Which teams have held leads for the longest and which have been losing games the most often? We look over Premier League game states across the opening 10 matchweeks of 2023-24.
Now that we’re 10 games into the 2023-24 Premier League season, it feels like an ideal point to look at how long each team have spent winning, drawing and losing across their matches so far.
Tottenham Hotspur lead the Premier League table, with their 26-point tally from Ange Postecoglou’s first 10 games as a manager in the competition earning him a record. No manager has won as many points in their first 10 games as a EPL coach, with the Australian’s haul one greater than Guus Hiddink’s 25 points in his opening 10 matches as Chelsea interim coach in the second half of 2008-09.
Spurs’ strong start has been helped by the fact that they have spent just 6% of minutes in a losing position this season – a league best.
Those minutes have come across four matches, with Spurs showing their excellence in coming from behind to win two of them (away at Burnley and at home to Sheffield United) and draw the other two (at Brentford on MD 1 and away to rivals Arsenal).
The only team to recover more points from losing positions are Liverpool (10), who have won those points despite trailing for just 17% of minutes in 2023-24.
Reigning champions Manchester City have spent the longest proportion of match time in a winning position (54%), just ahead of Newcastle United (52%). City’s record when in the lead is imperious, winning all eight of the league games that they’ve been ahead in. The only other two clubs yet to lose a point from a winning position are Aston Villa, who have won all seven Premier League matches that they’ve led in, and less impressively, Luton Town – the Hatters have only been leading in one match, which was their win at Everton.
It’ll come as little surprise to see the bottom four clubs in the Premier League table as the four teams to spend the longest time in losing positions (Burnley, Bournemouth, Luton and Sheffield United), but Manchester United’s numbers are alarming.
Erik ten Hag’s side have spent the fifth-highest amount of time in a losing position (40% of game time) and only Bournemouth (12%), Luton (8%) and Sheffield United (4%) have spent less time in a winning position across their 10 matches than the Red Devils (13%).
Man Utd have won five of their 10 matches this season in the Premier League but held a lead across more than one half of football in just one of those matches – their 1-0 win at Burnley, thanks to Bruno Fernandes’ strike in first-half stoppage time. One of their wins saw them score twice in second-half injury time to defeat Brentford at Old Trafford, with Scott McTominay’s brace breaking a club record in the competition.
Sheffield United’s grim start to life back in the Premier League has seen them hold a lead in just two matches this season: Everton at home and Tottenham away, both in September. They won just one point from those games, despite leading in the second half of both. Their 2-1 loss at Spurs featured the latest winning Premier League goal on record, with Dejan Kulusevski’s strike coming on 99 minutes and 53 seconds – just two minutes and 20 seconds after Richarlison had equalised for Spurs.
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