Premier League Lowest Points Totals

After another dismal defeat for Sheffield United in the 2023/24 Premier League season, it has to be questioned whether or not they'll pick up another win this season. Football betting odds have the Blades at 1/33 to be relegated and to be honest, that seems generous. At the time of writing, they have 10 points from 23 games and at that points per game ratio, they would finish the season on sixteen points - but where would that leave them in regards to the lowest points total in Premier League history? We find out below!

Bet on Premier League Relegation Odds

Since the First Division was re-created as the Premier League, a new era of English football has begun, every record is from the beginning of the Premier League and our list will be no different. However, our list begins from 1995-96 when the Premier League moved to 38 games instead of 42. Now, despite Luton Town's poor start in the 2023/24 Premier League where many thought they could break Derby County's record, they are officially above that points total in the league alongside Burnley and Sheffield United.

It is worth noting that, Ipswich Town find themselves lucky to escape this list as they were relegated with just 27 points from 42 games. However, we've started our list from the 38 game format to keep it fair amongst the teams involved. However, with the Tractor Boys finishing rock bottom of the table with 93 goals conceded - nobody should forget that dreadful campaign for Ipswich Town.

(UN) Honourable Mention: Sunderland 2016-17 (24 Points)

The two teams in 10th position both had 24 points, so we're starting our list of with an unhonourable mention for the 2016-17 Sunderland team which massively underperformed. They began their season failing to win any of their first 10 games. Late goals cost them points against Manchester City, Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Ham so their season was already defined by just four matches. Following an abysmal first 10 games, Sunderland won three out of their next four, with victories over Bournemouth, Hull City and Leicester City. Sunderland fans would have been forgiven for thinking their season had turned after the January transfer window, drawing 0-0 with title chasing Tottenham Hotspur and beating Crystal Palace 4-0 at Selhurst Park (they led 4-0 at half-time) but the 4-0 demolition was followed by a 4-0 demolition of themselves against Southampton which began a spell of 9 games without a win before final win in the Premier League came in a 2-0 victory over Hull City.

Similar to some of the worst teams on this list, Sunderland's attacking threat was led by one person, Jermaine Defoe and the club found themselves in a similar situation every game, if the opposition kept Defoe quiet, Sunderland struggled.

Number Ten: Watford 1999-2000 (24 Points)

Interestingly enough, our first mention in this list is arguably one of the most forgettable. Graham Taylor's Watford were promoted (for the second consecutive time) and most fans expected them to go down immediately. However, with victories against Liverpool and Chelsea early on in the season, it looked like the experienced Graham Taylor may have been a miracle worker, that is until they went 11 games without a win until after Christmas. Their end to the season was relatively positive with victories over Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday alongside draws with Middlesbrough, Tottenham Hotspur and Derby County. However, success here was just a step too far for Graham Taylor.

The best thing about this season for Watford was the emergence of a young Heiðar Helguson who would go on to score 65 goals for the club in all competitions.

Number Nine: Sheffield United 2020-21 (23 Points)

There is a saying in football called 'second season syndrome' and if you looked it up, you'll probably find Sheffield United in this list. In their first season back in the Premier League, they nearly achieved European football, as they sat just one point behind 6th placed Wolves with three games to go. Worth noting that Sheffield United has just beaten Chelsea 3-0 who sat in third and two of their remaining games were against teams below them. They lost all three against Leicester, Everton and Southampton and missed out. The next season, they were dreadful. For 17 games, it looked like Sheffield United were guaranteed to break Derby County's record low points total. However, three wins in 20 days gave Blades fans hope of a great escape, they beat Newcastle United, [Manchester United]/betting/football/england-premier-league/manchester-united) and West Bromwich Albion and sat 11 points behind safety but just three points off 18th. They went on to lose 12 of their next 16 games and at the end of the day, they simply didn't score enough goals, scoring 20 goals across the season.

However, where it got worse for Sheffield United was despite the fans accepting relegation was immanent, their manager Chris Wilder had reportedly clashed with the club ownership and board which led to him resigning. Under 23's manager Paul Heckingbottom came in and did a solid job as the Blades picked up three of their seven league wins in their final six games.

Number Eight: Norwich City 2021-22 (22 Points)

After just 2 points in their first 10 games, it comes as no surprise that Norwich ended up on this list. Signed off by a 7-0 defeat to Chelsea and a 1-2 home defeat to Leeds United, Daniel Farke was sacked as Norwich City manager. It immediately looked like Norwich were set to bounce back with back-to-back victories over Brentford and Southampton but they would be their only wins until after Christmas. The club would end with three wins in their final 18 games and a draw in their penultimate match away to Wolves. Their downfall was goals conceded with just 23 goals scored and 84 conceded, which was one of the worst Premier League records in history. Out of those 23 league goals, 11 were scored by Teemu Pukki, Josh Sargent scoring twice and 9 other players scoring once.

Norwich began their first top flight campaign by finishing in third place, scoring 61 goals in the process, which is coincidentally, the same number of goals conceded over goals scored for Norwich during this season. Club management demanded a change but that change left them 13th in the Championship the following season.

Number Seven: Norwich City 2019-20 (21 Points)

Back to back entries for Norwich City - who historically have one of the worst records in Premier League history, 10 seasons in the division and six relegations in those seasons. Despite having their high ever finish in the 1992-92 season. The club suffered relegations in 1994-95, 2004-05, 2013-14, 2015-16, 2019-20 and 2021-22. However, their worst was in 2019-20; the season started well with their first win coming against Newcastle United and they followed that up with a huge victory over Manchester City in their next home game. It would take them 20 more games to get two more victories and they spent October to May in the relegation zone despite the club sticking with manager Daniel Farke. You couldn't blame Norwich for sacking Farke, especially with 10 defeats in a row at the end of the season with the club scoring just once in the process, during a 2-1 defeat to fellow relegated side Watford.

Norwich went on to have a successful spell in the second tier of English football but were immediately relegated again the following season - as seen above. But they did pick up one extra point!

Number Six: Portsmouth 2009-10 (19 Points)

Without a points deduction, Portsmouth don't make it onto this list. However, as the season ended they were rightfully relegated after spending almost the entire season rooted to the bottom of the table. The club started the season with seven successive losses before a 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers. Until December 19th, Portsmouth had more League Cup victories than Premier League victories and a 2-0 win over Liverpool was the highlight on their league season. In March, they were docked nine points for entering administration and unfortunately, this led to the club finishing on 19 Premier League points instead of 28.

The strange thing about Portsmouth's 2009-10 season is that they made it to the FA Cup final, losing to Chelsea 0-1 in the final thanks to a 59th minute header from Didier Drogba. They also made the fifth round of the Football League Cup, losing to Aston Villa. Portsmouth would pick up eight wins in domestic cup competitions out of eleven matches, their record in the league? 7 wins in 38 games.

Number Five: Sunderland AFC 2002-03 (19 Points)

Just two seasons after finishing 7th in the Premier League, Sunderland found themselves setting the record for the lowest points total in Premier League history in 2003. They scored just 29 goals the season before and brought in some firepower in Tore Andre Flo and Marcus Stewart for a combined £10 million with the hopes that it would lessen the burden on an aging Kevin Phillips. However, the experiment didn't work, Sunderland simply didn't create enough for their strikers who still scored 11 Premier League goals between them. They performed well in the cups, eliminating Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers from domestic competitions, all three teams got their revenge in the following league games with Arsenal finishing the campaign with a 4-0 win at the Stadium of Light, sending Sunderland down to the second tier after an awful campaign.

Sunderland had three managers over the campaign with the club hastily sacking Peter Reid with the team sat in 17th position after a 1-3 defeat against Arsenal. Howard Wilkinson came in for five months and won just two league games during that time. Mick McCarthy would manage the club for the final nine games and lose them all with the club scoring just two goals during that time.

Sunderland set many records during this season, including:

• 15 Consecutive Defeats (most in history)
• Fewest goals scored by a top flight club.

Number Four: Aston Villa 2015-16 (17 Points)

In the modern day, Aston Villa are viewed as a top Premier League team, so for those who are new to Football, it may come as a surprise that they're on the list of Premier League lowest points totals. However, their 2015-16 campaign left one of the Premier League's biggest clubs in disarray. The campaign started well as Aston Villa picked up their only away victory during the season in their opening game, beating Bournemouth 1-0 thanks to a goal from Rudy Gestede. The previous few seasons had shown that Villa were in decline but nobody could have expected one of the worst Premier League teams to follow. Villa would fail to win any of their next 19 games and as a result a team that featured Joleon Lescott, Micah Richards, Idrissa Gueye and upcoming youngster Jack Grealish would be relegated.

Tim Sherwood was an early departure at Aston Villa and it could be arguably he was mistakenly sacked midway through the season and replaced with Remi Garde - well, it likely wasn't a mistake sacking Sherwood but replacing him with Garde led to a horror show where Garde briefly dropping talented youngster Grealish just two games into his Aston Villa managerial career, Grealish would go onto play just nine matches that season. The only saving grace of this season was that in the Championship Grealish shone and helped Villa return to the top flight.

Number Three: Huddersfield Town 2018-19 (16 Points)

We've had four seasons in a row between 2021/22 to 2018/19 and after a fantastic performance leaving them in 16th during the previous season. Huddersfield Town became the third worst team in Premier League history during this campaign. The campaign started well with the signings of Terence Kongolo, Jonas Lossl, Erik Durm and Adam Diakhaby made it look like another good season awaited David Wagner's side. However, they failed to start the season as well as their last with draws against Burnley, Everton and Cardiff being their only three points in 10 games. This was followed by wins against Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers which left Huddersfield in 14th. The club would go onto lose 21 of their remaining 25 games, the highlight of that period? A draw against Manchester United before they dropped back into the second tier.

David Wagner was sacked from the managers position on January 14th, following a 0-0 draw with Cardiff City (which subsequently came after a run of eight defeats in a row). However, his replacement Jan Siewert was no better and Huddersfield were relegated with a whimper. Huddersfield did the double over Wolves during that season but if they had lost those games - they would have been the worst Premier League team of all time.

Number Two: Sunderland AFC 2005-06 (15 Points)

It gets worse for Sunderland in their third mention on this list and the second time they broke the record for the lowest points total. During this season, they only spent one weekend outside of the relegation places and that was following a run of three games without defeat - their best during that Premier League season. The club let go of top goalscorer Marcus Stewart at the start of the campaign and an injury to Stephen Elliott meant that Sunderland needed new signings Jon Stead, Andy Gray and Anthony Le Tallec to hit the ground running. However, two goals in their first five games and 0 points led Sunderland fans fearing the worst before draws at home against West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United and a local derby victory against Middlesbrough at the Riverside stadium gave them hope. It was short live as defeats to Manchester United and local rivals Newcastle United saw them drop back into the relegation zone for the rest of the season.

Newcastle legend Steve Watson would give Sunderland their second win of the season with an own goal while he played at West Brom. They ended the season in slightly better form after the sacking of Mick McCarthy and the hiring of former Sunderland player Kevin Ball. The club picked up draws at Goodison Park and Old Trafford alongside a victory against Fulham in their final seven games which left them with just three wins over the season.

Sunderland have had some bad seasons over the years but 2005-06 may be on par with their relegation to the EFL League One in 2018.

The worst Premier League team in Premier League History are:

Number One: Derby County 2007-08 (11 Points)

Unfortunately for Derby, there has to be one team that are announced the worst Premier League team in history and in this case - it is them. Their 2007/08 campaign actually got off to a reasonable start, drawing with Portsmouth, some narrow defeats against Birmingham City and Manchester City but two drubbings at White Hart Lane and at Anfield - certainly no disgrace. Following that, they got their first and only win of the season at home to Newcastle United as Steven Bywater's long kick kindly dropped to Kenny Miller who smashed the ball into the top corner from 30 yards. Derby were able to hold on despite numerous penalty claims and good saves by Bywater. Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce claimed his side were affected by the international break with 14 players away but it was no excuse for being the only team to lose to the team with the worst Premier League record in a season.

Derby would only pick up 7 points from their remaining 32 games, despite the signings of Danny Mills, Emanuel Villa, Robbie Savage and Alan Stubbs in the January transfer window. They only scored 20 goals during the entire league campaign and Kenny Miller picked up the most with four. Their only other win of the season came against Sheffield Wednesday in an FA Cup win.

Derby County were never going to survive but they somehow became worst following the sacking of their manager Billy Davies, who was replaced by Paul Jewell on November 26th. Neither will want to take responsibility for this horrendous season. However, if we want to give a positive, Derby's lowest home attendance for the season was 30,048, an astounding reaction to the club playing top flight football - despite it resulting in a record low points total and an abysmal season. Brilliant from the Derby fans, less so by the Derby County team on the pitch.

Worst Teams in Premier League History

The worst individual team in Premier League history are Derby County from 2007-08. However, when it comes to points per season, it is actually Huddersfield Town who sit at the bottom with an average of 26.5 points per season. Derby County were a successful Premier League team for their standards back in the late 1990s and that has them sat in 38th position out of 51. Similarly, Sunderland who feature three times in this list - more than any other team have an average of 38.63 points over their 16 seasons. Worth noting that every team below them - except West Bromwich Albion has played less than 10 seasons in the Premier League.

In regards to statistics, Norwich City have been relegated more than any other club and theoretically sit as the worst team in Premier League history because of that and as West Bromwich Albion are the only club on five relegations, they will likely hold that record for at least another five years.