Arne Slot is not only facing an uphill battle to save Liverpool's season, but also his job. That is a sentence no Liverpool supporter would have imagined reading barely six months on from seeing the Dutchman deliver the club's second Premier League title, and yet it is no exaggeration. The Reds have plummeted to 11th in the table after losing six of their first 12 games in the 2025-26 campaign, which leaves them a whopping 11 points behind early pace-setters Arsenal already.
It's easy to forget now that Liverpool ended September three points clear at the summit, but a 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace marked the beginning of an unprecedented downturn. Slot's men have only picked up three points from their last seven matches, with a 3-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest marking their latest setback, and look like a shadow of the team that dominated the division last term.
Despite a record-breaking £450 million ($589m) spend in the summer transfer window, Liverpool have gone backwards. New faces such as Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez have all failed to make an impact, and their presence, along with the departure of academy talisman Trent Alexander-Arnold, has upset the balance of Slot's line up. The tragic death of Diogo Jota has also clearly taken its toll on the other players who were so instrumental to the club's 2024-25 success.
Liverpool can take a sliver of hope from Manchester United, who were only one point better off at this stage but went on to defend their crown in 1996-97. However, the Red Devils' final haul of 75 points remains the lowest-ever for any Premier League champions. A closer look at the history books suggests that the Reds won't be able to claw back Arsenal, or even come back to mount any kind of challenge.
The reality is, it will now take a monumental effort for them to avoid joining the list of the worst Premier League title defences ever. Below, GOAL has ranked the six teams that regressed furthest after lifting the hallowed trophy…
Getty6Liverpool 2020-21
The Liverpool faithful actually experienced a similar situation after celebrating their maiden Premier League triumph. Jurgen Klopp's side amassed 99 points to win the title in 2019-20, finishing 18 points ahead of Manchester City. However, they reached just 69 the following season after an injury-plagued year that saw the majority of games played behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That was only enough for third place, with City regaining their crown at the canter ahead of Manchester United.
Klopp had to make do without key players such as Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcantara and Mohamed Salah for lengthy periods, and Liverpool completely unravelled after the festive period. Burnley ended the Reds' 68-game unbeaten run at Anfield on January 21, 2021, which started a miserable run of six successive home defeats.
Liverpool were down in eighth by March, and although they won eight of their final 10 games to qualify for the Champions League, including a memorable victory over West Brom that saw goalkeeper Alisson head in a stoppage-time goal, it wasn't enough to paper over the cracks of a disappointing campaign. The Reds' misery was compounded by a shocking 7-2 drubbing at the hands of Aston Villa and a 4-1 loss to Man City, the latter of which prompted United legend Roy Keane to dub Klopp's flops as "bad champions" on .
AdvertisementGetty Images5Blackburn Rovers 1995-96
Blackburn Rovers' rise from second division strugglers to champions of England is one of the greatest Premier League stories of all time, and their swift fall is among the saddest. Ray Harford had a huge job on his hands to follow the act of Kenny Dalglish, who resigned from his managerial post after masterminding the club's glorious 1994-95 campaign, but few could have predicted Rovers would start a new era in such abject fashion.
Blackburn were down in 17th just six games into the new season, with a 3-0 defeat at Liverpool effectively ending their title defence. Consistency would continue to prove elusive for Harford, whose lowest point came after a 5-0 thrashing by Coventry City in December. He did gradually turn things around thereafter as Blackburn only suffered five more losses en route to a seventh-placed finish, but the damage was already done.
That was not enough to secure European football for another year and Alan Shearer's head was subsequently turned by Newcastle. Blackburn sold their top scorer off to St James' Park for a British-record fee, before falling to 13th in the table the following season. In the end, Rovers were nothing more than a flash in the pan.
Getty Images Sport4Leicester City 2016-17
Leicester City eclipsed Blackburn's fairy-tale story by clinching the Premier League trophy as 5000-1 underdogs in 2015-16, which gave beloved manager Claudio Ranieri legendary status at the King Power Stadium. But the euphoria didn't last long; the Foxes suffered a major hangover, partly due to the sale of star midfielder N'Golo Kante, and were only six points clear of the relegation zone in 15th by the end of 2016.
They fell to 17th by mid-February, and Ranieri was ruthlessly sacked. Former Leicester striker Gary Lineker described that decision as "unforgivable", but the Italian's temporary replacement, Craig Shakespeare, immediately galvanised the team. He won all of his first five games and guided the Foxes to a comeback victory over Sevilla in the last-16 of the Champions League.
Atletico Madrid ousted Leicester in the quarter-finals, but they eventually climbed to 12th in the Premier League to beat the drop. Statistically, though, it was by some distance the worst title defence ever, and a 6-1 loss to Tottenham at the King Power in their penultimate game summed up a turbulent year that saw supporters' dreams give way to nightmares.
Hulton Archive3Leeds United 1992-93
Leeds were not technically defending the Premier League title in 1992-93, because that was the season the old First Division was rebranded, but they still started the campaign as English champions, and thus cannot escape the ignominy of a place on this list. The Whites capitalised on Liverpool's implosion to top the table in 1991-92, led by hotshot striker Lee Chapman and winter signing Eric Cantona, the latter of whom also scored a hat-trick in a 4-3 Charity Shield victory over the Reds that August.
But Howard Wilkinson's side only won three of their opening 10 Premier League games in the new season, and Cantona departed for Manchester United in November after boycotting training and handing in a transfer request. His arrival at Old Trafford propelled the Red Devils to their first domestic crown in 26 years, while Leeds descended into a full-blown crisis without their star man.
The Whites did not win a single away game all season, and finished 17th in the table of 22 teams, just two points clear of the relegation places. They lost 15 of their 42 fixtures and conceded 62 goals, the joint-fifth worst defensive record in the league. Supporters invaded the pitch after a dramatic 3-3 draw away at Coventry on the final day, but more out of relief that the pain was finally over.
It was a fall from grace for the ages, and to make matters worse, Leeds were also knocked out of the Champions League second round in a 'Battle of Britain' clash against Rangers.