Liverpool's title defence already looks doomed - but history shows it's no surprise

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Liverpool's attempt to retain the title for the first time since 1984 already looks doomed after a shaky start to the season.Apart from Pep Guardiola's Manchester City and their recent four-peat, defending the Premier League has proved beyond every champion since Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in 2008/09. Opta's supercomputer rates Liverpool's chances of winning the league at 7.1 per cent after Arne Slot's side lost five of their opening 11 league encounters to fall eight points behind Arsenal at the top of the table.

Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW📺 Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Highlights of the Premier League match between Manchester City and Liverpool Head coach Slot has struggled to integrate the £450m worth of new talent brought to Anfield last summer, while the players who were so instrumental to last season's title win have largely failed to match those heights so far this campaign, perhaps struggling to find the motivation to go again.As a result, the champions have conceded two or more goals in seven games already this season, the second-worst record in the top flight, and do not look capable of going on the sort of long unbeaten run needed to get back into the title race. Also See: Liverpool news and transfer latest Liverpool fixtures Watch FREE Premier League highlights Stream the Premier League with no contract The former Everton boss was sacked by the Red Devils in April 2014 with the 20-times champions eventually ending up seventh in the table, their first finish outside the top four in Premier League history and their worst finish overall since 1989.Ultimately, despite having been handed a six-year deal at Old Trafford after being hand-picked by Fergie for the role, the job proved too big for Moyes.2015-16: Mourinho feels the Blues after 'unprecedented capitulation' Image: Jose Mourinho waved goodbye to Chelsea in December 2015 with the champions hovering just about the drop zone Chelsea had romped to the title the campaign before as Jose Mourinho's "little horse" racked up 87 points while losing just three games all season, but things were very different for their title defence as the champions spectacularly combusted.There were early warning signs all was not right with the Blues when Crystal Palace won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in August 2015, only the second time the Portuguese had lost a top-flight match at home in charge of the west Londoners.Mourinho then got into a dispute with club doctor Eva Carneiro, before receiving a suspended stadium ban and £50,000 fine for claiming referees were "afraid" to award his team penalties in a 3-1 home loss to Southampton in October.And the defeats continued to come, so much so that when Chelsea lost 2-1 at eventual champions Leicester City in December, Mourinho had overseen nine losses in the club's first 16 league games to leave them just a point clear of the relegation zone.The 'Special One', who had only signed a new contract in August, received his marching orders, with Alan Shearer saying: "I've never known a capitulation like it from a football club."I have never known players to perform like they did last season and then be so bad now.

It's unprecedented."2016-17: Foxes' worst-ever title defence Image: Claudio Ranieri's Leicester served up the worst Premier League title defence in the 2016-17 season Leicester had stunned the football world by winning the 2015-16 Premier League, but perhaps to no one's great surprise, that was a one-off as Claudio Ranieri's team failed to hit those heights again the following campaign.The writing was very much on the wall when the Foxes lost their opening game at relegation favourites Hull City, the first time this had ever happened to a reigning Premier League champion.Leicester's 2-1 defeat to bottom club Sunderland in December left them with just 13 points from 14 games, the worst return for any defending champion in Premier League history, with Ranieri axed two months later with the Foxes only a point above the drop zone.Craig Shakespeare replaced the Italian, guiding the club to 12th in the table, the lowest finish by a Premier League champion, as Leicester understandably struggled to replicate their miraculous achievements from 12 months earlier.2017-18: Deja vu all over again for Chelsea Image: Despite winning the FA Cup, Antonio Conte was axed by Chelsea after the champions finished outside the Champions League places in 2017-18 With similarities from two years earlier, Chelsea followed a dominant championship win with a underwhelming title defence that saw the architect behind the Premier League triumph axed the next season.Antonio Conte's side had amassed a whopping 90 points, including a record-breaking 30 wins, en route to the 2016-17 title, with the Italian rewarded with a new deal that summer.However, Conte's frustration then became evident when Chelsea failed to land the signings he wanted, with the Blues boss claiming "the club decides every single player who comes here". And he was sacked for failing to make the Champions League after a fifth-placed finish that saw them end up 23 points worse off, including 10 defeats, than 12 months earlier.2020-21: Injuries & Covid wreck Reds' hopes Image: Virgil van Dijk's season-ending ACL badly impacted Liverpool's title defence in 2020-21 There were many reasons for Liverpool's underwhelming 2020-21 title defence, a season that saw the majority of games played behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.The main one was a defensive injury crisis that saw the Reds' three senior centre-backs, including the influential Virgil van Vijk, ruled out for the season, with the champions going on to lose an unprecedented six straight league games at Anfield - having not been beaten there in the previous 68 contests.That losing run at home - not helped by having no fans in attendance at Anfield - had left Liverpool way down in eighth in March 2021, before a strong end to the season saw them finish third, a mammoth 27 points behind champions Manchester City.Even Pep's Man City are not immune Image: Pep Guardiola feels the strain as City make a mess of last season's attempt to retain the Premier League The one exception across the past decade are, of course, Guardiola's relentless Manchester City side, who won the league six times in seven years between 2018 and 2024, including a record-breaking four seasons in a row [2021-24].However, intriguingly, on the two occasions City did fail to defend their title in this period - 2019-20 & 2024-25 - their form also nosedived, with Guardiola's team dropping more points [19] by the end of December 2019 than they had in their entire previous two campaigns after injuries to key men Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane.Meanwhile, five years later the same happened again as the loss of Rodri to a season-ending knee injury precipitated a stunning downward spiral that saw City win once in eight league matches, six of which were defeats, including a first at the Etihad for 52 games and three years.And amazingly, City lost 18 times across those two failed title defences, compared to just 23 defeats during their six championship-winning campaigns combined, as a combination of injuries to key stars and mental fatigue set in.Leeds' record-breaking collapse & Rovers ruined Image: Blackburn struggled after Kenny Dalglish [centre] became director of football in the summer of 1995, with Ray Halford [right] taking over as manager The inaugural Premier League campaign saw champions Leeds United end the campaign down in 17th, only two points above the relegation zone, after a disastrous title defence in which Howard Wilkinson's side failed to win on the road all season.Meanwhile, Blackburn Rovers followed up their memorable 1994-95 title triumph with a limp showing the following campaign after Kenny Dalglish had moved upstairs to become director of football, with Ray Halford overseeing a side that lost 13 times while finishing down in seventh.'Inside Liverpool' is on at 7pm on Thursday on Sky Sports Premier League