The wild Premier League table over the past 10 seasons since 2016: Man Utd 5th… | OneFootball

The year 2016 feels like an eternity ago, as the latest social media trend has reminded us.

Ten years on, Leicester winning the league remains almost impossible to comprehend. Especially given how the traditional powerhouses have reasserted themselves, while the Foxes currently find themselves scrapping in the Championship’s midtable.

But how does England’s top flight shape up if you look at it with a wider lens since then? That’s exactly what we’ve done here, having generated a Premier League table dating back to the start of the 2016-17 campaign.

Leicester won the FA Cup and challenged for Champions League qualification for a couple of years under Brendan Rodgers, so it hasn’t been all bad since the dizzying heights of lifting the Premier League trophy with Andrea Bocelli watching on.

They find themselves 12th in the table since their title win, which isn’t too bad when you consider that includes two relegation campaigns and two Championship stints.

There have only been nine ever-presents in the top tier over the past 10 seasons, with the traditional ‘big six’ joined by Crystal Palace, Everton and West Ham.

The ‘big six’ are comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack. Tottenham, in sixth, have over a hundred more points over the past 10 seasons than Everton in seventh.

Manchester City have a comfortable lead at the top, and it’s also no surprise to see Liverpool miles ahead of third-place Arsenal.

That reflects the years of domination that Pep Guardiola’s City and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool slugging it out for the title with regular 90+ hauls.

Arsenal still had Arsene Wenger at the helm a decade ago and endured their own wilderness years, outside of the top four and regularly finishing behind Tottenham, before their rise under Mikel Arteta. A fourth successive campaign up in the top two sees them miles clear of their North London rivals, though.

Guardiola arrived in the summer of 2016 and while the first year was underwhelming – trophyless and third-place – they’ve since gone on to enjoy one of the most successful periods in the history of English football.

Six league titles in seven years is reflected by their mammoth points tally, with over 200 points taken over the past 10 seasons than their city rivals Manchester United.

Everton are somewhat surprisingly the best of the rest, given they’ve spent the past few seasons circling the relegation plughole, but their seventh place reflects their consistent presence. They did finish in the top half in four of five seasons between 2016 and 2021.

Newcastle United and Aston Villa might be punching for Champions League qualification these days, but that’s a relatively recent development. Their eighth and thirteenth placings reflect time spent in the Championship and lower reaches of the table. Remember the Steve Bruce and Steven Gerrard eras?

At the foot of the table, we’ve got one-season wonders including Cardiff City, Hull City, Middlesbrough, Luton and Ipswich, all of whom came and went without making much of a stamp.

Ultimately, this decade-long snapshot confirms what you might feel intuitively. The Premier League may be chaotic year to year, but over time, order tends to reassert itself.