Lightning doesn't usually strike twice, but in the 2015-16 Premier League season, it felt like the entire sky fell down on the established order. If you look back at the epl 2015 16 table, it honestly looks like a glitch in the Matrix.
Leicester City won.
Read that again. A team that was 5,000-1 to win the league at the start of the season—odds usually reserved for Elvis being found alive or the Loch Ness Monster being captured—finished ten points clear at the top. It wasn't just a fluke. They didn't stumble into it. They dismantled a league featuring peak Sergio Agüero, Mesut Özil in his prime, and a Chelsea side that had just won the title the year before.
The Numbers That Defied Logic
The final epl 2015 16 table tells a story of systemic collapse among the "Big Six." Leicester finished first with 81 points. Arsenal, in classic Arsenal fashion of that era, surged late to grab second with 71 points. Tottenham Hotspur, who were arguably the best team for large stretches of the spring, famously "Spursy-d" it, finishing third on 70 points after a 5-1 meltdown against a relegated Newcastle on the final day.
Manchester City rounded out the top four with 66 points, only beating Manchester United on goal difference.
It was a weird year for math. Usually, 81 points isn't enough to cruise to a title. In most seasons, you're looking at 90-plus to feel safe. But because everyone kept beating everyone else, Leicester’s consistency became a superpower. They only lost three games all season. Twice to Arsenal and once to Liverpool. That’s it. While the giants were busy tripping over their own shoelaces, Claudio Ranieri’s men were playing a brand of counter-attacking football that was so simple it was basically impossible to stop.
How the Mid-Table Became a Graveyard for Giants
You have to look at the bottom half of the epl 2015 16 table to truly understand the chaos. Chelsea finished 10th. Yes, 10th. After winning the league in 2014-15, Jose Mourinho’s second stint ended in a toxic spiral of defeats and public fallouts, most notably the incident with club doctor Eva Carneiro. They ended the season with 50 points. To put that in perspective, they were closer to the relegation zone in terms of points than they were to Leicester City.
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Everton, under Roberto Martinez, languished in 11th.
Liverpool, who switched from Brendan Rodgers to Jürgen Klopp mid-season, finished 8th. It was the birth of the "heavy metal football" era, but the table didn't show the fruits of that labor yet. They were busy losing to teams like Watford and West Ham, who both finished above the Reds that year.
West Ham, actually, were brilliant. Led by Dimitri Payet, who was playing like he had a remote control for the ball, the Hammers finished 7th. It was their final season at the Boleyn Ground, and they played with an emotional intensity that the "bigger" clubs couldn't match. Payet’s free-kicks were basically cheat codes. If you haven't watched his highlight reel from that specific season lately, do yourself a favor. It’s pure art.
The Relegation Scrap Nobody Saw Coming
Down at the bottom of the epl 2015 16 table, things were equally grim for the "historic" clubs. Aston Villa’s season was a slow-motion car crash. They finished dead last with a measly 17 points. Seventeen. They won three games all year. It was one of the most pathetic campaigns in the history of the modern Premier League, characterized by a lack of effort that infuriated a fan base used to seeing their team compete for Europe.
Joining them in the Championship were Norwich City and Newcastle United.
Newcastle’s relegation was particularly shocking. They had spent big. They brought in Rafa Benitez late in the season to try and perform a miracle, and he almost did. They went on a six-game unbeaten run to end the season, including that 5-1 demolition of Spurs, but it wasn't enough because Sunderland—their fiercest rivals—found a way to survive under Sam Allardyce. "Big Sam" doing Big Sam things. He basically dragged Sunderland to safety through sheer force of will and a January transfer window where he signed Lamine Koné and Jan Kirchhoff, two players who played like titans for four months and then largely vanished from the collective memory.
Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, and the Tactical Shift
Why did the epl 2015 16 table turn out this way? Honestly, it was a perfect storm.
Tactically, the league was in a transition phase. The big teams were obsessed with possession. They wanted to play like Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, but they didn't have the discipline or the specific personnel to do it. Leicester, meanwhile, played a 4-4-2. It was old school. They sat deep, they absorbed pressure, and then they unleashed Jamie Vardy.
Vardy’s record-breaking run of scoring in 11 consecutive games was the heartbeat of the season.
Then you had Riyad Mahrez. He was a skinny winger signed from the French second division for peanuts. By the end of the season, he was the PFA Player of the Year. His ability to cut inside from the right and whip the ball into the far corner became the most predictable yet unstoppable move in the league. N'Golo Kanté was the other piece of the puzzle. Sir Alex Ferguson famously said Kanté was the best player in the league that year by a mile. He was everywhere. It felt like Leicester played with 12 men because Kanté’s lateral movement covered the entire pitch.
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Dissecting the Arsenal and Spurs Collapse
If you ask a Tottenham fan about the epl 2015 16 table, they’ll probably get a thousand-yard stare. For most of the season, they looked like the best team. Harry Kane, Dele Alli, and Christian Eriksen were clicking. They were aggressive, high-pressing, and fun to watch. But the "Battle of the Bridge" against Chelsea ended their title hopes in a flurry of yellow cards and lost tempers.
Arsenal fans have a different kind of trauma. This was their best chance to win the league post-Invincibles.
Mesut Özil had 19 assists by February. He was on track to shatter the all-time record. But then the goals dried up. Olivier Giroud went on a 15-game goal drought. Arsenal beat Leicester twice—including a last-minute Danny Welbeck header at the Emirates that felt like a title-winning moment—but then they lost to a depleted Manchester United side and blew it against mid-table teams. Finishing second above Spurs was a consolation prize, but it felt hollow.
The Financial Ripple Effect
The 2015-16 season was the final year before the massive new TV deal kicked in. There was a sense that the "middle class" of the Premier League—teams like Southampton, Stoke City, and Swansea—were becoming incredibly wealthy compared to their European counterparts.
Southampton finished 6th.
They were a scouting machine, consistently losing their best players to Liverpool and simply replacing them with better ones. Sadio Mané, Virgil van Dijk, and Dušan Tadić were all in that squad. Look at those names. It’s no wonder they were punching above their weight. This financial parity meant that "easy games" didn't exist anymore. Any team could buy a £15 million playmaker from the Bundesliga or La Liga.
Lessons From the Chaos
Looking back at the epl 2015 16 table, we see a moment in time that probably won't happen again. The gap between the ultra-rich and the rest has widened since then, thanks to state-owned clubs and the hyper-optimization of coaching. Leicester’s win was a triumph of chemistry, scouting, and a complete lack of fear.
They proved that a coherent plan beats expensive chaos every single time.
If you're looking for actionable insights from this era of football, it's all about recruitment and squad harmony. Leicester didn't have the best players; they had the best team. They found undervalued assets in obscure leagues—Kanté from Caen, Mahrez from Le Havre—and trusted a veteran manager who had been written off by the media after his failure with the Greek national team.
For anyone analyzing football today, the 2015-16 season serves as a reminder that statistics only tell half the story. On paper, Leicester should have been relegated. On grass, they were immortal.
To truly understand the impact of this season, look at where the protagonists are now:
- N'Golo Kanté: Went on to win the league again the following year with Chelsea and then a World Cup and Champions League.
- Claudio Ranieri: Sacked less than a year after winning the title, a move that still feels like a gut punch to football romantics.
- The "Big Six": Triggered a massive spending spree and the hiring of "super coaches" like Pep Guardiola and Antonio Conte to ensure such a "disaster" for the elite never happened again.
The epl 2015 16 table is more than just a list of points and goal differences. It’s a historical artifact. It represents the last time football felt truly unpredictable, where a group of journeymen and cast-offs could look the giants in the eye and not blink.
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Next Steps for Football Historians and Fans:
- Analyze the "Expected Goals" (xG) vs Actual Results: Compare how Leicester’s 2015-16 overperformance compares to modern "outliers" like Bayer Leverkusen's 2023-24 run.
- Study the Recruitment of Steve Walsh: Look at the scouting reports from Leicester’s 2014-2015 period to see how they identified low-cost, high-output talent.
- Watch "The Battle of the Bridge": Re-watch the Chelsea vs Tottenham match from May 2016 to understand the psychological breaking point of that Spurs squad.