Which Team Has Scored the Most Goals in a Premier League Season?

The reality of football as a sport is that goals win games. Whilst clean sheets are important and conceding goals will certainly be problematic for teams, you are literally incapable of winning a football match if you don’t score a goal. Yes, thirty eight 0-0 draws would almost certainly see you remain in the Premier League at the end of the season, but, even aside from the fact that it has never happened in the history of the competition, it would be an incredibly boring campaign for supporters to have to sit and watch. Goals provide the fun in games and give people a reason to celebrate.

That is why goal-scorers are amongst the most sought after commodities in the world of football. It is also why players who can score are the ones that tend to be paid the most money. The best goalkeeper in the world can keep you in matches, but the best goal-scorers can win them for you. A season filled with goals is one that is also filled fun, which is a big part of the reason why most people get into the sport in the first place. With that in mind, then, this page will look to see which teams have had the most fun since the advent of the Premier League.

Looking At The Statistics

The Premier League isn’t great at many things, such as protecting the division from the influx of money from murderous regimes for the purpose of sports-washing their reputations, but one thing it does very well is keep a track of the records that have been set over the years. All we can do is tell you what the records were at the time of writing. New seasons get underway every year, so it is entirely possible that by the time you’re reading this a new one has been set. Bear that in mind whilst reading this page but make sure you enjoy the goals as they go flying in.

The Top 10 Goals Scored In A Season

The best place to start is by having a look at the top ten times a team has scored an outrageous number of goals during a campaign. It is fair to say that most of the teams that have scored a record number of goals went on to win the league that season. After all, an average of 2.63 goals per game is needed to break 100 goals in a 38-game campaign. As you’ll see, though, some teams have missed out in incredibly cruel fashion:

Taking A More In-Depth Look

When you look at the above chart, you see seven teams that scored enough goals to secure themselves the Premier League title. There have only been three occasions when a side has scored enough goals to make it onto this list and yet not lift the title. Twice it happened to Liverpool, missing out on the title to Manchester City both times, and the third time was when Manchester City failed to win the title because Liverpool did. Sufficed to say, those two teams have enjoyed some ding-dong battles over the years with entertainment aplenty.

Here is a closer look at each of those Premier League campaigns above to explain exactly what happened:

Manchester City, 2017/18 – 106 Goals Scored

Given the fact that Manchester City appear on this list more than all of the other teams combined, it is important to point out that the club was charged with 115 breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules in February of 2023. At the time of writing, those breaches remain nothing more than an allegation that the club has protested against, but they should be flagged because of how serious they are in relation to the club’s success over the years. Most of that success came under the stewardship of Pep Guardiola, who got the free-scoring City to rack up 106 goals during the 2017-2018 campaign.

When you consider that the next highest scoring side was Liverpool with 84 goals but that the Reds finish in fourth that season, it shows you just how impressive Manchester City were. They matched their 106 goals scored with only 27 conceded, meaning that their goal difference alone was better than every other side in the division’s goals scored bar Liverpool. The Reds managed to be up there thanks to Mohamed Salah scoring 34 times, which was a league record at the time. That City managed to score the record for the most goals in a season without even having the league’s top scorer in their ranks is a sign of what a good team they were.

Chelsea, 2009/10 – 103 Goals Scored

Before Sheikh Mansour turned up in the Premier League and chose to out-spend all of his side’s rivals, Roman Abramovich had done the same thing. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ José Mourinho led the new-look Chelsea to their first title in 2004-2005, but he did so by making them extremely tight at the back. It was when Italian maestro Carlo Ancelotti turned up at Stamford Bridge that the reigns really began to be let off the players, who scored 103 times in a season that also saw the London club also walk away with the FA Cup after a 1-0 win against Portsmouth at Wembley.

It wasn’t that Chelsea were particularly generous at the back during that season either. The club conceded just 32 times, which was only bettered by Manchester United. The fact that they scored 17 times more than the Red Devils was what made the difference, however. There were just 11 games in which the Blues didn’t score at least two goals, showing you the importance of putting the ball in the back of the net. Unlike with Manchester City in 2017-2018, Chelsea did boast the top goalscorer for the season thanks to the 29 times Didier Drogba put the ball into the back of the net.

Manchester City, 2019/20 – 102 Goals Scored

It is back to the Etihad for our next note-worthy season of goals scored. This is the only time that Manchester City appear on our list and didn’t end up as champions at the end of the season. That is in spite of the fact that the club scored more goals than in all of its other title winning campaigns with the exception of 2017-2018. Ederson out-performed every goalkeeper across the season, but in truth it merely served to keep his team in games. In comparison to their other seasons under Pep Guardiola, City were actually rather disappointing and never challenged Liverpool for the title in any meaningful sense.

They ended up finishing 18 points behind the Merseyside club, losing nine teams across the campaign. This was in spite of the fact that they out-scored Liverpool by 17 goals. Interestingly, neither team boasted the top-scorer for the season, which was Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy. He rolled back the years to net 23 times across the course of the campaign, but it was the Merseyside club that ended up with the title. It was the first time they had won it in the Premier League era, thanks in no small part to a 27 game unbeaten run, with not even Man City’s 102 goals able to stop them from finally lifting the trophy.

Manchester City, 2013/14 – 102 Goals Scored

One of only two times that Manchester City appear on this list without Pep Guardiola as manager came in 2013-2014. Back then it was Manuel Pellegrini in charge of the Cityzens, who notched up their second Premier League title at the time when they put the ball into the back of the net 102 times. Nearly a third of those goals were scored by Sergio Agüero, who netted 28 times on the way to a league and League Cup double. They matched their goal-scoring exploits with just 37 goals conceded, bettered only by third-placed Chelsea’s 27 goals scored against them.

The Manchester club actually lost six times during the course of the season, but only two of those defeats saw them register no goals. In fact, there were only two other games across the campaign in which they failed to score, both ending in 0-0 draws, meaning that they were n the score sheet in 34 of the 38 games that they played. In terms of excitement, the supporters couldn’t have asked for much more, not least because they beat Manchester United 4-1 at the Etihad and 3-0 at Old Trafford to do the double over their old rivals.

Liverpool, 2013/14 – 101 Goals Scored

Part of the reason Manchester City pushed themselves as much as they did was that Liverpool were hot on their heels in pursuit of the club’s first title since 1990. The Merseyside club was bolstered by the presence of the league’s top goalscorer Luis Suarez, who found the net on 31 occasions in spite of the fact that the Uruguayan missed the first six games of the campaign because of a 10-match ban issued the previous season for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanović. Daniel Sturridge was the league’s second-highest score, netting 21 times during the campaign.

In the end, a defeat to Chelsea at Anfield in the third-from-last game was enough to see the title slip away from Liverpool in quite literal fashion. The only hope the Reds had was to overtake Manchester City’s superior goal difference, but an attempt to seemingly score 10 goals against Crystal Palace left them exposed at the back and they drew the game 3-3. A last day win against Newcastle saw them break the 100 goal barrier, but the 50 conceded meant that they had to settle for a heart-breaking second place and a longer wait for a Premier League title.

Manchester City, 2021/22 – 99 Goals Scored

During the 2021-2022 season, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City might have had 99 problems but goal-scoring wasn’t one. The defending champions went on to win their fourth title in five seasons, having held of the challenge of, which other club would it be, Liverpool. The Cityzens were relentless in their pursuit of the Premier League trophy, conceding just 26 times to go alongside their 99 goals scored. They only lost three times during the course of the season, but the fact that none of those defeats were to the Merseyside club meant that they won the title by a single point.

In terms of goal-scoring exploits, City scored two or more times in 27 of the 38 games that they played. Not a record by any means, but an impressive achievement when trying to win a title that they had let slip two years before to the same opponents they were up against this time. In fact, they scored 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 times in games throughout the season, including a 4-1 win against their neighbours Manchester United. Guardiola knows how to get a team firing in front of goal, which is why the club’s 99 goals were enough to see them crowned champions once again.

Manchester United, 1999/2000 – 97 Goals Scored

Considering the fact that Manchester United are the most successful club of the Premier League era, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they would appear on this list more often than they do. For the Red Devils to only have one of the ten highest scoring top-flight seasons since 1992 is quietly remarkable, but it also shows the extent to which the competitiveness of the division has changed since those early years. The 1999-2000 campaign saw them win their sixth Premier League title and 13th top-flight title overall, thanks in no small part to the 97 goals scored.

It was actually Kevin Phillips that finished top scorer for the year as an individual player, but the next closest team to United for goals scored was second-placed Arsenal with 73. United actually conceded more goals than any of the other top six teams with 45, but it didn’t matter as their free-flowing football saw them notch up 91 points as they lost just three times across the campaign. A 7-1 win over West Ham United was their highest scoring match, but the team were rampant throughout the season and there were only ten games in which they didn’t score two or more goals.

Manchester City, 2018/19 – 95 Goals Scored

The 2018-2019 campaign was the first of the Jürgen Klopp – Pep Guardiola era in which Manchester City and Liverpool went toe-to-toe for the title. Liverpool scored 89 times and conceded just 22, but it wasn’t enough to stop City from claiming yet another title since the club had been bought by Sheikh Mansour. The Cityzens conceded one goal more than the Reds but scored six more, which was enough to see them achieve 98 points and pip them to the title by one point. Liverpool would at least go on to win the Champions League, giving them something to celebrate.

For City, though, it was all about being relentless. Perhaps nothing showed that more than when Vincent Kompany, the club captain and a central defender, smashed a shot into the back of the net against Leicester City to all but seal the title in the penultimate game of the campaign. That was followed up with a 4-1 win on the final day of the season away to Brighton & Hove Albion to break hearts on Merseyside, with the four goals taking City’s total for the campaign up to 95. It is yet another entry for Man City and Pep Guardiola on a list that they have dominated.

Liverpool, 2021/22 – 94 Goals Scored

There has only been one club in the history of the Premier League to break the 90 point barrier and not win the title. Unfortunately for Liverpool, they’ve done it twice. We’ve just talked about the first time it happened in 2018-2019, but the Reds missed out by a single point again a few years later and it was the same opposition that pipped them to the post. The Liverpool team in 2021-2022 came the closest that any side has ever come to winning a quadruple, winning both the League Cup and FA Cup whilst being losing finalists in the Champions League.

In the English top-flight, proceedings went to the final day of the season and the Reds thought that they were in with a chance when Manchester City went 2-0 down to Aston Villa only for the Cityzens to come back and win 3-2. It was still a season of fun and excitement for Liverpool fans, who got to see their team play more games than any other side and win the vast majority of them. They also celebrated 94 goals in the top-flight, which was just five fewer than City with the two clubs conceding the same number. A glorious campaign ultimately ended in disappointment; not that the Liverpool fans who turned up for the trophy parade felt that.

Manchester City, 2011/12 – 93 Goals Scored

Though Manchester City would go on and win quite a few more titles under the contested ownership of Sheikh Mansour, it all had to start somewhere. That ‘somewhere’ was the 2011-2012 campaign, which couldn’t have been sealed in any more dramatic fashion. Arsenal’s Robin van Persie ended the season as the top scorer with 30 goals, but the truth is that the Gunners were never in the title race that was all about the two clubs from Manchester. United thought that they’d won it when they defeated Sunderland 1-0 on the final day, with City losing to Queens Park Rangers.

QPR, though, had had a man sent off and eventually the home side’s numerical advantage showed. They equalised through Edin Džeko in the 92nd minute and then Sergio Agüero scored the winner two minutes later. It meant that City won the title on goal difference, having conceded four fewer goals than their neighbours whilst netting 93 times compared to United’s 89. It was the first time that two teams had finished the top-flight with the same number of points since, ironically, Liverpool missed out on the title to Arsenal in 1989 when they lost to the Gunners at Anfield on the final day of the campaign.

Fewest Goals For The Title-Winning Side

It is worth offering a quick note at this point for the side that won the title whilst scoring the fewest goals in the Premier League era. Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, considering how many times they have won the top-flight since it was re-branded as the Premier League, it involves Manchester United. In 1992-1993, the Red Devils won the top-flight for the first time in its new look, winning the title by ten points from Aston Villa. They did so scoring just 67 times, with what makes it even more interesting is the fact that it was a 42-game season for all of the Premier League teams.

In other words, when you pro-rata that out for a 38 game season they would have scored just over 60 goals. Not that they’ll have cared how many times they found the back of the net given the fact that they still won the title, of course. Interestingly, the next lowest number of goals scored by title winning sides is 68, which has happened three times. The first was in the 1997-1998 campaign when Arsenal pipped United to the title by one point. Next up was in the 2008-2009 season when United were once again involved, with the most remarkable being Leicester City’s improbable title win in 2015-2016.