Manchester City won the title in a tense finale, their first championship since
1968. City's local rivals
Manchester United were the early pace-setters, leading the table until October, when they drew at Liverpool, allowing Manchester City to overtake them. The following week, City increased their lead to five points with a shock
6–1 away victory at
Old Trafford, which they maintained until December, when they dropped points and their lead narrowed, but City remained in front until March, when a defeat at
Swansea City saw them drop behind United. City's bad form continued for the next month while United went on a winning run, so that with six matches remaining United were eight points ahead of City and the title seemingly decided. However, United then faltered with a defeat and a draw in their next three games, while City won all three to narrow the gap to three points. City then beat United 1–0 at the
City of Manchester Stadium to move back ahead of United on goal difference. Both sides won their penultimate matches to maintain the status quo. Going into the final matches, which were played simultaneously, City were top of the league, ahead of Manchester United on
goal difference, while level on 86 points. However, a
Wayne Rooney goal away to
Sunderland gave United the advantage. A 39th-minute goal from
Pablo Zabaleta, his first of the season, put City back on top at half time. In a dramatic second half
Djibril Cissé equalised for
Queens Park Rangers in the 48th minute. Shortly after,
Joey Barton of QPR was sent off for elbowing
Carlos Tevez; on his way off the pitch, he kicked
Sergio Agüero, attempted to headbutt
Vincent Kompany and squared up to
Mario Balotelli. Despite the numerical advantage, City went behind after
Jamie Mackie gave QPR the lead in the 66th minute. As time wound down in both matches, it appeared that Manchester United would win the title with their victory over Sunderland. But
Edin Džeko equalised for City in the 92nd minute. While United players waited on the field at Sunderland for a possible trophy presentation, Manchester City's Sergio Agüero scored the title clincher in the 94th minute to win the league for City and became the only team to win the Premier League on goal difference. The 6–1 result was even more important than it seemed at the time because if the score had been 2–1, then both teams would have ended with identical records (W D L GF GA GD Pts) which by Premier League rules would have meant a play-off game at a neutral ground to decide the title. For most of the season,
Tottenham Hotspur were in third place, a couple of points behind the Manchester clubs, and there was much speculation as to whether Tottenham could mount a title challenge. However, from late February onward their season collapsed, starting with a 5–2 defeat to local rivals Arsenal, whom they had been 10 points ahead of before the game, and just four wins in their last 13 games condemned Tottenham to finishing a point below Arsenal, who finished third to join Manchester City and Manchester United in the
UEFA Champions League, Arsenal completed a strong recovery from a disastrous start to the season including their
8–2 defeat at Manchester United in August. Tottenham finished in fourth but missed out on qualification for the Champions League because
Chelsea's victory in the
2012 Champions League final automatically entitled them to defend their title in the 2012–13 tournament at the expense of the lowest ranked team that would otherwise qualify for the competition through league position. This was the first time that this rule had been implemented in the Premier League, having been introduced by UEFA after Liverpool's controversial qualification for the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League. This consequently marked the first time that the club finishing fourth in the Premier League had not qualified for the tournament since the fourth qualifying spot was introduced in the
2001–02 season.
Newcastle United finished fifth and qualified for the
2012–13 UEFA Europa League.
Everton finished 7th, just above local rivals
Liverpool. Despite finishing above them for the first time in seven years, it was Liverpool who claimed the final Europa League slot, by virtue of winning the
2011–12 Football League Cup. At the bottom of the league,
Wolverhampton Wanderers were the first to be relegated on 22 April, following a 2–0 loss to eventual champions Manchester City.
Blackburn Rovers would soon follow on 7 May after a 1–0 loss to
Wigan Athletic. On the final day of the season,
Bolton Wanderers needed a win against
Stoke City, and for QPR to lose to guarantee their survival. However, they failed to beat Stoke, drawing 2–2, and were relegated, with QPR avoiding the drop, despite losing to Manchester City. For the second time in the Premier League's history, none of the three clubs promoted from the Championship in the previous season were relegated at the end of the season with the other two teams,
Swansea City and
Norwich City, finishing 11th and 12th respectively. The last time all three newly promoted teams stayed up (
2001–02), Blackburn and Bolton were two of those teams. Liverpool's
Luis Suárez was found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United's
Patrice Evra and was given an eight-match ban. ==Teams==