By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-03-12 11:20:12 | Updated at 2025-03-12 15:35:22
4 hours ago
Liverpool are running away with the Premier League title. Could they ultimately finish the season with the biggest lead over second place in the competition’s history?
After Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Southampton last weekend was followed by Arsenal drawing 1-1 with Manchester United, Arne Slot’s men were left sitting atop the Premier League table with a very comfy 15-point cushion.
To be honest, when it reaches 15 points between two teams, it’s probably more of a memory foam mattress than a cushion. Either way, Liverpool’s lead looks unassailable, and in the Opta supercomputer’s latest 10,000 season simulations, the Reds took the title 9,950 times (99.5%).
Of course, it’s worth remembering that Arsenal do have a game in hand. But their recent erratic form hardly provides any guarantees that they’d win that match, which happens to be against Chelsea this weekend.
With that in mind, Liverpool’s lead could yet get even greater, which will potentially bring a particular record into sight.
So, what is the greatest end-of-season gap between first and second in the Premier League?
Biggest Points Gaps Between Premier League Champions and Second Place
19 Points – Manchester City (2017-18)
18 Points – Manchester United (1999-00)
18 Points – Liverpool (2019-20)
12 Points – Chelsea (2004-05)
12 Points – Manchester City (2020-21)
19 Points – Manchester City (2017-18)
Man City may have had better seasons than 2017-18 with respect to the number of trophies they won, but Pep Guardiola’s second campaign in charge was special in many other ways.
Some may even one day use this City side as the standard against which all other Premier League champions are measured, so dominant were they over the course of the campaign.
At the time, they set new records for most points (100), wins (32), away wins (16), goals (106) and consecutive league wins (18), while their +79 goal difference was also higher than anyone else beforehand.
And, of course, on top of that, their 19-point lead over second-placed Manchester United made it the most one-sided ‘title race’ in Premier League history.
If Liverpool are to ultimately challenge – or break – this record, they’ll need to maintain their high standards even after their inevitably secure the title, which they could do as early as next month.
18 Points – Manchester United (1999-00)
Man Utd of 1998-99 is considered their most iconic team of the modern era as they became the first English club to win the treble (league, FA Cup and European Cup/Champions League). But it was the season after that they enjoyed their most dominant Premier League title success.
Spurred on by the goals of Dwight Yorke (20) and Andrew Cole (19), and creativity of David Beckham (15 assists) and Ryan Giggs (12 assists), United cruised to Premier League glory in 1999-00 thanks in part to a sensational run in the second half of the season.
Their third and final defeat of the domestic campaign came on 12 February 2000, and it was followed by a 14-game unbeaten run that saw them end the season with 11 successive wins, which yielded 37 goals in total.
It was a good job they had such firepower, though, as United’s 45 goals conceded in 1999-00 is the most in Premier League history (38-game season) for the champions.
Despite a certain defensive fallibility, exacerbated by their struggles to replace Peter Schmeichel, no team could keep up with United, who ultimately finished 18 points clear of Arsenal.
That remained the biggest end-of-season gap between first and second place in the Premier League for 18 years.
18 Points – Liverpool (2019-20)
Just two years after City broke United’s record, Liverpool went close to setting a new one. In the end, they had to settle for only matching the Red Devils’ 18-point lead at the top.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a mid-season pause and requiring Premier League football to be played behind closed doors once it resumed in June, this will have still been a sweet success for Liverpool.
Once the most successful club in the history of the English top flight, the Reds were overtaken by United when they won their 19th title in 2010-11 – they’d go on to add a 20th in 2012-13. It took Liverpool until 2019-20 to win their next, and it’d be their first since the foundation of the Premier League.
They won it in style, too.
Their 99 points remains the second-highest total in Premier League history, and their success had the curious quirk of being the earliest (seven games left) and latest (sealing it in June) title triumph ever due to the pandemic’s interruption.
They finished 18 points clear of Man City but might have done even better had they not lost to Guardiola’s men (4-0) and Arsenal (2-1), and drawn with Burnley (1-1), after securing the title.
12 Points – Chelsea (2004-05)
José Mourinho arrived on UK shores with a splash and quickly got down to business, guiding Chelsea to an emphatic title success in his first season.
At the time, their 95 points and 29 wins were Premier League records; while they’ve since been broken, their 25 clean sheets and 15 goals conceded remain unequalled in a single top-flight season.
Their success brought Chelsea their maiden Premier League crown and first league title in 50 years, doing so with a healthy 12-point lead over Arsenal – champions the previous season – in second.
12 Points – Manchester City (2020-21)
Having seen Liverpool run away with the title the season before, in 2020-21 City made the most of everyone else enduring underwhelming or disappointing seasons.
Jürgen Klopp’s defending champions only managed to accumulate 69 points as they finished five behind Man Utd in second; City eased to the title with 86 points, 12 ahead of their neighbours.
City’s success was ultimately shaped by an incredible run starting in December.
After successive draws with Man Utd and West Brom, City then went on to win 15 Premier League games in a row, conceding just five goals and scoring 38 in that span.
They arguably missed an opportunity to dominate to an even greater extent, as City lost four of their last 11 games of the season.
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