2011–12 Premier League

Premier League 2011-12
Season information
Winners	Manchester City
Relegated	Bolton(18th) Blackburn(19th) Wolves(20th)
Domestic cup winners
FA Cup	Chelsea
Carling Cup	Liverpool
Community Shield	Manchester United
Continental cup qualifiers
Champions League	Manchester City(1st) Manchester United(2nd) Arsenal(3rd) Chelsea(Winners)
Europa League	Tottenham(4th) Newcastle(5th) Liverpool (League Cup Winners)
Season statistics
Matches played	380
Goals scored	1066
Average	2.81
Top goalscorer	Robin van Persie (30)
Biggest home win	Man Utd 8-2 Arsenal Arsenal 7-1 Blackburn Fulham 6-0 QPR
Biggest away win	Man Utd 1-6 Man City Norwich 1-6 Man City Bolton 0-5 Man Utd Wolves 0-5 Man Utd
Highest scoring	Man Utd 8-2 Arsenal (10 goals)
← 2010-11	2012-13 →

The 2011–12 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 20th season of the Premier League since its establishment in 1992. The 2011–12 fixtures were announced on 17 June 2011 at 9:00 BST. The season began on 13 August 2011 and ended on 13 May 2012. Manchester City won their first league title since 1968, beating Queens Park Rangers 3–2 on the final day of the season with stoppage time goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Agüero. The title was City's first Premier League success and first league title since 1968, making them the fifth club to win the Premier League in its twenty-year history. It was the first time the Premier League had been won on goal difference and the first time a previously relegated club in the Premier League had won the title.

The league was contested by 20 teams, seventeen returning from the 2010–11 season and three promoted from the Football League Championship. Championship winners Queens Park Rangers and runners-up Norwich City gained automatic promotion whilst Swansea City gained promotion through the Football League Championship play-offs beating Reading 4–2 in May 2011 becoming the first non-English team to play in the Premiership in the history of the current league setup.. All three promoted clubs avoided relegation for the first time since the 2001–02 campaign. The season was voted as the greatest Premier League season in the Premier League 20 Seasons Awards.

Season summary

Manchester City won the title in a tense finale, their first championship since 1968. City's local rivals Manchester United were the early pace-setters, leading the table until October when they drew at Liverpool allowing Manchester City to overtake them. The following week, City increased their lead to 5 points with a shock 6-1 away victory at Old Trafford, which they maintained until December, when they dropped points and their lead narrowed, but City remained in front until March, when a defeat at Swansea City saw them drop behind United. City's bad form continued for the next month while United went on a winning run, so that with six matches remaining United were 8 points ahead of City and the title seemingly decided. However United, then faltered with a defeat and a draw in their next three games, while City won all three to narrow the gap to 3 points. City then beat United 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium to move back ahead of United on goal difference. Both sides won their penultimate matches to maintain the situation.

Going into the final matches, which were played simultaneously, City were top of the league, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference. However, a Wayne Rooney goal away to Sunderland gave United the advantage. A 39th minute goal from Pablo Zabaleta, his first of the season, put City back on top at half time. In a dramatic second half Djibril Cissé equalised for Queens Park Rangers in the 48th minute. Shortly after, Joey Barton of QPR was sent off for elbowing Carlos Tévez; on his way off the pitch, he kicked Sergio Agüero, attempted to headbutt Vincent Kompany and squared up to Mario Balotelli. Despite the numerical advantage, City went behind after Jamie Mackie gave QPR the lead in the 66th minute. As time wound down in both matches, it appeared that Manchester United would win the title with their victory over Sunderland. But Edin Džeko equalised for City in the 92nd minute. While United players waited on the field at Sunderland for a possible trophy presentation, Manchester City's Sergio Agüero scored the game winner in the 94th minute to clinch the title on goal difference.

For most of the season, Tottenham Hotspur were in third place, a couple of points behind the Manchester clubs, and there was much speculation as to whether Tottenham could mount a title challenge. However from late February onwards their season collapsed, starting with a 5-2 defeat to local rivals Arsenal, who they had been 10 points ahead of before the game, and just 4 wins in their last 13 games condemned Tottenham to finishing a point below Arsenal, who finished third to join Manchester City and Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League, completing a strong recovery from a disastrous start to the season including an 8-2 defeat at Manchester United in August. Tottenham finished in the fourth and final Champions League slot but missed out on qualification for the competition because Chelsea's victory in the 2012 Champions League Final automatically entitles them to defend their title in the 2012-13 tournament at the expense of the lowest ranked team that would otherwise qualify for the competition through league position. This is the first time that this rule has been implemented in the Premier League, having been introduced by UEFA after Liverpool's controversial qualification for the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League. This consequently marked the first time that the club finishing fourth in the Premier League had not qualified for the tournament since the fourth qualifying spot was introduced in the 2001-02 season. Newcastle United finished fifth and qualified for the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. Everton finished 7th, just above local rivals Liverpool. Despite finishing above them for the first time in seven years, it was Liverpool who claimed the final Europa League slot, by virtue of winning the 2011–12 Football League Cup.

Elsewhere in the league, QPR avoided relegation, despite losing to Manchester City; Bolton Wanderers could only draw at Stoke City, failing to overtake QPR, and therefore joining Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers in being relegated to the Championship. For the second time in the Premier League's history, none of the three clubs promoted from the Championship in the previous season were relegated at the end of the season with the other two teams, Swansea City and Norwich City, finishing 11th and 12th respectively. The last time all three newly promoted teams stayed up (2001-02), Blackburn and Bolton were two of those teams.

Promotion and Relegation

Start of season

Teams promoted from The Championship 2010-11

• Queens Park Rangers F.C. (Champions)
• Norwich City F.C. (Automatic Promotion)
• Swansea City A.F.C. (Playoff Winners)

End of season

Teams relegated to The Championship 2012-13

• Bolton Wanderers (18th)
• Blackburn Rovers F.C. (19th)
• Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. (20th)

Final Table

Team	PLD	W	D	L	FOR	AGA	GD	PTS	Notes
Manchester City	38	28	5	5	93	29	64	89	Champions League 2012-13 Group Stage
Manchester United	38	28	5	5	89	33	56	89	Champions League 2012-13 Group Stage
Arsenal	38	21	7	10	74	49	25	70	Champions League 2012-13 Group Stage
Tottenham Hotspur	38	20	9	9	66	41	25	69	Europa League 2012-13 Group Stage
Newcastle United	38	19	8	11	56	51	5	65	Europa League 2012-13 Play Offs
Chelsea	38	18	10	10	65	46	19	64	Champions League 2012-13 Group Stage
Everton	38	15	11	12	50	40	10	56
Liverpool	38	14	10	14	47	40	7	52	Europa League 2012-13 3rd Qualifying Round
Fulham	38	14	10	14	46	49	-3	52
West Bromwich Albion	38	13	8	17	45	52	-7	47
Swansea City	38	12	11	15	44	51	-7	47
Norwich City	38	12	11	15	52	66	-14	47
Sunderland	38	11	12	15	45	46	-1	45
Stoke City	38	11	12	15	36	53	-17	45
Wigan Athletic	38	11	10	17	42	62	-20	43
Aston Villa	38	7	17	14	37	53	-16	38
Queens Park Rangers	38	10	7	21	43	66	-23	37
Bolton Wanderers	38	10	6	22	46	77	-31	36	Relegated to The Championship 2012-13
Blackburn Rovers	38	8	7	23	48	78	-30	31	Relegated to The Championship 2012-13
Wolverhampton Wanderers	38	5	10	23	40	82	-42	25	Relegated to The Championship 2012-13

Premier League 2011-12 Winners
Manchester City 1st Premier League title

Top Scorers

Player	Goals	Club
Robin van Persie	30	Arsenal
Wayne Rooney	27	Man Utd
Sergio Agüero	23	Man City
Clint Dempsey	17	Fulham
Emmanuel Adebayor		Tottenham
Yakubu		Blackburn
Demba Ba	16	Newcastle
Grant Holt	15	Norwich
Edin Džeko	14	Man City
Mario Balotelli	13	Man City
Papiss Cisse		Newcastle