The return of the SPAOTP All-Time Premier League Tables

Two years ago almost to the day, Some People Are On The Pitch produced a blog article which would prove to be one of its most popular ever. We're not entirely sure why, but we were glad it was seen by so many people as it took a long time to compile.

The article in question was called All-Time Premier League Tables and its content, like its premise, was fairly self-explanatory. Our aim was to add up the total number of points attained by every club ever to play in the Premier League and see who had done better than who.

But we went a bit further than that. We also tried to calculate which teams had scored and conceded the most goals and who had won the most points per match on average. The results proved quite interesting and were digested by many of you time and time again over the following couple of years.

Which brings us to the present day. We felt the time was now right to update the All-Time Premier League Tables we produced back in 2008 so you could see how things currently stood. Here below are the results of our hard work, the details of which are correct up to and including April 30 2010.

Our main table (see left - click to enlarge) shows the total number of points scored by anyone who's ever played in the English top flight. As we said two years ago, it goes without saying that the more seasons you play, the more points you're likely to pick up so don't think we're altogether surprised by many of these details.

That said, we can confirm that Man United continue to rule the roost with an increased lead over Arsenal of 180 points (it was 155) while Arsenal's lead over Chelsea is down from 66 points to 47 since 2008.

A little further down, Newcastle and Blackburn have slipped slightly (the former having the excuse of being relegated at the end of last season) while West Ham creep into the top 10 at the expense of Leeds United.

At the other end of the table, Burnley may not finish bottom of the Premier League in their first season, but they may be bottom of our table unless they can pick up three points from their remaining two games.

Our second table (see right) shows the average number of points won per game and here many of the teams will be in the same positions as in the previous table, albeit with a few exceptions.

Aston Villa are fifth in our 'total points' table, but in terms of 'points per match', they're less successful than Leeds and Newcastle. Just outside the top 10 are many teams who have long since been absent from the top flight but still retain their proud record from days gone by, namely QPR (11th), Sheffield Wednesday (12th) and Wimbledon (14th).

There's little change at the other end except for West Brom escaping the bottom three, but only by a single place.

Next up we can see who's scored the most goals in the Premier League (see left) and incredibly Manchester United have maintained their tremendous achievement of bagging nearly two goals every game. Once again, Newcastle's absence from the top flight allows Tottenham and Aston Villa to inch a little further up the table, the latter having only just overtaken Newcastle last Sunday.

At the foot of the 'goals scored table', Burnley are tied on 37 points with Barnsley but can leave The Tykes behind if they can find the net against either Birmingham (playing as this post's being written) or Tottenham next Sunday.

Finally, we take a look at the table showing who's conceded the most goals (see right) and still surprising everyone as they did two years ago are Tottenham. Spurs fans will be pleased to know that their propensity for leaking goals is getting better, but Everton fans be warned - your team's inching towards that top spot...

Also shipping goals more often since 2008 are West Ham who rise from 6th to 4th while Man City have also now entered the top 10 that no-one wants to be in.

Burnley and Stoke, two newcomers to the Premier League since we compiled our previous article, find themselves in the bottom three and providing they don't concede hat-fulls between now and next weekend, they should stay there.

We're sorry to say that the final word has to go to Swindon who, in terms of average goals conceded per game, remain the worst team in Premier League history with 2.381. Who knows, though - if Danny Wilson can guide his team through the League One play-offs, they might soon be back to set that record straight.

(As last time, we apologise in advance for any incorrect details shown in our tables. If we've missed any glaringly obvious mistakes, please get in touch and we'll correct them immediately. Thank you.)

The Friday List of Little or No Consequence #74

One-match wonders
16 Premier League Seasons And The Teams That Were Leading The Table After One Match

1. Newcastle United (2007/08)
2. Manchester United (2006/07)
3. Charlton / West Ham (2005/06)
4. Arsenal / Bolton (2004/05)
5. Blackburn (2003/04)
6. Fulham (2002/03)
7. Bolton (2001/02)
8. Charlton (2000/01)
9. Chelsea (1999/2000)
10. Wimbledon (1998/99)
11. Manchester United (1997/98)
12. Nottingham Forest / Man United (1996/97)
13. Newcastle United (1995/96)
14. Liverpool (1994/95)
15. Aston Villa (1993/94)
16. Norwich City (1992/93)

...and our thanks go to Russell Napier for giving us the idea for today's 'Friday List'. If you've got some suggestions of your own, don't forget - we'd love to see them and if at all possible we'll publish them on SPAOTP with our thanks. Just drop us a line to info [at] spaotp [dot] com and we'll do the rest...

All-Time Premier League Tables

(Article updated to correct errors and show data up to the end of the 2007/08 season)


Well here we are careering towards the end of the Premier League season, so with just a handful of games left, let's take a look at the Premier League table…

Actually, let's not.

Let's face it, we all have a pretty good idea of who sits where at the moment. At the top, Man United - 2007/08 champions in all but name now - followed by the resurgent Chelsea, then the faltering Arsenal and the always-fourth Liverpool.

So far, so predictable. Below the top four we have a series of teams that occasionally get a run together and are essentially a cut above the rest but aren't good enough to break into that top bunch, namely the Portsmouths, Blackburns, Aston Villas, Man Citys and even Evertons of this world.

Below them come the also-rans, the giants of mediocrity that harm no-one and come to no harm themselves. Stand up West Ham, Tottenham, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. And finally we have the stragglers, those teams fighting amongst themselves to avoid the falling guillotine when the dreaded moment comes.

All of which is what you've basically come to know for some time now, so you don't need to see the Premier League table. Far better, then, to show you a more interesting Premier League table, namely one showing the total number of points accrued by each team that's ever played in the top flight since 1992/93.

OK, so some of this is predictable and given that the more seasons you play, the more likely you are to accumulate a decent points total, and this probably isn't going to raise too many eyebrows but it does make for a more interesting read at least. Have a look and see where your team figures in the 'All-Time Greatest Premier League Teams Of All Time Table'... (see below - click for larger version)

As you can see, only five points separate Everton and Blackburn up in the Top 10, as is the case for Aston Villa and Newcastle.

All well and good, but at this point I'd like to admit once again that it's not exactly fair to look purely at 'total points scored' in the history of the Premier League, so by way of providing balance, here's a table showing the average points scored per game by each team instead (see below right).

In this pared-down table, you'll see that QPR have leapt up from 27th to 10th and Leeds are up to 7th. Swindon drop right to the bottom having picked up the lowest points-per-game ratio from their only Premier League season thus far.

Great, so now we know which teams have performed the best since the Premier League's inception in 1993. Except it'd be quite good to see which teams have scored and conceded the most goals, wouldn't it? If only we had the data for that… (ahem…)

So as you can see from the yellow column on the right in this table, Leeds remain in the Top 10 even though this is the fourth season they've been away from the top flight. That said, West Ham and Middlesbrough should leapfrog Southampton imminently to close the gap on the Elland Road side.

Higher up the table, you can see that Newcastle and Tottenham are engaged in a bitter battle for 5th place with only five goals being the difference between the two teams. It'd be nice to think both teams had this 'battle' on their minds the next time they played each other, but let's be honest, it's unlikely...

Finally, we come to a list showing the total number of goals conceded by every team that's played in the Premier League. Strangely enough, Spurs top this list, closely followed by Everton in second and Aston Villa in fourth - three teams you wouldn't expect to find there.

The likes of Arsenal, Man United, Chelsea and Liverpool are not that far behind, but not as far behind as Wolves who can at least claim to be at the right end of one table.

So there you are - several tables to generate a bit more interest than the current Premier League alternative and an exercise in showing that if you massage statistics enough, you can please and annoy everyone in equal amounts.

Penalties to settle matches?

Guest writer: Kedge

Some daft beggar recently suggested that penalties should be used to decide the outcome of matches. Great if you’re the manager of France, Italy, Portugal, or even Nigeria. That’s because your players will get all the penalty practice they need. Apart from Lampoon and maybe one of the Charlton Bents, no other Englishman gets to take them, let alone finding a team with five English players.

So rather than changing the game, why not change the points system?

How about 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and a point per goal scored and minus 1 for a goal conceded?

On that basis the current table would look like this:



Then I thought, why not bring discipline into the equation? Yellow cards count as -1, red as -2.

So the new table looks like this:



Not a lot changes, but I think it confirms that West Ham are doomed and Blackburn need to do something about their disciplinary record or they’ll be in trouble as well.

9 points covering 14 places

Spurs won last night, with Middlesborough on the wrong end of a 2-1 thumping...

"And lets look at the league tables..." the sports presenter said.
"Do we have to?" I said to the plastic box (thats my TV, not the presenter).

With Spurs recent patchy form, I wasnt looking forward to it. It wouldn't be pretty viewing. But it wasn't as bad as I thought.

My club had moved upto 10th, and, as you do, my eyes scrolled upwards to see how many points we are from a European qualification spot.

Three points.

Infact, we are three points from being third.

A look at the bottom half of the table also revealed that Spurs are not much more than three points off a relegation battle.

We are sixteen games into the season, almost half-way (19 games), and nine points cover the teams from 3rd to 16th.

Fourteen teams, nine points.

My only conclusion was to say 'It shows how much rubbish there is in the premiership'

The complete table...

1 Man Utd 41
2 Chelsea 35
3 Arsenal 25
4 Portsmouth 25
5 Liverpool 25
6 Reading 25
7 Everton 24
8 Aston Villa 24
9 Bolton 24
10 Tottenham 22
11 Man City 20
12 Fulham 20
13 Wigan 18
14 Blackburn 16
15 Middlesbrough 16
16 Sheff Utd 16
17 West Ham 14
18 Newcastle 13
19 Charlton 12
20 Watford 10

PS - West Ham face Wigan tonight, and if they win, that will be 15 teams covered by nine points.