How big clubs fared during a year of Champions League exile

Tottenham (2011-12)

Confined to the Europa League after reaching the previous season’s Champions League quarter-finals, Spurs failed to qualify from their group. With Gareth Bale and Luka Modric still gracing the Lane, however, Harry Redknapp’s side finished fourth, but were denied Champions League football by sixth-placed Chelsea’s triumph in the final.

Manchester Utd (2014-15)

Under new manager Louis van Gaal, United invested in the likes of Daley Blind, Luke Shaw and Angel Di Maria. The previous season’s seventh-placed finish, which left Old Trafford without European football for the first time in 15 years, was upgraded to fourth, bringing a prompt return to the Champions League.

Liverpool (2015-16)

With the end of the Steven Gerrard era, the main summer recruits were Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke. Brendan Rodgers was replaced as manager by Jurgen Klopp in October but progress was slow, finishing eighth in the Premier League and beaten finalists in both the Europa League and the League Cup.

Chelsea (2016-17)

The arrival of new manager Antonio Conte, and his early transition to a three-man defence and use of wingbacks, along with the key recruitment of N’golo Kante from champions Leicester City, prompted such a revival that Chelsea regained the title and narrowly missed out on the Double when falling to Arsenal in the FA Cup final.