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Chelsea hold the record for the fewest goals conceded in a Premier League season
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The 2008-09 season saw three teams finish with under 30 goals conceded
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Read below for the 10 campaigns with the fewest goals conceded
We are perhaps as fans too enamoured by goal-scoring and too little enamoured by the art of keeping them out.
This of course is understandable, what with goals being the very currency of our excitement. It is a ball nestling in a net that we most fondly recall when we revisit a match. The strike. The micro-second of tension. The flailing arm of a goalkeeper. The eruption of pure joy.
The magical moment was our reward for paying the entrance fee.
So it is that every August we run the rule over the top scorer Premier League odds and back Erling Haaland to bag a ridiculous amount, and marvel at Mo Salah for his prolificacy.
Best Defensive Seasons In Premier League History:
- Chelsea, 2004-05, 15 goals
- Arsenal, 1998-99, 17 goals
- Chelsea, 2005-06, 22 goals
- Manchester United, 2007-08, 22 goals
- Liverpool, 2018-19, 22 goals
- Manchester City, 2018-19, 23 goals
- Chelsea, 2008-09, 24 goals
- Manchester United, 2008-09, 24 goals
- Chelsea, 2006-07, 24 goals
- Liverpool, 2005-06, 25 goals
We hold a special place in our hearts for those who don’t score often but when they do they’re usually spectacular.
Yet there is also a lot to be said about a brilliantly constructed defence. Their assembly. How each component makes it greater than the sum of its parts.
How two centre-backs, two full-backs and a goalie, via well-drilled organisation, can nullify the most lethal hit-men on a weekly basis all season long.
These outstanding back-lines – the meanest in modern times – warrant our unreserved admiration. But we should also love them a bit too.
Liverpool, 2005-06, 25 goals
Liverpool were on the fringes of the title race in 2005-06, coming off their heroic Champions League win in Istanbul. Rafa Benitez’s football brought success, including the 2005-06 FA Cup, but it was rarely pretty.
The Anfield outfit scored 15 goals fewer than Chelsea and Manchester United in 2005-06, and only two players scored more than 13 goals in the campaign.
Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher were the bedrock of the defence, protected by Xabi Alonso and Mohamed Sissoko.
Chelsea, 2006-07, 24 goals
Having won the league twice-over in Jose Mourinho’s first two seasons in charge, the Blues refused to stand still and went decidedly big in the summer, bringing in Michael Ballack, Salomon Kalou, Andriy Shevchenko and Ashley Cole.
Crucially and pertinently though, the defensive triangle of Petr Cech in nets, and John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho ahead of him remained untouched.
Which largely explains how Chelsea again managed to concede the fewest amount of goals in the top-flight in what was otherwise a frustrating campaign.
Adapting to their overhaul, Mourinho’s men only lost three times but drew too often, resulting in Manchester United ultimately pipping them to the league crown.
Manchester United, 2008-09, 24 goals
Winners of a third consecutive league title and Champions League finalists once again, Manchester United won the 2008-09 Premier League by four points.
The defence was less settled than previous seasons, with Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra both missing chunks of the campaign to injury.
The leadership of Nemanja Vidic and Edwin van der Sar was particularly important amid line-up changes, as the Serbian centre-back and Dutch goalkeeper each started 33 league contests.
Chelsea, 2008-09, 24 goals
The Blues have often shunned convention to good effect, winning the Champions League in 2012 with an interim manager, and elsewhere winning leagues amidst chaos.
Here is another, more niche, example of a club that rarely makes sense, and rarely cares about doing so.
With Mourinho now gone, and Chelsea presided over by three different managers across the whole campaign, a new-look defence saw Alex and Jose Bosingwa join its ranks.
Perhaps this partly explains why the West London giants lost five games in 2009-09, all to top six rivals. Add in eight draws and they were never mentioned loudest in the football bet tips, eventually finishing third.
Yet despite these relative failures, a reimagined back-line was breached every 142 minutes, the seventh best return on record.
Manchester City, 2018-19, 23 goals
After immortalising themselves as ‘Centurions’ the season before, racking up a momentous 100 points, Pep Guardiola’s formidable creation discovered new heights of excellence in 2018-19, driven to near perfection by a relentless and equally brilliant Liverpool.
Just 23 goals were conceded along the away and though this was the sixth best defensive season in Premier League history, it still wasn’t the fewest goals conceded that term.
We really are talking here about two very special teams.
Aymeric Laporte, Kyle Walker and Ederson were the constants in defence while elsewhere a more fluid approach allowed Fernandinho to switch roles for weeks at a time, dropping back to partner Laporte.
To put City’s dominance – and defensive fortitude – into context, they were behind this season for a mere 122 minutes.
Liverpool, 2018-19, 22 goals
Missing out in a remarkably tight and tense title race by a single point, Liverpool went toe-to-toe with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City juggernaut, conceding 0.5 goals per game all season.
Virgil van Dijk and Alisson played every league match. Andrew Robertson missed just two.
Van Dijk’s performances saw him named PFA Players’ Player of the Year, and he finished a narrow second to Lionel Messi in the 2019 Ballon d’Or.
Manchester United, 2007-08, 22 goals
A reasonable argument can be made that the late 2000s saw Sir Alex Ferguson’s United at their absolute peak and subsequently a Premier League and Champions League double was attained, each success forged on a centre-back pairing that has gone down in legend.
Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand were as solid as it comes in 2007-08, and with the magnificent Edwin van der Sar in his prime between the sticks was it any wonder that only five sides managed to score more than a single goal past them all season?
The success of the defence allowed the Red Devils’ array of attacking talent to flourish and Cristiano Ronaldo announced himself as one of the best players in the world, as they pipped Chelsea to the league title.
Chelsea, 2005-06, 22 goals
The second of Chelsea’s back-to-back titles wasn’t as lock-tight defensively as the first, but it still places as the third best defensive season in Premier League history.
Led by one of the best defenders in the Premier League in John Terry, the Blues were impenetrable for most of 2005-06 and with Frank Lampard reaching double figures from midfield, and Joe Cole conjuring up party-pieces off the left, the Blues strolled to another title with games to spare.
Arsenal, 1998-99, 17 goals
It’s strange to think that the second-best defensive season in Premier League history came from a team which finished runners-up.
Manchester United won the treble in 1998-99, of course, but Arsenal secured their own place in the Premier League records book courtesy of a miserly rearguard that feels atypical of an Arsene Wenger side.
A tally of 12 draws held the Gunners back but the 17 goals conceded was still a remarkable feat, and credit must duly go to their all-English collective of David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Martin Keown.
Chelsea, 2004-05, 15 goals
Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea set plenty of Premier League records and conceding just 15 goals through a 38-match season is perhaps the most impressive of the lot. It’s telling that no other great champion in the 21st century have come within seven goals of the meagre tally.
It was a parsimony built on a foundation of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho at its heart, in front of Petr Cech who seemed for all the world like he was unbeatable.
Claude Makelele sat in a screening midfield role, while Paulo Ferreira and William Gallas did the majority of the full-back duties.
This was very much a team effort, though, with the Blues having a commitment to defence that has rarely been seen in the Premier League.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
