Since the English First Division became the Premier League in 1992, the league has produced some excellent teams who have, at times, blown their opponents away on the pitch. Some of these teams have accrued an incredible tally of points during their league campaigns.
However, which team has accrued the most points in one Premier League season? Two teams have dominated this aspect of the English top flight.
Here are the teams that have accrued the most points in a single Premier League campaign:
Manchester City season 2017/18: 100 points
The Citizens are the only team in the history of the Premier League to have reached a century of points. Pep Guardiola’s team achieved 100 points in season 2017/18. However, it was a close-run thing for City, as the men from Manchester needed a last-gasp Gabriel Jesus goal in a 1-0 victory over Southampton in their final league game to reach the tally.
This season was one in which City broke multiple records. City recorded a record 32 wins in their 38-game league campaign. They repeated the feat the next season but claimed two fewer points in the Premier League.
The records just kept on tumbling during the season, as City scored 106 goals, the most scored by any team in a Premier League campaign. The Citizens also won 16 of their 19 away games, once again a feat not achieved before or after the 2017/18 season.
City won the title with the biggest gap to second place in the history of the Premier League, as they finished 19 points ahead of arch-rivals Manchester United, which is likely to have made Guardiola’s first title at the club even sweeter.
Liverpool season 2019/2020: 99 points
The 2019/20 Premier League campaign saw Liverpool end a 30-year wait for an English top-flight title, as they picked up an incredible 99 points. The Reds wouldn’t let anything or anyone stop them in their pursuit of the title, as even a global pandemic failed to slow the Liverpool juggernaut.
The season stopped due to the pandemic in March but returned in June, albeit with no fans permitted to be in stadiums. Jurgen Klopp’s team were a massive 25 points ahead of Manchester City before the enforced break after accruing an impressive 82 points from 29 league outings.
The Reds looked set to break City’s record but picked up just 17 points from their final nine matches, which is slightly less impressive.
During the 2019-20 season, Liverpool matched Manchester City’s record of winning 18 consecutive games in the English top-flight league, which occurred from October to February. This impressive feat led to their title victory after only 31 matches, following Man City’s loss to Chelsea on June 25. It was the earliest any team had won the English top-flight title.
Manchester City season 2018/19: 98 points
Unsurprisingly, City also managed to record another impressive points tally of 98 in season 2018/19. The campaign saw City retain their English top-flight title for the first time, having failed to do so after seasons 2011-12 and 2013-14. In fact, City became the first team in the Premier League since city rivals Manchester United in season 2008/09 to retain the title.
The title wasn’t easy, though, as they had to win their final 14 Premier League games of the season to pip Liverpool to the English crown by just a point. In winning the title, City matched their previous record of 32 wins in a league campaign but fell short of their record total by just two points. The key to missing out on matching the record was the fact that the Citizens lost four games instead of the two they lost in their points-breaking season.
Liverpool season 2018/19: 97 points (2nd Place)
The men from Merseyside recorded an impressive points tally of 97 points in season 2018/19. In most normal seasons, that would have been a title-winning points tally. However, as previously mentioned, unfortunately for Jurgen Klopp’s team, City accrued a point more to claim the English top-flight title.
Unsurprisingly, the Reds’ points tally of 97 is the most accrued by any team that has not won the English top-flight title.
Liverpool’s excellent league campaign was built on a stellar defensive record, as the men from Merseyside kept a league-high of 21 clean sheets, conceding just 22 goals during the campaign. The impressive defensive record meant that only Arsenal conceded fewer top-flight goals in season 1998-99 and failed to win the Premier League.
The Reds were not shabby in attack either, as they scored 89 goals in the Premier League, just six fewer than champions City. A key to that attacking record were the goals of forward duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, as both scored 22 league goals to finish joint-level in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot with Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Chelsea season 2004-05: 95 points
In 2004-05, Jose Mourinho joined the Premier League as the new manager of Chelsea. He had just won two consecutive Primeira Liga titles with FC Porto in his homeland and, even more impressively, had also recently won the UEFA Champions League with the Portuguese outfit just a week before his switch to the south west London club.
The title win ended a 50-year wait for the Blues to be crowned as English champions. Meanwhile, their tally of 95 goals was the most in an English top-flight season until Man City’s astonishing 2017-18 campaign.
The feat was made the more impressive because the average age of Chelsea’s starting line-up was just 25 years and 250 days old, making the Blues the youngest team to claim the Premier League crown.
During Mourinho’s debut season at Chelsea, the team performed impressively in terms of defence by breaking the Premier League record with 25 clean sheets while conceding only 15 goals. This achievement is unmatched by any other team in the Premier League era.
Goalkeeper Petr Cech conceded only 13 goals in 35 league appearances. He also holds the record for the most clean sheets in a single Premier League season, with a personal tally of 24.
The feat was made the more impressive because the average age of Chelsea’s starting line-up was just 25 years and 250 days old, making the Blues the youngest team ever to claim the Premier League crown.