The 2014–15 season was the 135th season of competitive association football in England.
Promotion and relegation
Pre-season League Division Promoted to league Relegated from league Premier League Leicester City Burnley Queens Park Rangers Norwich City Fulham Cardiff City Championship Wolverhampton Wanderers Brentford Rotherham United Doncaster Rovers Barnsley Yeovil Town League One Chesterfield Scunthorpe United Rochdale Fleetwood Town Carlisle United Tranmere Rovers Shrewsbury Town Stevenage League Two Luton Town Cambridge United Bristol Rovers Torquay United
National teams
England national football team
UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
International Friendlies
England women's national football team
2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA)
UEFA competitions
2014–15 UEFA Champions League
Play-off round
Group stage
Group B
Group D
Group E
Group G
Knockout phase
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
2014–15 UEFA Europa League
Qualifying rounds
League season
Premier League
Despite criticism about their style of play, Chelsea regained the Premier League title after five years and handed manager José Mourinho his first title in his second spell back at the club. In addition, similar to the club's first season under Mourinho in 2004, the Blues also won the League Cup. Manchester City came second; whilst the highest scorers in the league, they never looked like defending their title. A large winless spell in January, not helped by powerhouse midfielder Yaya Touré heading to the Africa Cup of Nations saw their title defense effectively end in mid-March. Arsenal finished third, but missed out on the chance to take the runners-up spot, which was largely owed to a failure to score at home three times in their last six games. In spite of this, they retained the FA Cup title. Manchester United took the final spot for the Champions League, securing a return to the elite competition in Louis van Gaal's first season as manager, despite several defeats that included a shock 5–3 defeat to Leicester City and a 4–0 thrashing at Milton Keynes Dons in the League Cup.
Tottenham Hotspur's first season under Mauricio Pochettino saw the impressive emergence of young striker Harry Kane, but was also blighted by the issues of the previous season as their defensive woes continued; because of this, their Champions League hopes evaporated by early March. Liverpool endured a turbulent season as they struggled to adjust to life without controversial striker Luis Suárez, whilst also being without Daniel Sturridge for large portions of the campaign due to injury. Having stood 12th in late November with just 14 points, the team rallied after New Year's Day as they mounted a late Champions League attempt, with a focus more on defense than goals and impressively made the semi-finals of both club competitions, but ultimately fell short overall. In spite of these issues, however, both Spurs and Liverpool secured Europa League spots.
Southampton were tipped by many for relegation following the loss of Pochettino and many key players over the summer, but they exceeded all expectations by challenging for the Champions League, their challenge continuing into April until a poor run of form against relegation battlers saw them slip out of the race. In spite of this, manager Ronald Koeman received universal praise for his work at the club in his first season and because of Arsenal's FA Cup win, they qualified for the Europa League. Swansea secured their best points total in Garry Monk's first full season, becoming another club to exceed expectations and even complete league doubles over Manchester United and Arsenal, whilst Stoke finished ninth, securing their best points total in the top flight.
Rounding out the top ten were Crystal Palace, who were tipped to struggle following the departure of Tony Pulis just two days before the start of the season; former boss Neil Warnock returned for a second spell, but only lasted four months before being sacked with the club facing another relegation battle. The surprise managerial appointment of former player Alan Pardew saw the Eagles rocket up into mid-table and ultimately survive, securing their highest ever Premier League finish. Another surprise saw pre-season relegation favourites Leicester City achieve survival against all the odds. Despite a reasonable start that included a famous 5–3 victory over Manchester United, their form dropped and they fell to the bottom of the table in November. With relegation looking likely at the beginning of April, the Foxes suddenly came to life and secured 22 points from their last nine games to become the only promoted team to avoid the drop.
Queens Park Rangers' return to the Premier League ended in immediate relegation; the club's failure to earn an away point until mid-February proving to be a key factor despite the impressive 18 goals of Charlie Austin. Burnley finished second-bottom, being the lowest goal-scorers in the league and even a shock 1–0 win over Manchester City failing to save them. Hull City filled the last relegation spot, struggling for the majority of the season amidst controversial plans by chairman Assem Allam to change the club's name to Hull Tigers. Newcastle United started the season quite poorly, but a winning run in November saw them look to be challenging for European football for the second time in 4 seasons. However, the departure of Alan Pardew to Crystal Palace and replacing him with John Carver led to an 8-game losing streak in the spring and only surviving on the last day.
Football League Championship
In a Championship season marked with constant changes among the top six, AFC Bournemouth completed a turnaround from being within five minutes of liquidation in 2008, to reaching the Premier League for the first time in their history. They remained top for around half the season and snatched the title on the last day to win promotion as champions. This meant that Eddie Howe had achieved the rare feat of taking a club from the fourth tier to the top flight for the first time, an achievement for which he was named the Football League Manager of the Decade. Despite a spell in which they changed managers four times in 35 days between August and October, Watford found stability under Serbian Slaviša Jokanović and took advantage of slip-ups by other teams to win automatic promotion to the Premier League after an eight-year absence. Securing an immediate return to the Premier League through the play-offs were Norwich City, who beat Middlesbrough in the final; they had topped the standings early on in the season, only to fall to mid-table after a poor run of form within the winter period. Manager Neil Adams ultimately resigned in January, before the appointment of Hamilton boss Alex Neil in January re-invigorated the Canaries' campaign.
Both Wolves and Brentford, who were promoted from League One last season, were both looking for a second successive promotion, especially Brentford playing their first season in this tier in over two decades. Both eventually missed out and the latter lost in the play-off semi-final to Middlesbrough. Reading endured a season of ups and downs, having first sacked Nigel Adkins in mid-December. This led to former West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke taking over the reins and despite there being an outside chance of relegation going into the last few games, the Royals beat the drop and also reached the FA Cup semi-finals, losing to Arsenal in extra-time. Rotherham United came perilously close to being dropped into the relegation zone in the final weeks after they were deducted three points for fielding an ineligible player, though they ultimately stayed up after the teams below them failed to capitalise on the situation.
Blackpool finished in bottom place (having stayed in that place since September until the end of the season), posting the joint-worst points total for a club in a 24-team second tier, failing to win away once and conceding 91 goals overall. Relegation was not helped by fan protests against owner Owen Oyston's running of the club (eventually culminating in an on-field protest that forced their final game of the season to be abandoned), as well as the fact that they had only eight players two weeks before the season started. Wigan Athletic were also relegated, just two years after they had won the FA Cup and played in the Premier League. During the season, they went through three managers and failed to win a home game between September and April as the extra games from the previous season appeared to take its toll on the Latics. Millwall filled the final relegation spot, having sacked Ian Holloway in March and appointed Neil Harris as his replacement, but he could not save them from the drop to the third tier.
Football League One
Bristol City ended their two-year absence from the Championship, topping the division for virtually the entire season and becoming the first club in the country to win promotion. Milton Keynes Dons, the top scorers in any of the four divisions, snatched automatic promotion from under the noses of Preston North End on the final day, winning promotion to the Championship for the first time as the current incarnation of the club; they also enjoyed a famous Football League Cup upset over Manchester United in their first ever meeting. Preston made amends for their last-day slip-up by thrashing Swindon Town in the play-off final to end a five-year absence from the second tier, and in the process finally winning a play-off tournament after nine unsuccessful tries.
Despite being hotly tipped to make an immediate return to the Championship, Yeovil Town spent most of the season rooted to the bottom of the table (and in fact, they were glued to the bottom from February) and they suffered their second successive relegation, finding themselves back in League Two for the first time in a decade after only recording ten wins in the whole season. Similarly, Leyton Orient were also among the promotion favourites after their play-off final appearance the previous year but struggled all season after going through four managers and they ultimately finished second bottom. Crawley Town were relegated back to League Two after three years at this level; they had appeared to be well out of the reach of relegation but following manager John Gregory stepping down for heart surgery, their form collapsed under Dean Saunders. Notts County filled the final relegation spot, ultimately being cost dear by a disastrous second half of the season after some promising early form.
Crewe Alexandra survived a second relegation battle in a row despite more heavy thrashings in the season, whilst Colchester United's final day win to deny Preston automatic promotion confirmed their survival having been cut adrift for most of the season.
Football League Two
Just six years after their first ever promotion to the Football League and just missing out on promotion a year earlier, Burton Albion were promoted as champions. While manager Gary Rowett departed for Birmingham City early in the season, his replacement in top-flight legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink guided the club into the top six and then finally promotion. Shrewsbury Town went up in second, securing an instant return to League One; they had actually led the table for much of the season but were made to pay for slip-ups that Burton took advantage of. Taking the third automatic slot in dramatic fashion were Bury, who almost slipped out of the race, but a last-day win over Tranmere Rovers saw the club also promoted. Southend United were forced all the way to extra time and penalties by Wycombe Wanderers, but ultimately scraped past their opponents to take the last promotion spot and secure their place in League One.