Tottenham took 72 points in 2012/13 and finished fifth, a point behind Arsenal: then the most any club had taken without making the top four in a 38-game Premier League season. Take Manchester City out and André Villas-Boas's side are fourth on 69, ten clear of fifth.
It was barely a race. City, the defending champions, went top for the first time on 17 November after beating Aston Villa 5–0, and lasted a week. United went back above them on 24 November and were top at the end of every matchday from then to the finish. On 22 April Robin van Persie's hat-trick against Villa won the title with four games to spare: Ferguson's 13th Premier League title and United's 20th English top-flight title. On 8 May Ferguson announced his retirement after 26½ years, and his last game, on 19 May, finished 5–5 at West Brom.
Behind them, three London clubs fought over two Champions League places. Chelsea, the European champions, sacked Roberto Di Matteo in November and won the Europa League in Amsterdam under an interim manager, Rafael Benítez. On 1 March Spurs were third, two points above Chelsea and four above Arsenal, and Gareth Bale was on his way to 21 league goals.
The romance was in the cups, and so was the cruelty. Swansea, in their centenary season, beat fourth-tier Bradford City 5–0 at Wembley and became the first non-English club to win the League Cup. Wigan beat City 1–0 in the FA Cup final with Ben Watson's stoppage-time header, the club's first FA Cup, and three days later lost 4–1 at Arsenal and went down: the first FA Cup winners to be relegated from the English top flight in the same season.
The table
2012/13, rebuilt.
Clubs lose only the points they took off City, so a club that lost both games loses nothing. Everyone who finished below City moves up a place automatically; we count it as a change only when a club climbs further, or its fate changes.
The 2012/13 Premier League table rebuilt without Manchester City
Spurs reach fourth on the place City leave behind, and Liverpool pass Everton on goal difference for fifth. Villa and Newcastle climb three places without gaining a point; Norwich fall three, the biggest drop.
In May 2012 Spurs finished fourth and still missed the Champions League, because Chelsea won it from outside the top four. In May 2013 they took 72 points and missed it again by one.
The last afternoon was a cruelty in miniature. On 19 May Bale scored in the 90th minute to beat Sunderland 1–0, and it was not enough: Arsenal won 1–0 at St James' Park and finished fourth on 73. The record those 72 points set stood until Arsenal's 75 in 2016/17.
Four weeks earlier Spurs had beaten City 3–1 at home. Samir Nasri scored in the fifth minute; then Dempsey, Defoe and Bale, back from an ankle injury, scored three in seven minutes. That win comes off, and Spurs are down to 69. The 2–1 defeat at the Etihad in November costs them nothing.
It is enough. With City's place gone, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs all move up one. Chelsea and Arsenal lose a point each, and Arsenal, third now, go straight into the group stage. Spurs are fourth, ten points clear of fifth.
The stakes
€27.2m
What fourth place earned Arsenal in the 2013/14 Champions League, entering at the play-off round.
England's other two Europa League places went to the cup winners, Wigan and Swansea, so fifth was the only one the league decided. Spurs took it for real. Liverpool, seventh in Brendan Rodgers's first season, had no European football in 2013/14.
Without City, Liverpool lose two points for two 2–2 draws. Everton, never below seventh all season, lose four, the most of any club, for a 1–1 at the Etihad and a 2–0 win at home. Both finish on 59, and Liverpool are fifth on goal difference, +28 to +13.
The stakes
€5.9m
What fifth place earned Tottenham in the 2013/14 Europa League.
Every game Bale played stands. What changes is where those seasons end.
Gareth BaleTop four without City
Three Spurs seasons, three Champions League places.
With Gareth Bale in the side, Spurs finished fifth, fourth and fifth from 2010/11 to 2012/13. The fourth didn't count, because Chelsea won in Munich. In the rebuilt tables they finish fourth, second and fourth, a Champions League place from all three. He played 99 league games in those seasons; whether fourth would have kept him is one of the questions under What if?
Spurs 2012/13 · 33 league apps · 5th → 4th, Champions League play-off round
“Gareth was a player we had absolutely no intention of selling.” Daniel Levy said it on 1 September 2013, the day Bale joined Real Madrid for a then world-record fee. That spring Bale had won the PFA Players' Player, PFA Young Player and FWA Footballer of the Year awards, the second player after Cristiano Ronaldo to take all three in one season.
Fourth place gives a chairman one more reason to mean what he says. It gives the player a Champions League autumn in north London, and the manager a stronger hand. Against that sits the fee: a world record is built to end conversations. And Spurs had learned in Munich the year before that fourth guarantees nothing.
The rest is on the record. Spurs spent £109 million that summer. André Villas-Boas left by mutual consent in December with the side seventh, and in May 2014 Mauricio Pochettino took over.
Over to you. Champions League football on one side, a world-record fee on the other: which one decides Bale's summer?
Chris Hughton already knew the table was no protection. Newcastle had judged him on more than his position before: he was let go mid-season with the side 12th, after winning promotion. His first Norwich season also held a home FA Cup defeat by non-league Luton, the first top-flight club to lose to a non-league side since 1989.
Fourteenth would change how that season reads. Some of what followed was already in motion. The reported club-record £8.5 million for Ricky van Wolfswinkel was agreed in March, two months before the win at the Etihad. That summer Norwich released ten players and signed Gary Hooper for £5 million. On 6 April 2014 Hughton was sacked with Norwich 17th, five points above the relegation zone, and they went down in 18th.
Over to you. Does 14th buy a manager the same patience that 11th did, or does the sack come before April?
2012/13 is one of the seasons covered by the charges the Premier League referred to an independent commission on 6 February 2023. On 25 September 2026 BBC Sport, The Athletic and Sky Sports reported that the commission had found City in breach of Premier League rules. The Premier League has not published the decision, City say the process is ongoing, reports say City are expected to appeal, and no sanction has been announced (as of 27 September 2026).
Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool were among the four clubs The Times reported in November 2024 had lodged legal notices reserving the right to claim compensation if City were found in breach. The same report said the clubs had been advised the six-year limitation period could potentially date back to November 2018, when Der Spiegel first published allegations against City. More on the case: the nine-season summary→
Reference · Every club
Find your club.
Where every club finishes without City.
11st: Manchester UnitedChampions. By 12.89 → 86 pts (real finish 1st, no change)
Van Persie's stoppage-time winner at the Etihad comes off; the 2–1 home defeat in April costs nothing. 86 points, 12 clear.
33rd: ArsenalThird, and no play-off.73 → 72 pts (real finish 4th, up 1)
The 1–1 at the Etihad comes off. 72 points and third: straight into the 2013/14 Champions League group stage, where fourth for real meant the play-off round.