The 4 worst title defences in football history

Don't worry Chelsea fans, there have been worse title defences.

The London club currently sits 15th in the Premier League, a far cry from the dominance they enjoyed over their rivals last season, but looks likely to move up the table with an active transfer window in January.

Here's a list of football's worst title defences:

Manchester City, 1937-38 Division One

Manchester City fans were in raptures when their club finished the second half of the 1936-37 campaign in stunning form, winning 15 and drawing seven of its final 22 matches after losing to Grimsby Town on Christmas Day 1936. The run sparked a climb from mid-table to a three-point cushion above Charlton Athletic at the top of the English pyramid.

Then the league champion recorded an unwanted first, and something that hasn't been replicated in the country's football since: relegation the following season. Despite boasting the likes of future England number one Frank Swift and the experienced Eric Brook, who is still the club's all-time record scorer, in its squad, City was helpless to prevent its demotion into England's second tier.

And the team truly was helpless to stop its descent: relegated despite out-scoring each of the other 21 outfits in the division and finishing with a positive goal difference.

Real Madrid, 1960-61 European Cup

Few defending champions can top the agony of Real Madrid's early exit in 1961.

Sure, Los Blancos were the undisputed, and only champions of Europe at the time, but the manner in which the Spanish side saw its famous streak end likely outweighed the joys of the five titles combined.

Real Madrid's confidence of securing yet another European crown was immediately met with anxiety when bitter rivals Barcelona emerged in the draw, thus ending the longest winning streak in the competition's history.

A late penalty at the Santiago Bernabeu saw Barcelona earn an important away draw before a trip to the Camp Nou saw Real's dreams of a sixth championship fizzle out.

AC Milan, 1979-80 Serie A

(Courtesy: it.wikipedia.org)

Franco Baresi is one of the most iconic players in Italian football history, and one that doesn't look out of place among other defensive greats such as Franz Beckenbauer and compatriot Paolo Maldini.

1979-80 was perhaps the darkest season in his career though, as the Rossoneri became embroiled in one of the biggest scandals in football history.

In the previous season, Milan outscored each of its Serie A rivals on its way to the championship, and there was every expectation that they would compete the following season, too.

The club's points tally in 1979-80 should have had them in third - five points short of title winner Inter Milan - but the Toronero 1980 scandal principally found six Serie A outfits and two from Serie B guilty of match-fixing. For their parts in the wrongdoing, Milan and Lazio were dumped into the second-tier.

Although it wasn't an embarrassing underperformance in the league that caused Milan's relegation, it is arguably more shameful that they dragged the country's most treasured sport into such disgrace.

France, 2002 World Cup; Italy, 2010 World Cup

The utter shock throughout the Seoul World Cup Stadium when the final whistle sounded off on France's opening match loss in the 2002 World Cup was the beginning of the end.

Its quest to win a third straight international trophy was derailed 30 minutes into the opening game, and never recovered. France's loss to World Cup newcomers Senegal was the first of many disappointments that saw the defending European and world champions bow out of the tournament in embarrassing fashion with a single point.

France was also a Zinedine Zidane headbutt away from repeating the feat years later. Luckily, in hindsight, France ended up losing the 2006 final to Italy and avoided the shame of seeing another tournament end prematurely in 2010 courtesy of an abysmal first-round performance in South Africa. Italy, however, would feel France's pain eight years after the debacle in South Korea and Japan.

Two points was all Italy could accumulate after its triumph in Germany, with the four-time world champions' underwhelming performance leaving the country on the otuside looking in when the group stage concluded.

Amazingly, Spain became the third world champion in 2014 to suffer the embarrassment four years after being on top of the world.