Manchester City Trivia: The Only Reigning Champions Ever Relegated

By Club Ten · Published 7 September 2026

Manchester City are the only club in English history to win the top-flight title and be relegated the very next season while defending it. They followed a championship in 1937 with relegation in 1938, fell into the third tier in 1998, and then produced arguably the most dramatic title-winning moment in English football history in 2012. No club swings between disaster and glory quite like City, and once you know these three chapters, the old phrase "typical City" makes complete sense.

Champions in 1937, relegated in 1938

In 1936-37, City won the First Division for the first time in their history. The next season, 1937-38, they were relegated, still the only time the reigning English champions have gone straight down. The truly City part of it: they were the highest-scoring team in the entire division that season, 80 goals scored to go with 77 conceded, a positive goal difference and still relegated. Peter Doherty got 23 of those goals on his own. Being sent down as champions while outscoring everyone else in the division is the kind of thing that only happens to one club, and it happened to this one. That season became one of the earliest and clearest examples of what supporters would later call "typical City."

Manchester City fall into the third tier

It got worse before it got better. In 1996 City were relegated from the Premier League, and on 3 May 1998 they were relegated again, into the third tier of English football for the first and only time in their history, where they would spend the 1998-99 season. A club that had been champions of England six decades earlier was now playing at the lowest level in its history.

Sergio Aguero and 93:20

Then, on 13 May 2012, the swing went all the way back up. City entered the final day level with Manchester United on 86 points but eight goals ahead on goal difference, so matching United's result would secure their first league title in 44 years. United beat Sunderland 1-0, while ten-man QPR, reduced by a Joey Barton red card, led City 2-1 deep into stoppage time. Edin Dzeko headed in an equaliser in the 92nd minute. United's final whistle then blew with City still needing another goal, their rivals' players momentarily believing the title was theirs. Seconds later, Sergio Aguero collected Mario Balotelli's pass and scored at 93 minutes and 20 seconds. City were champions, and they remain the only club to have won the Premier League title on goal difference.

The kicker

Put the arc together and it is almost absurd: the only English champions ever relegated the following season, the only top-flight team relegated as the division's leading scorers, a spell in the third tier, and then one of the most replayed final-day moments in Premier League history. "Typical City" used to be shorthand for finding a new way to fall over. For a long time now it has meant something much closer to the opposite. Think you know the rest of the City story? Play today's Manchester City trivia quiz and find out.

Methodology & sources

Facts are cross-checked against Wikipedia's articles on the 1937-38 season that ended in relegation as defending champions, the 1997-98 season that ended in third-tier relegation, and the 2011-12 season that ended with Aguero's 93:20 title winner.