Tottenham are Premier League’s biggest winners & losers today vs. September 2016 | OneFootball

Time moves by very quickly in the world of football and some clubs are hardly recognisable from what they were 10 years ago.

A decade back, Leicester were the Premier League champions, Gareth Southgate had just been installed as England manager and Marcus Rashford made his Manchester United debut.

But who has won and who has lost in the time since? Here’s how the Premier League table looked 10 years ago on this day and who has fared the worst and best in the time since.

Winners – Brentford

An obvious winner is Brentford, who had never experienced Premier League football this time a decade ago.

They sat sixth in the Championship under the stewardship of Dean Smith and would go on to finish the year 10th.

It was not until the 2019-20 season that Brentford began flirting with the possibility of going up, finishing third in consecutive seasons.

Having lost the 2019-20 playoff final to Fulham, Brentford went one step further the following year to make it to the Premier League for the first time.

From that moment, they were predicted to be dead last in the top flight but surprised everyone with a 13th place finish and it has been steady progress ever since.

Now, Keith Andrews got them to the edge of Europe and they are fourth in the Premier League.

The transformation of the club has been huge in the past 10 years.

Manchester City

It sounds obvious to say but Manchester City have had a pretty good last 10 years.

The 2016-17 season was Pep Guardiola’s first in charge and although his debut year did end trophyless, they soon became the unstoppable winning machine we all knew them as.

Six Premier League titles were won, three FA Cups, five League Cups and a Champions League that came as part of a treble.

City have dominated English football in the last 10 years and although Arsenal and Liverpool occasionally knocked them off their perch, there is no denying they are the big winners of the last decade.

Brighton

Brighton’s transformation in the past 10 years has been so successful that it has become the model every ambitious owner wants to follow.

The Tony Bloom era started in 2009 and after consolidating the club, progress had been steady up through the EFL.

The Seagulls made it into the Championship in the 2011-12 season but very nearly dropped back down in the 2014-15 season. Remarkably, they finished third the following year and having missed out in the playoffs, were seventh on this day 10 years ago.

Brighton would go on to finish second, ending a 34-year absence from the top flight and have since been the example of how to build sustainably and smartly.

Finishing from 15th to 17th in their first four seasons, they rose to ninth in 2011-22 and in 2022-2023 they finished sixth under Roberto De Zerbi.

Since then, Brighton have not only established themselves as a Premier League club but also now have their eyes on pushing further up the table. Back-to-back eighth-place finishes in the past two seasons have preceded an excellent start by Fabian Hurzeler’s team who are in third having put three past Champions Arsenal.

And they have done all of this whilst still having a positive net spend, one of only two teams in the Premier League to boast that achievement.

Ipswich Town

The 2016-17 season was the 16th of 17 consecutive campaigns in the Championship for Ipswich with the club firmly stuck in a mid-table malaise.

Underspending had seen the Suffolk club go from occasional Premier League botherers to the most Championship of Championship teams.

Mick McCarthy was in charge and the team was 11th on this day 10 years ago but the team is hardly recognisable since then.

Ipswich were bought by American owners in 2021 who set about reviving the lifeless club. Promotion from League One under Kieran McKenna preceded a return to the top flight for the first time in 22 years.

Ask fans 10 years ago if they would want to be a Premier League yo-yo team and they would happily say yes but a record €220.65m spent shows the owners mean to stay in the top flight.

Losers – Tottenham Hotspur

The thing that is perhaps most impressive about Spurs’ decline is just how rapid it has been.

This time 10 years ago, they were third in a season that would see them go on to finish second. That came as part of three seasons in a row of third or higher and it really felt Tottenham were on the edge of getting it over the line.

Pochettino’s departure loosened the standard, resulting in a drop, but even then it fell to a low of eighth in the 2022-23 campaign.

But Ange Postecoglou’s time in charge has altered the very nature of Spurs. A first season saw them finish fifth, but it became acceptable to lose the following year as they chased European success and that mantra is hard to shake once it’s been installed.

And you only have to look at the squads to see how much things have changed. Who of the current crop would get into the 2016 squad? Where are the world-class talents like Kane and Son? If 2016 Spurs played 2026 Spurs, the former would batter their successors.

Tottenham are one of the biggest losers of the past decade, for they have fallen so far from a standard that once made them genuine league title contenders.

Leicester City

If Spurs’ fall has at least been confined to the Premier League (for now), the same cannot be said for Leicester.

The warning signs were already there five games in as Leicester won two, drew one and lost two in what became an increasingly poor season.

Punctuated by some memorable European nights, the Foxes genuinely looked like they could go down and Ranieri got the boot.

The club did stabilise and push for Europe under Brendan Rodgers but the death of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in 2018 was a huge turning point.

The club had lost its leader and his son Aiyawatt has failed to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Leicester went down in 2022-23 but came straight back up under Enzo Maresca but the same was not true when they went down again the following season.

The Foxes collapsed and suffered a double relegation while facing increasingly concerning questions about their finances and a £100 million training ground.

Expected to be amongst the promotion contenders this season, Russell Martin has instead guided them to 13th and the Premier League seems an awfully long way away now.

West Brom

The Baggies were previously a mainstay of Premier League football but those days are long gone.

They were 11th this time a decade ago and although they finished in that spot, the following year they were relegated in last.

They returned in 2020-21 but could not avoid the drop and have been stuck in Championship obscurity ever since.

Fifth in 2023-24 and 21st last season are the outliers in what is otherwise midtable mediocrity and they would be an outside bet to go up this year despite their strong start.

Everton

Ronald Koeman had just been appointed Everton boss and everything seemed rather promising with a start that saw them second in the Premier League.

They would go on to finish seventh, earning Europa League football, and it was an encouraging time to be an Everton fan.

There’s not been much to be encouraged by since.

Koeman’s tenure fizzled out and he was sacked in October 2017 with the club in the relegation zone.

Everton hit the panic button by appointing Sam Allardyce who guided them to eighth but Marco Silva was not able to push them any higher.

A weird Carlo Ancelotti fever dream preceded a dip in form that had Everton nervously looking down at the drop. Lampard and Dyche both came and went, leaving the Toffees to return to former favourite David Moyes.

The Scot has steadied the ship and a shiny new stadium has been at least some positive, but 13th is a long way off the second place they occupied this time 10 years ago.