DBasia.news – Defending might be harder than achieving. This adage is often heard by the defending champion every time entering the new competition.
For Manchester City, this must be a concern. Moreover, they have experienced the difficulty to defend the Premier League champion title. Yes, City were two times experiencing the failure to defend the champion title.
Ahead of the 2018-2019 season, Man City appeared as the strong candidate to be the champion. No wonder seeing how Pep Guardiola squad performed last season, became the champion with 100 points. The domination is predicted to repeat.
It seems a bit different compared to the previous seasons. The Citizens remained calm in the transfer market. They just signed Riyad Mahrez, the top player from Etihad Stadium.
The sign of City’s dominance can be seen when Sergio Aguero and friends can beat Chelsea easily during the Community Shield. However, it couldn’t guarantee City’s success story in the real competition of Premier League.
Within the past decade, there were only Manchester United who could defend the champion title. After that, the curse of defending champion was happening in the Premier League. There was no club that could defend the champion title.
Here are the poor records of Premier League’s defending champions:
Manchester United (2009-2010)
Manchester United started the season as the winner for three consecutive years. They aimed to be the champion for the fourth time.
Left by Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid and Carlos Teves to Man City made Sir Alex Ferguson’s task to repeat the success a bit heavier though Wayne Rooney performed excellently during the season.
The bad luck happened when Rooney got a metatarsal injury in a crucial match against Chelsea. At that time, United got defeated 1-2 at Old Trafford. At the end of the season, The Red Devils just finished as the runner-up, passed one point from the champion, Chelsea.
Chelsea (2010-2011)
After breaking the hegemony of Manchester United, Chelsea boosted the confidence to face the new season. The Blues started the 2010-2011 season excellently. They won the two opening matches with a 6-0 score against West Brom and Wigan Athletic.
Chelsea won all the initial five matches with only one loss. But Manchester City’s loss in September marked the end of Carlo Ancelotti squad. Between November to January, The Blues just gained two winnings from 11 matches.
As a result, Manchester United got back the Premier League trophy with 9 points ahead of Chelsea as the runner-up.
Manchester United (2011-2012)
This season perhaps was the toughest season for Manchester United. Performed as the defending champion, The Red Devils had a hard competition with the neighbor, Manchester City who went fast.
Manchester City almost won the match until the end of the match. Yes, literally the end of the match. United won 8 points when the competition was just six matches away.
But outside the character, The Red Devils defeated at the end of the season, made City started the competition once again. City locked the champion title of Premier League after Sergio Aguero scored the goal.
By Aguero’s goal, City became the champion of the Premier League with slightly different goal amount.
Manchester City (2012-2013)
Dramatically became the champion of the previous season, Manchester City boosted the speed in the next season. The Citizens never defeated until December.
City could do nothing after the loss against Manchester United by Robin van Persie’s goal. By this winning, The Red Devils went to the top. In contrary, The Citizens had the failure.
Moreover, after the loss in the final round of FA Cup from Wigan, Man City fired the manager Roberto Mancini, two matches before the Premier League over. At the end of the season, City finished as the runner-up, left 13 points from the champion Man United. This was the last title presented by Sir Alex Ferguson who retired afterward.
Manchester United (2013-2014)
A great shock happened to Manchester United after the exit of Sir Alex Ferguson. As a result, The Red Devils under David Moyes got a total failure. Not just defending the title, they finished in the 7th position of the standings, left 22 points from the champion Manchester City.
Moyes ended his six-year-contract sooner. The former Everton manager was fired before the season ended, when United got loss 0-2 against Everton, his former squad on April 2014.
Manchester City (2014-2015)
A season before Manchester City became the champion competing with Liverpool and Chelsea, Liverpool had to bury the expectation after dramatically defeated by Chelsea.
In the 2014-2015 season, Chelsea under Jose Mourinho just played as the option. The arrival of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa boosted Chelsea to the top.
Though the defending champion Manchester City tried to chase, Chelsea remained calm in the top of Premier League standings until the end of the season. Chelsea became the champion with 8 points winning ahead of the defending champion, Man City.
Chelsea (2015-2016)
The defending champion bad luck also happened to Chelsea. Moreover, the curse of Jose Mourinho’s third season still existed. Chelsea performed like an ordinary team during the season.
Many problems raised, including the problem with the team doctor, Eva Carneiro. Chelsea had to give the Premier League trophy to a surprising club, Leicester City under The Blues manager Claudio Ranieri.
Chelsea finished in the 10th position, left 31 points from Leicester City.
Leicester City (2016-2017)
Chelsea might be scoring poor record as the previous season defending champion when they finished at the 10th position. But Leicester City broke the record the next season.
As the defending champion, Leicester performed poorly during the 2016-2017 season. At the beginning of the season, The Foxes went to the bottom of the standings hence the Ranieri’s fire on February 2017.
Under Craig Shakespeare, Leicester got secured from the degradation zone. But as the defending champion, they finished in the 12th position, a rather bad result, if not shameful.
Leicester finished at the 12th rank with 44 points or 29 points difference to the champion, Chelsea.
Chelsea (2017-2018)
The poor relationship between Antonio Conte and the high-officials of the club resulted in the poor performance of Chelsea on the pitch. They performed in the Premier League and Champions League with no new player, made them overwhelmed.
The only reassurance for Chelsea was when they became the champion of FA Cup after defeating the Manchester United in the final round. However, the result couldn’t save Conte who left and replaced by Maurizio Sarri.
Chelsea ended the 2017-2018 in the fifth position with 70 points. They dropped 30 points behind the champion, Manchester City.