th | Aston Villa | 63 |
| 5th | Arsenal | 63 |
| 6th | Everton | 61 |
| 7th | Blackburn Rovers | 61 |
A stunning 1994/95 season saw Blackburn Rovers pip Manchester United to the league title by one point. Led by Kenny Dalglish, Rovers saw six of their players named in the PFA Team of the Year, including top scorer Alan Shearer, who netted 34 times in the league.
Dalglish resigned as manager over the summer, but the club retained all their key players. Despite a promising opening day win, Blackburn went on to collect just one point from their following five league matches.
After being hammered 5-0 by Coventry in December, relegation was even looking like a possibility. Fortunately for them, things picked up, largely thanks to Shearer, who continued to score prolifically. His 31 league goals helped inspire a change in fortunes, and Rovers climbed their way up the table. Despite the revival, it was a hugely disappointing season for Rovers and not just in the league. The Lancashire outfit fell at the first hurdle in the FA Cup and won just one of their six ties in the Champions League.
Manchester United (2013/14) – 22 Points Off 1st Place
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Manchester City | 86 |
| 2nd | Liverpool | 84 |
| 3rd | Chelsea | 82 |
| 4th | Arsenal | 79 |
| 5th | Everton | 72 |
| 6th | Tottenham Hotspur | 69 |
| 7th | Manchester United | 64 |
When Sir Alex Ferguson retired after winning the 2012/13 title, Manchester United faced an impossible challenge: replacing the most successful manager in British football history. David Moyes, chosen as Ferguson’s successor, struggled from the outset. There was some acknowledgement that there were huge boots to fill and there would be a transition period, but Moyes struggled beyond an acceptable level. Old Trafford, once a fortress, became a hunting ground for visiting teams. United won just nine of their 19 league home matches, compared to 16 the season before.
The United powers that be were not quick to kick Moyes out, and the club’s form in the Champions League perhaps bought the Scot a little more time. Enough was enough though after a 2-0 defeat to Moyes’ former side, Everton. At this stage, the Red Devils were out of all competitions and slumped in seventh place in the league. For a side that had never finished lower than third in the Premier League era, it was shocking to see United perform this badly. Ryan Giggs took over for the final four games of the season as interim player-manager while the club pondered how to recover from their mess. Some would suggest they are still pondering!
Chelsea (2015/16) – 31 Points Off 1st Place
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Leicester City | 81 |
| 2nd | Arsenal | 71 |
| 3rd | Tottenham Hotspur | 70 |
| 4th | Manchester City | 66 |
| 5th | Manchester United | 66 |
| 6th | Southampton | 63 |
| 7th | West Ham United | 62 |
| 8th | Liverpool | 60 |
| 9th | Stoke City | 51 |
| 10th | Chelsea | 50 |
Few title defences have imploded as dramatically as Chelsea’s in 2015/16. After coasting to the title under Jose Mourinho the year before, the Blues entered the new season as favourites, but almost everything that could go wrong did so. Rather than looking like serious title contenders, the London side appeared far more like relegation fodder, as defensive errors plagued them. There was even the infamous fallout between an increasingly ill-tempered Mourinho and club doctor Eva Carneiro, which summed up the toxic atmosphere at the club.
By mid-December, Chelsea were hovering just above the relegation zone after losing nine of their first sixteen league matches. Despite all the success he had brought to Stamford Bridge, Mourinho’s position had become untenable. Guus Hiddink returned as caretaker manager in a bid to stabilise the club and calm any relegation fears. With the Dutchman in charge, the Blues recovered immediately and went on a 14-game unbeaten run in the league. Ultimately, their late recovery was only enough for a 10th-place finish, resulting in no European football for the first time since 1996/97.
Leicester City (2016/17) – 49 Points Off 1st Place
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Chelsea | 93 |
| 2nd | Tottenham Hotspur | 86 |
| 3rd | Manchester City | 78 |
| 4th | Liverpool | 76 |
| 5th | Arsenal | 75 |
| 6th | Manchester United | 69 |
| 7th | Everton | 61 |
| 8th | Southampton | 46 |
| 9th | Bournemouth | 46 |
| 10th | West Bromwich Albion | 45 |
| 11th | West Ham United | 45 |
| 12th | Leicester City | 44 |
Leicester’s 2015/16 title win remains one of football’s greatest stories, but their defence of the crown was almost as remarkable for the opposite reason. Having shocked the world under Claudio Ranieri, the Foxes entered the new campaign under immense scrutiny. The loss of N’Golo Kanté to Chelsea created an irreplaceable absence in midfield, while key players like Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez struggled to replicate their extraordinary form of their title-winning campaign.
Leicester’s domestic campaign quickly unravelled. By mid-February, they sat just one point above the relegation zone. Alarm bells were truly ringing as they were the only side in the top four English divisions without a league goal in 2017. This left the Leicester owners with a tough decision: risk relegation with Ranieri or sack the man who guided them to the league title? They opted for the latter.
Leicester have sacked the man who made this possible… 😞https://t.co/MyyP2fgumT pic.twitter.com/7yTlRrxO00
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) February 23, 2017
Craig Shakespeare took over and managed to immediately secure five consecutive league victories. He also took the Foxes to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, where they were narrowly knocked out by Atletico Madrid.
Chelsea (2017/18) – 30 Points Off 1st Place
| Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Manchester City | 100 |
| 2nd | Manchester United | 81 |
| 3rd | Tottenham Hotspur | 77 |
| 4th | Liverpool | 75 |
| 5th | Chelsea | 70 |
Just two years after their 10th-place finish, Chelsea once again failed to put up any sort of credible title defence. Antonio Conte’s side had looked unstoppable in 2016/17, setting records on their way to the championship, such as the highest number of wins. However, behind the scenes, relations between Conte and the club hierarchy deteriorated. Disagreements over transfers, including the sale of Diego Costa and the failure to land top targets, created a tense atmosphere before a ball had even been kicked. Chelsea started the season with a home defeat to Burnley, but this was not a sign of things to come.
Even after 24 league matches, the Londoners had only lost four of them, and they were firmly in the hunt to finish second. Things fell apart a little after this, though, with the Blues losing 6 of their final 14 Premier League fixtures. Despite this, they still managed to retain form in the FA Cup and ended up going all the way. Domestic cup success was not enough to spare Conte his job, though, with the Italian sacked a couple of months after the triumph at Wembley.