Would Arsenal really be the ‘worst Premier League champions ever’? The five existing contenders | OneFootball

Arsenal are the firm favourites to win the Premier League this season, but are still struggling to win over some of their doubters. Would they be the worst champions on record?

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes – part of 11 Premier League winning teams himself – said so in January.

“If Arsenal win the league, this could be the worst team to win the league,” Scholes said.

“If you’re thinking of picking a team of the season and picking the front four, nobody from the Arsenal team gets in that.

“Look at previous champions – Liverpool’s forwards, brilliant. Possibly the only one is Saka, and I don’t think he’s been brilliant. He’s not scored many goals this year or assists.”

Arsenal fans won’t care one bit what others think of them if they do secure the title. Ask some and they’ve got the best squad that ever walked the earth. Hmm…

But they wouldn’t be the only title-winning team to leave people doubting how good they actually were. Here are five other contenders to be classed as the worst Premier League champions.

Leicester City (2015-16)

It feels harsh to say it, but objectively speaking, the Leicester squad that won the Premier League in 2015-16 has to be up there as one of the worst sets of players to become champions.

Yes, there were stars in the making like N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, who both went on to become title winners with other clubs as well.

But, like their possession in a lot of games, the average level of quality in the squad was low.

That’s not so much a dig as a reminder of just how impressive a feat it was for Claudio Ranieri to steer the side that had narrowly avoided relegation under Nigel Pearson the season before, all the way to the top of the tree in English football.

As a club, Leicester have been relegated from the Premier League twice since their title win and are even in danger of dropping to League One this year.

Their 2015-16 achievement will always be remembered regardless, but that will be for its unbelievable nature as an underdog story rather than the style of football they played.

Blackburn Rovers (1994-95)

Like Leicester, Blackburn aren’t even a Premier League club anymore.

But at the start of the Premier League era, they were more than competitive, coming fourth in 1992-93, second in 1993-94 and first in 1994-95.

As with any of these sides, they had some top players: chiefly 34-goal frontman Alan Shearer and his new expensive (at the time) strike partner, Chris Sutton.

But Blackburn’s record of seven defeats is the most ever suffered by a Premier League winning side (granted, they did have to contend with a 42-game season back then).

They even lost on the final day of the season, to manager Kenny Dalglish’s former side Liverpool, but still won the league thanks to Manchester United – who had a better goal difference – dropping points at West Ham.

Manchester United (1996-97)

Although they finished seven points clear of second, Manchester United’s tally of 75 remains the lowest number of points a team has won the Premier League with.

Their 1996-97 campaign even included a 5-0 loss to Newcastle and a 6-3 loss to Southampton. It wasn’t until late January that they moved top of the league and stayed there.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side conceded more goals (44) than two teams in the bottom half (Leeds with 38 and Blackburn with 43).

No other team has ever won the Premier League while conceding more goals than one team to finish in the bottom half, let alone two.

United were dethroned by Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal the following season, before sorting themselves out again and winning the treble.

Manchester City (2020-21)

After conceding the title to Liverpool in 2019-20, Manchester City kicked off a run of four consecutive league titles by reclaiming the crown the following year

Such has been their dominance under Pep Guardiola that it can be hard to separate their triumphs into better and worse, but their 2020021 success wasn’t the most convincing to start with.

City won only three of their first eight games and were in the bottom half at one stage in November.

By Christmas, they were eighth, which would turn out to be the lowest position at that stage that a team would go on to win the Premier League from.

A 15-game winning streak helped them make up serious ground. It was also handy that Liverpool’s title defence was a weak one. In the end, City finished 12 points clear of runners up Manchester United.

But they made it over the line thanks to United dropping points, rather than gaining their own.

City lost their last game before being mathematically confirmed as champions and also went on to lose the Champions League final to Chelsea.

Liverpool (2024-25)

Now, Liverpool were head and shoulders above the competition last season, but their inclusion here is more to do with how feeble their title defence has been.

Liverpool’s struggles this season might imply last season’s performance was papering over a few cracks, as Arne Slot made the most of what had been left behind by Jurgen Klopp.

But there were weak links in the squad; main striker Darwin Nunez only scored five league goals and left-back Andy Robertson began to decline.

Liverpool still finished 10 points clear of Arsenal, but realised they needed to make big changes to their squad and still might have more to make this summer.