Thirty Years Of The Premier League: Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool in 2018-19 unlucky for some

Alexander Boyes
02 August 2022
2:00 min read

Unluckiest Teams in Premier League history

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Betfair have teamed up with YouGov to celebrate the Premier League's 30th anniversary, surveying over 1000 football fans, who reveal their top five unluckiest teams in history...

#1 - Klopp's Unwanted History

Liverpool's side in 2018-19 have been voted as the unluckiest team to grace the Premier League in a survey conducted by YouGov.

Jürgen Klopp's Reds, who at the time were still awaiting their very first Premier League title, finished in second place to Manchester City, despite ending the campaign on 97 points.

Pep Guardiola's side (4) lost four times as many matches as Liverpool (1), though pipped their great rivals by a single point to win back-to-back titles.

Liverpool's record of 30 wins (D7 L1) and 97 points remains the highest number of victories and points won in English top-flight history by a side not to end up winning the division that season.

In fact, the red half of Merseyside would have won the title with 97 points in all-but-two of the other 26 Premier League seasons, with Man City reaching 100 in 2017-18, and Liverpool themselves eventually earning their first crown in 30 years with a 99-point haul in 2019-20.

Unsurprisingly, however, four times as many Manchester United fans who were surveyed felt Liverpool coming up just short in the title race (40%) were the least unfortunate side from the group provided, compared to 10% who did show sympathy for their oldest rivals.

#2 - Runners-up, Runners-up, Relegated

During the 1996-97 season, Middlesbrough's Premier League matches amassed 111 goals, the fourth highest total of all sides, though entertainment and excitement soon turned to disappointment and despair.

Bryan Robson's side, buoyed by the signing of Fabrizio Ravenelli, were looking to build on a 12^th placed finish from the year before, but found themselves in a season long relegation battle, which ultimately, they would go on to lose.

Now, plenty of sides have suffered the sadness of the relegation trap door through the 30 years of the Premier League, though to also make it to both the FA and League Cup finals - their first ever domestic cup finals - feels like there was at least a silver lining, somewhere.

Unlucky for Boro, there was not.

The Teesiders would go on to lose both finals to become the first English side ever to make it all the way to the final of both major cup competitions and suffer relegation in the same season.

To compound their misery, Boro finished two points inside the relegation zone, behind both Coventry and Southampton, and if it were not for a 3-point deduction for a late postponement of a match with Blackburn earlier in the campaign, they would have survived.

Rounding off the list -

3. Tottenham Hotspur 2005-06 ("Lasagne-gate" - Spurs needed to match Arsenal's result on the final game of the season to finish above their rivals in the top four, but a host of their players fell ill the night before due to their pre-match meal and they lost to West Ham).

4. Sheffield United 2006-07 (relegated on goal difference on the final day of the season by a David Unsworth goal for Wigan - a player they had let go to the Latics for free - which kept Wigan up).

5. Wigan in 2012-13 (winning the FA Cup against Manchester City with a last-minute winner, only to become the first side to ever win the FA Cup and be relegated in the same season just three days later).

You can also find which events were voted as the top 10 greatest moments in Premier League history, here.

As the new Premier League season looms and whilst you're here, have a read through some of the most popular - and not so popular - pre-season betting selections courtesy of Betfair.

*All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1008 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 15th - 18th July 2022. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).*