It’s easy to look back at the 2016 to 2017 Premier League and think it was just that year Chelsea won again. Boring, right? Actually, no. If you really dig into the tactical shifts and the sheer ego present in the technical areas that year, it was probably the most influential season of the last decade. It was the year the "Super Coach" arrived in England.
Think about the lineup. Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho, Jürgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino, and Arsène Wenger. All in one league. At the same time. It felt less like a football season and more like a high-stakes chess tournament played out in front of 50,000 screaming fans.
The 2016 to 2017 Premier League wasn't just about who hoisted the trophy at the end. It was the moment the league stopped being about individual brilliance and started being about systemic domination.
The Tactical Rebirth: How Conte’s 3-4-3 Broke the League
When Antonio Conte arrived at Chelsea, he didn't immediately look like a genius. Remember that 3-0 drumming they took from Arsenal in September? It looked like Chelsea were heading for another mid-table meltdown. Then, something clicked. Conte switched to a 3-4-3 formation mid-game, and the league was never the same.
Chelsea went on a 13-game winning streak. It was relentless. David Luiz, a player everyone mocked as a "PlayStation defender," suddenly looked like Franco Baresi sitting in the middle of a back three. Victor Moses, a perennial loanee, became the best right-wing back in the country. It was weird. It was effective.
By Christmas, half the managers in the league were scrambling to buy extra center-backs just so they could mimic Conte’s system. It was a total paradigm shift. Before the 2016 to 2017 Premier League season, playing three at the back was considered "un-English" or too defensive. Conte proved it was the ultimate weapon for transitions.
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Pep’s Growing Pains and the Manchester Reality Check
While Conte was flying, Pep Guardiola was finding out that the Premier League is a very difficult place to play "perfect" football. This was his first season at Manchester City. He finished 3rd. For Pep, that’s basically a disaster.
People forget how much stick he took. Pundits were screaming about how he "didn't coach tackles" after a 4-2 loss to Leicester City. He insisted on playing Claudio Bravo because he could pass a ball, even though Bravo seemingly couldn't save a beach ball that year.
But you could see the seeds being planted. The 2016 to 2017 Premier League was the experimental phase for what City eventually became. Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sané were being molded into the terrifying wingers we know now. Kevin De Bruyne was being moved deeper into a "free eight" role. It wasn't "success" yet, but it was the blueprint.
That Spurs Team Was Actually Better Than You Remember
Honestly, if you look at the stats, 2016-17 Tottenham Hotspur might be the best team to never win the Premier League. They finished second with 86 points. In almost any other year, that's title-winning form.
Harry Kane won the Golden Boot with 29 goals. Dele Alli was arguably the best young player in the world at the time, scoring 18 goals from midfield. They had the best defense in the league, conceding only 26 goals all season. They were a machine.
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They went the entire season unbeaten at White Hart Lane. It was the perfect farewell to their old stadium. But they just couldn't catch Chelsea. Chelsea were more "efficient," whereas Spurs were more "explosive." It’s one of those great footballing injustices that Mauricio Pochettino didn't walk away with a trophy that year, because that specific squad—with peak Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen—was a defensive masterclass.
The End of an Era at the Emirates and Old Trafford
This was also the year the "Wenger Out" movement became a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Arsenal finished 5th. It was the first time in 20 years they missed out on the Champions League. The tension was thick. You had planes flying banners over stadiums. It was messy.
Meanwhile, Manchester United were in their first year under José Mourinho. They finished 6th. Yes, 6th. They "saved" their season by winning the League Cup and the Europa League, but their league form was a slog of 1-1 draws at home against teams they should have buried. Zlatan Ibrahimović arrived, scored a bunch of goals, got injured, and showed that even at 35, he could bully Premier League defenders. But the "Special One" magic was starting to feel a bit... tired?
The Numbers That Defined the 2016 to 2017 Premier League
If you’re a fan of the data, this season was a goldmine. Chelsea finished with 93 points, which at the time was the second-highest total in history. They won 30 games out of 38. That’s an absurd win rate.
Down at the bottom, Sunderland finally ran out of lives. They had been flirting with relegation for years, but David Moyes couldn't work a miracle. They went down with Hull City and Middlesbrough.
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Then you had the individual brilliance. Eden Hazard was back to his best. N'Golo Kanté became the first player to win back-to-back titles with different clubs (Leicester then Chelsea) while winning the PFA Player of the Year. The guy was everywhere. It’s been said that 70% of the Earth is covered by water and the rest is covered by N'Golo Kanté. In 2016-17, that didn't feel like a joke; it felt like a tactical observation.
Why This Season Still Matters Today
Most people talk about 2015-16 because of the Leicester miracle. I get it. That was a movie. But the 2016 to 2017 Premier League was the season that actually dictated how the league is played today.
- The Death of the 4-4-2: Almost every top team moved toward three-man defenses or highly fluid 4-3-3 systems.
- The High Press: Klopp’s Liverpool (who finished 4th) and Pochettino’s Spurs made "heavy metal football" the standard. If you didn't run 115km a game, you lost.
- The Goalkeeper Revolution: Guardiola’s insistence on a ball-playing keeper—even when it failed with Bravo—forced every other club to rethink the position.
It was a year of massive transition. The old guard (Wenger) was fading. The new tacticians (Pep, Klopp, Conte) were carving up the territory.
Actionable Takeaways for Modern Fans and Analysts
To truly understand the tactical DNA of the current Premier League, you have to study this specific window. If you're looking to analyze matches today or even just improve your "football IQ," here is what you should focus on from that season:
- Study the "Transition" Phase: Watch old highlights of Conte’s Chelsea. Notice how quickly they moved from a 5-4-1 defensive block to a 3-2-5 attacking shape. That speed of transition is still the gold standard for counter-attacking teams.
- Evaluate "Productive" Possession: Compare 2016-17 Manchester City to the 2023 version. You'll see how Guardiola learned that possession without a physical presence in the box (which he lacked until Gabriel Jesus found his feet) is useless in England.
- Analyze the Value of the Defensive Midfielder: Look at Kanté’s heatmap from this season. It teaches you that a world-class "destroyer" isn't just about tackling; it's about horizontal coverage.
- Stadium Impact: Look at the points difference for Spurs at White Hart Lane versus their away form. It's a case study in how "home atmosphere" affects officiating and player intensity.
The 2016 to 2017 Premier League season was the moment English football grew up and became a tactical laboratory. It was brutal, it was fast, and it was the year the managers became as big as the players.