Teams With the Fewest-Ever Premier League Points

Every season, three teams are relegated from the Premier League. 

It is thought that unless a team can rack up at least 40 points in a season, it will be relegated. With this in mind, let's look at the teams with the fewest points in Premier League history.

Sunderland (2002-03) 

Points: 19 | Games Lost: 27

Sunderland fired two managers in its 2002-03 campaign and settled on Mick McCarthy in March with less than two months left of Premier League action. The team was practically already relegated by this point and was looking to win just one more game after setting a Premier League record for 15 consecutive defeats.

It finished with 19 points out of a possible 118 and lost 27 times in 38 games. This also was the season that West Ham was relegated with the most points ever collected by a relegated team, meaning Sunderland also set a record for the biggest points difference between 20th and the safe spot of 17th.

Aston Villa (2015-16) 

Points: 17 | Games Lost: 27

The 2015-16 season is mainly remembered for Leicester City winning the Premier League title against the odds of 5000/1 (+500000). In the same season, Aston Villa collected just 17 points. 

Since the Premier League was created in 1992-93, Villa played in every season before its relegation. It even competed for the Premier League title throughout the 1990s and finished second in the Premier League's inaugural season with 74 points.

Fast forward 23 years and Villa would collect just 17 points, let in 76 goals and win only three out of 38 games.

Huddersfield Town (2018-19) 

Points: 16 | Games Lost: 28

Huddersfield Town stunned English soccer when it was promoted out of the Championship in 2016 against the odds. It avoided relegation by four points in its debut Premier League season, but the reality of how hard it is to stay in the division kicked in the following year.

After a 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on March 30, 2019, Huddersfield suffered the joint-earliest relegation from the Premier League. Following a win over Wolverhampton on Nov. 25, 2018, it went on a 14-game winless run, losing 13 of those games.

The Terriers won just three matches that year and finished 20 points away from safety.

Sunderland (2005-06) 

Points: 15 | Games Lost: 29

Following relegation with the fifth-lowest points tally in Premier League history in 2002-03, Sunderland was back in England’s top division two seasons later and produced an even worse display.

By Christmastime and with five months left of the season, it became apparent Sunderland would face its second relegation in three years and its only goal was to avoid finishing worse than in 2002-03. 

In the end, not only did it fail to avoid that dishonor, but Sunderland broke Stoke City's 21-year-old record for the fewest points collected since the introduction of three points for a win.

The season also saw one of the lowest top-scorer tallies ever recorded, as four players scored just three goals across the 38 games for Sunderland.

Derby County (2007-08)

Points: 11 | Games Lost: 29

This is the worst team in Premier League history, and by quite a distance. In fact, Derby County’s effort in 2007-08 was so bad that the club is still mocked for it.

It accumulated the league’s lowest points total since the introduction of three points for a win, with 11. It also broke the record for the fewest wins in a season, with one in 38 games. Derby also had the longest run without victory (32 games).

Derby scored the fewest goals (20), conceded the most in a 38-game season (89), and faced the earliest relegation in Premier League history with six games left on March 29, 2008.

It’s unlikely we’ll ever see a team perform so badly across 38 games again. It was arguably the worst-ever display from any team across Europe’s top divisions.