This season has thrown up some crazy score-lines that just miss out on making our top five most embarrassing Premier League defeats.
First, Liverpool pulverized Bournemouth 9-0, and then followed that up seven months later by dismantling their arch-rivals Manchester United seven-fold.
Both results were comprehensive and remarkable, making a mockery of the football betting into the bargain, but also both were at Anfield. Jurgen Klopp’s side are capable of anything at Anfield.
Recently, Newcastle blasted six past Spurs and that too raised a nation’s eyebrows. These one-sided thumpings duly go into our all-time top ten, but it would take something truly mind-blowing to dislodge the following five capitulations.
Middlesbrough 8 Manchester City 1 (2008)
After decades of struggle it was supposed to be a new dawn for City, appointing former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson and financially backed by a new owner in the form of Thaksin Shinawatra.
The ex-Thai Prime Minister later went into self-imposed exile, a highly controversial figure in every sense.
Going into that season however, all was rosy, with a wealth of exciting signings made and Europe targeted.
Regrettably, an impressive opening half to their campaign gave way to a string of defeats and heading to the North-East on the final day it was clear to everyone that Eriksson was a dead man walking.
The press knew it. The players knew it. People in droves checked out the next Premier League manager to leave odds.
What transpired that afternoon was not a football match as such, but a decent side downing tools. And it made for a surreal sight.
Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0 (2014)
This game has gone down in infamy for the wrong player being sent off, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain handing the ball on the line but Kieran Gibbs seeing red.
In truth though, the result was already clear-cut, with Chelsea starting strongly and racking up a two-goal lead within seven minutes.
Prior to kick-off, all the talk focused on this being Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game in charge of the Gunners and furthermore against one of his fiercest managerial adversaries in Jose Mourinho.
By the final whistle, it was all about a brilliant Chelsea and their title aspirations, with Mourinho departing early to phone his wife to tell her the score.
Manchester United 1 Manchester City 6 (2011)
Rarely in football does one fixture inform us of a much bigger picture. This one unquestionably did.
It told us that City were now very much in the ascendancy and that United were a fading force. It told us that power was changing hands at the summit of English football.
An early strike by Mario Balotelli produced the iconic ‘Why Always Me?’ t-shirt unveil and United had no answer to that, nor the other numerous queries posed by City’s attacking adventure.
It was an exceedingly sticky situation not helped by losing Jonny Evans to a straight red early in the second period and from that point on the Blues were merciless, picking off their beleaguered neighbours at will.
A tide turned that day and emphatically so.
Southampton 0 Leicester 9 (2019)
Incredibly, the Saints were trounced by nine again 15 months after this mortifying loss but that was at Old Trafford.
It grabbed the headlines, of course. It was catastrophic for sure. But there for the grace of God many others could have endured a similar score-line at United down the years. Ask Ipswich.
Here, Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men fell woefully short against a side residing in their stratosphere and moreover, it was a remorseless mauling that took place at St Marys.
A Premier League side shouldn’t concede nine without reply at home. They just shouldn’t. It feels wrong.
Manchester United 8 Arsenal 2 (2011)
By the season’s end, the Gunners finished third but going into this early encounter against their biggest rival something wasn’t quite right with Arsene Wenger’s side.
Injuries to key players accounted for some of the doubt, but underwhelming displays in their opening two games was also a concern. A sluggish start seemed possible for the perennial title contenders.
Nobody though could have anticipated the sheer scale of their woes as United gleefully ran riot, inflicting Arsenal’s worst league defeat since 1896.
Wayne Rooney stole the show with a hat-trick but in truth the hosts’ excellence was pushed down to the third paragraph in the match reports. It was Arsenal’s misery that was writ large.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
