Chelsea were sitting top of the Premier League table on Christmas Day this season. But how significant is that milestone? The Blues have previously capitalised on their mid-season lead, but over half of the 24 teams who have been on top of the Premier League at Christmas have slipped from the summit.
So what went wrong for those teams after the turn of the new year? Were injuries a major problem or did everything come down to inconsistency in the end? Or did they simply collapse under the weight of sheer expectation?
Here, we take a look at five teams that blew a Christmas Day lead.
#5 Norwich City – 1992-1993
The very first team to top the Premier League at Christmas, Norwich City barely managed to stay in Premier League, with just three points separating them from the drop zone having won just eight games all season. Come the end of the 1992-1993 season, the Canaries were playing top flight football.
Their first game looked to be a repeat of their previous season’s proceedings with Arsenal leading 2-0 at half-time. However, new manager Mike Walker brought on Mark Robbins and that substitution changed the game.
The former Manchester United player scored two goals to produce an incredible turnaround as The Canaries beat the Gunners 4-2. Nine games on and Norwich had lost just once, but against the better teams, they were getting whipped. A 7-1 demolition by Blackburn Rovers, and 4-1 against Liverpool, but despite that, they went through November without a defeat. This meant that come their visit to Old Trafford, Norwich City were going with an eight-point advantage.
However, they were beaten by a solitary Mark Hughes strike which gave United the game and marked the end for Norwich. They slumped to a five-game winless run which cost them in the long run and after a positive start, they began to turn into an inconsistent side.
The Canaries soon found themselves six points off the top and in desperate need of points, but their comeback came too late in the season. In the end, they were pipped by Manchester United and Aston Villa and two seasons later descended to the Championship.
#4 Newcastle United – 2001-2002
If things had gone their way, Shola Ameobi and Nikos Dabizas would have had a Premier League medal to their list of honours. However, the league had other ideas and neither they nor Alan Shearer ended up with either that season. The Magpies started the season well, winning five and drawing two in their first ten games, beating Manchester United and Leicester City.
They established themselves as genuine title contenders after they beat Arsenal 3-1 and Leeds United 4-3 two weeks into December, and the Magpies led the league at the turn of the year, frog-hopping over Leeds United after their win over them. However, it was after this that their season turned and the Toons soon started chasing the rest behind Arsenal and Liverpool for the title.
Losses to Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool proved to be fatal and the Geordies lost out on their first title since 1927, but they also managed to finish fourth behind Manchester United, Liverpool and eventually Champions Arsenal, their highest since 1997. This gave them Champions League football for the only the second time in their history.
#3 Manchester United – 2003-2004
The race for the title was a three-way tie for most of the season before Arsenal and Arsene Wenger peeled off to the finish towards the end. However, with Manchester United starting off their season brilliantly winning seven and drawing once in their first ten games as they beat Leicester City on the back of a Van Nistelrooy hat trick, the race was a tough one to call.
The Red Devils continued their good form – thanks in part to the goal-scoring form of both Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs and partly to the host of new signings – winning all bar one game against Chelsea until the end of December. This included a 2-1 over Liverpool in November, a 3-1 over Manchester City in December and a 3-2 against Everton on Boxing day, with goals from new signings Kleberson and Bellion sealing the game.
However, it was a horror show in 2004 with the Old Trafford club losing six times including losses to the Wolves, Blackburn Rovers, and a humbling 4-1 derby defeat and drawing a further five games, including 1-1 draws to Arsenal, Chelsea, and Fulham, which saw the title slip from their grasp.
Who would have thought that a host of summer signings including the likes of Eric Djemba-Djemba, David Bellion and even an unknown Portuguese winger called Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn’t have been enough to seal the deal?
#2 Arsenal – 2015-2016
If there was one word to describe Arsenal’s 2015-2016 season, it would be odd, but that would only be in correspondence of the league season that saw Leicester City win the league. Defending champions Chelsea ended up tenth and Crystal Palace managed not to win a Premier League fixture for four months and still reached a cup final.
Still, Arsenal’s season was somewhat surreal as they finished higher than they ever managed for 11 years, but at the same time, they watched their best chance of a title crash and burn in the second half of the season.
The Gunners didn’t start their season well, with an opening day loss to West Ham and then five games later losing again, this time to Chelsea, but they soon turned things around, with wins over Leicester City, Manchester United, and Everton, as they went on a five-game winning run.
However, a stunning 4-0 loss to Southampton on Boxing day saw everything slowly unravel but it was between January and March when the cookie crumbled. The new year wasn’t a good one for the Gunners, and barring a ten-game unbeaten run towards the end of the season, 2016 had been atrocious.
A late Joe Allen equaliser cost Arsenal two important points at Anfield and Oliver Giroud went on a 16-game scoreless run, which further put a dent in Arsenal’s title hopes. Things went from bad to worse as the Gunners suffered injury troubles. It was a make or break point in Arsenal's season and they bottled it to end the season second behind eventual champions, Leicester City.
#1 Liverpool – 2013-2014
When Brendan Rodgers arrived at Anfield, he tried to implement a possession-based style, but during the run of 2013-14, he switched things around and turned his team into a menacing force on the counter-attack. The switch helped and appeared to get the best out of emerging youngster Raheem Sterling, who used his pace to join both Suarez and Sturridge as The Reds transitioned between defence to attack in an instant.
It was a tactic that Rodgers used brilliantly throughout the season and despite losses to both Manchester City on Boxing Day and Chelsea two days later, Liverpool went on an unbeaten 16 game run, which included a 5-1 win over Arsenal and even a 3-0 victory over Manchester United.
With less than two weeks to go, Liverpool looked like they might actually win their first Premier League title, with their last First Division title coming at the end of the 1989-1990 season.
However the title depended on the next three games and the very next game, captain Steven Gerrard slipped and Demba Ba made it 1-0 in Chelsea’s favour and left the title to a match-up against Crystal Palace. It was a game that Liverpool needed to win and the Reds did well in the first half, going 3-0 up before they collapsed towards the end of the game. Crystal Place made the most of it and went on to score three goals in the final ten minutes, to effectively end Liverpool’s chances at a title.
