Before the current 2024/25 campaign got underway, Manchester City were the reigning champions and looking to defend their title for an unprecedented fifth consecutive year. Their season got off to the perfect start, winning four straight games to rise to the summit once again. However, a 2-2 draw at home to Arsenal in September would trigger a downfall that no one saw coming.
Crucial central midfielder Rodri suffered a season-ending knee injury in that game, and he took any title aspirations that The Blues once had with him. Despite rallying to win their next three, their gaping hole in midfield caught up with Pep Guardiola’s side in November, and they embarked upon the worst run of form that the club has seen during the iconic Spaniard’s eight-year reign. The club suffered four straight Premier League defeats throughout the 11th month of the year, and never managed to recover, with Liverpool continuing to pile up the wins and pull out an unassailable league at the top of the division.
With the campaign heading into its business ends, The Reds are a mighty 12 points clear at the top of the table, and online sports betting sites can’t see them throwing the title away from here. The popular sports betting at Thunderpick platform made Liverpool a 1.44 favorite for their recent Merseyside Derby against Everton at Anfield, and they duly lived up to the billing, winning 1-0 thanks to Luis Diaz’s second-half strike. Now, similar bookies make Arne Slot’s side a huge 1.02 favorite to seal the title.
Manchester City’s title defense has certainly been a disappointment. But where does it stack up against the worst of all time? Here’s the info that will let you decide for yourself.
Chelsea – 2015/16
Jose Mourinho returned to his beloved Chelsea in the summer of 2013. After a season of rebuilding, the Blues finished third in the Premier League and reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals. The following season, the club was ready for its all-out assault on the title.
The Special One brought in former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas and Atletico Madrid hitman Diego Costa as the final pieces to his masterpiece of a puzzle. They combined to devastating effect to take the title to Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2010, finishing some eight points clear of reigning champions Manchester City after losing just three games all season. But the defense of the title couldn’t have gone any worse.
The Blues won just one of their opening five games in the 2015/16 season, leaving them way down in 16th place in the table. After a brief upturn in form, a run of six defeats in nine in the run-up to Christmas saw the Blues return to 16th and cost Mourinho his job barely six months on from winning the title. In came former Russia boss Guus Hiddink until the end of the season, but he did little to stem the tide.
Just one win in the final months of the campaign consigned Chelsea to a tenth-place finish, with their haul of 50 points some 37 fewer than the total they managed in their championship-winning season. Neither domestic cup competition nor the Champions League could provide any respite, with Chelsea suffering early exits in all three.
Manchester United – 2013/14
Manchester United headed into the 2013/14 starting the beginning of a new era, an era that has ultimately brought them to where they are in 2025 as a bottom-half Premier League club. Back then, the decade-long run the club was about to embark upon was unfathomable, especially because Sir Alex Ferguson led the club to the title the previous year. However, the iconic Scotsman decided that the final championship-winning season would be his last, and he duly headed into retirement, hand-picking Everton boss David Moyes as his successor.
Moyes headed to Old Trafford as the chosen one, and things got off to a perfect start when the Red Devils thumped Swansea City 4-0 away from home in his first league game in charge. But it would soon become clear that the Scottish boss was out of his depth. United would win just one of their next five games and looked a shadow of their former selves. Old stalwarts such as Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, and Robin van Persie – so crucial to the title challenge the previous year – seemingly got old overnight, and Moyes had to turn to youngster Adnan Januzaj for some inspiration.
Back-to-back home defeats to Everton and Newcastle left the club languishing in the bottom half of the table, and while there was an upturn in form over the festive period, the writing was on the wall. Spineless defeats at home to title challengers Liverpool and Manchester City had fans clamoring for Moyes’ head and a 2-0 reverse away at Everton on April 20th ultimately saw the Scotsman removed from his duties.
The Red Devils went on to finish the campaign in seventh, United’s worst finish in 24 years. 11 years on, they still haven’t come close to recovering, despite racking up the joint-biggest win in Premier League history in 2021. Ruben Amorim’s current side sit down in 13th place in the table and closer to the relegation zone than they are the top four.
