The Premier League's Greatest Banter Seasons: A Decade of Glorious Chaos from the Big Six

This campaign is shaping up to be the most banter-soaked Premier League season since 2015/16's banterpocalypse. Arsenal could yet pull off something extraordinary, only for Spurs to somehow manage something even more ridiculous. And that's before we even consider Chelsea's current antics.

But these clubs have been here before. Many times.

We've compiled our definitive ranking of the ten most gloriously self-destructive seasons by the Big Six, though we'll freely admit we've probably overlooked another one you're already fuming about. Honestly, this could've easily been a top 30. Spurs alone could fill that list.

Banter remains wonderfully subjective, mind you. Your preferences will almost certainly differ from ours. These are our picks—for today, anyway. We'll probably change our minds by tomorrow, so best not ask.

Arsenal 2021/22

Arsenal stood on the precipice of something momentous. They had the chance to secure both the Premier League and European trophies, finally silencing the bottling accusations that had dogged their most talented squads. Alternatively—and this remained alarmingly plausible—they'd end up with another agonising second-place finish in both competitions.

The cruel irony was that at least they'd come from a season so catastrophically poor they'd managed to bottle fourth place to Spurs of all teams. After opening with three straight defeats, including a 5-0 hammering at Manchester City, Arsenal looked finished. Yet by spring they'd transformed into genuine title contenders.

A three-game losing streak in April threatened to derail them, but four consecutive victories—notably against Chelsea and Manchester United—restored control. Victory at Spurs would seal their Champions League return. They lost 3-0 instead.

There was still hope if they won their final two matches. They didn't, falling to Newcastle next. Norwich were relegated, Spurs weren't. The north London side obliterated Everton 5-0 on the final day, rendering Arsenal's own win irrelevant.

At least they'd battled back from eighth-place obscurity. The banter stung, but represented genuine progress.

Chelsea 2022/23

Chelsea's first full campaign under BlueCo ownership was a masterclass in chaos. Two permanent managers, one interim, one caretaker. A genuinely dreadful second half yielded just four victories and their worst league finish since 1993/94.

The warning signs emerged immediately. A 2-2 draw with fellow banter specialists Spurs in August featured the sort of theatre football thrives on: Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte's handshake theatrics after the final whistle, disputed goals, and Cristian Romero's hair-pulling incident with Marc Cucurella.

Chelsea lost two of their next three games before Tuchel departed. Graham Potter arrived with initial promise—three straight league wins, five unbeaten—but a 4-1 demolition at Brighton in October proved terminal. Chelsea won just five more Premier League matches across the remainder.

Potter limped until April before being replaced. Bruno Saltor stepped in temporarily before the club made the genuinely absurd decision to hand Frank Lampard the reins for the run-in. Lampard's Chelsea won once and lost six of their final nine games, whilst being drawn away to Manchester City in both domestic cups' earliest stages.

Tottenham 2024/25

Nearly every Spurs season qualifies as a banter season purely through the circular logic that Spurs are banter incarnate. During their 15-year spell as a genuinely good side, almost every campaign could reasonably be filed under "banter" with the right framing.

You could name them like sitcom episodes: The One With The Dodgy Lasagne. The One With The Half-Time Sacking. The One With Two Points From Eight Games. The One Where They Finish Third In A Two-Horse Race. The One Where They Sacked Mourinho Before A Cup Final. The One With Conte's Rant. The One With A Trophy Despite Themselves.

This season could become their masterpiece. They won the Europa League—a trophy Ange Postecoglou had famously predicted after another defeat—yet simultaneously found themselves contemplating genuine relegation. They'd abandoned the Premier League so thoroughly midway through that their mediocrity became normalised.

Then they replaced Postecoglou with Thomas Frank, a manager who somehow made things worse by normalising losing as acceptable. Spurs continued losing every week, but now under someone willing to insist that's simply how things go.

Winning a major European trophy whilst finishing 17th is genuinely unthinkable. Yet Spurs somehow made it happen. If they do go down, it will represent the ultimate banter season—brought about by the very choices made to end their trophy drought. The thing they thought was their greatest curse may have been protecting them all along.

Arsenal 2015/16

Leicester's improbable title triumph made this collectively disastrous for the Big Six, but Arsenal's failure particularly stung. Yes, Spurs finished third in a two-horse race—embarrassing. Yet Arsenal finished second in what should've been a one-horse race.

Arsenal sat top at the halfway point with Leicester and Manchester City nowhere. Two points clear after 20 games, three clear of City, seven of Spurs. They should have controlled matters.

Instead, Arsenal collected three points from four games. A promising 2-0 win against Leicester was immediately undone by defeats to Manchester United and Swansea. A battling 2-2 draw at Spurs with ten men proved insufficient.

Within two months, Arsenal had transformed a two-point lead into an eight-point deficit. They'd bantered themselves out of contention against a side that would eventually drop to League One.

Arsenal have perfected the art of second-place disappointment, but at least their recent collapses have typically involved Manchester City or Liverpool. Losing a title race to Leicester remains their most damning failure, even if Spurs' banter that season burned brighter.

Manchester United 2013/14

This season effectively launched the Premier League's entire Banter Era. From the vantage point of 2026, it's easy to underestimate how genuinely shocking Manchester United finishing seventh actually was.

Sir Alex Ferguson had stitched up successor David Moyes spectacularly. Fergie departed having won the 2012/13 title with a squad that really shouldn't have managed it, leaving Moyes with an impossible task made even more impossible by his constant presence.

Moyes bungled summer recruitment. They failed to sign Leighton Baines from his former club, acquired Marouane Fellaini only at the window's death in undignified fashion, and saw moves for Ander Herrera and Cesc Fabregas collapse. Fellaini remained their only significant addition.

By September's end, United had lost three of six games—including defeats at Liverpool and Manchester City—sitting twelfth. Moyes bizarrely blamed the fixture computer, apparently unaware that, like everyone else, United faced 19 home and 19 away matches.

United briefly recovered, dragging themselves into the top five by November with an Arsenal victory. It proved false hope. Between January and March, they managed a single point against the Big Six—a goalless draw with Arsenal.

In April, following another humiliating defeat to his former club Everton, Moyes departed. The club promoted Ryan Giggs for the run-in. He took them from seventh to seventh.

Far worse seasons would follow, but this one endures for demonstrating what had previously seemed impossible for United.

Liverpool 2010/11

The mysteries of banter shine here: this was arguably Liverpool's least bad season during a miserable run, yet the banter somehow intensified rather than diminished.

Roy Hodgson's tenure looked like it might produce a genuine relegation battle before Kenny Dalglish arrived to salvage matters. Liverpool finished sixth with 58 points—a miserable total for mid-table safety, particularly given they'd finished seventh the previous season and would manage eighth the season after.

The 2011 finish represented a relative high point amid a broader decline that saw them finish seventh and eighth in subsequent campaigns. That context somehow made sixth place feel even worse.

Chelsea 2015/16

Chelsea managed a genuinely spectacular banter season whilst not even achieving the campaign's most notorious collapse. More remarkably still, they sandwiched this ludicrous season between two title wins.

Jose Mourinho's second tenure had delivered 2015 glory. Antonio Conte would arrive to implement a back three and win the 2017 title. Between them came this ungodly mess.

Mourinho's third-season destruction reached its nadir by November when a defeat to Stoke left Chelsea sixteenth, just three points above the relegation zone. A week before Christmas, defeat to Leicester—nine losses from 16 games—ended Mourinho's tenure.

Steve Holland won their next match against Sunderland amid pro-Mourinho protests, but Guus Hiddink's arrival sparked a 15-match unbeaten run that merely lifted Chelsea to mid-table. Three draws and a defeat across their final four games saw them limp home tenth.

At the time, Chelsea's finish seemed to redefine what Big Four—let alone Big Six—mediocrity could mean. We've since learned better.

Manchester United 2024/25

Imagine copying Spurs' entire playbook: abandoning your Premier League season to concentrate on Europa League, finishing just above the relegation rabble, then losing the final to the most ridiculous possible opponent.

Imagine that being Manchester United rather than Spurs.

United have recovered spectacularly since summer, dimming this season's banter legacy somewhat. Yet it remains arguably the single most humiliating outcome any team has suffered: staking everything on beating trophy-dodging Spurs in a final and somehow managing to lose the worst Europa League final ever played to the most ridiculous possible club.

Tottenham 2015/16

We've established that Arsenal's 2015/16 was logically the more damning failure. But banter doesn't obey logic. If it did, Chelsea's miserable season would rank higher. It doesn't.

Spurs were the banter force that season, and pretending otherwise seems pointless.

There's something excruciatingly Spurs about bottling a title race whilst never actually leading the league at any point. They possess a unique talent for generating chaos whilst simultaneously exploiting external chaos to maximise banter impact.

When six straight wins offered genuine title contention, they lost meekly at West Ham. An eight-match unbeaten run followed, but four were draws, eliminating them from contention. The Battle of Stamford Bridge—squandering a 2-0 half-time lead in spectacular fashion—officially ended their hopes, though the previous week's failure to beat West Brom at home had already doomed them.

Two season-ending defeats followed, including a 5-1 thrashing at already-relegated Newcastle on the final day. They couldn't even secure the consolation of finishing above Arsenal, instead earning the eternal "third in a two-horse race" label.

Liverpool 2013/14

The ultimate banter masterclass: being genuinely excellent for most of a season, then collapsing catastrophically proves far funnier than simply being mediocre throughout.

Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge terrorised defences everywhere. From January's start until late April's fateful weekend, Liverpool won 14 and drew two of 16 games, scoring 52 goals. They put six past Cardiff, five past Stoke and Arsenal, four past Everton, Swansea and Spurs.

This seemed inevitable. Steven Gerrard's slip changed everything. Demba Ba pounced. Chelsea won 2-0 at Anfield.

Liverpool finished third. Manchester City won the title. A desperate final-day performance at Crystal Palace saw them concede three in the closing 11 minutes despite leading 3-0.

A 2-1 Newcastle victory saw Liverpool exceed 100 goals scored yet finish two points behind City with a goal-difference deficit of 14.

The most infamous Premier League moment remains so embedded in collective memory that some neutrals believe Chelsea actually won the title that year. They'd simply bantered themselves out of contention.