When you look back at the Premier League 16 17 campaign, it’s easy to get distracted by the trophy lift. Chelsea won. Antonio Conte screamed a lot. Diego Costa was basically a walking yellow card. But if you actually dig into what happened that year, it wasn't just about the points total. It was the year English football finally grew up. We saw the "Super Coach" era explode. Guardiola and Mourinho arrived in Manchester at the same time, which felt like a movie script. Klopp was finally getting his "heavy metal" rhythm at Liverpool. Pochettino had Spurs playing the most attractive football in the country. It was a massive, chaotic melting pot of tactical shifts that changed the league forever.
Honestly, the Premier League 16 17 season was the death of the old guard.
The Tactical Shift That Changed Everything
Everyone remembers the start of that season. It was all about the 4-2-3-1 or the classic 4-4-2. Then, Chelsea got thumped 3-0 by Arsenal in September. It was a disaster. Conte looked like he was about to get sacked. Instead of folding, he switched to a 3-4-3 at halftime. It sounds like a small tweak. It wasn't.
That switch triggered a 13-game winning streak. Suddenly, every manager in the league was scrambling to figure out how to play with three at the back. You had teams like Everton and even Arsenal—who had played a back four since the beginning of time—trying to mimic Conte’s system. Victor Moses went from a forgotten loanee to the best right-wing back in the country. Marcos Alonso became a goal-scoring machine. It was a tactical masterclass that proved the Premier League was no longer just about "passion" and "desire." It was about chess.
Manchester's Cold War
The hype around Manchester was suffocating. You had Pep Guardiola at City and Jose Mourinho at United. The two biggest rivals in management sharing a city. Everyone expected a two-horse race for the title.
It didn't happen.
Guardiola struggled. People actually questioned if his style could work in England. Can he do it on a rainy night in Stoke? In 16/17, the answer was "sorta." City finished third. They were porous at the back. Claudio Bravo, the keeper Pep brought in to replace Joe Hart because he could "play with his feet," ended up having a nightmare season. He literally couldn't save a shot for a month.
Meanwhile, Mourinho was busy collecting "minor" trophies. United won the League Cup and the Europa League, but they finished 6th in the league. 6th! They drew 15 games. It was the most expensive 6th-place finish in history. Paul Pogba had returned for a world-record fee, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic was scoring goals at 35, but the spark just wasn't there for a title charge.
Spurs and the "What If" Factor
If you value pure footballing quality, the Premier League 16 17 Tottenham team was probably the best side to not win the league in the last decade. They were incredible. Harry Kane bagged 29 goals. Dele Alli was at his absolute peak, playing like a seasoned veteran at 20 years old.
They finished with 86 points. In many other years, that wins you the league. They had the best defense and the best attack. They went unbeaten at White Hart Lane in its final season. But they just couldn't catch Chelsea. There was this sense of "Spursiness" that people loved to talk about, but really, they were just unlucky to run into a Chelsea team that refused to drop points for three months straight.
The Sad Goodbye to White Hart Lane
Speaking of Spurs, the 16/17 season was an emotional one for the North London faithful. The old White Hart Lane was knocked down. I remember the final game against Manchester United. Rain pouring down. The fans rushing the pitch. It felt like the end of an era for "old school" stadiums.
West Ham had already moved to the London Stadium, and it was a mess. The fans hated it. The sightlines were terrible. There were fights in the stands. It served as a warning to every other club: you can't just buy a soul. You have to build it.
The Bottom of the Barrel
Down at the bottom, things were grim. Sunderland finally ran out of lives. David Moyes looked like a man who hadn't slept since 2013. They were relegated with a whimper. Hull City and Middlesbrough went with them.
The interesting story was Leicester City. The defending champions. The 5000/1 miracle workers. By February, they were in a relegation scrap. They sacked Claudio Ranieri, the man who gave them the greatest sporting moment in history. It felt cruel. It felt like the "modern" game at its most cynical. But it worked. Craig Shakespeare took over, they started winning again, and they even reached the Champions League quarter-finals. It was a weird, disjointed season for the Foxes, proving that lightning really doesn't strike twice.
Individual Brilliance
We have to talk about Eden Hazard. In the Premier League 16 17 season, he was unplayable. After a shocking 15/16 where he basically went missing, he came back with a vengeance. His goal against Arsenal—where he picked the ball up at the halfway line and turned Francis Coquelin into a meme—was the highlight of the season.
N'Golo Kante was the other hero. He won back-to-back titles with two different clubs. Think about how insane that is. He was the engine room. Everyone joked that 70% of the earth is covered by water and the rest is covered by Kante. It wasn't far from the truth. He won the PFA Player of the Year, and for once, it wasn't a striker or a flashy winger winning the award. People finally appreciated the "dirty work."
Romelu Lukaku's Everton Peak
Before the big-money moves to United and Chelsea (and the subsequent drama), Lukaku was a force of nature at Everton. He scored 25 goals that season. He was big, fast, and clinical. Ronald Koeman had Everton finishing 7th, which feels like a fever dream for Everton fans now. They were "best of the rest," and Lukaku was the reason why. His departure at the end of that season basically broke the club for years.
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Arsenal's Fall from Grace
This was the year the "Wenger Out" movement became a literal airplane banner. Arsenal finished 5th. For the first time in 20 years, they missed out on the Champions League. It felt like the end of an empire. Even winning the FA Cup against Chelsea couldn't mask the cracks. Alexis Sanchez was carrying the team on his back, scoring 24 goals, but he looked miserable. He spent half his time crouching on the pitch with his head in his hands. You could tell he was done.
The Numbers That Matter
Chelsea finished on 93 points.
Spurs had a goal difference of +60.
Harry Kane scored 7 goals in the final two games of the season just to snatch the Golden Boot.
There were 1,064 goals scored in total across the 380 matches.
It was a high-scoring, high-octane year that solidified the Premier League as the richest and most-watched league in the world. The new TV deal had kicked in, and even the "small" clubs were spending £20 million on squad players.
Why We Still Talk About 16/17
Usually, seasons blend together. You forget who finished 4th in 2012 or who got relegated in 2014. But 16/17 sticks. It was the bridge between the old "Big Four" era and the "Big Six" era we see now. It was the year the league became a tactical playground for the world's best managers.
It taught us that you can't win in England anymore just by being "tough." You need a system. You need fitness. You need a manager who spends 18 hours a day looking at heat maps.
Practical Takeaways for Football Fans
If you're looking back at this season to understand the modern game, focus on these three things:
- The 3-at-the-back evolution: Conte didn't invent it, but he perfected it for the English game. Watch how modern wing-backs operate today; they are all descendants of the 16/17 Chelsea model.
- The High Press: This was the year Klopp and Pochettino proved that you can suffocate opponents into submission. It’s now the standard for every top team in Europe.
- Squad Depth over Star Power: Manchester United had the stars (Ibrahimovic, Pogba, Rooney), but Chelsea had the more balanced squad. Depth wins titles; stars win shirts sales.
If you want to dive deeper into the stats, look up the "Expected Goals" (xG) revolution. 2016/17 was right around the time xG started becoming a mainstream way to analyze why teams like Spurs were actually better than their trophy cabinet suggested.
The season ended with Chelsea on top, but the seeds were sown for Manchester City's eventual dominance. Guardiola learned from his mistakes in 16/17, bought better full-backs in the summer, and the rest is history.
To really understand the Premier League today, you have to understand 2016/17. It was the year the league stopped being a local scrap and became a global chess match.
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Actionable Next Steps
- Watch the Highlights: Go back and watch the Chelsea 4-0 Manchester United game from October 2016. It is the perfect distillation of the tactical shift that happened that year.
- Analyze the Transfers: Look at the 2016 summer transfer window. Notice how many of those players are still "flops" or "legends" today. It was a massive turning point for recruitment strategies.
- Study the Table: Look at the gap between 6th and 7th in the 16/17 final standings. That 8-point gap was the moment the "Big Six" officially broke away from the rest of the league.
The Premier League 16 17 season wasn't just a collection of games. It was a total system reboot.