Which club has gone the longest without topping the table?
On Saturday afternoon, Stoke’s 3-1 win over Derby put them top of the Championship table. However, their lead was short-lived as Bristol City’s 4-1 victory in the late kick-off nudged them down to second.
To say it’s a bit early to be analysing league tables is an understatement, but the chaotic early weeks of a season are the most likely to see teams in unusual positions. Unfortunately in Stoke’s case, leading the league definitely falls under that definition. Had the latter game turned out differently and kept them at the summit, it would have been the first time they’d ended a day at the top of a league table in over 17 years.
By my calculations, the last time they managed this was on 27th April 2008, prior to finishing 2nd and securing promotion to the Premier League under Tony Pulis. Since then every other club among the 92 currently in the top flight and EFL has managed this feat.
The chart below tracks Stoke’s league position on every day of an active season since then. Their 10-year stay in the top flight never saw them place higher than 3rd and since their return to the EFL some fast starts have yielded a few 2nd places, but top spot continues to elude them.
Stoke may get another chance to end their drought as their next fixture is against crisis club Sheffield Wednesday (assuming it goes ahead). If they prevail then their unwanted mantle will pass to Colchester, who last topped a division over a year later on 21st August 2009 after winning their first three games.
Here’s the current top 20, which includes seven other teams who have gone at least a decade without ending a single day at the top of a league table.
Cardiff (13th October 2017) and Luton (2nd August 2019) have removed themselves from this list recently, taking advantage of playing early fixtures to top League One.
When we flip this around and look at how long each team has gone since finishing a day at the bottom of a table, things get much more interesting. It’s been almost 39 years since Chelsea finished a day at the bottom of a league table, back in December 1986. Here’s their chart, which you’ll need to load in a new tab to view properly.
Despite recovering in the second half of the season, they were relegated the following year. However they never sat at the bottom of the table, finishing 18th out of 21 teams and being demoted via playoffs.
Here’s the full top 20, although it’s out of 90 teams as I wasn’t able to find reliable historical data for Harrogate and Salford (given their respective rises from below the National League).
After Chelsea, both Manchester City (23 years) and Brighton (19) have managed to avoid grazing the foot of a league table since they were last relegated.
The same applies to Mansfield, who haven’t ended a day at the bottom of a division since their demotion to the National League over 17 years ago. However, their run could be coming to an end after opening their 2025-26 campaign with back-to-back defeats.
You may have noticed that two of the Premier League’s traditional “big six” are missing from this list. Arsenal were last bottom of the league on 10th September 2021 after losing their first three games without scoring a goal. Almost a year later it was Manchester United’s turn, after losing their opening two fixtures by a combined 1-6 scoreline.