58 Fun Facts About Premier League

Which club finished bottom of the inaugural Premier League table?

Nottingham Forest finished bottom with 40 points in the inaugural season, and Brian Clough retired after 18 years in charge.

Which broadcaster won the first Premier League live rights with a £304 million, five-year bid?

BSkyB paid £304 million for five seasons of live rights, outbidding ITV; the BBC took the Match of the Day highlights package.

Who scored the very first Premier League goal, on 15 August 1992?

Brian Deane headed in after five minutes against Manchester United and added a second-half penalty in the 2-1 win.

How many clubs played in the inaugural 1992-93 Premier League season?

22 clubs played in the inaugural season; the division was cut to 20 for 1995-96 by relegating four and promoting two.

Which of these clubs has NOT played in every Premier League season since 1992?

Aston Villa were relegated in 2016 and spent three seasons in the Championship; the other three clubs have played every Premier League season.

Which lager brand was the league's first title sponsor, from 1993 to 2001?

Carling's deal made it the FA Carling Premiership from 1993 to 2001; the first season had no title sponsor, and Barclaycard then Barclays followed until 2016.

Who is the Premier League's all-time record goalscorer, with 260 goals?

Alan Shearer finished with 260 Premier League goals and is the only player to reach 100 for two different clubs.

What world-record fee took the league's future record scorer from Blackburn to Newcastle in 1996?

The £15m fee was a world record in July 1996; he turned down Manchester United for Kevin Keegan's side and won a third straight Golden Boot that season.

Which club won the Premier League in 1994-95, the only title in its history?

Blackburn Rovers, bankrolled by steel magnate Jack Walker, pipped Manchester United by a point on the final day in 1995 and were relegated four years later.

Which manager, appointed by Jack Walker in 1991, won the 1994-95 Premier League title?

Kenny Dalglish moved upstairs to Director of Football after the title and handed the team to his assistant, Ray Harford.

At what pre-season odds did bookmakers price Leicester City to win the 2015-16 Premier League?

Leicester were 5000/1 before the season; they were confirmed champions on 2 May 2016 when their closest rivals could only draw at Chelsea.

Jamie Vardy set which Premier League record during Leicester's title-winning season?

He scored in 11 straight games between August and November 2015; Ruud van Nistelrooy had held the record at 10.

Which club was Jamie Vardy playing for before Leicester paid a non-League record £1 million for him in 2012?

Fleetwood Town sold him in May 2012 after his 31 league goals won them the Conference title; he had been released by Sheffield Wednesday at 16.

What was the win-draw record of Arsenal's unbeaten 2003-04 'Invincibles' league season?

Arsenal's record was 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats for 90 points, and the Premier League struck them a golden replica trophy.

How many league games did Arsenal's record unbeaten run stretch to before it ended in October 2004?

The run ended at 49 games at Old Trafford in the ill-tempered 'Battle of the Buffet', where a young Wayne Rooney won a disputed penalty.

Which manager's side became the first to reach 100 points in a Premier League season, in 2017-18?

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City reached 100 points in 2017-18, also setting records for wins (32), goals (106) and goal difference (+79).

Which club's 11 points in 2007-08 is the fewest ever in a 38-game Premier League season?

Derby County won just once all season, equalling a 108-year-old Football League record set by Loughborough, and were relegated in March.

Which player has made the most Premier League appearances as a substitute?

James Milner has come off the bench more often than anyone in Premier League history, after debuting for Leeds as a 16-year-old in November 2002.

How many goals did Erling Haaland score in 2022–23, a 38-game Premier League record?

Haaland's 36 league goals beat the previous 38-game record of 32 set in 2017-18; he scored 52 in all competitions as City won the treble.

Who was the first player to reach 12 Premier League hat-tricks?

Sergio Agüero reached 12 hat-tricks in January 2020, passing the previous record of 11, all of them for Manchester City.

How long did Sadio Mané take to score the fastest Premier League hat-trick in May 2015?

Mané's 2 minutes 56 seconds came for Southampton; Robbie Fowler's 4-minute-33-second treble had stood as the record since 1994.

Which player scored in each of the first 21 Premier League seasons and holds the record for most assists?

Ryan Giggs scored in the first 21 seasons and finished with 162 assists, a record, all for Manchester United.

Which goalkeeper holds the record for most Premier League clean sheets, with 202?

Petr Čech finished with 202 clean sheets, including 24 in 2004-05 alone as Chelsea conceded just 15 goals, another record.

Who scored the fastest goal in Premier League history, timed at 7.69 seconds?

Shane Long's 7.69-second strike for Southampton at Watford in April 2019 beat Ledley King's 2000 record of 9.82 seconds.

Manchester United's 1998-99 side was the first English club to win which trio of trophies in one season?

The trio was League, FA Cup, Champions League; the last leg came via two stoppage-time goals against Bayern Munich in Barcelona.

The 2011-12 stoppage-time winner against QPR gave Manchester City their first title since which year?

City's last title before 2012 had come in 1968; United had already won their final game 1-0 and thought they were champions, but both finished on 89 points and goal difference decided it.

Sheikh Mansour bought Manchester City in 2008 through a group based in which emirate?

The Abu Dhabi United Group completed the takeover in September 2008; the FA Cup arrived in 2011 and the first Premier League title a year later.

Manchester City's four in a row from 2020-21 to 2023-24 broke which English record?

No club had ever won four in a row in the English top flight; Huddersfield, Arsenal, Liverpool and United had all stalled at three.

Liverpool's 2019-20 title, its first of the Premier League era, ended a wait of how many years?

The wait was 30 years, from the 1989-90 title; Klopp's side clinched it with seven games to spare, the earliest any Premier League title has been decided.

Excluding debt, what did Abramovich pay for Chelsea's shares in June 2003?

The shares cost £60m at 35p each, with Abramovich also taking on around £80m of debt; two seasons later Chelsea won a first league title in 50 years with 95 points.

Eric Cantona's 'kung-fu' kick into the crowd in January 1995 came in an away match at which club?

The match was at Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park; he was banned for eight months and a two-week prison sentence was reduced on appeal to 120 hours of community service.

David Beckham's famous goal from the halfway line on the opening day of 1996-97 came against which club?

He spotted keeper Neil Sullivan off his line with United already 2-0 up at Selhurst Park.

Who won the first ever Premier League Golden Boot in 1993?

Teddy Sheringham's 22 goals won the first Golden Boot, 21 of them after an August transfer; the lowest winning tally ever is 18, shared three ways twice.

Who first recorded 20 goals and 20 assists in a single Premier League season?

Thierry Henry managed 24 goals and 20 assists in 2002-03, the season before Arsenal's unbeaten campaign.

Who shares the Premier League red-card record of eight with Patrick Vieira and Duncan Ferguson?

Richard Dunne's eight red cards tie the record, and he also holds the record for the most Premier League own goals, with 10.

Which player has the most yellow cards in Premier League history, with 123?

Gareth Barry collected 123 yellow cards over a record 653 Premier League appearances, and also committed the most fouls (633) since records began in 2006-07.

Which player has scored the most Premier League goals with headers, with 53?

Peter Crouch scored 53 of his 108 Premier League goals with his head, more than anyone else.

Which player has scored against the most different Premier League clubs, 39 in total?

Frank Lampard scored against 39 different clubs across spells with West Ham, Chelsea and Manchester City, finishing with 177 Premier League goals.

On Boxing Day of which year did Chelsea field the first Premier League XI with no Britons?

Chelsea's all-foreign XI played Southampton on 26 December 1999; Arsenal followed in 2005 with a wholly foreign 16-man matchday squad.

Which Welsh club became the first non-English side to play in the Premier League, in 2011?

Swansea City's home game against Wigan on 20 August 2011 was the first Premier League match played outside England.

Which season saw VAR introduced to the Premier League?

VAR arrived for 2019-20 after clubs voted for it in November 2018; it can only intervene on goals, penalties, straight red cards and mistaken identity.

What is the record Premier League winning margin, achieved by Manchester United (twice) and Liverpool?

Leicester matched it away from home with a 9-0 win at Southampton in 2019.

Which of these players has NOT scored five goals in a Premier League game, as Andy Cole did against Ipswich in 1995?

Alan Shearer is the other member of the club, with five against Sheffield Wednesday in 1999.

Wayne Rooney's first Premier League goal, against Arsenal in 2002, came five days before which birthday?

Rooney was five days short of his 17th birthday; he beat David Seaman with a late curler, ended Arsenal's long unbeaten run and briefly became the league's youngest scorer.

For which club did one striker score 213 Premier League goals before joining Bayern?

The striker's 213 came for Tottenham Hotspur, a record for a single club when he left for Bayern Munich in 2023 as the most expensive signing in Bundesliga history.

The player who set the 38-game record of 32 goals in 2017-18 had joined Liverpool from which club?

Liverpool signed him from Roma in June 2017 for a then club-record fee; he had earlier flopped at Chelsea after an £11 million move in 2014 and been loaned to Italy.

Which two clubs had never been relegated from the Premier League as of the end of 2024-25?

Brighton came up in 2017 and Brentford in 2021, and neither had gone down by the end of the 2024-25 season.

Which manager has won the most Premier League Manager of the Month awards, with 27?

Alex Ferguson won 27 Manager of the Month awards at Manchester United over 21 seasons; Jürgen Klopp holds the single-season record with five.

The highest attendance for a Premier League match, 83,222, was set in 2018 at which ground?

Wembley Stadium hosted the game while Spurs' new ground was built; the match was a 1-0 north London derby win over Arsenal on 10 February 2018.

Who is the oldest player to appear in a Premier League match, at 43 years and 162 days in 1995?

John Burridge, a veteran goalkeeper, came on for Manchester City against QPR in May 1995; the oldest scorer managed it at 40 in 2006.

What is the record number of Premier League winner's medals collected by a single player?

The 13 medals all belong to one Manchester United winger, who played in every title-winning season from the league's first to 2012-13.

In which season did Leicester City become the second Premier League champion to be relegated?

Leicester went down in 2022-23, seven years after their title, finishing 18th; they bounced straight back as Championship winners.

Which club conceded a record 104 goals in the 2023-24 Premier League season?

Sheffield United also managed just one clean sheet all season and lost to every other team at least once.

Which club holds the record of 20 consecutive Premier League defeats, spanning 2002-03 and 2005-06?

Sunderland lost the last 15 games of 2002-03 and the first five of 2005-06, and both campaigns ended in relegation.

Who managed Chelsea when they conceded a record 15 goals in the 2004-05 Premier League?

José Mourinho's first Chelsea side won the title with 95 points, conceding just 15 goals in 38 games.

Which TV executive dined with the 'Big Five' clubs in 1990 to pave the way for the breakaway league?

Greg Dyke ran London Weekend Television and hosted the November 1990 dinner, yet ITV then lost the first live-rights auction to a satellite rival.

Which club was the first to be docked points in the Premier League, in 1996-97?

Middlesbrough were deducted three points for calling off a December 1996 fixture because of illness and injuries, and were relegated by two points that season.

A 2021 Leicester v Crystal Palace match was paused for what believed-first reason?

The game was paused to let Muslim players break their Ramadan fast: Wesley Fofana and Cheikhou Kouyaté ate and drank at sunset on 26 April 2021, believed to be a Premier League first.