Burnley
Blackburn Rovers
Coventry City
Derby County
Leeds United
Luton Town
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Portsmouth
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield United
QPR
Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League in 1995 and are one of only seven clubs to have lifted the trophy.
The Lancashire club are among an elite group of clubs in England to have secured the Premier League title, including Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Leicester City.
Kenny Dalglish acquired a fantastic squad for the Premier League-winning campaign, building it across several seasons as they finished second the season prior to their victory.
While there was huge elation for everyone at the club, this was as good as it got for Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League, despite there being an expectation they may challenge Manchester United for several seasons, and now a title winner has explained exactly why this didn’t happen.
Jason Wilcox believes ‘complacency’ cost Blackburn Rovers
Jason Wilcox was a part of the Blackburn Rovers squad that secured their one and only Premier League title, as they pipped Manchester United to the trophy in 1995.
He believes they worked hard as a club to secure the title, but once they secured the trophy, he believes there was a shift of mentality that stopped them doing so again.
Wilcox said: “It was an amazing time playing for Blackburn.
“We scraped into the play-offs, and then we finished fourth, finished second.
“We knew we were getting closer, and then we managed to win it.
“For one year we managed to break them, break the mould of Manchester United continuously winning it, so it was an amazing time.
“We got complacent. We thought we were going to go on and carry on winning. The manager Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs, and Alan [Shearer] left.
“We finished sixth that next season, so we honestly felt like we were going to keep challenging Manchester United for the title, and it just didn’t happen.
“One of regret for all of us, really, that we didn’t carry on.”
The difference in the 1994/95 and 1995/96 seasons
It is easy to see the drop-off in performance as a collective between the two seasons for Blackburn Rovers, as they failed to defend their Premier League title.
In 1995, when they lifted the trophy, they won 27 of their 42 matches to secure 89 points; that was enough to secure the title, with Alan Shearer scoring 34 league goals, while Chris Sutton added another 15.
Meanwhile, the following season they only managed to collect 18 wins across their 38 fixtures as they finished seventh in the Premier League with 61, missing out on Europe by goal difference to Everton.
Alan Shearer would continue his fine goalscoring form for Blackburn as he scored 37 goals in the league, more than the previous season; however, Chris Sutton would only manage one.