Aston Villa top the 2023/24 Premier League point-spaffing table as they claim CL football

Liverpool and Manchester City finish the season as the only Premier League teams not to lose from a winning position. Brentford have done frankly astonishing work at the other end in what has been something of a vintage season for point-spaffing.

Anyway, on we go. Liverpool and City, as well as losing no games at all from ahead also won seven each from behind. Go here to read all about points won from losing positions.

20) Brentford – 30 points dropped
22 leads, 10 wins, 6 draws, 6 defeats

Brentford dropped only 15 points from winning positions in the whole of 2022/23, and twice as many points in 2023/24. They lost twice from a winning position in the space of a week between January and February having done so only once in the whole of 2022/23.

The Bees shed more points than last year’s worst performers, Nottingham Forest, dropping 30 points from winning positions when only actually earning 39 altogether.

If you want a very specific example of how vital and useful a skill holding a lead is in this game, then the fact Brentford finished 16th having led only one game fewer than Aston Villa in 4th really is quite a good one.

19) Burnley – 27 points
16 leads, 5 wins, 6 draws, 5 defeats

Vincent Kompany said in February that “it’s about results now and about getting it over the line and keeping it out of the net”. Burnley lost their next two games and then drew with West Ham after leading 2-0 at half-time.

Their relegation was confirmed in a 2-1 defeat to Spurs, having gone in front through Jacob Bruun Larsen in the 25th minute. Dropping more points from winning positions than they won overall was a great bit.

18) Bournemouth – 27 points
24 leads, 13 wins, 6 draws, 5 defeats

On the one hand, only seven teams had the lead at some point in more games than Bournemouth, who were one ahead of both Aston Villa and West Ham on that front. But that is a lot of wastage from a side who lost 17 points from winning positions in 2022/23.

17) Nottingham Forest – 26 points
19 leads, 9 wins, 4 draws, 6 defeats

Not even Mark Clattenburg could explain such negligence, the absolute greatest example of which came as early as August when they took a 2-0 lead at Old Trafford inside four minutes before imploding.

16) Sheffield United – 23 points
13 leads, 3 wins, 4 draws, 6 defeats

In a delightful quirk of fate, Sheffield United and Everton’s 2-2 draw in September was the first instance of both sides winning points from behind and dropping points from in front this season.

Those really are a lot of points to shed for any team, never mind one recording the third-lowest tally in Premier League history. The defeat to Spurs after leading as late as the seventh minute of stoppage time still stings.

15) Crystal Palace – 23 points
22 leads, 13 wins, 4 draws, 5 defeats

It does not seem great but one of those defeats having led was in Roy Hodgson’s last game, the stoppage-time defeat to Chelsea, which likely contributed to Oliver Glasner’s arrival. So all’s well that ends well.

14) Luton Town – 22 points
14 leads, 6 wins, 2 draws, 6 defeats

They were ahead for three glorious minutes v Arsenal and longer v Manchester City. Luton also took the lead in both games against Liverpool, winning neither, while squandering a three-goal advantage to lose to Bournemouth.

13) West Ham – 21 points
23 leads, 14 wins, 6 draws, 3 defeats

Spaffing two leads to draw against Sheffield United was probably enough for everyone to decide David Moyes had to move on.

12) Tottenham – 20 points
28 leads, 20 wins, 4 draws, 4 defeats

Won eight and drew two of their opening ten games, then went on that ridiculous streak of opening the scoring in matches they still contrived to lose. It started with scoring in the sixth minute of a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea, then came leads in the 3rd minute at Wolves (2-1 loss), 22nd minute against Aston Villa (2-1 loss), 6th minute v Manchester City (3-3 draw) and 11th minute against West Ham (2-1 loss).

11) Everton – 17 points
20 leads, 13 wins, 4 draws, 3 defeats

If there’s one thing Sean Dyche typically knows how to do, it’s keep a lead. Two of the occasions they could not were against Manchester City and Arsenal and yeah, fair enough.

10) Newcastle – 17 points
25 leads, 18 wins, 4 draws, 3 defeats

1-0 up with ten minutes to go in a game they lost against 10-man Liverpool, but perhaps their most memorable implosion from in front was in the Chris Wood hat-trick game around Christmas.

9) Manchester United – 17 points
25 leads, 18 wins, 4 draws, 3 defeats

Nobody dropped fewer points from winning positions last season than United, who won 23 of the 26 Premier League games in which they led. Had a similar number of leads this time around, but absolute not similar outcomes.

8) Chelsea – 15 points
25 leads, 18 wins, 6 draws, 1 defeat

Did just about hold on to their lead against nine-man Spurs so that’s something. Not many teams will have led both games against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in a league season. And who can forget that really stupid Manchester United win?

7) Brighton – 14 points
18 leads, 12 wins, 4 draws, 2 defeats

For so long they were alongside Liverpool and City with no defeats from winning positions this season. Then they were second-halfed by Spurs and Liverpool themselves cancelled out a second-minute Danny Welbeck opener at Anfield.

6) Wolves – 12 points
18 leads, 13 wins, 3 draws, 2 defeats

Gave Luton their first point as a Premier League team by throwing away a one-goal lead. They looked like predictably doing the same against Manchester City but simply scored again after the champions equalised. Cleverly defended their lead against Spurs by simply not taking it until the last kick of the game. It is frankly a mystery why more teams don’t adopt this foolproof strategy more often.

5) Liverpool – 10 points
29 leads, 24 wins, 5 draws, 0 defeats

The 3-0 win over Aston Villa marked the first time this season Liverpool went on to win after scoring the first goal of a game, four matches into their season. ]The Spurs defeat was the first fixture in which the Reds failed to take a lead; bloody significant human error. But Jurgen Klopp bows out with a 4-1 thrashing at Manchester City in April 2023 his last defeat having led.

4) Manchester City – 10 points
33 leads, 28 wins, 5 draws, 0 defeats

Three times they got their noses in front at Chelsea but each time they were dragged back in an astonishing game. Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Liverpool (twice) were the other teams they failed to beat after going in front in 2023/24.

3) Fulham – 9 points
17 leads, 13 wins, 3 draws, 1 defeat

Those first dropped points were no such thing, coming in the 2-2 draw against Arsenal when they scored in the first minute and equalised in the 96th with ten men. Fulham went an age before dropping points from a winning position again, this time converting a 3-2 lead in the 86th minute at Anfield into a 4-3 defeat. Then came draws against Burnley and Crystal Palace.

2) Arsenal – 9 points
32 leads, 28 wins, 3 draws, 1 defeat

Four points dropped against Fulham, having led in both games, might have cost Arsenal the title in the eyes of some. When nitpicking a two-point gap to Manchester City, the draws with Liverpool and Spurs having led must be taken into account too.

1) Aston Villa – 7 points
23 leads, 20 wins, 2 draws, 1 defeat

Almost completed the first half of the season without dropping a single point from a winning position, then raced into a two-goal lead at Old Trafford but conceded thrice in the second half. Those draws came late in the season in a slight Champions League qualification wobble, in high-scoring draws against Brentford and Chelsea.