Premier League points record: City's 100-point benchmark

Manchester City hold the Premier League points record with 100. Explore the closest challengers, the best runners-up and other points landmarks.

The Premier League points record is 100, set by Manchester City in 2017/18. They finished their 38-match campaign with 32 wins, four draws and two defeats, establishing the single-season benchmark that still stands at the time of writing. Liverpool came closest with 99 points in 2019/20, while City themselves reached 98 in 2018/19. Those are the headline numbers, but the story gets more interesting when you look at how the points were collected, and how one of the competition’s greatest totals was not even enough to win the title.

How Manchester City reached 100 points

City’s record season was about much more than scraping over a memorable finishing line. They scored 106 goals, conceded 27 and ended with a goal difference of +79. The Premier League’s official records list both that goals total and goal difference as single-season bests at the time of writing. Their 32 victories supplied the bulk of the points, with four draws completing the century. It is a useful reminder that a record-breaking campaign need not be an unbeaten one: City lost twice, but won so relentlessly that those defeats did not stop them setting the standard.

The away form is particularly revealing. City collected 50 points on their travels in 2017/18, the Premier League record, and won 16 away matches. That meant their century was split evenly between home and away fixtures: this was not simply a team making its own ground a fortress. They also finished 19 points ahead of Manchester United, who took second place with 81. That remains the competition’s biggest title-winning margin at the time of writing. The points total measures City’s output; the gap to United shows how far clear they were of their nearest challenger.

The highest Premier League points totals

The leading five totals in the supplied records are Manchester City’s 100 in 2017/18, Liverpool’s 99 in 2019/20, City’s 98 in 2018/19, Liverpool’s 97 in 2018/19 and Chelsea’s 95 in 2004/05. All came over 38 matches, making this a straightforward comparison of season totals without an adjustment for fixture numbers. Chelsea’s campaign offers a striking contrast to City’s century: they conceded just 15 goals and recorded 25 clean sheets, both listed as Premier League records. There is more than one way to build an extraordinary points haul, even if every route demands sustained excellence.

Liverpool’s 99-point title season is the closest anyone has come to City’s record at the time of writing. Their 2019/20 return comprised 32 wins, three draws and three defeats. Compare that with City’s 100-point season and the difference is wonderfully simple: the same number of victories, but one fewer draw and one more loss. Liverpool also secured the title with seven games remaining, the competition record. That distinction matters: wrapping up the championship earliest and finishing with the most points are separate achievements. One depends on the title race being settled; the other counts everything through to the final table.

Then there is Liverpool’s 2018/19 season, the ultimate warning against treating any points total as a guaranteed ticket to the trophy. They earned 97 points from 30 wins, seven draws and only one defeat, yet finished behind City on 98. Liverpool therefore hold the record for the most Premier League points without winning the title. City lost four matches that season but won 32, illustrating why fewer defeats do not necessarily mean more points. For Liverpool supporters, it is a particularly painful piece of arithmetic: an exceptional campaign met another that was just good enough to beat it.

Other points records and common mix-ups

An unbeaten season is not the same thing as a points-record season. Arsenal’s 2003/04 title-winning campaign remains the Premier League’s undefeated championship season in the supplied records, but City’s 2017/18 side hold the points benchmark. Nor should the single-season record be confused with a cumulative all-time league table, which adds together a club’s returns across campaigns. The scope matters historically, too: these are Premier League records, covering the competition formed in 1992, rather than a complete account of English top-flight football. Being precise about the question saves plenty of circular pub arguments.

At the other end of the scale, Derby County’s 11 points in 2007/08 are the lowest single-season Premier League total, while Manchester United’s 75 in 1996/97 are the fewest collected by champions. The home-only high is 55 points, shared by Chelsea in 2005/06, United in 2010/11, City in 2011/12 and Liverpool in 2019/20. These records underline why context is essential: winning the league means finishing above that season’s opponents, not meeting a fixed target. But for the straightforward question of the most points earned in one Premier League season, the answer remains Manchester City’s 100.