2025 table: Premier League & EFL

How each team fared during the calendar year

With the final league games of 2025 now completed, it's time for one of the least complex Experimental 361 traditions: a combined calendar year table for the 92 current Premier League and EFL clubs.

I’ve calculated a massive league table sorted in descending order of points per game, followed by goal difference and then goals scored. To keep things as fair as possible, cup and play-off games have been excluded. Clubs who were promoted or relegated in the summer have had their records from both divisions combined, including National League games for the promoted clubs in League Two.

Points deductions haven’t been included as they apply to a specific season (so it’d be tricky to apportion them) and in any case they would detract from the purpose of comparing performances.

Without further ado, here's the full table:

Man City have narrowly edged out 2024 champions Arsenal to claim top spot. Despite earning 3 fewer points, they did so over 2 fewer games for a marginally better points per game average.

City’s attack stood out more than their defence: they were the only team to score more than 2 goals per game (2.24) and along with the Gunners they were one of two sides with a goal difference per game above 1 (+1.30 to Arsenal’s +1.05).

The best-performing defence was that of Barnet in League Two, which shipped just 34 goals in 45 games (0.76 per game).

At the other end of the table, Wolves’ dire recent form has dropped them below Shrewsbury into last place. Scoring goals was their biggest problem this year: the Shrews were the only team with an inferior attacking record (0.83 per game to Wolves’ 0.89), while 3 clubs (Crawley, Bristol Rovers and Southampton) fared worse defensively.

Gillingham have ended the year with seven draws in their last eight matches, which means that over half of their 2025 league games were tied (24 out of 47). Contrast that with Fulham fans who only witnessed three league draws this year.

Finally, if Grimsby had beaten Shrewsbury 2-0 instead of 1-0 on Monday night then they would have ended the year with a perfectly symmetrical record: they won and lost the same number of games, but conceded one more goal than they scored.