Could it have been any easier for PSG?
Looking at the completed league table of the 2015/16 French Ligue 1, it would have been a closely fought battle if Paris Saint-Germain is excluded.
In the last four years, Paris Saint-Germain has doubled the amount of league titles they’ve won in their history. And they did it with style for the 2015/16 season.
From the second week of the Ligue 1 season, Paris Saint-Germain rose to pole position and remained there until the end of the season. There were no other real contenders, as PSG secured their title defence with 24 points to spare.2015/16 French Ligue 1 Season finished with Paris Saint-Germain sitting 31 points clear from their closest competition, Olympique Lyonnais. It was their 6th league title and the first four in a row .The point gap was bigger than what separated Lyon and 19th place Gazelec Ajaccio.
They picked up where they left off from the previous season. After winning all the major trophies available in France, no one was expecting them to come into the 22015/16 Ligue 1 season as anything other the favorite.
After 38 rounds of French Ligue 1 Paris Saint Germain had 96 points coming from 30 wins, 6 draws and 2 loses. They had the highest total points amongst the top 5 leagues in Europe. They outscored the opposition by 102 – 19, a goal difference of 83. Zlatan Ibrahimovic contributed to 38 of the 102 goals scored.
Paris Saint-Germain went through their first 27 matches undefeated. They suffered their first defeat at the hands of Lyon. The 2-1 defeat was unexpected because Lyon was sitting at 8th place on the table and 34 points behind PSG. But this is futbol, these things happen more frequently than we would admit.
The loss was a minor setback for PSG. They suffered their second and final league defeat in three league matches later. This time, it was to Monaco. A 2-0 defeat in a match that was probably more about the party than the game. It was a less significant match as PSG had already been crowned champions of Ligue 1 the match before.
They played Troyes the match before, knowing a win will secure the title. Their closest competition at the time was Monaco, and despite the fact that they were far behind PSG on the table, mathematically, they had a chance to win the league. Monaco failing to win their match against Reims meant the PSG could secure the league with a win against Troyes. And they did just that. A dominant performance from PSG dismantled Troyes in a resounding 9-0 away win.
The two teams to give PSG a league defeat were runners-up at the end of the season. Lyon and Monaco were only separated by goal difference.
Hindsight, it made sense for Lyon and Monaco were the only teams to deny PSG from getting points from a Ligue 1 match in the 2015/16 season. They only team in Ligue 1 that avoided defeat to the champions was Bordeaux.
Judging from this season and the seasons before, Paris Saint-Germain will still be favorite for next season. But they will be going into the season without the season’s top goal scorer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. His absence will surely be felt in next season’s campaign to secure their 5th league title in a row.
There is no doubt that PSG will be replacing Ibrahimovic with another quality player, the question will be how quick his replacement adjust to the role that he played for the team.
We wait to see how the rest of Ligue 1 will respond to next season after their lack of fight in the 2015/16 season.
