2015–16 Premier League
The 2015–16 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 24th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 117th season of top-flight English football overall. The season began on 8 August 2015, and was scheduled to conclude on 15 May 2016. However, the match between Manchester United and Bournemouth on the final day was postponed to 17 May 2016 due to a suspicious package found at Old Trafford.
| Season | 2015–16 |
|---|---|
| Dates | 8 August 2015 – 17 May 2016 |
| Champions | Leicester City 1st Premier League title 1st English title |
| Relegated | Newcastle United Norwich City Aston Villa |
| Champions League | Leicester City Arsenal Tottenham Hotspur Manchester City |
| Europa League | Manchester United Southampton West Ham United |
| Matches played | 380 |
| Goals scored | 1,026 (2.7 per match) |
| Top goalscorer | Harry Kane (25 goals) |
| Best goalkeeper | Petr Čech (16 clean sheets) |
| Biggest home win | Manchester City 6–1 Newcastle United (3 October 2015) |
| Biggest away win | Aston Villa 0–6 Liverpool (14 February 2016) |
| Highest scoring | Norwich City 4–5 Liverpool (23 January 2016) |
| Longest winning run | 6 matches Tottenham Hotspur |
| Longest unbeaten run | 15 matches Chelsea |
| Longest winless run | 19 matches Aston Villa |
| Longest losing run | 11 matches Aston Villa |
| Highest attendance | 75,415 Manchester United 2–1 Swansea City (2 January 2016) |
| Lowest attendance | 10,863 Bournemouth 1–3 Stoke City (13 February 2016) |
| Total attendance | 13,851,698 |
| Average attendance | 36,451 |
← 2014–15 2016–17 → | |
Chelsea began the season as defending champions of the 2014–15 season. Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich City entered as the three promoted teams from the 2014–15 Football League Championship.
Leicester City, managed by Italian Claudio Ranieri, were crowned champions for the first time in their 132-year history, with 2 games to spare, becoming the 24th club to become English football champions, and the sixth club to win the Premier League. Many commentators consider this to be one of the greatest sporting shocks in history, especially given that Leicester spent a great deal of the previous season at the bottom of the table before rallying towards the season's end to finish 14th. At the beginning of the season, bookmakers had given Leicester City odds of 5000/1 against them winning the league. On 28 November 2015, Leicester striker Jamie Vardy set a new record by scoring in 11 consecutive matches with his goal against Manchester United, surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy's Premier League record of 10 straight games with a goal, which he set in 2003. Leicester celebrated their title win with renditions of "Nessun dorma" and "Con te partirò" by Andrea Bocelli, who sang for the Leicester fans on the pitch of the King Power Stadium in May.
Aston Villa, one of seven teams who had played in the Premier League since its inaugural season, were relegated from the top flight in England for the first time since 1987.
This was the last season in which the league was sponsored by Barclays; starting next season, it would simply be known as the Premier League, without any sponsors attached.