Worst premier league champions?

Irwin99

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Keep seeing this mentioned in the Arsenal thread and they haven’t even won it yet. , but I tend to agree that they would be up there. It got me wondering who was the most underwhelming champions of the last 25 years? Criteria includes style of football, goals scored and conceded, the points tally is difficult because of fluctuations in the leagues competitiveness but should be considered, and also overall quality of the team on paper. I came up with these sides:


Liverpool 24-25- see this year for proof
United 10-11- football wasn’t great, comebacks galore, and I think just 4 away wins all season?
Arsenal/City 25-26- a poor league
City 13-14- Liverpool kind of threw it away
United 96-97-lowest points total of the winners.

Weakest team on paper was Leicester but you can’t say they were the worst with THAT achievement, surely?
 
If pushed I'd have to say United 10-11 purely because we must of had about 5 good performances all season yet somehow were still in with a shout of the title come May.
 
In terms of the football itself, and the entertainment aspect, Arsenal this season - presuming they limp over the line.
 
What's the debate here? Worst champions in terms of how they played in the season they won it, or how they defended the title?

If it's the latter, then there's an argument to say us when considering how much was spent and the expectation going into the season, vs where we are now.

If it's the former, I don't think we're the worst. We've seen sides win it with fewer points, playing weaker football than we did last season. We had a drop off in the second half but were exceptionally good up to around January/February. Once Arsenal dropped off we seemed to as well. The last four games were a write off.

Leicester won it on 80 points during a season where none of Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United or Arsenal managed to get over 71 points. I can't remember another season where all of those sides struggled so much.
 
Liverpool this season. Sold Diaz inexplicably, spent almost half a billion on players and have lost 15 games all season
 
They´re a pretty good team and they can play football if they want to; however, I just can´t imagine us scoring a goal like Calafiori´s at Old Trafford and the ref and VAR being happy with it. Look at goals like Lisandro´s that were ruled out for handbags.

There´s been plenty of goals like that this season that have been very dubious where you can see numerous infringements by Arsenal players. But the goals have somehow stood, despite the technology being there. Arsenal have had no reason whatsoever to change tack.

It´s not Arsenal´s fault that refereeing standards in the league are at an all time low. We´ve seen it with the way the FA have doubled down on Attwell´s horror show at the Vitality. They are just making things up as they go along.

For that reason I´ve no problem with Arsenal winning the league this season as standards of officiating have been poor across the board. Refs have tarnished the season, not Arsenal, so they will have deserved it.
 
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So I asked ChatGPT to calculate the scores of the average PL champion since we started playing 38 game seasons.

Average PL champion (rounded to the closest whole number):
- Points: 88
- Scored: 80
- Conceded: 31

Arsenal projected:
- Points: 86
- Scored: 75
- Conceded: 27

That is about as average as it gets. Slightly low-scoring, slightly better defensively...

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But what separates Arsenal from the average champion is this:

1. Their football is absolutely dire to watch. Possibly the worst I've seen from a (potential) champion.

2. There are no world class attacking or creative players in the team. Not one! Has this ever happened before, apart from maybe Leicester (don't worry, they are relevant for the next point)?

3. There is just nothing special about this Arsenal team. They did not shock the world like Leicester and they are not gonna break any records, be it goals, points or going unbeaten. They are not defending a title, nor are they faced with a formidable foe in a thrilling title race.

They pretty much need to win the CL in order to not go down as one of worst title winners so far.
 
It’s Liverpool last year. They got a great start with a very favorable fixture list, but they were very poor from January on and as Slot got more and more of a hold on the team, they got worse and worse.

Arsenal will be pretty close this season, as they too seem to be dragging themselves over the line, but they have an elite defense and that probably edges them ahead of Liverpool for me.

Leicester had some massive crunch games to do what they did at the business end and they also had one of the best strikers in Europe, a PL great winger and a modern legend of the game in midfield, we just didn’t know it then. Their defense, however, is by far the poorest selection of players to win it.
 
Klopper76 said:
What's the debate here? Worst champions in terms of how they played in the season they won it, or how they defended the title?

If it's the latter, then there's an argument to say us when considering how much was spent and the expectation going into the season, vs where we are now.

If it's the former, I don't think we're the worst. We've seen sides win it with fewer points, playing weaker football than we did last season. We had a drop off in the second half but were exceptionally good up to around January/February. Once Arsenal dropped off we seemed to as well. The last four games were a write off.

Leicester won it on 80 points during a season where none of Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United or Arsenal managed to get over 71 points. I can't remember another season where all of those sides struggled so much.
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I left the criteria open for people to decide so title defence can be a factor but not the only one. For instance I maintain that we should have won the league in 94-95 and would have won it if not for Cantona’s ban but I would say Blackburn were a very good side despite their terrible title defence of the league the following year.

With regard to last year’s Liverpool team it’s that it was a bit underwhelming-earlier Klopp teams had a lot more energy and flair, and it felt like a last hurrah for some of your players. This year has kind of reinforced that.

As for Leicester, there’s arguments for points tally, strength of the team and the league but I personally can’t diminish what’s probably the best underdog story ever by saying they were the worst. The story is just too good. They’re certainly not a team I looked at and thought ‘meh!’

I can honestly say our 10-11 team was a bit crap for large parts of the season despite reaching a CL final as well. It’s up there too.
 
If we do win (not a sure thing by any means) then we'll end up middle of the pack in terms of points, goal difference, etc.

We can be a tough watch but a lot of that is really just the way football has evolved, especially in the Premier League. Nobody in the Premier League is playing football that is particularly attractive on the eye - putting personal loyalties and rooting rivalries aside, there's really not a single side that one would watch just because they play a lot of good stuff. Creative and technical players are suffering everywhere from this style, you've got only six players that have scored over 10 league goals and they're all CFs, most of them quite physical (Haaland, Thiago, Joao Pedro, Gyokeres, Ekitike, Welbeck). Arsenal are just (so far) the most successful adapters to this environment.
 
Probably recency bias but Arsenal this year have to be up there if they win it, I can’t remember a team so mediocre going forward winning it in the past 15/20 years. Liverpool last year too but at least they had a magical season by Salah.

Generally I think if you win the league, fair play to you and you’ve been the best team but this Arsenal team is beyond average and the pool team from last year as well was nothing special at all.
 
Us every time we ever won it according to plenty of rival fans.

In fairness, there was a massive dip in the quality of our team once Ronaldo and Tevez left and we still won the league twice in the four years after they left.
 
Scandi Red said:
So I asked ChatGPT to calculate the scores of the average PL champion since we started playing 38 game seasons.

Average PL champion (rounded to the closest whole number):
- Points: 88
- Scored: 80
- Conceded: 31

Arsenal projected:
- Points: 86
- Scored: 75
- Conceded: 27

That is about as average as it gets. Slightly low-scoring, slightly better defensively...

---

But what separates Arsenal from the average champion is this:

1. Their football is absolutely dire to watch. Possibly the worst I've seen from a (potential) champion.

2. There are no world class attacking or creative players in the team. Not one! Has this ever happened before, apart from maybe Leicester (don't worry, they are relevant for the next point)?

3. There is just nothing special about this Arsenal team. They did not shock the world like Leicester and they are not gonna break any records, be it goals, points or going unbeaten. They are not defending a title, nor are they faced with a formidable foe in a thrilling title race.

They pretty much need to win the CL in order to not go down as one of worst title winners so far.
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Lack of competition as well.
 
That i have seen, probably Chelsea 14/15 all things considered
 
In terms of the actual question, I think the very obvious answer is Leicester, its just that it was such a magical story that nobody really likes to admit it.

They had a goal difference of 32 and only scored 68 goals all season, 10 of them penalties. The cinderella story aside, they were generally a pretty terrible watch and went through some awful patches, scoring a total of two goals across five matches at one point. They were third from bottom in the league in possession and essentially just tried to stay solid and launch counters via Vardy and Mahrez.
 
Man City in 2014 were pretty meh apart from Yaya Toure.
 
Irwin99 said:
I left the criteria open for people to decide so title defence can be a factor but not the only one. For instance I maintain that we should have won the league in 94-95 and would have won it if not for Cantona’s ban but I would say Blackburn were a very good side despite their terrible title defence of the league the following year.

With regard to last year’s Liverpool team it’s that it was a bit underwhelming-earlier Klopp teams had a lot more energy and flair, and it felt like a last hurrah for some of your players. This year has kind of reinforced that.

As for Leicester, there’s arguments for points tally, strength of the team and the league but I personally can’t diminish what’s probably the best underdog story ever by saying they were the worst. The story is just too good. They’re certainly not a team I looked at and thought ‘meh!’

I can honestly say our 10-11 team was a bit crap for large parts of the season despite reaching a CL final as well. It’s up there too.
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Didn't you concede quite a few goals in the 12/13 season? You had a fairly clean run at it as well. Also a last hurrah for some of your greatest players (Giggs, Scholes, Rooney, Vidic, Evra, Ferdinand) before retirement or declining post Fergie.

I sometimes like to look at goals conceded. I think great champions have a strong back line/keeper and concede fewer than 30 goals.
 
So the 4 teams with the most mentions so far are:

City 2013-14
Leicester 2015-16
Liverpool 2024-25
Arsenal 2025-26

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City in 2013-14 scored 102 goals! And they had exciting players like Agüero, Silva and Toure. That's just way better than this Arsenal team.

Leicester must be seen in context. It's one of the greatest underdog stories of all time, after all! This means that poor numbers can be justified. But having said that: I found them far more entertaining to watch than this Arsenal team. They scored some nice team goals too.

Liverpool was kind of shit last season, but here's the thing: attack > defense. It's that simple. It's harder to attack well and it's more fun to watch. Also: Salah.
 
Powderfinger said:
In terms of the actual question, I think the very obvious answer is Leicester, its just that it was such a magical story that nobody really likes to admit it.

They had a goal difference of 32 and only scored 68 goals all season, 10 of them penalties. The cinderella story aside, they were generally a pretty terrible watch and went through some awful patches, scoring a total of two goals across five matches at one point. They were third from bottom in the league in possession and essentially just tried to stay solid and launch counters via Vardy and Mahrez.
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They also managed to score 48 goals from open play while Arsenal is on 31 with 7 games to go (no way they are catching that with their playing style). Lost only 3 games and kept 15 clean sheets which is the same amount as Arsenal now have but with 7 more games to play this season.

Absolutely disagree with being terrible watch, they played some brilliant counter attacking football while both Vardy (24 goals) and Mahrez (17 goals/11 assists) played on a much higher level than anyone Arsenal has upfront this season. So, even if the whole story puts them in a special tier, they are definitely not the team which will be remembered as worst champions. And rightly so, people will always be more harsh on a team like this season Arsenal which choose to set piece their way to the title despite having way more quality than that Leicester team.
 
I don't think we were that good when we last won the title. It was RVP or bust for most of the season.
 
Jim Beam said:
They also managed to score 48 goals from open play while Arsenal is on 31 with 7 games to go (no way they are catching that with their playing style). Lost only 3 games and kept 15 clean sheets which is the same amount as Arsenal now have but with 7 more games to play this season.

Absolutely disagree with being terrible watch, they played some brilliant counter attacking football while both Vardy (24 goals) and Mahrez (17 goals/11 assists) played on a much higher level than anyone Arsenal has upfront this season. So, even if the whole story puts them in a special tier, they are definitely not the team which will be remembered as worst champions. And rightly so, people will always be more harsh on a team like this season Arsenal which choose to set piece their way to the title despite having way more quality than that Leicester team.
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The league has just changed in terms of how everybody scores goals. Arsenal have 35 from open play currently (per WhoScored) so on pace for something like 43 and that is second in the PL. Leicester had 46 from open play (per WhoScored at least) and that was fourth in the PL.

In the end, if we're talking about subjective opinion and narrative you can make any case you want, including Arsenal, Leicester, or lots of other sides being the worst champion. If you're really focused on more objective measures of a team's quality and level of play like points and goal difference, there's unlikely to be any case for Arsenal (if we do win, which is far from a guarantee).
 
Liverpool this season if its about defending the title or if its the worst team to win it would be this Arsenal team this year.

Absolutely no excitement when watching their football, unless you like watching BDSM happen on goalkeepers.
 
It always feels a funny and jealous comment to me, a bit like saying you’d rather not win the lottery as too much money ruins people

Wish we were rubbish champions :o
 
Powderfinger said:
The league has just changed in terms of how everybody scores goals. Arsenal have 35 from open play currently (per WhoScored) so on pace for something like 43 and that is second in the PL. Leicester had 46 from open play (per WhoScored at least) and that was fourth in the PL.

In the end, if we're talking about subjective opinion and narrative you can make any case you want, including Arsenal, Leicester, or lots of other sides being the worst champion. If you're really focused on more objective measures of a team's quality and level of play like points and goal difference, there's unlikely to be any case for Arsenal (if we do win, which is far from a guarantee).
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Open play goals, games lost and clean sheets are objective measures of team quality as well and I just found it amusing that you will (almost certainly) be worse in all those categories comparing to a team like Leicester which you said is clearly the worst champion. Being horrible watch is much more subjective measure but huge majority of people will put Arsenal as a worse watch. Which is maybe in part due to Leicester Cinderella story and in part due to people disliking Arsenal, but I disagree. No one ever denies the quality of football that was being played by Wenger's EPL winning teams for example.

I do agree that by objective measures, it is hard to pin this season Arsenal as the worst. But average point total coupled with very underwhelming attack and horid playing style will bring them into the conversation. If you become champions as you say but I think you will.. not that any of this should bother you in that case, mind you.
 
Jim Beam said:
Open play goals, games lost and clean sheets are objective measures of team quality as well and I just found it amusing that you will (almost certainly) be worse in all those categories comparing to a team like Leicester which you said is clearly the worst champion. Being horrible watch is much more subjective measure but huge majority of people will put Arsenal as a worse watch. Which is maybe in part due to Leicester Cinderella story and in part due to people disliking Arsenal, but I disagree. No one ever denies the quality of football that was being played by Wenger's EPL winning teams for example.

I do agree that by objective measures, it is hard to pin this season Arsenal as the worst. But average point total coupled with very underwhelming attack and horid playing style will bring them into the conversation. If you become champions as you say but I think you will.. not that any of this should bother you in that case, mind you.
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Fair.
 
Klopper76 said:
Didn't you concede quite a few goals in the 12/13 season? You had a fairly clean run at it as well. Also a last hurrah for some of your greatest players (Giggs, Scholes, Rooney, Vidic, Evra, Ferdinand) before retirement or declining post Fergie.

I sometimes like to look at goals conceded. I think great champions have a strong back line/keeper and concede fewer than 30 goals.
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I agree with that about the defence. Our great 99-00 side is probably an exception but conceding anything above 35 and winning the league easily is rare. Liverpool last year did it but generally the best teams concede fewer than 30.

The 12-13 team was weird and not a great United winner either if I’m honest, but 10-11 was worse. Clearly in decline, leaking 40+ goals but it kept winning and big seasons from Carrick and RvP were crucial.
 
In terms of entertainment and style of football, Arsenal this season. In terms of quality and number of points, perhaps United of 2010/11. 81 points and 4 away wins whole season. Our home form was terrific though.
 
Would throw Blackburn 94/95 into the mix, Dalglish moved upstairs and Ray Harford was huge downgrade
 
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Scandi Red said:
So the 4 teams with the most mentions so far are:

City 2013-14
Leicester 2015-16
Liverpool 2024-25
Arsenal 2025-26

--

City in 2013-14 scored 102 goals! And they had exciting players like Agüero, Silva and Toure. That's just way better than this Arsenal team.
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I completely forgot about that. I just remember Liverpool throwing it away and City not being as memorable as 11-12 was for them. That’s a ridiculous amount of goals.

Side note, Liverpool also conceded 50 goals that season and were two games away from winning it. That seems mental.
 
Does anyone remember 96/97?

75 points and 2nd only had 68 points. Only needing 68 points to win a title feels pathetic!
 
We were lovely to watch last season for the most part and deserved to win the games we won.

The fact that we may well be the worst defending champions besides Leicester doesn't change that.
 
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