Chicken Swedes have followed Europe’s biggest domestic football leagues during the season 2015-16: in the summer of 2015 when we studied the odds and gave you some predictions. After that we have made a post every now and then with some status updates. I this post we present the winners of Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A.
Premier League
We, and most of the predictors and book makers were wrong about this year’s winner of Premier League. In August 2015, the small club of Leicester tops the league with three straight wins. No eyebrows raised, it was early in the season and favorites Chelsea or any of the teams from Manchester would soon wake up. We had tipped Arsenal as a winner. In November Leicester’s Jamie Vardy first player to score in eleven straight games. In December, Leicester is once again at the top of the league after three more consecutive wins. The success story continuous in 2016. April 10, Leicester secures a place in the 2016-17 Champions League. Even though Vardy gets a red card and two matches suspensions, Leicester still manages to defeat Swansea 4-0. With three rounds remaining they are seven points ahead of Tottenham in second place. After a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, Leicester will be the champions if Tottenham fails to defeat Chelsea. The game ends with a 2-2 draw. Leicester has won the 2015-16 Premier League, to an odds of 5000 times the stake. This can be compared to the odds of finding Elvis Presley alive 2000x, evidence of the Loch Ness monster’s existence, 500x and similar long shots. We look forward to following Leicester in the 2016-17 Champions League and as reigning champions of the Premier League!
Former champions in the Premier League
20 Wins: Manchester United (latest: 2013)
18: Liverpool (1990)
13: Arsenal (2004)
9: Everton (1987)
7: Aston Villa (1981)
6: Sunderland (1936)
5: Chelsea (2015)
4: Newcastle (1927), Sheffield Wednesday (1930) and Manchester City (2014).
3: Huddersfield (1926), Wolverhampton (1959), Leeds (1992) and Blackburn (1995).
2: Preston (1890), Portsmouth (1950), Burnley (1960), Tottenham (1961) and Derby (1975).
1: Sheffield United (1898), West Bromwich (1920), Ipswich (1962), Nottingham (1978), Leicester (2016).
Ligue 1
The French league 2015-16 was about as exciting as watching drying paint. This question was really just whether Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paris SG would succeed in the Champions League. However, they got eliminated in the quarter finals against Manchester City. PSG won Ligue 1 in March 13. Ibrahimovics last match in Ligue 1 was a brilliant show by the Swedish attacker. He scored two goals against Nantes and got the scoring record in the league. After his second goal, his sons entered the field with shirts reading “King” and “Legend”. A suitable finish for the “Zlatan-era” in Ligue 1.
Bundesliga
In the German league Bayern Munich dominated from start to finish. The fans expected success in the Champions League where Bayern got eliminated by Atletico Madrid in the semifinals.
La Liga
The Spanish league are usually a showdown between Real Madrid and Barcelona. An exception was in 2014 when Atletico Madrid won La Liga. The 2015-16 season began with injury problems for Barcelona’s big star Lionel Messi. His comeback was successful, however, and the three amigos, Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez placed Barcelona in the driver’s seat. They also won the season’s first El Clásico against Real Madrid. Real replaced their coach, which would prove to be a successful move. They won the season’s second El Clásico and 2016 became an exciting league race when Barcelona lost some more points surprisingly. Before the last round differed only 1 point between the giants, with Atletico trailing in third place. Both Real and Barcelona did their duties in the final matches, which meant that Barcelona was defending champions. Luis Suarez scored a hat-trick in the last match against Granada and made sure the Catalonians defended their title from 2015.
Serie A
The question before the 2015-16 Serie A season was whether Juventus would win their fifth consecutive Italian league? The answer was eventually yes, but it too a while. As Chelsea in Premier League, Juventus got a rough start. However, they raised their game and got the decisive victory April 25th. Juventus won Serie A 2016 9 points before second placed Napoli.
