Winning the Premier League is hard enough. Winning it with 90-plus points? That’s usually the sign of a team that has spent nine months making everyone else look distinctly average.
Only one side has ever reached the magical 100-point mark in England’s top flight, while several others have come agonisingly close.
Some cruised to the title by spring, others somehow racked up ridiculous totals and still finished second. Football can be a cruel game.
We have already taken a look at the lowest ever Premier League points totals, but here we have a look at the highest points totals in Premier League history.
Manchester City (2017-18) – 100 Points
Manchester City didn’t just win the Premier League in 2017-18 – they treated the rest of the division like training cones.
Pep Guardiola’s side became the first and still only team in English top-flight history to hit 100 points, although they left it until the very last kick of the season.
Gabriel Jesus bundled home a stoppage-time winner against Southampton on the final day to take City into triple figures. Dramatic? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.
The records piled up almost as quickly as the goals. City won 32 of their 38 league matches, scored a staggering 106 goals and finished with a goal difference of +79.
They also won 18 league games in a row, a record at the time, proving that losing simply wasn’t on the agenda.
Away from home they were just as ruthless. Sixteen away victories matched the all-time English top-flight record, while their 50 away points remain one of the best road campaigns the Premier League has ever seen.
Safe to say they weren’t exactly bothered by hostile atmospheres.
If that wasn’t enough, City finished a remarkable 19 points clear of rivals Manchester United. That’s less of a title race and more of a public demonstration.
For Guardiola, it was another masterpiece. Having already collected league titles in Spain and Germany, he finally spectacularly conquered England.
The rest of the Premier League spent the season wondering how on earth they were supposed to stop them.
Liverpool (2019-20) – 99 points
Liverpool had waited 30 years to become champions of England again, so it’s fair to say they made up for lost time.
Jürgen Klopp’s side were relentless throughout the 2019-20 campaign, storming to 99 points despite one of the most bizarre seasons football has ever seen.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt in March, but even a three-month break couldn’t stop Liverpool marching towards the title.
By the time football paused, the Reds were already 25 points clear at the top. They looked capable of joining the 100-point club, but after the restart their intensity understandably dipped.
Even so, they still finished with the second-highest points total in Premier League history.
Liverpool also matched Manchester City’s record of 18 consecutive league wins and wrapped up the title with seven games to spare after Chelsea beat City at Stamford Bridge. No Premier League champion has ever been crowned earlier.
It was the crowning moment of Klopp’s rebuilding project. After years of near misses and heartbreak, Liverpool were finally back on their perch.
Even if there wasn’t a packed Anfield there to witness it in person.
Manchester City (2018-19) – 98 Points
I promise this isn’t just a list of Man City and Liverpool’s best points totals.
Imagine collecting 98 points and still needing to win on the final day. Welcome to the 2018-19 Premier League season.
Manchester City and Liverpool produced arguably the greatest title race English football has ever seen, with Guardiola’s side eventually edging it by a single point.
One slip would have been enough to hand Liverpool the trophy, but City simply refused to blink.
After a surprise defeat at Newcastle in January, City responded in the only way they know how: by winning their final 14 league matches.
That’s the football equivalent of being told you’re behind in an exam and somehow scoring 100% anyway.
The final hurdle came away at Brighton. Glenn Murray briefly gave Liverpool fans hope by heading the Seagulls in front, but City hit back almost immediately through Sergio Agüero before Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and İlkay Gündoğan completed a comfortable 4-1 victory.
City ended the season with another 32 league wins, retained the Premier League title for the first time under Guardiola and completed a domestic clean sweep by adding the FA Cup and League Cup to their collection.
Not quite 100 points this time, but when you’re winning virtually everything else, it’s difficult to complain.
Liverpool (2018-19) – 97 Points
Liverpool’s 2018-19 season is one of the strangest great campaigns in Premier League history.
Usually, when a team reaches 97 points, the trophy parade is being planned, the champagne is chilling and fans are already arguing about where the statue should go.
Instead, Liverpool had to watch Manchester City celebrate after producing the second-highest points total ever recorded at the time.
That tells you everything about just how ridiculous this title race was.
Jürgen Klopp’s side pushed City all the way, losing just one league game all season and finishing with 97 points. The problem? That one defeat came at the wrong time and City were simply flawless when it mattered most.
Liverpool’s total remains the highest points tally by a team that has failed to win the English top-flight title. They became the first and only team to collect more than 90 points, win 30 matches and still finish second.
A normal season would have seen Liverpool lifting the trophy. Unfortunately for them, they happened to come up against one of the greatest Premier League teams ever assembled.
Defensively, they were almost impossible to break down. The Reds kept 21 clean sheets and conceded just 22 goals throughout the campaign, with only Arsenal’s famous 1998-99 defence conceding fewer goals in a Premier League season without winning the title.
At the other end of the pitch, they weren’t exactly struggling either. Liverpool scored 89 goals, while Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané both finished with 22 league goals to share the Golden Boot alongside Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The frustrating thing for Liverpool fans? In almost any other year, this would have been a title-winning season.
Instead, it became the ultimate example of football’s cruel timing. Sometimes being brilliant just isn’t enough.
Chelsea (2004-05) – 95 Points
Before Manchester City and Liverpool turned Premier League title races into 90-point battles, José Mourinho’s Chelsea showed everyone what dominance looked like.
‘The Special One’ arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2004 with plenty of confidence, having just won back-to-back league titles in Portugal and a Champions League with Porto. He quickly made it clear that he wasn’t coming to England to simply compete.
He was coming to take over.
Chelsea’s first season under Mourinho was built on a defence that was almost impossible to beat. They conceded just 15 goals all season, kept 25 clean sheets and turned Stamford Bridge into something of a football fortress.
For comparison, some teams concede 15 goals over a decent two-month spell. Chelsea managed it across an entire Premier League season.
Their defensive record was so impressive that the only other English top-flight side to concede as few goals in a season was Preston North End way back in 1888-89. The small catch? Preston only played 22 games that season.
Chelsea’s 95 points was a Premier League record at the time and remained the highest points total in English top-flight history until Manchester City’s 100-point monster campaign in 2017-18.
It was also the club’s first league title in 50 years, ending half a century of waiting and beginning one of the most successful eras in their history.
Mourinho’s squad was packed with players who would become Stamford Bridge legends. Didier Drogba, Petr Čech, Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira and Arjen Robben all arrived as part of a new-look Chelsea side built to dominate.
And dominate they did.
The average age of Chelsea’s starting XI was just 25 years and 250 days, making them the youngest team ever to win the Premier League title at the time. Despite their youth, they played with the confidence of a side that had been together for years.
Goalkeeper Petr Čech was a huge part of that success, conceding just 13 goals in his 35 league appearances and keeping a record-breaking 24 clean sheets – a Premier League record that still stands.
