Why is it so hard to defend the Premier League title?

Premier League champions
Chelsea will hope to defend their Premier League crown this season

Four former Premier League winners offer their reasons why clubs struggle to retain the trophy and how Manchester United bucked the trend with their run of success.

Gary Pallister

Manchester United defender won the title in 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 and 1996/97

Lifting the Premier League trophy after our game against Blackburn in May 1993 was the best night of my career.

We had been accused of bottling it the previous year, so when we got over the line the feelings were a mix of relief, pride, excitement, joy – we had ended 26 years of pain.

The message from the manager was simple though. “You can’t be satisfied with this,” Sir Alex Ferguson told us that night. “We want to create a dynasty. We want to put Manchester United back on the map. Do you have that hunger?”

His final message to us that season was simple – enjoy your summer, bask in the glory, but be prepared to work when you get back, because one title is not enough.

That continued when we came back for pre-season. In our first meeting he told us that he knew two or three players would rest on their laurels and be happy with that one trophy. Not only that, he had written their names down, and put them in an envelope in his desk drawer.

Gary Pallister lifts the Premier League trophy in 1993
Gary Pallister lifts the Premier League trophy in 1993 Credit:  Getty Images

It was very clever, as we all looked at each other wondering who he meant. We were all determined it wouldn’t be us whose name was in that envelope and it spurred us on.

It wasn’t just about that psychological trick though. The previous season, the boss had asked us as a group who we would want if he could sign any player that summer. To a man we said Roy Keane, and he duly arrived from Nottingham Forest.

It was a strong dressing room, a team full of leaders with the likes of Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Eric Cantona – and Roy was actually quite quiet that first season, although he undoubtedly helped us on the pitch.

We had a team with aggression and fight, though, and we retained our title quite comfortably in the end.

We never did find out whose names were in the envelope, or even if there was one. It certainly did the trick though; there was a reason Ferguson was thought of as the king of mind-games.

Chris Sutton

Blackburn striker who won the title with Blackburn in 1995

I will always remember my time at Blackburn fondly, but unfortunately we didn’t build on our title win at all – in fact, the following season was very difficult.

There were a couple of reasons for that, primarily the fact that Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to become Director of Football during the summer of 1995. He was replaced by Ray Harford, but we had lost our figurehead and that was very important.

Ray came in and his philosophy was: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That was understandable but bar signing Matty Holmes from West Ham we didn’t make any additions to the squad at all.

We thought we could do it again with what we had already but something had changed and the atmosphere just wasn’t as good. 

I wouldn’t use the word toxic, but it was clear we weren’t achieving what we had the previous season and then the wheels came off a little bit.

Our Champions League campaign was really poor, and everyone remembers that season for the fight between Graeme Le Saux and David Batty in that game against Spartak Moscow. I guess that punch-up summed up our season.

Ray Parlour

Arsenal midfielder who won three titles with Arsenal in 1998, 2002 and 2004

Before you work out how to build on your first title win you have to make sure you enjoy it. 

We certainly did so when we won the title in 1998. We had a really tight bond and a fantastic team spirit and we all ended up in town together for the night - or perhaps a couple of days.

For half the squad, such as myself, it was our first major trophy, but others – such as Tony Adams, Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon – were all there at Anfield on that dramatic night in 1989, so they knew how special it was.

Ray Parlour
Ray Parlour says it was written in the stars for United in 1999 Credit: Action Images

We came back for pre-season and had a meeting with Arsene Wenger, where we talked about what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to do it again, and were confident we could, but we were well aware that as champions it would be much harder – we had become marked men. People respect you more, and they change their style of play to counter you.

In the end we weren’t able to retain our title, but that was because Manchester United had an unbelievable season. A win at Leeds in our penultimate game would have been enough but Nelson Vivas got beaten by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at the back post, we lost 1-0 and United pipped us to the title by a point.

We looked back and just thought it was written in the stars that United were going to win the treble.

Steve Clarke

Chelsea assistant manager who won league titles in 2005 and 2006

We were only the fifth club to win back-to-back titles since the Second World War, but we knew from the first day of pre-season that we had a really good chance.

The Chelsea players still had that hunger, they weren't satisfied to be champions and wanted to repeat it.

In the second season we got off to a flier, winning 15 of the first 16 matches. We had good momentum, made good signings over the summer to freshen it up - guys like Michael Essien and Shaun Wright-Phillips - and the team that still had a desire to do it all over again.

Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho in their Chelsea days 
Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho in their Chelsea days  Credit: Getty Images

It's incredibly difficult to do, but it's down to the mentality of the players, driven by the mentality of the manager.

Jose Mourinho was, and still is, a manager whose not satisfied with one trophy - he always wants the next one. Once he had lifted that first piece of silverware he had forgotten about it and was looking about for the next target. You're there to be shot at and teams had sussed us out a bit.

We had played 4-3-3 in the 2004-05 season and we had to change it a bit, going to a 4-4-2 diamond the following season, and our quick start probably won us the league again. 

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