When including the Football League era, it was the worst title defence since 1991–92 champions Leeds United finished 17th in 1992–93.

Tottenham Hotspur shrugged off a disappointing Champions League campaign to push Chelsea close for the title, though they ultimately missed out.

However, they finished the season with statistically both the best attack and defence, with striker Harry Kane once again claiming the Golden Boot.

Liverpool made the Champions League for the first time in three years in Jürgen Klopp's first full season, though they were prevented from finishing any higher than fourth by an inconsistent start to 2017, a consequence of both losing their £35 million signing Sadio Mané to international duty in January and February as well as suffering from several dropped points against bottom-half teams.

Despite winning seven of their final eight games, Arsenal finished fifth and failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1997, as fan pressure on both manager Arsène Wenger and majority-shareholder Stan Kroenke grew.

Burnley fared the best of the promoted clubs, with only atrocious away form preventing them finishing higher as they made their home-ground of Turf Moor one of the hardest places to get a point from – and secured a second successive top-flight season for the first time in 40 years.

After several successive escapes from relegation, Sunderland's resilience finally broke and they dropped into the Championship after a decade, having spent virtually the entire season rooted to the bottom of the table.

They replaced Newcastle United, Norwich City and Aston Villa, who were relegated to the Championship after their top flight spells of six, one, and twenty-eight years respectively.