Aston Villa 2015-16 – Position: 20. Points 17
Talking of FA Cup finals, it was gilet out, shirt and tie in as Tim Sherwood led Aston Villa to Wembley in 2015, his tactics “bamboozling” Liverpool en route before a heavy final defeat by Arsenal.
Sherwood also steered Villa away from the drop but, shorn of influential stars Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph in the summer, was sacked after six successive defeats left them bottom in October.
Kevin Macdonald, briefly, Remi Garde and Eric Black all had a stab at getting a tune from the young prospects Villa reinvested in but, with ownership issues rumbling, the club – one of only seven Premier League ever-presents at the time – dropped out of the top flight for the first time since 1988.
Middlesbrough 1996-97 – Position: 19th. Points 39
Silver hair shimmering in the Teesside sunshine, the sight of Fabrizio Ravanelli celebrating a debut hat-trick against Liverpool – months after scoring in Juventus’ Champions League triumph – had Middlesbrough fans dreaming.
Throw in Brazilian trio Juninho, Emerson and Branco, with Bryan Robson in the dugout, and the Riverside faithful felt they could win the lot.
They almost did an FA and League Cup double, losing both finals, but those dazzling runs could not be replicated in the league.
Ravanelli, reportedly the highest-paid man in the league, scored at almost the same rate he bemoaned the club’s professionalism in the Italian press, suggesting Juventus coaches were having to fax him fitness plans.
Emerson went missing, his wife not very complimentary about Teesside.
But what effectively sent Middlesbrough down was the decision to not play against Blackburn because of an illness and injury crisis – the FA docked Boro three points, they finished two from survival.
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