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 season began on 13 August 2011 and ended on 13 May 2012, with Manchester City sealing the club's third league title – its first since 1968 – by beating Queens Park Rangers 3–2 on the last day. The title was City's first Premier League success, making it the fifth club to win the Premier League in its 20-year history. The City team finished level on 89 points with Manchester United, but they had a superior goal difference to their local rivals, making it the first and (to date) only time the Premier League had been won on goal difference.
The league was contested by 20 teams, 17 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, while Swansea City gained promotion through the Football League Championship play-offs by beating Reading 4–2 in May 2011, becoming the first non-English team to play in the Premier League. 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.
An independent commission later found that Manchester City breached Premier League financial rules during this season, part of a pattern of breaches spanning 2009-2018.
Season summary Manchester City won the title in a tense finale, the club's 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 five 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 eight 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 three points. City then beat United 1–0 at the City of Manchester Stadium to move back ahead of United on goal difference. Both sides won their penultimate matches to maintain the status quo.
Going into the final matches, which were played simultaneously, City were top of the league, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference, while level on 86 points. 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 afterward Joey Barton of QPR was sent off for elbowing Carlos Tevez; 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 title clincher in the 94th minute to win the league for City and became the only team to win the Premier League on goal difference. The 6–1 result was even more important than it seemed at the time because if the score had been 2–1, then both teams would have ended with identical records (W D L GF GA GD Pts) which by Premier League rules would have meant a play-off game at a neutral ground to decide the title.
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 onward their season collapsed, starting with a 5–2 defeat to local rivals Arsenal, whom they had been 10 points ahead of before the game, and just four 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, Arsenal completed a strong recovery from a disastrous start to the season including their 8–2 defeat at Manchester United in August. Tottenham finished in fourth but missed out on qualification for the Champions League because Chelsea's victory in the 2012 Champions League final automatically entitled 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 was the first time that this rule had 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 seventh, 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.
At the bottom of the league, Wolverhampton Wanderers were the first to be relegated on 22 April, following a 2–0 loss to eventual champions Manchester City. Blackburn Rovers would soon follow on 7 May after a 1–0 loss to Wigan Athletic. On the final day of the season, Bolton Wanderers needed a win against Stoke City, and for QPR to lose to guarantee their survival. However, they failed to beat Stoke, drawing 2–2, and were relegated, with QPR avoiding the drop, despite losing to Manchester City. 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.
Liverpool's Luis Suárez was found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra and was given an eight-match ban.
Teams Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams were Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City and Swansea City, returning to the top flight after absences of fifteen, six and twenty-eight years respectively. This was also Swansea City's first season in the Premier League. This was the first season where a Welsh team competed in the top flight of English football since the 1982–83 season and the first season in the Premier League era where a Welsh team competed. They replaced Birmingham City, Blackpool and West Ham United, who were relegated to the Championship after their top-flight spells of two, one and six years respectively.
Stadiums and locations
Team Location Stadium Capacity Arsenal London Emirates Stadium Aston Villa Birmingham Villa Park Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Ewood Park Bolton Wanderers Bolton Reebok Stadium Chelsea London Stamford Bridge Everton Liverpool Goodison Park Fulham London Craven Cottage Liverpool Liverpool Anfield Manchester City Manchester City of Manchester Stadium Manchester United Stretford Old Trafford Newcastle United Newcastle upon Tyne St James' Park Norwich City Norwich Carrow Road Queens Park Rangers London Loftus Road Stoke City Stoke-on-Trent Britannia Stadium Sunderland Sunderland Stadium of Light Swansea City Swansea Liberty Stadium Tottenham Hotspur London White Hart Lane West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich The Hawthorns Wigan Athletic Wigan DW Stadium Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Molineux Stadium
Personnel and kits
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Team Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsorArsenal NikeEmiratesAston Villa 4NikeGenting CasinosBlackburn Rovers 5UmbroThe Prince's TrustBolton Wanderers Reebok188BETChelsea AdidasSamsungEverton Le Coq SportifChang BeerFulham KappaFxProLiverpool AdidasStandard CharteredManchester City UmbroEtihad AirwaysManchester United 6NikeAonNewcastle United PumaNorthern Rock/Virgin Money1Norwich City ErreàAvivaQueens Park Rangers LottoNo sponsor7/Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia2Stoke City AdidasBritanniaSunderland UmbroTombolaSwansea City Adidas32RedTottenham Hotspur PumaAurasma3West Bromwich Albion AdidasBodogWigan Athletic MiFit12BETWolverhampton Wanderers BURRDASportingbet 1 Following Virgin Money's acquisition of Northern Rock on 1 January 2012, Virgin Money started to appear on the team's kits from 4 January 2012. 2 Malaysia Airlines appeared on Queens Park Rangers' home kit, with AirAsia appearing on their two away kits. 3 Aurasma is a subsidiary of Autonomy 4Stiliyan Petrov was Villa's captain until March, when he was diagnosed with acute leukaemia. Gabriel Agbonlahor was handed the captaincy in Petrov's absence. 5Chris Samba was previously Blackburn's captain. Following Samba's transfer to Anzhi Makhachkala, Robinson was handed the captaincy. 6On 7 December 2011, Vidić twisted his knee during United's Champions League clash at Basel and left the field on a stretcher. Vidić missed the rest of the season and Patrice Evra assumed the captaincy of Manchester United. 7 Queens Park Rangers ran sponsorless until 12 September 2011
In addition, Nike had a new design for their match ball (white from August to October and March to May; high-visibility yellow from November through February) called Seitiro, featuring a modified flame design.
Managerial changes TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition at departureIncoming managerDate of appointment Chelsea Sacked 22 May 2011Pre-season 22 June 2011 Aston Villa Resigned on grounds of ill health 1 June 2011 17 June 2011 Fulham Resigned 2 June 2011 7 June 2011 Sunderland Sacked 30 November 2011 16th 3 December 2011 Queens Park Rangers 8 January 2012 17th 10 January 2012 Wolverhampton Wanderers 13 February 2012 18th 24 February 2012 Chelsea 4 March 2012 5th Roberto Di Matteo 4 March 2012
League table
Results
Season statistics
Scoring First goal of the season: Luis Suárez for Liverpool against Sunderland (13 August 2011) Last goal of the season: Sergio Agüero for Manchester City against Queens Park Rangers (13 May 2012). Fastest goal of the season: 24 seconds – Andrea Orlandi for Swansea City against Wolverhampton Wanderers (28 April 2012) Largest winning margin: 6 goals Manchester United 8–2 Arsenal (28 August 2011) Fulham 6–0 Queens Park Rangers (2 October 2011) Arsenal 7–1 Blackburn Rovers (4 February 2012) Highest scoring game: 10 goals Manchester United 8–2 Arsenal (28 August 2011) Most goals scored in a match by a single team: 8 goals Manchester United 8–2 Arsenal (28 August 2011) Most goals scored in a match by a losing team: 3 goals Blackburn Rovers 4–3 Arsenal (17 September 2011) Chelsea 3–5 Arsenal (29 October 2011)
Top scorers