Can you truly be considered one of the Premier League’s biggest clubs if you’re flirting with relegation? You certainly can’t be one of the division’s ‘Big Six’ if you fall through the trap door to the Championship. For Tottenham, that damning prospect is becoming a very real possibility.
Spurs are in free fall at the moment. The club hasn’t won a single league game since the turn of the year, while their run of 14 games without a win is the club’s worst run of form since before the Second World War. The last time they embarked on such a run, they were relegated to the old Division Two, and a similar fate could well await this term.
Tottenham’s Catastrophic Campaign
Thomas Frank, the replacement for Europa League-winning boss Ange Postecoglou, was fired back in January, and things have gotten even worse under interim boss Igor Tudor. The Croatian is still waiting for his first league win in charge of the club, while the recent 3-0 drubbing at home to fellow relegation candidates Nottingham Forest has turned the alarm bells into downright panic. Spurs now sit in 17th place, level on points with West Ham United, and they are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
One look at the Spurs squad and their remaining fixtures shows that relegation is by no means out of the equation. Star midfielders Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, and Rodrigo Bentancur are all sidelined, while upcoming clashes against Aston Villa and Chelsea mean that things could get worse before they get better. As such, online betting sites certainly think that relegation is entirely possible.
The bookies have Spurs listed as a 6/4 shot. Meanwhile, a popular no vig fair calculator, a tool that calculates a selection’s true odds without the bookmaker’s edge, suggests their true odds are closer to 2/1; survival is by no means a formality.
So, with Tottenham currently mired in turmoil, what’s the worst season that each of their ‘Big Six’ stablemates has endured in recent years? Let’s take a look.
Manchester City: 2015/16
Manchester City emerged as a superpower in 2008 following their Abu Dhabi-backed takeover. In the six years that followed, the club would pick up two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, and the League Cup. The club has secured UEFA Champions League qualification in each of the last 16 seasons, and since Pep Guardiola took charge in the summer of 2016, the Blues have gone from strength to strength.
As such, it isn’t easy to pick their “worst” campaign of their ‘Big Six’ tenure, with supporters pointing back toward the 1990s as true dark days. However, if we were to pick one, then it would have to be the 2015/16 season, the last before Guardiola took charge.
Under Manuel Pellegrini, the club looked like a shadow of the one that the Chilean boss led to the Premier League title two years prior. The club squeezed into the top four by the skin of their teeth, finishing ahead of rivals Manchester United on goal difference. They did, however, reach the Champions League semifinals for the first time while also winning the League Cup. Most clubs would consider the campaign a resounding success, but expectations are higher at the Etihad than anywhere else.
Manchester United: 2024/25
Last season was an absolute disaster for Manchester United. Under Ruben Amorim, the Red Devils finished down in 15th in the Premier League, their worst finish since suffering relegation 40 years prior. To make matters worse, the club was beaten in the UEFA Europa League final by compatriots Spurs, meaning that the club missed out on both silverware and Champions League qualification in the most embarrassing fashion imaginable.
Arsenal: 2020/21
Mikel Arteta’s first full season in charge of Arsenal was far from smooth. The Gunners finished way down in eighth place in the Premier League while being dumped out of the Europa League semifinals by Atletico Madrid. A return to the top four and title contention seemed a million miles away, but fast forward five years and the Gunners are now on the brink.
With all of the biggest earners from that fateful 2020/21 campaign – names like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette – firmly in the rearview mirror, the Gunners currently find themselves nine points clear at the top of the table with eight games remaining. A first title in 22 years now seems a near certainty, an unfathomable achievement considering where the club was when Arteta took charge.
Liverpool: 2025/26
Liverpool have endured many dark days since the turn of the millennium, but their status in the ‘Big Six’ was truly rubber-stamped by Jurgen Klopp’s arrival in 2015. The maverick German boss restored the glory days at Anfield, ending the club’s Premier League title drought and winning the Reds their sixth European Cup as well.
He departed two years ago, and current boss Arne Slot picked up where his predecessor left off, winning the Premier League in his first season in charge. However, Liverpool’s title defence has been an unmitigated disaster.
The Reds forked out over £400m on new signings last summer, with record fees being spent on both Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak. Despite that, though, the Reds have crumbled, and their title defense is up in smoke already. They currently sit in fifth place in the Premier League table and are without a win in their last three games. Considering the money spent and the lofty expectations heading into the season, the 2025/26 season will be remembered as one of Liverpool’s worst in recent memory.
Chelsea: 2022/23
Thomas Tuchel helped Chelsea lift their second Champions League crown in 2021. Barely a year later, he had been sacked as manager, with the club floundering in the 2022/23 season. The Blues went through no fewer than four managers that season, with Graham Potter looking thoroughly out of his depth and club legend Frank Lampard enduring a miserable interim tenure. The West Londoners would finish 12th in the top- flight, their worst finish since 1994.
