Slot next? The 4 managers to win the Premier League in their debut season
Liverpool manager Arne Slot is hoping to become only the fifth manager in Premier League history to win the title in their debut season in English football.
It’s an exclusive club, of which the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Arsene Wenger can’t count themselves members.
Note: we haven’t included Claudio Ranieri. Leicester City’s 2015-16 title triumph was his first season in charge of the Foxes, but not in the Premier League, having previously served as Chelsea manager between 2000 and 2004.
Jose Mourinho – 2004-05
Having inherited a decent Chelsea side that finished runners-up to Arsenal’s Invincibles in 2003-04, Mourinho cracked a formula that made the Blues near unstoppable.
Fresh from leading Porto to the Champions League, Mourinho brought along his compatriot Ricardo Carvalho and instantly built a formidable unit, with John Terry alongside him, fellow newcomer Petr Cech between the sticks and Claude Makelele defining the DM role for a generation at the base of midfield.
The tone was set on the opening weekend with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Manchester United. They never looked back from there, going on to notch a then-record 95 points and still-unbeaten 15 goals conceded and 25 clean sheets.
Carlo Ancelotti – 2009-10
Chelsea were unable to sustain their supremely obdurate form in Mourinho’s latter years, while successors Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink were unable to mount title challenges.
They were a different beast come Ancelotti’s appointment in 2009. A defensive beast under Mourinho, the Italian had taken off the shackles and turned them into an irresistible, attacking side that brought different kinds of records – including the most goals scored season (103) and best goal difference in a season (+71).
Ancelotti’s men won the double that year, but he was relieved of his duties after a trophyless second season. Done alright for himself since, like.
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Manuel Pellegrini – 2013-14
Roberto Mancini led Manchester City to their first Premier League title in his second season at the helm, but he left the club a year later after a distinctly underwhelming title defence.
Pellegrini led City back atop their perch after Sir Alex Ferguson departed their great rivals in 2013, with a Luis Suarez-powered Liverpool emerging out of nowhere to take their place in a thrilling title race.
You know how this one went. Steven Gerrard slipped, Yaya Toure scored about a hundred goals from midfield, and City pipped Brendan Rodgers’ Reds to the trophy by two points.
Surprisingly enough, that’s the Chilean coach’s only European league title in his long and distinguished coaching career.
Antonio Conte – 2016-17
The third Abramovich-era Chelsea boss of the four, Conte stepped into scorched earth at Stamford Bridge – what he called “a Mourinho season”, his full-time predecessor sacked midway through the prior campaign with the club unthinkably down near the relegation zone.
Interim coach Guus Hiddink did a reasonable job of guiding Chelsea to a top-half finish in the end, but it left the club without the distraction of European football.
All the better for Conte, who used that extra time on the training pitch to finesse a brilliantly fluid 3–4–2–1 system that worked sensationally well in his first season. They won 13 successive league outings from October to December and effectively broke the back of the title race before Christmas.
Conte now finds himself in a similar situation at Napoli, having inherited a squad that had won the league a couple of years prior before inexplicably falling off completely to fail to qualify for Europe. It’s no great shock that he’s got them back on track.