Best ever starts to a Premier League season

The return of league football is upon us, with the 2024-2025 Premier League kicking off in style on Friday night, where Old Trafford hosts the season opener with Manchester United facing Fulham.

All 20 teams will be looking to make a fast start, whether they’re teams likely to be at the top or the bottom of the table, a good run of form can stand teams in good stead as the season progresses. Our list looks at the best starts ever to a Premier League season.

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Chelsea – 2005/2006

The best start to a Premier League campaign ever, Chelsea kicked off the season with nine straight wins. Off the back of clinching the title in the previous season, the Blues’ early season form was undoubtedly a catalyst that helped them to secure consecutive titles in the 2005/06 season. They kicked their season off with a 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic, before returning to Stamford Bridge to beat London rivals Arsenal as well as West Brom. Their unbelievable unbeaten run to begin the season was made even more impressive by the fact that they didn’t concede a goal in their first six games, continuing the defensive solidity that was so crucial in their title success in the previous year.

Nine wins to begin the season is the best we have seen so far and it’s difficult to see it being bettered in a long time.

Liverpool – 2019/2020

One run that put Chelsea’s record under threat was the beginning to Liverpool’s 2019/20 season. The Reds went on an eight-game winning streak to begin their campaign, before just faltering in their ninth game when drawing to Manchester United. Despite nearly breaking the Blues’ 05/06 record, Liverpool went about it in a different way. Chelsea’s success and great start was built on defensive solidity, whereas Liverpool began with a 4-1 victory, placing more emphasis on their offensive output to beat teams.

As was proved by Chelsea, the starting run of form led to Liverpool winning the league for the first time in 30 years, having come so close the previous season to Man City.

Liverpool to win the league without Man City can be backed at 3/1 here.

Newcastle – 1994/1995

Newcastle kicked off their 1994/95 campaign with six consecutive wins, beating Chelsea and Arsenal in the process. A very encouraging start to the season, before eventually petering off to finish just sixth. However, this was the start of an encouraging period for the Toon, as they finished Premier League runners-up in the following two seasons.

Man City – 2016/2017

Our list wouldn’t be anything without including Manchester City, who have arguably enjoyed one of the most dominant runs in the Premier League era. Surprisingly, their best start to a Premier League campaign came when they didn’t win the league that year, despite winning their first six games of the campaign. Losing out to Chelsea and Tottenham that year, they dropped points during the season after their fast start to finish just third. Since then, City have won six of the last seven league titles, cementing themselves as one of the greatest Premier League sides.

You can back City to make it five Premier League titles in a row at 6/5 here.

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