How Liverpool And Other Champions Crumbled After Winning The Premier League

‎Six defeats in 12 games is not a slump. It is a collapse one of the worst starts ever produced by defending Premier League champions.

‎Not since Leicester City’s doomed 2016–17 title defence has a reigning champion begun so disastrously. Back then, Claudio Ranieri was dismissed before the end of the season.

‎José Mourinho suffered a similar fate at Chelsea in 2015–16, when seven defeats in 12 games led to one of the most dramatic implosions in Premier League history.

‎For Arne Slot and Liverpool, the warning signs could not be more ominous.

‎A Fall No One Predicted

‎The scale of Liverpool’s decline is startling. Six months ago, Slot was the toast of English football, the man who had followed Jürgen Klopp’s era-defining tenure and delivered immediate glory.

‎Liverpool won the Premier League title with four games to spare something achieved by only three teams before them. Slot became the third-youngest manager ever to lift the trophy, and only the fifth to win it in his debut Premier League season.

‎Liverpool fans were rightly dreaming big. If this were Year One under Slot, what could Year Two possibly bring?

‎Then came the £450 million summer spending spree.

‎A £450m Gamble That Has Backfired

‎Liverpool didn’t just reinforce they rebuilt. The club went all-in on elite talent, Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitiké, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Giovanni Leoni, Giorgi Mamardashvili.

‎These signings were meant to elevate Liverpool beyond its rivals, to create a title-winning machine with frightening depth. The narrative wasn’t about whether Liverpool would win more trophies it was how many.

‎Some asked if the Treble was realistic. Others wondered whether any team could compete with such an attack.

‎But instead of creating a superteam, Liverpool created a fault line.

‎The new arrivals have struggled to settle. The attack has misfired. The defence has regressed.

‎And the entire structure of Slot’s system has begun to wobble under the weight of expectation, pressure, and tactical confusion.

‎The Numbers Behind the Nightmare

‎Liverpool were expected to break records this season, but not the ones they’re currently facing.

‎Only three Premier League champions have ever lost six of their first 12 games, and Liverpool is now one of them. They have conceded 20 goals, their worst defensive start in 33 years.

‎While Arsenal, by contrast, have conceded just six. Liverpool has conceded two or more goals in seven matches already.

‎Their attack is stalling: Isak and Wirtz have combined to cost £241 million, yet Premier League goals from them total zero so far.

‎Confidence is shot, and points that should be routine are slipping away. The negative goal difference is symbolic of a team that has forgotten how to manage games, control momentum, or impose its identity.

‎The Forest and PSV Humblings

‎The numbers alone are bad, but the context is worse.

‎Liverpool’s 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, following a 3-0 loss to Manchester City, marked the first time since 1965 that the club lost consecutive league matches by three goals.

‎Liverpool 1–4 PSV. It was the first time in 77 years that Liverpool had lost three straight matches by three or more goals.

‎For a team that won its first five league matches of the season, this is almost unthinkable.

‎Champions Who Crumbled

‎Liverpool isn’t alone in the history books of dramatic collapses. In fact, nine of the last 15 Premier League champions have dropped by ten points or more the following season.

‎Manchester City, serial winners under Pep Guardiola, remain the lone exception.

‎Even Klopp has been here.

‎His 2019–20 title-winning Liverpool followed up with a disastrous defence, finishing 30 points below their previous total.

‎Injuries ravaged the squad, forcing a centre-back pairing of Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams one of whom has since played non-league football.

‎Yet even that Liverpool found a way to recover, going unbeaten in their final 10 games to secure a Champions League place. The current side will hope history repeats positively.

‎But there is an argument that what’s happening now is worse.

‎Leicester, Chelsea, Blackburn

‎Leicester City (2016–17): The 37-Point Collapse

‎Leicester’s miracle title was followed by a crash landing. They finished 12th, collecting 37 fewer points and sacking Ranieri nine months after he made history.

‎Chelsea (2015–16): Mourinho’s Meltdown

‎Chelsea went from champions to one point above the relegation zone within 16 games. Injuries, dressing-room tension, and public feuds turned a superteam into a disaster.

‎Mourinho was sacked before Christmas as Chelsea finished with 37 points fewer than the season before.

‎Blackburn Rovers (1995–96): From Glory to Mid-table

‎Alan Shearer scored 31 goals, but Blackburn still tumbled from champions to 7th, beginning a decline from which they never fully recovered.

‎Liverpool is walking a Familiar Path

‎Six teams in the last 15 years have dropped by 20+ points the season after winning the title. Elite managers have been humbled, superstars have faltered, and champions have become ordinary.

‎The Premier League never forgives complacency.

‎For Liverpool, the danger is clear, they are not just underperforming, they are repeating history.

‎Slot’s record-breaking first season now feels like a shadow. The big-money signings have yet to justify their price tags.

‎And a club that seemed poised for dynastic dominance is instead scrambling to stay afloat.