The worst teams in Premier League history

In the first Premier League season, 1992-93, nobody was all that bad. Then, in the second season, Swindon Town showed up. It was the Robins’ first season of top-flight football, and they did not seem quite ready for this level of play. They won a mere five games, compared to 22 losses, with a minus-53 goal differential. Also, this was back when there were 22 teams in the Premier League, so 21 teams finished comfortably ahead of Swindon.

The last season with 22 teams, four squads were relegated (and only two promoted) to get down to 20 going forward. That’s a bummer for Crystal Palace, who finished 19th, but Leicester City managed 29 points to Palace’s 45, so it had no glimmer of hope of staying up. Leicester had six wins, fewest in the league, and finished with 29 points, which left them second to last.

It’s Ipswich Town that propped up lowly Leicester. While Ipswich had one more win than Leicester, it had merely six draws to go with 29 losses. As such, Ipswich had 27 points, but in terms of goal differential, it was in a different class. The Suffolk-based squad were minus-57.

After a couple seasons with no particularly poor teams, some Barnsley fans may quibble it is included here. Yes, Crystal Palace finished bottom of the table, with 33 points to Barnsley’s 35. However, Barnsley’s 23 losses were most in the Premier League, and its minus-45 goal differential was worse than the minus-34 put up by Palace. Sorry, Barnsley fans. Your team was worse.

This was a squad only Elton John could love. These days, Watford is two tiers down from the Premier League, so a return anytime soon is a pipe dream. The Hornets kicked off the new millennium with only six wins and six draws to go with 26 losses, and finished with both the fewest goals scored and the most goals allowed.

For the 1999-2000 season, Bradford City was promoted to top-flight football for the first time in 80 years. It finished 17th, just avoiding relegation. The next season, there was no doubt it was going back down (where it has been ever since). With five wins and only 26 points, Bradford was comfortably last. That being said, things can change in football. You know who else was relegated this season? Manchester City.

Leicester City is our first double dipper on this list. Hey, it’s all good for Foxes fans. You’ll always have that miraculous title run. Thanks to 13 draws, Leicester didn’t have the most losses in the Premier League, and its 28 points and minus-34 goal differential were barely worse than Derby County’s 30 and minus-30 respectively. Of course, “barely worse” is still worse, and those 13 draws were paired with a mere five wins.

This is our second of three seasons with multiple teams. The bottom two in 2002-03 were head and shoulders below the rest of the league. (Can you be head and shoulders below? Would you be feet and ankles below instead?) Regardless, West Brom finished 19th with 26 points. West Ham finished 18th with 42, and the safety zone was 44 points. Clearly, the bottom two were particularly bad.

West Brom was brutal, but Sunderland was worse. The Black Cats had only 19 points and picked up a mere four wins all season. That’s almost as low a win total as you will ever see.

No team appears on this list for back-to-back seasons because, well, if you are that terrible, you get relegated. Ahh, but you can appear back-to-back on this list, and the Black Cats are lucky enough to do so. Sunderland would return to the Premier League, and then proceed to be awful once again. I mentioned four is about as low of a win total as you will see. Well, this time around Sunderland won only three, and had a mere 15 points. Truly, one of the all-time terrible Premier League campaigns.

But it wasn’t the worst! There is no doubt about the worst Premier League team ever, and that is the 2007-08 Derby County squad. The Rams won one game. One! Derby had a mere 11 points and a staggering minus-69 goal differential. It scored 20 goals all season. This was as bad as it gets, and likely as bad as it will ever get.

Portsmouth didn’t have the fewest wins, or the worst goal differential, this season. Also, its 19 points was partially a result of a nine-point penalty for going into administration. That being said, even with those nine points, Pompey would have finished with 28, still lowest. Plus, let’s be honest, the bleakness of that nine-point penalty helped make this season feel worse for the team and its fans. This started a collapse for the club, who would be in League Two by the 2013-14 season.

Wolves has steadily been a Premier League team for a few seasons at this point, but that wasn’t always the case. In 2011-12 a three-season stint in top-flight football came to an ignominious end. The Wanderers won a mere five games with a minus-42 goal differential. Wolverhampton could sort of score! It just allowed a woeful 82 goals.

There’s only so much room for success for the many London clubs out there. QPR has often gotten short shrift in a city that plays home to the likes of Arsenal, Spurs, and Chelsea. This season featured one of the bleakest games of recent vintage, with Queens Park and Reading playing to a scoreless draw that clinched relegation for both of them. Those two both finished with a minus-30 goal differential, but QPR had only four wins and a mere 25 points, both fewer than Reading.

We told you things can change in football! The idea of Villa being relegated feels unfathomable these days, but it happened as recently as the 2015-16 season. Villa had been a Premier League team since the inaugural season, but it all came apart this year. It was clearly the worst team in the league, winning three games with 27 losses and a paltry 17 points. Villa would spend three years in the Championship before earning promotion and stabilizing as a club.

Sunderland has the, um, honor of being the only club on this list three times. Middlesbrough had fewer wins, and Hull City had a worse goal differential, but Sunderland’s six wins and minus-40 goal differential were both 19th in the Premier League. Also, its 26 losses and 24 points were both last, and Sunderland has not been back to the Premier League since.

Fulham has an eventful history during the Premier League era, seemingly as likely to finish ninth as 19th depending on how the wind blows. This was one of the down years. Fulham managed 26 losses, 26 points, and a minus-47 goal differential, and that was with an even worse team propping it up.

Huddersfield Town had not played top-flight football in 44 years when it earned promotion for the 2017-18 season. It managed to finish 16th. Avoiding relegation for a year proved the peak of accomplishment for the Terriers. The next season they won only three games and finished with 16 points. Fulham was really bad, but Huddersfield Town was something else.

It feels a little harsh to include a team from the COVID-19 season, but the Canaries were quite bad. The other two relegated teams both had 34 points, while Norwich had 21. The Canaries also had a minus-49 goal differential, and no other team was worse than minus-28. Every other team managed to weather a fraught time without being anywhere near as bad.

Norwich was one of the weirdest yo-yo teams ever. It was first in the Championship in 2018-19, and then had that awful 2019-20 campaign in the Premier League. However, the Canaries bounced right back, finishing first in the Championship again in 2020-21. Then…Norwich played absolutely awful in the Premier League once more. In fact, this time around the Canaries were even worse than in 2019-20. Now, Norwich did have 22 points, but that was with a minus-61 goal differential. The Canaries were getting stomped, and so we end this list with the last two Premier League campaigns for Norwich.