[2] Howard Kendall’s Everton side beat neighbours Liverpool to the league championship by thirteen points with five games to spare, while Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United followed closely behind.
Liverpool manager Joe Fagan retired after the season and striker Kenny Dalglish was appointed player-manager.
The First Division's leading scorers this season were Gary Lineker at Leicester City and Kerry Dixon at Chelsea, with both players scoring 24 league goals.
Slipping out of the league’s second tier were Cardiff City, joined by Notts County and Wolverhampton Wanderers – both relegated for the second season in succession.
Veteran manager Tommy Docherty had tried his hand at reversing financially troubled Wolves’ rapid decline at Molineux, but without success.
Swansea City, who had finished sixth in the First Division just three years earlier, continued to suffer as a result of their financial problems as they narrowly avoided a third successive relegation.