Why Is It Almost Impossible to Break These 10 Premier League Team Records?
By Why Is It NOT Possible? Editorial·November 6, 2026·8 min read
Winning the Premier League does not necessarily bring a team close to these records. Some of these records have survived challenges from outstanding teams. Others have already been equalled. The question is how much further a team could realistically go—and, in Arsenal’s case, whether the achievement can be improved on at all.
1. Arsenal’s Invincible season: no defeats in 38 matches
Arsenal finished the 2003–04 Premier League season with 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats. They remain the competition’s only team to complete a whole campaign unbeaten. www.premierleague.com
The draws matter. This was never a case of Thierry Henry and company sweeping everyone aside. On days when Arsenal could not win, they usually had enough control, defensive strength or sheer stubbornness to avoid losing.
At Old Trafford in September 2003, Ruud van Nistelrooy hit the crossbar with a late penalty. Arsenal escaped with a draw. They could easily have lost their unbeaten record that afternoon.
There is a limit to what even an outstanding squad can control over 38 games. A penalty, a dismissal or a goalkeeper’s mistake can leave the better side beaten. Nobody can finish with fewer than zero defeats. The challenge is to join them.
2. Manchester City’s 100-point season
Manchester City were seconds away from finishing the 2017–18 season on 98 points. Then Gabriel Jesus lifted the ball over Southampton’s goalkeeper in stoppage time, and City had their hundred. www.mancity.com
Guardiola’s team could keep opponents defending for long periods, with fresh attacks arriving before they had recovered from the last. Yet even City could not turn that control into three points every week.
To beat 100 points in a 38-game season, a team can drop no more than 13 of the available 114. A draw costs two. A defeat costs three. A short spell of ordinary results can use up much of that allowance.
Liverpool finished on 99 points in 2019–20. That makes City’s record look beatable, but it also shows that winning the league convincingly does not necessarily get a team to a hundred. www.premierleague.com
3. Chelsea conceding only 15 goals in a season
José Mourinho’s Chelsea conceded 15 Premier League goals in 2004–05 and kept 25 clean sheets. Across 38 matches, opponents scored against them in just 13.
Terry and Carvalho had Čech behind them and Makélélé screening the defence. Opponents often struggled to get a clear chance, and Čech could still save Chelsea when they did. At Blackburn, Čech had to save Paul Dickov’s penalty to keep another clean sheet intact. www.chelseafc.com
The difficulty is how little a challenger can afford to concede on its worst days. A 4–3 victory may be a wonderful result in a title race. For a team trying to finish below 15 goals conceded, those three goals are expensive. A defence could remain excellent for months and lose its chance at this record in a couple of matches.
4. Manchester City’s four consecutive titles
City won the Premier League in 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23 and 2023–24. They became the first men’s team to win four successive English top-flight titles, including the years before the Premier League existed. live.mancity.com
Four titles require more than preserving a successful starting eleven. Players age, leave or lose form. New signings need to fit. Opponents spend entire summers working out how to stop the champions. In 2021–22, Liverpool finished only one point behind City. In 2023–24, Arsenal finished two behind. One different result could have interrupted the sequence.
A club seeking five in a row would have to keep renewing its team while remaining ahead of every rival through five full campaigns. One rival putting together an exceptional season could end the run. A deep squad helps a club cope with injuries and a crowded schedule. It cannot guarantee the result of a title race decided by one or two points.
5. The shared record of 32 wins in a season
Chelsea’s 30 wins in 2016–17 set a record at the time, but the mark now stands at 32. Manchester City achieved it in 2017–18 and 2018–19; Liverpool matched it in 2019–20.
Breaking it means winning at least 33 of 38 matches. That leaves only five matches a team can draw or lose. This is a different demand from avoiding defeat. A well-earned away draw still works against the record. So does a home match in which a goalkeeper saves everything.
It is also distinct from the points record. A hypothetical team could win 33 matches, lose the other five and finish on 99 points. It would break the wins record without reaching City’s hundred.
The record has been reached three times, which makes it a plausible target. But a team chasing 33 wins cannot afford many afternoons when it dominates possession and comes away with a draw.
6. Manchester City and Liverpool’s 18 consecutive wins
City won 18 league matches in succession between August and December 2017. Liverpool equalled that run between October 2019 and February 2020. www.premierleague.com
Eighteen straight wins bring 54 points without interruption. There is no allowance for the draw that supporters might otherwise accept as a sensible result.
The end of City’s run shows how precarious that becomes. Crystal Palace held them 0–0 on New Year’s Eve, but the match could have ended in defeat: Ederson saved a late penalty. Liverpool’s sequence ended more emphatically, with a 3–0 loss at Watford. www.mancity.com
Across a run this long, a team has to win through different kinds of trouble: an opponent defending deep, tired legs after a European match, an early goal conceded.
7. Liverpool’s 24 consecutive home wins
Liverpool hold the Premier League record for consecutive home victories: 24, achieved across 2019 and 2020. www.liverpoolfc.com. Visiting teams could defend deep at Anfield and regard a draw as an excellent result. Liverpool had to keep finding ways through.
Burnley eventually did take that point in July 2020. Nick Pope repeatedly kept Liverpool out, Jay Rodriguez equalised, and a match the champions had created enough chances to win finished 1–1. www.skysports.com
With only 19 home fixtures in a normal Premier League season, a challenger must carry its winning form into another campaign. A summer break brings transfers, injuries and changes in form. The winning run has to survive those changes too.
8. Derby County’s 11-point season
Derby finished the 2007–08 campaign with 11 points. They won once, drew eight times and lost 29 matches. Derby supporters had to sit through months of this, and former players have spoken about how difficult that season was. Even a poor side will usually pick up points through an unexpected win, a goalless draw or a brief improvement after a managerial change.
Derby scored only 20 goals and conceded 89. www.bbc.co.uk. Yet “may never be broken” is less convincing here than it is for some of the achievements above. A severe mismatch between divisions could produce another disastrous campaign. Points deductions could also affect a future total.
To finish below Derby without a points deduction, a team would have to collect ten points or fewer from 38 matches.
9. Arsenal’s 49-match unbeaten league run
Arsenal’s unbeaten season accounted for 38 matches of a 49-game league run. From May 2003 to October 2004, Arsenal went 49 Premier League matches without defeat. Manchester United ended the run at Old Trafford. www.premierleague.com.
Another team could complete an unbeaten season and still be well short of 49. Arsenal had to rescue the run on some difficult afternoons. Against Liverpool in April 2004, they trailed 2–1 at half-time before winning 4–2. That came after elimination from both the FA Cup and Champions League within days. www.arsenal.com
The league sequence survived a week that could easily have unravelled their season. A future challenger must reach 50 matches, carrying its form through changes in fitness, confidence and opposition. Liverpool managed 44 during their rise to the 2019–20 title. Even that left another six unbeaten matches to find before they could move past Arsenal. www.liverpoolfc.com
10. Chelsea’s 86 home league matches unbeaten
Between 2004 and 2008, Chelsea went 86 Premier League home matches without losing. The sequence lasted through four managers: Claudio Ranieri, José Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari. www.premierleague.com
Draws were allowed, which gave them more room than Liverpool had during their winning streak. Chelsea still had to avoid a home league defeat for more than four years. Liverpool later reached 68 unbeaten home league games before Burnley beat them in January 2021. They were still 18 matches short of Chelsea—almost another full season of home fixtures.
Breaking the record would take 87 unbeaten home matches. A club could rebuild much of its team before the attempt was over, while opponents would need only one win to stop it.
Final Takeaway
If I had to pick one record to survive longest, it would be Chelsea’s 86 unbeaten home matches. Liverpool reached 68 and were still almost a full season of home fixtures short.
City’s 100-point record looks more vulnerable: Liverpool finished just one point behind that total in 2019–20. The 32-win record has already been equalled twice.
Arsenal’s unbeaten season belongs in a different category. Another team could repeat it, perhaps with more wins, but nobody can improve on zero defeats.