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For however tricky it is to actually win a league title, for a lot of sides defending it is even more difficult. Rivals might look to strengthen in the summer, and if the title-winning side is a smaller club, they may find their best players stolen away by bigger clubs looking to recreate success with them elsewhere.
Last season’s Premier League champions Chelsea aren’t doing too bad a job of their title defence – they’re currently fourth with a good chance of making the Champions League spots although retaining looks beyond them now – but the following five sides simply made a hash of it. Here are five teams who won the league, and then fell off immediately the next season.
#1 Manchester United (2013/14)
Manchester United last captured the Premier League title in 2012/13, beating Manchester City to the trophy by a margin of 11 points. But two things stood out for them that year – firstly it was the final season for legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired in the summer of 2013, and secondly, they had hitman extraordinaire Robin Van Persie, who scored a phenomenal 26 league goals.
The following season didn’t go so well. Everton manager David Moyes was appointed as the new United boss, but alongside executive Ed Woodward, had a lacklustre summer transfer window.
While his rivals strengthened, Moyes was only able to sign Marouane Fellaini. A 4-1 win over Swansea opened the season but without Ferguson, United just weren’t the same and they lost three of their first six games.
By the end of the Christmas period they sat in seventh position – disastrous for a title defence – and Moyes, who was painfully out of his depth, was eventually fired in April when it was mathematically confirmed that United couldn’t qualify for the Champions League.
Van Persie scored 12 – less than half of his haul in the previous season and in the end, United lost 12 league games and finished in seventh, knocking them off the lofty perch they’d largely occupied for the previous two decades.
#2 Leeds United (1992/93)
Leeds United were the surprising winners of the 1991/92 season – the final season in which the old Division one was the top league in England prior to the inauguration of the Premier League in 1992/93.
They’d managed to overhaul Manchester United thanks to the efforts of players such as Gordon Strachan, Lee Chapman, Gary McAllister and Eric Cantona, but for Howard Wilkinson’s side, things were about to change dramatically.
In the opening season of the new Premier League, Leeds were basically dire. They didn’t win an away game all season, were thrashed at home 1-4 by bottom-of-the-table Nottingham Forest, and battled relegation – eventually finishing 17th, just two points away from slipping out of the Premier League entirely.
Football folklore would suggest that the sale of Eric Cantona to Manchester United – who won the league – was the catalyst, but while Cantona’s arrival may have galvanised United, he can’t be to blame for the downfall of Leeds.
Instead, former Leeds players have blamed the introduction of the back pass rule in 1992 – a rule that prevented their defence from resetting by passing back to goalkeeper John Lukic, a tactic they’d commonly used in seasons past. Whatever the reason, it was a simply woeful title defence.
#3 Blackburn Rovers (1995/96)
When Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League title in 1994/95, it was almost a precursor to later years when money-fuelled sides like Chelsea and Manchester City were seen to be “buying” their success.
In Blackburn’s case it was local businessman Jack Walker’s money, and he’d used it to sign Chris Sutton for a then-British record £5 million. Sutton formed a deadly partnership with Alan Shearer, the duo scored 49 goals between them, and Blackburn pipped United to the title.
Blackburn didn’t lose any key players in the summer, but they did see a big change at the top. Manager Kenny Dalglish moved into a Director of Football role while his former assistant Ray Harford took control of the team. And right away it seemed disastrous.
An opening day win was followed by four losses and a draw in their next five games, leaving Blackburn way off the pace.By early December a defeat to Coventry City gave them eight losses – one more than they’d had in the entirety of the previous season.
Shearer was still scoring – he hit 37 in the league – but Sutton wasn’t, scoring just one, and despite conceding just eight more goals than in 1994/95, results just didn’t go their way.
The end of the season saw them pick up somewhat – four wins in their last five games – but they could only finish seventh in a truly dismal title defence.
#4 Leicester City (2016/17)
Leicester City’s Premier League title win in 2015/16 was probably the biggest underdog victory in the history of English football, so nobody really expected them to be challenging for the title again in the following season.
But after managing to hold onto most of their key players – Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Kasper Schmeichel and Danny Drinkwater, with only N’Golo Kante moving to Chelsea – a decent finish was hoped for.
Instead the Foxes got off to a disastrous start, losing to newly-promoted Hull City on the opening day of the season, and where their title rivals had massively strengthened their squads.
Leicester’s signings like Islam Slimani and Ahmed Musa barely made a whisper. By the autumn it was clear that things weren’t getting any better, and the Foxes entered the New Year on a run of five straight defeats.
Title-winning boss Claudio Ranieri was fired in February to attempt to stop the bleeding, and interim boss Craig Shakespeare managed to turn things around by leading the Foxes to five straight wins – staving off the threat of relegation. In the end though Leicester lost 18 games, and finished in 12th place – the lowest of any Premier League defending champions.
#5 Chelsea (2015/16)
After a trophyless season in 2013/14, some people felt that the return of Jose Mourinho to Chelsea was a mistake. The Portuguese boss proved that thought wrong in the following season, when he lead the Blues to a Premier League title win – his third as Chelsea manager.
Chelsea only lost three times that season, and it looked like Mourinho was bringing the good times back to the club as he had a decade before.
Unfortunately for Chelsea fans, that wasn’t the case. They drew 2-2 with Swansea on the opening day after goalkeeper Thibault Courtois was sent off, but an incident that saw Mourinho criticise club doctor Eva Carneiro for attempting to treat the injured Eden Hazard set off a chain reaction that basically ruined the Blues’ season.
Mourinho appeared to have lost the dressing room, key players went off the boil, and by December Chelsea sat in a horrendous 14th place.
Having lost nine games already, Mourinho was fired on the 17th December and replaced with former caretaker boss Guus Hiddink. He oversaw an unbeaten run that stretched to April 9th, but with eight draws in those 15 games.
But it wasn’t enough to totally salvage Chelsea’s season and the champions ended up in 10th position, miles away from European qualification let alone another title win.
