Ranked! The 20 greatest Premier League sides by points total

It’s hard to argue with the league table in football. When someone says: “The table doesn’t lie” they’re probably being smug or reaching for their failsafe in order to undermine an unrelated discussion, but tiresome motives don’t make the statement any less true. Teams are ranked by their scores according to a pre-established points system. Even Donald Trump couldn’t argue with… OK, he would, but you get our drift.As the Premier League’s boundaries shift, however, the same points tally can mean very different things from one season to the next. It’s like inflation: what do your points get you today? In the same way that 25p used to buy a Wispa but now leaves you wetting yourself outside a train station toilet, the 75 points that once created Premier League champions will today position that team in the Europa League places.For instance, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea (twice) have all finished third – not even second, but third – with 82 or 83 points, which would be title-winning totals in seven of the Premier League’s 23 completed 38-game seasons. Harsh. And an ever-increasing gap between the best and the rest means that to be champions of England requires more points than before.Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side are on course to become the Premier League’s first 100-point champions. Do that and they’ll pass all of these teams below, who recorded the top 20 points tallies to date.Can some of these teams consider themselves unfortunate? Are Antonio Conte’s Chelsea better than Arsenal’s Invincibles? Maybe, maybe not. Just remember: the table doesn’t lie.(NB: While the Premier League’s first three years featured 42 games rather than 38, adjusting the points tallies resulted in no teams from those seasons making this countdown. Sorry, Blackburn.)20. Liverpool 2013/1484pts (+51), 2ndOh, Brendan. All was well until Mr. Rodgers’ neighbourhood became the scene of a Homeric tragedy, with Steven Gerrard playing the hubristic hero. After April’s 3-2 win over Manchester City took Liverpool six points clear of them (albeit with an extra game played), the captain screamed at his team-mates in front of Sky’s cameras: “Hey! This does not f**king slip now! This does not f**king slip. This is gone – we go to Norwich, exactly the same, we go again.”The gods of mischief smiled. Liverpool did go to Norwich and did do exactly the same, winning 3-2. Then Gerrard slipped on the Anfield turf to give Chelsea the lead, tried and failed to win the game on his own, and Liverpool ill-advisedly looked to rack up a cricket score against Crystal Palace to aid their inferior goal difference –only to draw 3-3 having led 3-0 with barely 10 minutes remaining.Despite netting 101 goals, 31 of them through Luis Suarez and another 10 courtesy of Gerrard spot-kicks, Rodgers’ Reds finished second. One of the two teams in Premier League history to outscore them were that season’s champions, Manchester City. If their 2017/18 counterparts win a few more games, this Liverpool team will “f**king slip” out of our top 20.19. Chelsea 2007/0885pts (+39), 2ndIs Avram Grant football’s unluckiest manager? No – but he deserved some sympathy in 2008.The former Israel boss inherited Jose Mourinho’s unhappy campers in September 2007 with the Blues in fifth; eight months later, they went into the final day level on points with leaders Manchester United. Alex Ferguson, who’d bested Grant in his first Chelsea match, stood in the way at home and then in Moscow, where United won the Champions League final. Grant could only watch as John Terry slipped taking the potentially trophy-clinching penalty.Of course, more than luck separates Avram Grant from Alex Ferguson. And Chelsea were uninspiring runners-up in the league, scoring more than two goals in only three of their 22 wins under Grant. Still, he never lost a home game in any competition and, as Steven Gerrard knows, things would be very different but for one loss of footing.18. Manchester United 2009/1085pts (+58), 2ndIn the summer of 2009, Ferguson’s Glazer-tied hands waved goodbye to Cristiano Ronaldo and ushered in Michael Owen, Mame Biram Diouf and Gabriel Obertan.Despite this, and helped by an unlikely 10 own goals across their Premier League campaign, Manchester United went into the final day as potential champions – they just needed Chelsea to slip up against Roberto Martinez’s Wigan. Chelsea won 8-0.17. Liverpool 2008/0986pts (+50), 2ndSpeaking of transfer woes, Rafa Benitez’s seven summer signings in 2008 were Robbie Keane, Albert Riera, Andrea Dossena, Philipp Degen, Diego Cavalieri, Peter Gulacsi and David N’Gog. Draw your own conclusions. Benitez preferred to draw games (*slow handclap*).Liverpool were unbeaten at home and lost only twice all season, but having spoken so earnestly about them in January that year, Rafa eventually had to face Facts: 11 draws left them with too much to do. Even taking 31 points from their final 11 games wasn’t enough.16. Tottenham Hotspur 2016/1786pts (+60), 2ndRival supporters and even most neutrals are tired of reading claims that Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham were England’s best team for a couple of years, despite not winning any trophies, so we won’t make that claim. Nor will we say that Spurs ‘deserved’ to be 2016/17 Premier League champions, because that’s not how it works. Unfortunate, unfair – these are words you won’t find in any league table preserved in the history books.What we will say is that it could be considered a shame that this excellent Spurs outfit, built with young players on a net spent of £2m over five seasons (Manchester City’s being over £500m, for instance), will ultimately win zero Premier League titles.Points win prizes, however, and in 2016/17, Chelsea got more of them. Tottenham took 53 points from 57 available at home in White Hart Lane’s farewell season, scored more goals and conceded fewer than every other team, and recorded the second-highest points tally of any non-champions –enough to win them the league in a third of all Premier League campaigns, including 2015/16 – and you know what all that means? Precisely nothing.15. Manchester City 2013/1486pts (+65), 1stSwallowed up by the drama at Anfield that season and suffering in comparison to Manchester City’s mad final-day triumph two years earlier, Manuel Pellegrini’s title-winning side are easily forgotten. They laid in wait for the most part, rarely top of the league by virtue of having a game in hand from early February through to the final week. Then, with all of the focus on Merseyside, Pellegrini’s men won a friendly final five fixtures with considerable ease.Yet the 2013/14 champions deserve anything but indifference. City won 17 from 19 at home, which included beating Arsenal 6-3 and Spurs 6-0 (a subsequent thumping at White Hart Lane made the score 11-1 on aggregate). Their total tally of 102 goals fell just shy of the Premier League record, but 156 (!) across all competitions set a new one.In the league, Sergio Aguero’s 17 goals came at an average of one every 90 minutes and Edin Dzeko helped himself to another 16, while Yaya Toure scored 20 from midfield and set up nine more. With another half-dozen City players each scoring four or more league goals, opponents were simply overwhelmed.14. Chelsea 2009/1086pts (+71), 1stNow, hear us out, but for a man who’s won the Champions League three times, Carlo Ancelotti’s league record isn’t very good. We did say hear us out.Ancelotti has won four domestic titles in 21 seasons of management. That’s one with perennial winners Bayern Munich (before he was fired with Bayern down in third); one with nouveau-riche PSG (after his side had humiliatingly finished as runners-up to Montpellier the previous year); one with Milan (across eight seasons that brought more European Cups than Scudetti); and none with Real Madrid (where he recorded their lowest league finish in a decade). Nor Parma (who fell short with an incredible team), nor Juventus (where Ancelotti’s team fell from first to second on the final day by losing to Perugia).His other title win, though, came in some style with Chelsea. Ancelotti’s double-winners set a Premier League goals record that still stands… for now. Hitting 17 without reply in their final three fixtures took them to 103 in totaland an astonishing goal difference of +71 – another record. It hinted at Chelsea’s dominance in a season where they also conceded just once in six FA Cup games, following a summer in which Daniel Sturridge and Yuri Zhirkov represented their only major signings.13. Chelsea 2014/1587pts (+41), 1stNote the change in goal difference. Although Jose Mourinho’s Blues went undefeated at home and lifted the trophy in April, they did so with less swagger than they had 10 years earlier.It wouldn’t be fair to dismiss Mourinho’s second Chelsea outfit as dull – as Jose himself told FourFourTwo, he considered his team “dominant” rather than boring – but the champions did embody a dull Premier League season that offered precious little intrigue anywhere in the table.12. Arsenal 2001/0287pts (+43), 1stIf Arsenal’s Invincibles two years later are criticised in some quarters for drawing their way into the history books, the same accusation could not be levelled at this double-winning vintage. On February 2, 2002, Arsenal set a new record by scoring for the 26th consecutive match, only for Jo Tessem of Southampton to cancel out Sylvain Wiltord’s strike. It was the final game of the 2001/02 league campaign that Arsenal failed to win.They could hardly be called a one-man team, either. Robert Pires was named Footballer of the Year, Freddie Ljungberg won Premier League Player of the Season and Thierry Henry was awarded the Golden Boot, while Arsene Wenger – some distant relative who shares a name but no characteristics with today’s Arsenal manager – scooped seasonal gongs from the Premier League and LMA alike.Victory in the FA Cup final was followed by a title-sealing win at Old Trafford and then a Highbury send-off for Tony Adams and Lee Dixon, who retired with a 4-3 win over Everton. Pfft, typical of those two, relying on the attackers to bail them out.11. Manchester United 2007/0887pts (+58), 1stA total of 17 home wins from 19 helped Cristiano Ronaldo and friendoutgun Chelsea in England and abroad. Manchester United were frugal in defence, conceding 22 goals in the Premier League and only two in seven Champions League knockout matches, while Ronaldo plundered 42 goals in all competitions, thriving alongside Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.In one of the league’s most competitive title races (Arsenal finished third with 83 points and Liverpool fourth with 76, once a championship-winning total), United again did the business.10. Manchester United 2012/1389pts (+43), 1stThe idea that David Moyes ruined an amazing team would appear substantiated by this healthy points tally in Ferguson’s final season –but 89 points doesn’t tell the full story. A goal difference of +43 is measly by modern standards, betraying the fact that the Red Devils conceded as many goals (43) as they did under Moyes the following season. In fact, at the halfway stage, during an 18-game unbeaten run involving 16 wins, Ferguson’s United enjoyed a seven-point lead at the top despite having a worse defensive record than 11 other teams.That first half of the season was extraordinary. Ferguson’s charges won five games 3-2 and two games 4-3, with all seven goals in a meeting with Reading scored in the first 35 minutes. Incredibly, United’s first 19 games brought eight wins from behind, including late winners against Newcastle, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Southampton, where they’d trailed 2-1 after 86 minutes. No wonder the season ended on a 5-5 draw.It didn’t matter that this was unsustainable, as there was no challenge from beneath. Reigning champions City had ballsed up their summer transfer window (with all due respect to Scott Sinclair and Jack Rodwell), while Ferguson had brought in Robin van Persie to make a point, and his 26 league goals gave them several. Heading into 2013/14, what could go wrong?9. Manchester United 2006/0789pts (+56), 1stEight – eight – Red Devils featured in the PFA Team of the Year as United finished six points ahead of Mourinho’s Chelsea. Those PFA picks were Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo,Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs for the record.Further fun fact: Ferguson won as many manager-of-the-month awards in the 2006/07 campaign (three) as Mourinho has in his entire Premier League career.8. Manchester United 2011/1289pts (+56), 2ndIf you feel sympathy for Manchester United reaching 89 points only to finish second on goal difference – and we’re sure you all do – then consider this: the great Alex Ferguson bottled it.United had been eight points clear at the top with six matches remaining. Then a shock defeat to Wigan, courtesy of Shaun Maloney’s superb strike from a short corner, followed by a 4-4 draw with Everton (having led 3-1 and 4-2) reduced that margin to three points ahead of the Manchester derby, with only two games to follow it.Monday Night Football on April 30 saw Ferguson drop a striker and bring his men to City in a rare 4-5-1 formation. Five attacking players sat on the bench as Wayne Rooney cut a lonely figure up top and an unfit Park Ji-sung, making his first league start in three months, struggled to man-mark Yaya Toure. For the first time in three years, Manchester United failed to have a shot on targetand City won 1-0.Roberto Mancini’s Blues went top on goal difference. And then: Agueroooooooo...7. Manchester City 2011/1289pts (+64), 1st…oooooooooo!The drama of that final day is fairly well known. Suffice to say, Sergio Aguero scored late on as Manchester City beat QPR 3-2 to make it 55 points from 57 on home soil.Mancini had freely admitted with six games remaining that the Premier League trophy looked out of reach. But with the pressure off, a pair of thumping victories over West Brom and Norwich, followed by another win at Wolves, gave City the impetus ahead of the Manchester derby – and the rest is history.United and City finished the 2011/12 season with identical records of 28 wins, five draws and five defeats. If City’s famous 6-1 win at Old Trafford had ended only 2-1, they’d also have finished with identical totals in the goals scored (89) and goals conceded (29) columns.6. Manchester United 2008/0990pts (+44), 1stIf the mark of champions is finding a win by any means possible, Ferguson’s United wore that stigma with pride. They matched Liverpool’s 18 league titles and pushed a facts-spouting Rafa Benitez into second by winning 16 of their 38 fixtures by a single goal, giving new meaning to the concept of fine margins (and helping to explain their relatively slim goal difference).The defence kept things tight by necessity: of those 16 narrow wins, 10 finished 1-0. Edwin van der Sar’s record number of consecutive clean sheets came during a winter run-in which United didn’t concede for 14 league games, while their final six fixtures of 2008 brought four goals, four wins and two draws. Economical.Importantly, though, United kept finding that path to victory. It didn’t matter that they scored only 68 goals; indeed, the champions of 1992/93 scored 67 across 42 matches. Knocking Liverpool off their perch? Job done.5. Arsenal 2003/0490pts (+47), 1stThat’s right: The Invincibles are fifth. Drawing every third game will do that. Perhaps it’s a mere quirk of statistics that Arsenal’s 2003/04 side are considered the greatest Premier League team; after all, they did lose six games in the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup.Still, unbeaten across a 38-game league campaign – it’s not bad, is it? And while they didn’t exactly crush many teams –a 5-0 defeat of relegated Leeds being the only time they helped themselves to more than four goals in one sitting –Arsenal did do the double over second-placed Chelsea. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.4. Chelsea 2005/0691pts (+50), 1stIn Mourinho’s second season, Chelsea led continuously from August to May, having won 20 of their first 22 matches to see off the early challenge of new boys Wigan (seriously, they were still second in late November).Like Arsenal’s Invincibles, Chelsea scored five in a game only once. Still, they’d be top of this list if they hadn’t followed up the title-clinching win over Manchester United by losing their final two matches to goals from Steven Reid and Titus Bramble for the purposes of banter.3. Manchester United 1999/200091pts (+52), 1stHow do you follow the Treble? With the Quadruple, clearly. But if you can’t do that – because, say, you’ve withdrawn from the FA Cup so that you can lose to Vasco da Gama in FIFA’s inaugural Club World Cup – then winning the league by a record 18 points will have to do.Perhaps the most impressive thing about Manchester United’s 1999/2000 triumph, apart from that winning margin and 97 goals scored, was that they did it without a Peter Schmeichel, a David de Gea or even a Tim Howard.The Premier League’s third-highest points tally was earned despite Mark Bosnich playing in 23 games, being replaced in three of them by 36-year-old Raimond van der Gouw, who probably didn’t expect to be quite such a busy substitute goalkeeper. The Dutch veteran started another 11 league games on top of that, while four were reserved for the infamous Massimo Taibi, and future Prescot Cables keeper Nick Culkin took a free-kick against Arsenal for the shortest Premier League career in history.2. Chelsea 2016/1793pts (+52), 1stWas it really less than a year ago that Antonio Conte set a Premier League wins record (30) in his first season in England? The Italian isn’t alone in debuting with a title – ask Mourinho, or Ancelotti, or Pellegrini – but Conte did it with a team that had just finished 10th, playing with a perennial loanee and a former Bolton and Sunderland defender as wing-backs, in a season that was supposed to see Mourinho and Pep Guardiola battle it out for the title and which also involved Tottenham notching up 86 points. It seems almost absurd now.A 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in September was, famously, the catalyst for Conte’s switch to a back three, but the immediate impact of the change was staggering. The Blues promptly won their next 13 matches and didn’t concede a goal for two months, battering Mourinho’s Manchester United 4-0 along the way.Chelsea never let up: they got ahead and stayed ahead. Spurs won 12 of their final 13 matches, but they were already 10 points adrift by that point. Even when Chelsea’s lead closed to four points (and an inferior goal difference) with half a dozen fixtures remaining, they dispatched Southampton, Everton and Middlesbrough 4-2, 3-0 and 3-0 to be sure.Ninety-three points. Crikey.1. Chelsea 2004/0595pts (+57), 1stTake your pick of preposterous statistics from Mourinho’s first Premier League season: 25 clean sheets, with just 15 goals conceded in their other 13 matches; 11 (eleven!) 1-0 wins; only one defeat; Champions League qualification confirmed in mid-March with a 30-point lead over fifth… yet Chelsea’s top scorer in 2004/05 was Frank Lampard with 13 goals.Roman Abramovich had, of course, spent big in the summer of 2004. Transfer fees totalling £90m+ made a bigger difference then than they do now, especially when spread over seven players – and this was on top of a £120m outlay the previous season. Winning the league was simply the expectation. Still, you have to spend the money wisely, and buying Didier Drogba, Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho and Arjen Robben for a combined £62m up front represents some OK business. We’ll just ignore Mateja Kezman for now.Mourinho’s side were ruthlessly efficient. After taking 20 points from their first eight fixtures despite averaging one goal per game, Chelsea grew in confidence and ended up winning 4-0 or 4-1 on seven occasions (though they never scored five – that would be a waste of resources). Their Champions League dream ended at the hands of an Istanbul-bound Liverpool team, but a 95-point Premier League campaign was astounding. Mourinho even gave Lenny Pidgeley a go at the end.Ninety-five points. Better than the Invincibles? 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