Liverpool have made an excellent start to life under Arne Slot, with seven wins in their first eight Premier League games lifting them to the top of the table.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!It’s not quite enough to take them into the top 10 Premier League starts ever after eight games, but they – along with Chelsea’s 2009/10 effort – do sit outside that gilded 10 only on goal difference.
So let’s have a look at those best 10 starts, shall we, with a couple of cautionary tales from Newcastle’s mid-90s pomp and surprisingly few eventual champions in general among the fastest starters.
10) Newcastle 1995/96 – 21 points
P8 W7 D0 L1 GD+13
Early Barclays or – more accurately we suppose – early Carling really did hit different. This is still one of the great Premier League seasons nearly 30 years on thanks to Newcastle’s antics, and more specifically Kevin Keegan’s antics.
Newcastle’s start was magnificent, actually extending to nine wins and a solitary defeat at Southampton from their first 10 games before the first of two costly 1-1 draws against Tottenham, the second of which would come on the final day and confirm what remains the Premier League’s standout Devon Loch moment.
We were all intoxicated by Newcastle’s thrilling attacking football, spearheaded by Les Ferdinand’s 25 goals with David Ginola, Peter Beardsley and Rob Lee pulling strings behind them, while Faustino Asprilla was added to the already heady mix in February.
By that time, Newcastle’s lead over the chasing pack had extended to 12 points, before the catastrophic run of five defeats in eight games – including the legendary 4-3 defeat at Liverpool which left Keegan slumped over the hoardings – let United back into it and prompted the most infamous post-match interview in Premier League history.
Easy to forget now, that Keegan’s “I will love it if we beat them” meltdown as Sir Alex Ferguson’s mind games broke him actually came after a win at Leeds in April.
It was Newcastle’s last win of the season.
Finished: Second, four points behind Manchester United
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9) Arsenal 2022/23 – 21 points
P8 W7 D0 L1 GD+14
Easy to forget now, as Arsenal embark on a third straight fight with Man City, just how unexpected this all was back at the start of the 2022/23 season. Arsenal came into that campaign having finished no higher than fifth for six years and having just thoroughly bottled fourth to a Spurs team they were scared to actually play against.
What, precisely, snapped that summer who can say, but Arsenal were instantly – and remain – an entirely different beast.
Arsenal were near unstoppable before the mid-season World Cup break, winning 14 of their first 16 games. Their one defeat came at Manchester United alongside a rogue 1-1 draw at Southampton on matchday 13.
It’s easy now to imagine it was the World Cup break that scuppered their momentum, but even that’s not really true; they won four – including notable victories at Spusr and over Manchester United – and drew one of their first five games after the resumption.
A February blip of two defeats and a draw in three games was all sorted out with a seven-game winning run before it all went a bit Newcastle.
In successive games Arsenal spaffed 2-0 leads to draw at Liverpool and West Ham before needing a ridiculous comeback to secure a still inadequate 3-3 draw against Southampton.
That was followed by a heavy defeat at Man City themselves to leave Arsenal needing snookers, with further defeats against Brighton and Nottingham Forest ending their chances.
Finished: Second, five points behind Manchester City
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8) Chelsea 2012/13 – 22 points
P8 W7 D1 L0 GD+13
An extraordinary effort from Chelsea, not for winning seven of their first eight games, but for doing that on the back of winning the Champions League at the end of the previous season and yet still contriving to get their manager sacked by the end of November.
That had as much to do with a disastrous defence of their Champions League crown – albeit that ended with the silver lining of Europa League glory come season’s end – but a dramatic collapse of their domestic form wasn’t irrelevant.
It started to go wrong straight after these eight games, in which Chelsea secured wins over Newcastle, Arsenal and Spurs and blipped only in a goalless draw at QPR. A home defeat to Manchester United began a run of seven league games without a win that didn’t come to an end until December, under the interim gaze of Rafa Benitez.
Some further patchy form left Champions League qualification in some doubt, but they rallied to secure third place and automatic entry into the group stage after a three-way London scrap with Arsenal and Spurs finished in the most predictable order.
Finished: Third, 14 points behind Manchester United
7) Chelsea 2014/15 – 22 points
P8 W7 D1 L0 GD+15
Chelsea enjoyed winning seven and drawing one of their first eight games so much in 2012/13 that they decided to give it another go two seasons later. This time, though, Chelsea opted for two key differences and were right to do so. First, they didn’t get their manager sacked (although they did in fairness have something special lined up for Jose Mourinho the following year) and didn’t collapse straight after that specifically good eight-game start.
No, this time, they simply continued in the same vein for an extended period of time, not losing until game 15 of the season and then only once more until May, by which time the title had been comfortably secured. Always nice to see teams learn their lessons, isn’t it?
Finished: Champions, eight points clear of Manchester City
6) Newcastle 1994/95 – 22 points
P8 W7 D1 L0 GD+17
Little could anyone have realised that Newcastle’s 1994/95 was only the appetiser for what would follow a year later, but it was in its way a more spectacular fall from grace after an even better start.
Newcastle won their first six games, scoring an absurd 22 goals in the process, before a 1-1 draw with Liverpool. After 11 games they had nine wins and two draws only to then lose three of their next at Manchester United, Wimbledon and Spurs.
Between November and mid January, Newcastle went on a run of one win in 11 games and sold Andy Cole to Manchester United,
Their form did pick up with a run of seven wins in nine but they were by now out of the title race and fell away further with a run of three defeats and two draws in April and May.
Finished: Sixth, 17 points behind Blackburn
5) Arsenal 2004/05 – 22 points
P8 W7 D1 L0 GD+19
In hindsight, an underappreciated and under-respected bit from Arsenal to go a whole Premier League season unbeaten and then make an even better start to the following season.
Assorted teams were swatted aside in a run that extended to eight wins and a draw against Bolton (of course Bolton). Everton were smashed 4-1, and Middlesbrough overwhelmed 5-3. There were 3-0 wins over Blackburn and Fulham, another 4-1 at Norwich and a 4-0 over Charlton.
Then Arsenal went to Old Trafford looking to make it 50 Premier League games unbeaten and…didn’t thanks in large part to the dive heard round the world from Wayne Rooney.
Arsenal got up and dusted themselves down with another seven-match unbeaten run but then lost twice in quick time against Bolton (of course Bolton) and Manchester United again to slip briefly to third.
Arsenal rallied impressively again to win 10 and draw two of their next 12 games, but were by now distant chasers of Jose Mourinho’s dominant Chelsea and their absurd decision to simply concede only 15 goals all season.
Finished: Second, 12 points behind Chelsea
4) Manchester City 2011/12 – 22 points
P8 W7 D1 L0 GD+21
Fair to say people tend not to remember the start of this season quite as much as the end of it. But the start was pretty good, wasn’t it? It was a run that would in fact extend to 11 wins and a draw from the first 12 games – featuring two 4-0s, a 4-1, a 5-1 at Spurs and of course the infamous 6-1 at Old Trafford.
And City would, it turned out, need every single one of those points and pretty much all of those goals – especially those ones against Manchester United.
A run of five points in five games in March and April gave United hope, but City would win their final six games of the season, culminating in the Aguerrooooooo nonsense against QPR after the final whistle had already blown on United’s more prosaic win over Sunderland that appeared, for around 15 seconds, to have won them the title.
Finished: Champions, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference
3) Manchester City 2017/18 – 22 points
P8 W7 D1 L0 GD+25
Perhaps the purest peak of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City era. The blip – a 1-1 draw against Everton – actually came as early as the second game. City’s response was to simply win the next 18 games in a row, and you have to say that is a pretty solid strategy. It was a strategy Jurgen Klopp would copy two years later and one which, frankly, we’re surprised more coaches haven’t used. Fools, the lot of ‘em. Too proud, perhaps, to be accused of merely copying the ‘win 18 games on the spin’ strategy that has served the two modern masters of Premier League coaching so well.
Within those first eight games alone, City had two 5-0 wins, a 6-0, and a 7-2. Given that, it’s almost disappointing to discover they ‘only’ scored 29 goals in total across those eight games.
Their first defeat of the season didn’t come until January in a wild back-and-forth 4-3 at Liverpool that featured plenty of foreshadowing for the next couple of seasons, and by the time they lost again to second place Manchester United in early April it was, from a title perspective, entirely academic. The only doubts that raised were around whether City would still make it to 100 points. They did.
Finished: Champions, 19 points clear of Manchester United
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2) Liverpool 2019/20 – 24 points
P8 W8 D0 L0 GD+14
Given their one defeat this season came at home to Nottingham Forest, it’s not unreasonable to think Liverpool fans might rather greedily now feel they really should have matched the flawless eight-game effort of the team that so famously ended that long, long wait for a Premier League title.
Liverpool’s first – and for a really quite absurd length of time only – blip would arrive in the very next game, however, via a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.
It was at this point they wheeled out Man City’s patented ‘win 18 games on the spin’ tactic to leave themselves with the frankly absurd record of P27 W26 D1 L0 as February neared its conclusion. There is something undeniably satisfying about the fact this unprecedented run of near-flawless domination ended on February 29, the unlikeliest date witnessing the unlikeliest result as Liverpool succumbed to a frankly inexplicable 3-0 defeat at Watford of all places.
Covid would bring a three-month break to the season shortly afterwards, and it would be fair to say Liverpool were never quite the same side in that eerie Project Restart summer, with further defeats coming against Manchester City and Arsenal.
But while rival fans remain fond of attempting to asterisk Liverpool’s 2019/20 achievement, such was their utter dominance before the world changed that there really is no doubting their worthiness. Finishing on 99 points was careless, though.
Finished: Champions, 18 points clear of Manchester City
1) Chelsea 2005/6 – 24 points
P8 W8 D0 L0 GD+16
Chelsea’s second Premier League title under Jose Mourinho was very rarely in much doubt after a truly flawless start. They didn’t so much as concede a goal until the seventh game of the season and a 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
Their flawless start extended to nine games before a draw at Everton and when they lost at Manchester United a couple of weeks later they responded in predictable Peak Mourinho fashion by simply doing even better than their season-opening run and collecting 10 wins from the next 10.
The long inevitable successful title defence was confirmed with a 3-0 win over their only remaining theoretical rivals in Manchester United, with Chelsea celebrating by losing their last two games of the season for a laugh.
Finished: Champions, eight points clear of Manchester United
