The Premier League is probably one of the most closely fought and closely matched leagues in the world, which explains its immense popularity all over the globe. No team has dominated the league for years, rather having very brief periods of dominance unlike the leagues in Italy, Germany, France and Spain.
To lift the Premier League title, consistently winning matches, and not just drawing them, is key, as has been shown over the last few years. Let’s take a look at 6 times the runner-up finished with fewer defeats than the Premier League champions:
Liverpool (2018-19)
Liverpool’s 2018-19 Premier League campaign was quite an unbelievable one. The Reds pushed the reigning champions, Manchester City, till the last day of the season, but fell short by just one point. Jurgen Klopp’s side finished with 97 points, a total which would have guaranteed them the title in 25 of the last 27 seasons. Liverpool lost just once in the league this season, a 2-1 defeat to eventual champions Manchester City at the Etihad, while Pep Guardiola’s men lost 4 games in the season, but had more wins at 32 compared to Liverpool’s 30 wins.
Tottenham Hotspur (2016-17)
The 2016-17 Premier League season was the season where Mauricio Pochettino truly showed that he’s one of the best managers in the world. The Argentine manager took a talented and young Spurs team to the brink of a Premier League title, falling short of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea team by 7 points. Spurs lost just 4 matches in the season, while champions Chelsea lost 5 times. Pochettino’s team lost to Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and West Ham United in the season.
Liverpool (2008-09)
A decade before their narrow loss to City in the Premier League, Liverpool had the chance to stop Manchester United from equalling their record for most top-flight English titles (18) but fell short by 4 points. Steven Gerrard had a fabulous year under Rafa Benitez at Liverpool, while striker Fernando Torres was a star for the Reds too. Liverpool lost just twice in the entire season, while champions Manchester United lost 4 times, but racked up 3 more wins than the Merseyside club.
Chelsea (2006-07) and (2007-08)
Chelsea finished runners-up to Manchester United in back-to-back seasons after their back-to-back title wins under Jose Mourinho in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. In both seasons that they finished second to United, they lost just 3 matches to Manchester United’s 5 matches. The Blues finished with identical points, finishing the 2006-07 season with 83 points with United 6 points ahead of them at the top, and 85 points in the 2007-08 season, but the gap had closed down to just 2 points between them and the Red Devils, with Arsenal at 83 points in third.
Manchester United (1994-95)
The 94-95 Premier League title was a closely fought one, where Blackburn Rovers and the strike duo of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton ran the Premier League defences ragged. They won their first and only Premier League till date (3 English league titles in total) by edging Manchester United by just a point. Rovers lost 7 games in that season, and while Manchester United lost 1 less than them, they also won 1 game less than Rovers. Rovers finished with 89 points while Manchester United narrowly missed out and finished with 88 points.