Never-Ending Premier League Table: Man City More Than 600 Points Behind Man United — and Arsenal Sit Second

Who is the best team in the Premier League? To answer that question, 20 clubs battle it out over 38 rounds of fixtures each season. We get our champions and then we start again.

But what if the Premier League never ended? What if there was a Premier League table that started in 1992 and never stopped counting?

Well, there is! FootballBlog.co.uk is proud to unveil the never-ending Premier League table. It features all 51 clubs that have ever played in the Premier League.

The table below also factors in any points deductions that were issued by the Premier League and upheld after review. Sorry, Everton (-8), Nottingham Forest (-4), Portsmouth (-9) and Middlesbrough (-3)!

All-time Premier League table

	MP	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1. Man United	1,277	760	281	236	1,124	2,561
2. Arsenal	1,277	701	311	265	1,026	2,414
3. Liverpool	1,277	683	311	283	993	2,360
4. Chelsea	1,277	673	315	289	884	2,334
5. Spurs	1,277	556	301	420	335	1,969
6. Man City	1,087	557	231	299	756	1,902
7. Everton	1,277	454	359	464	-27	1,713
8. Newcastle	1,159	442	293	424	36	1,619
9. Aston Villa	1,163	416	323	424	-58	1,571
10. West Ham	1,121	374	281	466	-247	1,403
11. S’hampton	962	282	254	426	-301	1,100
12. Blackburn	696	262	184	250	20	970
13. Leicester	688	224	174	290	-112	846
14. Leeds	593	226	153	214	-1	831
15. Fulham	695	208	180	307	-208	804
16. C Palace	627	186	170	271	-184	728
17. M’brough	574	165	169	240	-146	661
18. Sunderland	619	158	163	298	-288	637
19. Bolton	494	149	128	217	-170	575
20. West Brom	494	117	139	238	-262	490
21. Wolves	429	126	101	202	-209	479
22. Stoke	380	116	109	155	-127	457
23. Coventry	354	99	112	143	-103	409
24. Norwich	392	99	105	188	-255	402
25. Brighton	315	98	102	115	-47	396
26. Sheff Wed	316	101	89	126	-44	392
27. N Forest	323	99	90	134	-104	383
28. Wimbledon	301	96	86	119	-87	374
29. B’mouth	315	100	72	143	-125	372
30. Charlton	304	93	82	129	-100	361
31. Burnley	353	91	86	176	-200	359
32. Wigan	304	85	76	143	-166	331
33. Swansea	266	82	66	118	-77	312
34. QPR	278	81	65	132	-92	308
35. Birmingham	266	73	82	111	-87	301
36. Portsmouth	266	79	65	122	-88	293
37. Watford	304	73	66	165	-208	285
38. Derby	266	68	70	128	-149	274
39. Ipswich	240	61	63	116	-139	246
40. Sheff Utd	236	56	57	123	-152	225
41. Brentford	163	59	39	65	4	216
42. Hull	190	41	48	101	-142	171
43. Reading	114	32	23	59	-50	119
44. Oldham	84	22	23	39	-37	89
45. Cardiff	76	17	13	46	-77	64
46. Bradford	76	14	20	42	-70	62
47. Huddersfield	76	12	17	47	-84	53
48. Blackpool	38	10	9	19	-23	39
49. Barnsley	38	10	5	23	-45	35
50. Swindon	42	5	15	22	-53	30
51. Luton	38	6	8	24	-33	26

Man United top the all-time Premier League table

Younger fans who know them as mid-table strugglers might be surprised by this, but Manchester United are the most successful team in Premier League history.

Having dominated for much of the 1990s and 2000s, Man United have earned 147 more points than their closest rivals.

Arsenal — who were recently hailed as the best team in the world right now — have finished second in each of the past three Premier League seasons and they find themselves second on this list too.

The Gunners are just 54 points ahead of Liverpool in third, with Chelsea a further 26 points back in fourth.

Despite Liverpool and Chelsea both ranking high on this table, both clubs were in the bottom five when FootballBlog.co.uk recently used transfer spend to rank the current 20 Premier League clubs based on cost per point.

Tottenham 365 points behind Chelsea

Tottenham are fifth on the all-time Premier League table, but they sit a whopping 365 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.

However, Spurs are 67 points above eight-time champions Manchester City despite having an inferior points-per-game record.

Spurs have taken 1.54 points per game, while City’s average is 1.75. But Spurs have more points overall because they have played 190 games more.

Man City making up for lost time

Unlike most of their main rivals, Manchester City have not competed in every Premier League season to date.

City — who were relegated from the top flight in 1996 and again in 2001 — were not a Premier League team in the 1996/97, 1997/98, 1998/99, 1999/00 or 2001/02 seasons.

However, they have more than made up for these absences in recent years by recording four of the 10 highest seasonal points tallies in Premier League history.

Top 10 Premier League points tallies in a single season

1. Manchester City (2017/18) — 100 points
2. Liverpool (2019/20) — 99 points
3. Manchester City (2018/19) — 98 points
4. Liverpool (2018/19) — 97 points
5. Chelsea (2004/05) — 95 points
=6. Manchester City (2021/22) — 93 points
=6. Chelsea (2016/17) — 93 points
=8. Liverpool (2021/22) — 92 points
=8. Manchester United (1993/94) — 92 points
10. Manchester City (2023/24) — 91 points

Reordering the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ based on all-time points per game

To mitigate for Manchester City’s missing years, we have reordered the top of the all-time table below based on points per game, rather than overall points.

Although this sees City move ahead of Spurs, they remain firmly behind Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Best all-time Premier League points per game averages

	MP	W	D	L	GD	PPG
1. Man United	1,277	760	281	236	1,124	2.01
2. Arsenal	1,277	701	311	265	1,026	1.89
3. Liverpool	1,277	683	311	283	993	1.85
4. Chelsea	1,277	673	315	289	884	1.83
5. Man City	1,087	557	231	299	756	1.75
6. Tottenham	1,277	556	301	420	335	1.54

All-time Premier League mini-league with ever-present clubs only

Since the Premier League began in 1992, only six clubs have featured in every season. They are the top five clubs in the all-time Premier League table above — Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham — plus Everton.

So, in the name of consistency, FootballBlog.co.uk decided to create a new table using only the results of games between these six clubs.

	MP	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Man United	334	157	92	85	113	563
Liverpool	334	135	102	97	118	507
Chelsea	333	131	108	94	81	501
Arsenal	332	132	101	99	61	497
Tottenham	333	83	102	148	-124	351
Everton	332	57	103	172	-249	274

Manchester United top this table comfortably too, in terms of points. But Liverpool have actually scored more goals than United when it comes to games against fellow Premier League ever-presents.

Liverpool have 510 goals, compared to United’s 499, which goes some way to explaining why the Merseyside outfit have a superior goal difference in the table above.

Meanwhile, despite being second on the overall all-time Premier League table, Arsenal only rank fourth when it comes to games played between the six ever-present clubs.

That could suggest that the Gunners historically tend to struggle in crunch games against top opposition (and Everton), although they have actually won more of these matches than Chelsea.

How long will Man United stay top of the never-ending Premier League table?

Manchester United are guaranteed to stay top of the never-ending Premier League table for at least another year, even if they lose all of their games and Arsenal take maximum points during that period.

However, they will eventually be overthrown if current trends continue. Since Sir Alex Ferguson left his role as manager in 2013, United have taken just 809 points from a possible 1,401. That is fewer than Tottenham (811), Chelsea (857), Arsenal (892), Liverpool (965) and a whopping 231 fewer than Manchester City (1,040) over the same period.

But those numbers also show just how far City still have to go in their quest to replace their neighbours as the most successful Premier League club of all time. Over the past 12 and a half years, City have closed the gap by 231 points — but they remain 659 behind.

Therefore, in all-time Premier League terms, Manchester looks set to remain red for decades to come.