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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester City rewrote history last season as they clinched a record-setting fourth successive league title. After reaching such heights, it was always going to be a difficult task to maintain the sort of form that has seen City swat aside a number of challengers since Pep Guardiola took over the coaching reins in 2016.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last season’s history-making league victory was City’s sixth overall under Guardiola’s tutelage. In its history the club has won the English top flight 10 times. But unless a miracle occurs in the next few months, the Manchester side is likely to relinquish its title as the best soccer club in England. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guardiola’s men currently lag more than 10 points behind log-leading Liverpool, with the latter having played one game less. It’s a development that no one saw coming, even if some may have predicted that City would not clinch the league for a record-extending fifth consecutive time. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I knew it would be a tough season, but I didn’t expect it to be so hard,” Guardiola said of his team’s abysmal title defence to date. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City has played 20 Premier League games so far, losing six of those and collecting just 34 points. Over the previous two seasons City only lost eight league matches. </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2544993\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1257740345.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1886\" height=\"1111\" /> <em>Fabinho of Liverpool leads the celebrations holding the trophy aloft as they celebrate winning the Premier League title after beating Chelsea Anfield on 22 July 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo: Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“For how many years were we incredibly consistent? But now, yes, we’re a little bit down and the main reason is having so many important players injured,” said Guardiola in trying to pinpoint the incredible decline of City this season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Of course I want to (end the bad run), everyone wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people in terms of the club, the fans, the people who love this club… All of us in our job want to do well and please the people. That is undeniable, not a question mark,” the Spaniard stated.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’m responsible. It would be easy for me to say we lost because of this action or this player or this situation, but football is a team game,” Guardiola said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’m completely convinced in what I’m saying, that I’m good enough to find a way for them to feel peace in their bodies and their minds. I want it desperately. I’m here to try and I will try again and again, but that is the reality,” City’s manager added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I will not give up. I want to be here. I want to do it and, with the situation that we have, we have to do it… The biggest test is to come back again, but we have done that before.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout his coaching career Guardiola has faced challenges, but putting City back on track by boosting the confidence of his players may very well be his biggest challenge to date. Especially if he and his charges are to avoid becoming one of the teams that have failed to defend their titles in the Premier League era. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This list of teams that went from hero to zero in the space of two seasons includes unlikely champions Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers, as well as Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.</span>\r\n\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2545323\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/EPL-Title-defences-copy-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1497\" />\r\n<h4><b>Leicester’s rollercoaster</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the best soccer Cinderella stories has to be Leicester winning the Premier League during the 2015/2016 season. The so-called big clubs simply did not pitch up that season, and Leicester capitalised to become history-makers.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Foxes held off a half-hearted challenge from that season’s runner-up — Arsenal — to comfortably win the title by 10 points. It was an incredible achievement considering that Leicester had been promoted just a season before their league conquest. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During their first season back in the premier division since 2004, the Foxes struggled for most of the campaign, scrambling to survive the drop. They eventually managed to stay safe, before achieving the unthinkable the following season. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, in the 2016/2017 season their title defence was horrendous and they found themselves flirting with relegation once again. They managed to stay up, finishing 12th on the table to set the record for the worst title defence in the Premier League to date, 37 points off their league-winning mark.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Mourinho’s Chelsea</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is undeniable that when Portuguese coaching legend José Mourinho first joined Chelsea in 2004, both his profile and the Blues’ image increased dramatically. Especially when the team won the league crown for two consecutive seasons. </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2544996\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2188124919.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1803\" height=\"1123\" /> <em>Then Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho. (Photo: Ahmad Mora / Getty Images)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Portuguese tactician would eventually depart from Stamford Bridge in 2007, only to rekindle his romance with the Blues in 2013, after leaving Real Madrid. 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They finished third and 30 points worse than when they won the league.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Best losers</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester United and Blackburn bring up the rear with regard to the worst title defences in Premier League history. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rovers shocked United in 1995 by winning the league ahead of the Red Devils. The Manchester club had won the first two league marathons of the Premier League epoch. However, Blackburn stunned them during the 1994/1995 season to win their first major trophy in almost seven decades. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The title defence was forgettable though, with Blackburn finishing seventh as United regained their spot at the summit. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2013/14, the immediate season following Alex Ferguson’s league-winning departure, United emulated Blackburn and also finished seventh under new manager David Moyes in defence of their title — 25 points worse off than when Ferguson had guided them to another league victory. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester City rewrote history last season as they clinched a record-setting fourth successive league title. After reaching such heights, it was always going to be a difficult task to maintain the sort of form that has seen City swat aside a number of challengers since Pep Guardiola took over the coaching reins in 2016.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last season’s history-making league victory was City’s sixth overall under Guardiola’s tutelage. In its history the club has won the English top flight 10 times. But unless a miracle occurs in the next few months, the Manchester side is likely to relinquish its title as the best soccer club in England. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guardiola’s men currently lag more than 10 points behind log-leading Liverpool, with the latter having played one game less. It’s a development that no one saw coming, even if some may have predicted that City would not clinch the league for a record-extending fifth consecutive time. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I knew it would be a tough season, but I didn’t expect it to be so hard,” Guardiola said of his team’s abysmal title defence to date. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City has played 20 Premier League games so far, losing six of those and collecting just 34 points. Over the previous two seasons City only lost eight league matches. </span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2544993\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1886\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2544993\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-1257740345.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1886\" height=\"1111\" /> <em>Fabinho of Liverpool leads the celebrations holding the trophy aloft as they celebrate winning the Premier League title after beating Chelsea Anfield on 22 July 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo: Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“For how many years were we incredibly consistent? But now, yes, we’re a little bit down and the main reason is having so many important players injured,” said Guardiola in trying to pinpoint the incredible decline of City this season.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Of course I want to (end the bad run), everyone wants it. I don’t want to disappoint my people in terms of the club, the fans, the people who love this club… All of us in our job want to do well and please the people. That is undeniable, not a question mark,” the Spaniard stated.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’m responsible. It would be easy for me to say we lost because of this action or this player or this situation, but football is a team game,” Guardiola said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’m completely convinced in what I’m saying, that I’m good enough to find a way for them to feel peace in their bodies and their minds. I want it desperately. I’m here to try and I will try again and again, but that is the reality,” City’s manager added.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I will not give up. I want to be here. I want to do it and, with the situation that we have, we have to do it… The biggest test is to come back again, but we have done that before.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout his coaching career Guardiola has faced challenges, but putting City back on track by boosting the confidence of his players may very well be his biggest challenge to date. Especially if he and his charges are to avoid becoming one of the teams that have failed to defend their titles in the Premier League era. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This list of teams that went from hero to zero in the space of two seasons includes unlikely champions Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers, as well as Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.</span>\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2545323\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/EPL-Title-defences-copy-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1497\" />\r\n<h4><b>Leicester’s rollercoaster</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the best soccer Cinderella stories has to be Leicester winning the Premier League during the 2015/2016 season. The so-called big clubs simply did not pitch up that season, and Leicester capitalised to become history-makers.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Foxes held off a half-hearted challenge from that season’s runner-up — Arsenal — to comfortably win the title by 10 points. It was an incredible achievement considering that Leicester had been promoted just a season before their league conquest. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During their first season back in the premier division since 2004, the Foxes struggled for most of the campaign, scrambling to survive the drop. They eventually managed to stay safe, before achieving the unthinkable the following season. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, in the 2016/2017 season their title defence was horrendous and they found themselves flirting with relegation once again. They managed to stay up, finishing 12th on the table to set the record for the worst title defence in the Premier League to date, 37 points off their league-winning mark.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Mourinho’s Chelsea</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is undeniable that when Portuguese coaching legend José Mourinho first joined Chelsea in 2004, both his profile and the Blues’ image increased dramatically. Especially when the team won the league crown for two consecutive seasons. </span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2544996\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1803\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2544996\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2188124919.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1803\" height=\"1123\" /> <em>Then Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho. (Photo: Ahmad Mora / Getty Images)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Portuguese tactician would eventually depart from Stamford Bridge in 2007, only to rekindle his romance with the Blues in 2013, after leaving Real Madrid. Two years after Mourinho’s second coming, Chelsea were crowned English champions once again.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The season of the Blues’ defence of this success was horrendous as they picked up just 11 points from their first 12 matches. These poor results led to the sacking of Mourinho by the London club, midway through the season. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chelsea would eventually end the season in 10th spot on the log table, 37 points worse off than they had been in the league-winning campaign. </span>\r\n<h4><b>Klopp’s Reds</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool is one of the most entertaining teams to ever be assembled in Premier League history. Hence the team was justly rewarded during the 2019/20 season; winning Liverpool’s first ever league title since the inception of the Premier League era in 1992. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was an amazing title-clinching campaign from the Reds as they recorded the second-most points in a single Premier League season — finishing off with 99 points overall. Only Guardiola’s City, with 100 points in 2018, have managed more. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With those high standards set, it was also going to be tough for Liverpool to match their league-winning points tally in the subsequent season. They finished third and 30 points worse than when they won the league.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Best losers</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester United and Blackburn bring up the rear with regard to the worst title defences in Premier League history. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rovers shocked United in 1995 by winning the league ahead of the Red Devils. The Manchester club had won the first two league marathons of the Premier League epoch. 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Fabinho of Liverpool leads the celebrations holding the trophy aloft as they celebrate winning the Premier League title after beating Chelsea Anfield on 22 July 2020 in Liverpool, England. (Photo: Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images)
Then Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho. (Photo: Ahmad Mora / Getty Images)