Big points leads don’t always win Premiership titles

Liverpool’s last-gasp victory against Leicester City last weekend saw the Reds open up an eight points lead at the top of the Premier League which Manchester City were expected to cut to five a day later. But an unexpected 2-0 home defeat against Wolves for Pep Guardiola’s team gave Jürgen Klopp’s men the biggest-ever Premier League lead after eight matches.

Read: Liverpool stay on top with injury time win

Six points

The previous record after eight matches was six points held by Chelsea in the 2005/6 season – Jose Mourinho’s second season with the Blues.

At the time Chelsea got out of the starting blocks like a house on fire, winning their opening nine matches, before being held to a draw at Everton. They then beat Blackburn Rovers in their 11th game before losing their first match of the season 1-0 at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

Surprisingly, the team that was chasing the Blues at the time was Shaun Bartlett’s Charlton Athletic, whose first dropped points were in a 2-0 defeat at home against Chelsea in their fifth game.

It was the last season in the Premier League for Bartlett, whose only goal during that campaign came on New Year’s Eve in a 2-0 victory against West Ham. Disappointingly for the striker and his team-mates, Charlton somewhat fell apart in the latter part of the season an ended up finishing 13th.

Chelsea, on the other hand, managed to stay in front as they won their second Premiership title with an eight point margin over Manchester United.

Read: Pulses race as Blue meets Red

Five points

Aston Villa shared second place in the record books before being knocked down the ranking by Liverpool with a five-points lead after eight matches in the 1998/99 season. However, Villa failed to hold on to their lead.

Manchester United, who were five points behind the Birmingham-based club after eight matches, won the title, topping Arsenal by just a point, with Villa ending the season in sixth place – 24 points behind the Red Devils.

Former Villa midfielder Ian Taylor remembers when things turned ugly as the team went on a 10-game winless streak, losing seven. “I think we might have had one or two injuries that didn’t help the cause, but I think we lost a couple of games and confidence went.

“It took the wheels off a little bit. We started lacking confidence as a team and it just fell apart after that. Realistically, it was where we should be. We probably weren’t a club that would go and win the league.”

The other team to have a five-point lead after eight matches was Chelsea in the 2014/15 season.

Mourinho, who had returned to London after spells with Inter Milan and Real Madrid, was again at the helm as new signings Cesc Fàbregas and Diego Costa – who scored nine goals in eight matches – inspired the team to victory in seven of their eight opening matches, with the only dropped points occurring during a 1-1 draw at Manchester City.

Chelsea went unbeaten until December, when they were beaten for the first time by Newcastle United. It was the first of only three defeats that season and they won the title with eight points to spare from Manchester City.

Jose Mourinho. Picture: Getty Images

Four points

In the 2012/13 season Roberto Di Matteo, who won the Champions League with Chelsea as interim coach in May 2012, got the Blues off to a great start as they won seven out of eight, with a goalless draw in a London derby at Queens Park Rangers being the only blemish on their record.

At that time they were four points ahead of Manchester United. They lost their ninth match to United 3-2, with Fernando Torres and Branislav Ivanovic being sent off. They then failed to win any of their next six matches.

These poor results saw Rafa Benitez replace Di Matteo, but the new coach could not turn their fortunes around and Man United won the league by 11 points from Manchester City, with Chelsea a further three points behind.

The other team that had a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League, Newcastle, also failed to stay at the top of the table as Manchester United came from behind to win the 1996 title.

Under Kevin Keegan, Newcastle played attractive football and won seven of their opening eight matches, with a 1-0 defeat against Southampton the only dropped points to see them lead from Manchester United and Aston Villa.

By mid-January, they had extended that lead to 12 points, but then it all came crashing down as they lost five out of eight games.

However, they remained in the title race and with two matches to play, they were three points behind, but had a game in hand. United manager Alex Ferguson then tried to play mind games with Newcastle, suggesting that their opponents might not try as hard against them.

After Newcastle won their game in hand 1-0 at Lucas Radebe’s Leeds side, Keegan took the bait and went on a rave, saying: “I’ve kept really quiet but I’ll tell you something, he went down in my estimations when he said that. We have not resorted to that.”

Newcastle though, drew their next two games, allowing United to win the title by four points – which just goes to show that a solid lead does not always guarantee the title.

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