Revealed: The surprise club that tops the Premier League table over the last calendar year – plus, who has scored the most goals, who has the leakiest defence and which hot head picked up the most bookings?

The time for festivities may now be over but, fortunately, a long, winding road of Premier League drama lies ahead of us, truly a silver lining.

Managers up and down the top-flight table will either be scratching their heads in confusion or sitting back smugly in their chair, a small glass of red in one hand. For some, 2024 was a year to celebrate. For others, however, it was one to forget.

New Year’s Eve will not be a wild night of partying. The champagne will be shelved as soon the clock strikes midnight and the tactics books will return.

But just because the year has been consigned to the dusty annals of history, it doesn’t mean we can’t have one last in-depth look at how it played out. And what better way to do this than to delve into the league’s statistical minutiae, I ask?

So, get strapped in as we explore which teams sit on top of the overall league table for 2024 and single out the best and worst performers over the past 366 days.

As always, there will be plenty of surprises along the way…

Manchester United have endured a rollercoaster 12 months under multiple managers

Manchester City lifted the league trophy in May but their title defence has fizzled out

Overall 2024 league table

Liverpool may be the runaway leaders this season but it is Arsenal who topped the Premier League table for the calendar year. Mikel Arteta’s side have been relentlessly consistent and pipped the Reds courtesy of a superior goal difference. 

Manchester City occupied third while Chelsea took fourth spot.

In a sign of Newcastle’s upturn under Eddie Howe, the Magpies were flying high in fifth, ahead of Aston Villa in sixth and Bournemouth in seventh. 

Struggling Tottenham and Manchester United were ninth and 10th respectively.

Propping up the standings were Southampton, a sure-fire bet to be relegated.

Arsenal are in first place for the calendar year, ahead of Liverpool on goal difference

Most goals

Liverpool scored the most league goals in 2024 with 92. Arsenal were second with 89, six ahead of Manchester City. Chelsea, again in fourth place, netted 81.

Newcastle proved themselves deadly in front of goal, having scored 80, while Ange Postecoglou’s delightfully lopsided Spurs side managed 73. 

Brentford, who have impressed again under Thomas Frank, the envy of several of the biggest clubs in the land, scored 62 over the past 366 days. 

Manchester United finished with 56 to their name after an abysmal year.

At the bottom, Southampton netted just 12, with Ipswich ahead of them with 18. 

Liverpool scored the most goals in the calendar year, closely followed by Arsenal

Goals conceded

This is the category that no club wants to finish first in. However, there had to be a loser and this year that was West Ham, who shipped a staggering 79 goals.

Also no strangers to picking the ball out of their own net were Wolves (76), Brentford (66), Aston Villa (65), Tottenham (60), Newcastle (58) and Brighton (57).

Manchester United also let in 57 goals under Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim, perhaps a figure some may believe should have been higher.

At the other end of this particular table, Arsenal put up the meanest defence and conceded just 23. The next best were Ipswich with 33, although this is skewed by the fact that the Tractor Boys only made the leap to the top-flight in August. 

Manchester City shipped 39 goals, many of which came during their recent poor run.

West Ham conceded a staggering 79 goals in 2024, three more than Wolves (76)

Shots faced 

There are, of course, caveats here but the general consensus is that the more Premier League sides allow shots against them, the more they will concede. 

This proved prophetic for West Ham, who also topped these standings. Indeed, over the past 366 days, they faced 661 attempts on goal. Brentford’s net was also peppered, the Bees allowing 632 shots, comfortably the second highest total.

Manchester United were third with 572, a by-product of Ten Hag’s tactical deficiencies and a lack of confidence permeating through their ranks under Amorim.

Then, Wolves allowed 562, closely followed by Newcastle (535), Chelsea (516), Everton (509), Bournemouth (493), Fulham (489) and Aston Villa (485). 

Newcomers Ipswich allowed the least amount of shots (293) while the ‘Big Six’ side with the best record in this area was Manchester City on 323 shots.

Average possession

It comes as little surprise that Manchester City dominated the ball in 2024, earning them the highest average possession percentage in the whole of the top-flight. 

City ended the year with 64.4 per cent, placing them ahead of fellow ball-hoggers Tottenham, who recorded an impressive 61.3 per cent. 

Liverpool, often a smooth machine in every department, were third on 60 per cent. 

Sheffield United finished bottom in this area with 34.7 per cent while Nottingham Forest and Everton racked up 40.2 per cent and 40.5 per cent respectively.

Arsenal, who have grown to relish keeping the ball under Mikel Arteta, chalked up 55.9 per cent. Manchester United finished the year with 51.5 per cent.

Manchester City were unsurprisingly the kings of dominating possession in the top-flight

Clean sheets 

Mirroring the fact they conceded the least goals, Arsenal also achieved the most clean sheets, 18 in fact. Next up were Everton with 14 shutouts.

Manchester City (12) and Liverpool (11) were equally stubborn and Brighton finished fifth with 10 to their name. Newcastle came sixth with the exact same number.

Both Sheffield United and Burnley failed to earn a single clean sheet, placing them bottom of these standings, while Luton and Leicester picked up one apiece.

Manchester United, a mess at the back for much of the year, kept nine clean sheets.

Bournemouth, Chelsea and Fulham all finished with eight. 

Most goals

We now come to the player-only categories and begin with the most prolific marksman in the Premier League. It was a four-way race to finish in the top spot but the winner for 2024 was none other than Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

Haaland, famed for his Terminator-like edge in front of goal, scored 27 goals, closely followed by Chelsea talisman Cole Palmer, who netted 26.

Alexander Isak, quickly attracting plenty of interest from across the continent, managed 25 while Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah ended the year on 23.

Chris Wood, Ollie Watkins and Jean-Philippe Mateta also delivered respectable tallies, having scored 18 each, while Yoane Wissa plundered 17 in 366 days.

Nicolas Jackson finished in ninth place with 16, the same amount as Matheus Cunha. 

Erling Haaland scored 27 league goals across 2024, one more than Chelsea’s Cole Palmer

Assists

Feeding those who love to score were some of the league’s most creative players. 

Mohamed Salah topped this particular chart with 16 assists, seeing off fierce competition from Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka, who registered 13 apiece.

Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne finished the year with 12, despite his lengthy injury woes, while Son Heung-min racked up 11. 

Seven players all laid on 10 goals, including Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Gordon, Declan Rice, Bruno Guimaraes and Morgan Gibbs-White. 

Fulham full back Antonee Robinson brought up 10 assists for the year, too.

Mohamed Salah’s 16 assists placed him at the top of the chart with Cole Palmer second

Chances created 

Following on in a similar vein, a host of top-flight players created golden openings, many of which were taken. At the top of this list was Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, with 99 chances (66 of which came in open play) to his name.

Cole Palmer was second on 97 and Kevin De Bruyne finished third with 84.

Bukayo Saka and Andreas Pereira finished with 83 chances created each and there were also strong numbers for Anthony Gordon (78) and Dwight McNeil (75).

The only defender in the top 20 was Liverpool’s Andy Robertson (65). 

Other standout names to make the cut were Luis Diaz (67), Bernardo Silva (67), Son Heung-min (64), Phil Foden (63), James Maddison (62) and Mohamed Salah (59). 

Tackles 

One guaranteed way to evoke a roar from any Premier League crowd is a good, crunching tackle. Mercifully, there were plenty of those in 2024.

At the top of this chart was Wolves’ Joao Gomes with 129. Next came Crystal Palace’s Daniel Munoz, with 121, and Alexis Mac Allister on 120. 

Other workhorses included Moises Caicedo (115), Tyrick Mitchell (110), Casemiro (101), Emerson (99), Mario Lemina (96) and Idrissa Gueye (95).

Then came the likes of Antonee Robinson (93), Bruno Guimaraes (91), Diogo Dalot (88), Rayan Ait-Nouri (79), Lewis Cook (79) and James Tarkowski (76).

Honourable mentions went to Destiny Udogie (75) and Ryan Christie (73).

Wolves’ midfield general Joao Gomes delivered the most tackles in the league in 2024

Yellow and red cards

There were also hundreds of bookings last year, leading to a spate of red cards.

Wolves full back Nelson Semedo picked up a combined 13 (12 yellows, one red) with Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella second on the naughty step (11 yellows, one red).

Also shown too many cards were Joao Gomes (12 yellows), Marcos Senesi (12 yellows), James Tarkowski (12 yellows) and Rodrigo Bentancur (11 yellows).

A special mention goes to Kalvin Phillips, who was sent off twice in 2024, as were Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and Southampton captain Jack Stephens. 

There was a further red card for Edson Alvarez, who also recorded eight yellows.