EPL Records and History
Do you know how far back the EPL goes? The Premier League, as it exists today, only started in 1992. In the three decades since, it has produced some of the most remarkable individual and team performances in football history. But, for interest’s sake, here’s a deep dive into the history of the EPL for anyone who’s looking for more information.
How the Premier League came together
The top flight of English football rebranded as the Premier League at the start of the 1992/93 season, breaking away from the old Football League structure. Since then, it has grown into one of the most-watched sporting competitions on the planet, with clubs from across England competing across 38 rounds each season. Eighteen clubs have been ever-present since that first season, including Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
The most successful clubs
Manchester United sits at the top of the all-time title count with 13 Premier League championships, the last of which came in 2012/13 under Sir Alex Ferguson. Manchester City have eight titles, four of which came consecutively between 2021 and 2024. Chelsea have five, Arsenal three, and Liverpool two, with Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City each claiming one.
Manchester City’s 2017/18 season stands as the benchmark for dominance in a single campaign. They finished with 100 points, 32 wins, 106 goals scored, and a goal difference of plus 79. Every one of those figures is a Premier League record that still stands.
Individual records worth knowing
Alan Shearer is the all-time top scorer in Premier League history, with 260 goals, split between Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United. Harry Kane sits second with 213, though his tally stopped growing when he moved to Bayern Munich. Wayne Rooney is third with 208.
For appearances, James Milner leads the way with 657 matches across multiple clubs. Ryan Giggs holds the all-time assists record with 162, with Kevin De Bruyne second on 119. In goal, Petr Cech holds the record for clean sheets with 202, accumulated across his time at Chelsea and Arsenal.
Single-season records
Erling Haaland rewrote the record books in his debut Premier League season, scoring 36 goals in 2022/23 to break the previous mark of 34 shared by Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole. Mohamed Salah set the record for goals in a 38-game season with 32 in 2017/18, a record Haaland then surpassed the following year. The record for most assists in a single season is shared by Kevin De Bruyne and Thierry Henry, both of whom set up 20 goals in their respective standout campaigns.
Records that tell a different story
Not every record is one clubs want to hold. Derby County’s 2007/08 season remains the worst in Premier League history. They finished with just 11 points, one win, 20 goals scored, and a goal difference of minus 69. Southampton matched that goal difference figure in 2023/24, which was a different kind of miserable achievement.
Arsenal’s unbeaten 2003/04 season remains one of the most celebrated achievements in English football. The Invincibles, as they are known, went 49 league matches without losing across those two campaigns.
The biggest results
The largest winning margin in a single Premier League match is 9 goals, achieved three separate times. Manchester United beat Ipswich Town 9- 0 in 1995 and Southampton 9- 0 in 2021, while Liverpool put nine past Bournemouth in 2022. The highest-scoring match was Portsmouth against Reading in 2007, which finished 7-4.
Thinking of betting on the EPL?
Following the Premier League from Australia has never been easier. And, betting on the English Premier League adds another dimension for those who want to stay engaged in the competition beyond just watching the matches. Understanding the historical records and which clubs have consistently performed gives a much better foundation for assessing current form and making sense of the markets each week.
Final thoughts
The Premier League has produced a remarkable amount of history in a relatively short time. From Shearer’s goal record to City’s 100-point season to Arsenal going an entire campaign unbeaten, the stories stack up quickly. Keeping track of where the current season sits against those benchmarks is part of what makes following the competition so enjoyable.