Has the bar to become champions dropped?

[Getty Images] Chelsea finished 10th in the Premier League 10 years ago but incredibly were champions of England just a year later under new manager Antonio Conte. After finishing in the same position last season, with no European football again and a new manager in Xabi Alonso, can the Blues repeat the feat? Chelsea's Premier League record in 2025-26 is almost identical to when they finished mid-table under interim manager Guus Hiddink a decade ago. With just one more goal scored and one more conceded, they finished with the same goal difference and just two points more than they did in 2015-16. [BBC] Few would have imagined back then that after finishing 31 points behind champions Leicester City and below the likes of Southampton , West Ham and Stoke , Chelsea's players would be the ones lifting the Premier League trophy the following season. After starting the campaign playing a back four, a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal in just their sixth game saw Conte switch his side to a back three. The impact was tremendous as they won their next 13 games in a row. It's a tactical switch that the Blues could make this season as well under new manager Alonso, given that his Bayer Leverkusen side won the Bundesliga unbeaten in 2023-24 playing three at the back. [BBC] Improving the club's points tally by a whopping 43 points again is undoubtedly a huge ask for Alonso's squad, given that it is the biggest points increase that any side has achieved to win the title in Premier League history. But they may not need to. While Arsenal will likely mount a stronger title defence than Leicester City, the Gunners' points tally last season was the second-lowest to win the Premier League since Claudio Ranieri's side 10 years ago. The bar to become champions has dropped in the last couple of seasons from the dizzying demands of the Guardiola-Klopp era - where even 97 points wasn't enough in 2018-19 - so Chelsea might not need to reach the 93 points they achieved under Conte. Read the full article here