Liverpool’s start to 2025-26 as Premier League champions has been dismal. But how does it compare to the worst title defences in the competition’s history?
Just when you think Liverpool’s start to the 2025-26 season couldn’t get any worse, they go and lose yet again.
While Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to PSV obviously wasn’t in the Premier League, that shock defeat at Anfield was very much a continuation of the Reds’ domestic form, which has seen their title defence crumble in spectacular fashion.
After winning each of their first five league games this term, Liverpool have now lost six of the last seven, as many as they’d lost in their previous 58 Premier League outings.
Last Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest meant they have lost back-to-back league games by a margin of at least three goals for the first time since April 1965. By the end of the weekend, they’d slipped to 12th in the table, a place below Merseyside rivals Everton.
It feels like one of the worst starts to a Premier League title defence, but just how bad has it been?
Worst Title Defences After 12 Matchdays
There’s obviously still time for Liverpool to turn things around – well, to a degree; it’s hard to imagine them mounting a title challenge from here.
But, across the first 12 Matchdays of a season, Liverpool’s title defence this term is one of the worst we’ve seen in the Premier League era.
The defeat to Forest made them just the fourth Premier League champions to begin their title defence with six or more defeats in their first 12 games, after Blackburn Rovers in 1995-96 (6), Chelsea in 2015-16 (7) and Leicester City in 2016-17 (6).
That, then, should give you a bit of an idea of their competition for worst Premier League title defences.
Only three defending champions have started their title defences by taking fewer than 18 points through their opening 12 matchdays – it would be four if we counted Leeds United in 1992-93, but seeing as they won the old Division One in 1991-92 rather than the Premier League (inaugurated in 1992), we have to exclude them.
The first were Blackburn Rovers in 1995-96. Those six losses referenced above contributed to them managing just 14 points through their first 12 matches.
It took another 20 years for any defending champions to make a less convincing start than that, then two came along in as many seasons.
Chelsea still hold the record for the fewest points and most defeats across their first 12 matchdays as reigning champions. They lost seven times and accumulated just 11 points before MD13 of the 2015-16 season, a run that contributed to José Mourinho being dismissed in mid-December 2015.
Considering Liverpool have seven points more than that, it puts into perspective just how shocking Chelsea’s form was.
Their dismal 2015-16 season, albeit at the extreme end of the spectrum, fit a more general theme of the biggest sides failing to convince. And that ultimately contributed to Leicester City pulling off one of the most remarkable achievements seen anywhere in the modern game.
Claudio Ranieri guided the Foxes to the unlikeliest of Premier League title wins that season, though it wasn’t exactly a sustainable success.
They did quite well in the UEFA Champions League in 2016-17, reaching the quarter-finals, but domestically their slump at the start of 2016-17 almost mirrored that of Chelsea the year before, managing just 12 points across their first 12 matchdays as reigning champions.
So, looking on the bright side, it could be worse for Liverpool…
Worst Title Defences Over a Full Season
You may recall our invaluable insight that Liverpool still have time to turn things around, and to be fair, most of the worst defending champions over the first 12 matchdays have tended to climb the table somewhat eventually.
Blackburn in 1995-96 climbed four places, Chelsea in 2015-16 recovered by six spots in the table, and Manchester United in 1996-97 went on to retain their title after taking just 19 points through MD12 – that’s only one more than Liverpool have now.
Leicester in 2016-17 also ended up two places higher than they’d been on MD12. But, obviously, for most of these examples, we’re talking about teams who’d been towards the middle or in the bottom half of the table, like Liverpool currently. Even if the Reds ultimately climbed seven places between now and the end of the season, a fifth-place finish would still put them among the worst defending champions.
Leicester (12th in 2016-17) currently hold that title, then you’ve got Chelsea (10th in 2015-16), and Manchester United (2013-14) and Blackburn (1995-96), who both finished seventh.
Chelsea (fifth in 2017-18) are the only other defending champions to finish outside the top three in the Premier League.
It might then seem Liverpool have an almighty battle on their hands if they want to avoid joining that exclusive club, but it’s worth recognising just how tight the Premier League table is heading into MD13.
Granted, the 11-point gap to Arsenal is the fourth-most points reigning champions have trailed the leaders by this stage in a Premier League season, but fourth-placed Aston Villa are only three points ahead of Liverpool. Manchester City (22) and Chelsea (23), in third and second respectively, aren’t much further clear.
At this stage of the Premier League season (so, every team has played 12 matches), the gap from 12th to fourth has never been tighter than three points.
So, if Liverpool can turn their form around, they could climb the table quite quickly. How realistic that is, however, is difficult to say. And will Arne Slot be trusted to lead such a revival?
Managers Leaving After Title Successes
Some have seemingly been very quick to forget the improvement Slot oversaw last season, while the grief Liverpool are still processing following Diogo Jota’s death shouldn’t be overlooked.
But football managers are lightning rods for snap judgements and knee-jerk reactions. Whether Liverpool are actually considering getting rid of him is unclear, but externally the pressure on Slot is beginning to ramp up – fairly or not.
Were he to depart anytime soon, it would be a pretty unusual occurrence in the Premier League annals.
Only five managers have previously left their jobs in the year following confirmation of a Premier League title success, and two of those come with significant caveats.
Alex Ferguson is the manager who left quickest after winning a Premier League title, but his exit from Manchester United in 2013 – just 28 days on from their success being confirmed – was due to his impending retirement rather than being sacked.
Similarly, Kenny Dalglish left Blackburn in 1995 only 42 days on from their title triumph being rubberstamped, though he was remaining at the club and instead becoming their director of football.
So, the manager to be sacked earliest after winning the Premier League title is José Mourinho. When he left Chelsea on 17 December 2015, just 228 days had passed since the Blues’ 2014-15 title was wrapped up on 3 May.
The following season, unlikely champions Leicester City returned to earth with a bang, and Claudio Ranieri was unable to ride out their rough landing. He left the club on 23 February 2017, 297 days on from the Foxes completing the unthinkable on 2 May 2016.
Roberto Mancini is the only other manager to fall into the criteria set out before – but only just.
Mancini’s Man City sealed the 2011-12 title on 13 May 2012 in astonishing circumstances, scoring two stoppage-time goals to turn a 2-1 defeat into a 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers, the clincher being that Sergio Agüero goal.
It was their first league title win since 1968 and denied bitter rivals Manchester United, whom they’d been level on points with – but ahead of on goal difference – heading into that final weekend.
Exactly one year later, however, Mancini was sacked by City having seen United regain their crown. His dismissal came two days on from an embarrassing FA Cup final defeat to Wigan Athletic, whose relegation from the Premier League was confirmed about 24 hours after the Italian’s fate was sealed.
Liverpool won the 2024-25 Premier League title on 27 April 2025, so if Slot was to depart before the same date next year, he would enter this list.
The Reds’ unravelling has dragged them into conversations no defending champions want to be a part of, and the heat on Slot is intensifying by the match. The tight margins of the table offer him and Liverpool a route back, but unless they can quickly rediscover some stability, this season risks becoming a case study in how precarious the ‘champions’ tag can be.
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