History moves fast in football. We’re already deep into the current campaign, but people are still obsessively checking the 2023-24 Premier League table to settle arguments or figure out how their team ended up in their current mess. Honestly, looking back at those final standings feels like reading a crime scene report. It wasn’t just about Manchester City winning again—though they did, obviously—it was about the sheer, exhausting volume of points required to even stay in the conversation.
Pep Guardiola’s side finished with 91 points. That’s a staggering number, yet it only gave them a two-point cushion over Arsenal. Think about that. Arsenal won 28 games, scored 91 goals, and had the best defense in the league by a mile, and they still ended up looking at the back of City’s shirts on the final day.
It was brutal.
The Numbers Behind the 2023-24 Premier League Table
If you just look at the raw data, you see a top four of City, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Aston Villa. But the gaps between them tell the real story. Liverpool sat at 82 points, falling off the pace in Jurgen Klopp’s emotional farewell tour after a few shaky results against Everton and Crystal Palace. Then you have a massive drop-off to Aston Villa at 68 points.
It’s kinda wild that a team could qualify for the Champions League with 68 points while the runners-up had 89. That 21-point chasm between second and fourth is one of the largest we’ve seen in the modern era. It suggests the league was top-heavy, sure, but it also shows how Unai Emery managed to overperform with a squad that didn't have the infinite depth of the state-backed giants. Villa lost 10 games—more than double what Arsenal lost—yet they’re the ones who walked away with the big prize of European elite football.
Tottenham Hotspur finished fifth with 66 points. They were the "vibes" team for the first three months under Ange Postecoglou, but the wheels didn't so much fall off as they did slowly wobble until the axle snapped. They ended up in the Europa League, just two points behind Villa. Those two points represent tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue. Small margins.
Chelsea’s Late Surge and the Manchester United Disaster
The middle of the 2023-24 Premier League table is where things got weird. Chelsea spent most of the season looking like a group of talented strangers who had never met before. Then, suddenly, Mauricio Pochettino got them clicking. They went on a tear in the final weeks, surging up to 6th place with 63 points. It was enough for Europe, or so they thought, until Manchester United threw a wrench in the works by winning the FA Cup from 8th place.
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United’s league performance was, frankly, a shambles.
Erik ten Hag’s men finished with a negative goal difference. Let that sink in. They were the 8th best team in England but conceded more goals than they scored over 38 games. They finished with 60 points, their lowest-ever tally in the Premier League era. Yet, because of that cup win, they bumped Chelsea down to the Conference League and pushed Newcastle United (who finished 7th) out of Europe entirely.
Newcastle had 60 points too, but a much better goal difference (+23 compared to United’s -1). Life isn't fair. The table says Newcastle was better, but the trophy cabinet says United gets the trip to Europe.
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The Relegation Scrap That No One Wanted to Win
Usually, the battle to stay up is a high-octane drama. Last year, it was more like a slow-motion car crash where everyone forgot to hit the brakes. The three promoted teams—Luton Town, Burnley, and Sheffield United—all went straight back down.
- Sheffield United: 16 points. A defensive nightmare. They conceded 104 goals, a Premier League record for a 38-game season.
- Burnley: 24 points. Vincent Kompany tried to play brave, expansive football, but you can’t play like prime Barca if you don't have the players to pull it off.
- Luton Town: 26 points. They were the sentimental favorites, turning Kenilworth Road into a fortress of sorts, but they just lacked the late-game stamina to hold onto leads.
What’s truly bizarre about the bottom of the 2023-24 Premier League table is that Nottingham Forest stayed up with only 32 points. In almost any other year, 32 points is a death sentence. To put it in perspective, in the 2022-23 season, Leicester City went down with 34.
We also have to talk about the points deductions. Everton were docked points, then got some back, then were docked more. Forest were hit too. Without those penalties, Everton would have finished much higher than 15th. Sean Dyche basically performed a miracle by keeping that squad focused while the boardroom was on fire. Everton ended with 40 points on paper, but they earned 48 on the pitch. That would have put them level with Brighton in 11th.
Mid-Table Mediocrity or Stability?
West Ham (9th), Crystal Palace (10th), and Brighton (11th) formed a solid block of "fine" teams. Palace, specifically under Oliver Glasner in the final weeks, looked like world-beaters. Jean-Philippe Mateta turned into prime Ronaldo for about six weeks. If the season had lasted another five games, Palace might have been challenging for a top-six spot.
Bournemouth also deserves a shout. 48 points and a 12th-place finish under Andoni Iraola. After a winless start in their first nine games, most pundits had them pegged for the drop. They proved everyone wrong by playing some of the most aggressive, high-pressing football in the country.
The 2023-24 Premier League table teaches us that the "Big Six" is a dead concept. It’s now a "Big Two" (City and Arsenal), a rotating cast of "Top Four" contenders (Villa, Liverpool, Spurs), and a chaotic middle class where anyone can beat anyone.
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If you’re looking at these stats to predict what happens next, don't ignore the "Expected Goals" (xG) versus actual results. Teams like Brentford finished 16th with 39 points, but their underlying numbers suggested they should have been much higher. They were unlucky. Conversely, Manchester United rode their luck all the way to 8th.
Actionable Insights for the Stat Obsessed:
- Check the Home/Away split: City and Arsenal were nearly identical at home, but City’s ability to grind out wins in tough away fixtures like Spurs (late in the season) was the separator.
- Goal Difference Matters: Never ignore the GD column. Arsenal's +62 was elite, but Man City's ability to score 96 goals overall meant they could out-shoot any defensive errors.
- Watch the Promoted Teams: The gap between the Championship and the PL is widening. The 2023-24 season was the first time since 1997-98 that all three promoted teams went down together. If you're betting or playing fantasy football, target the new guys early.
- Points Deductions are the New Normal: Financial Fair Play (or PSR) isn't going away. When looking at the table, always look for the asterisk. The legal battles in the offices are now as important as the strikers on the pitch.
The 2023-24 season wasn't just another year of City dominance. It was a year where the floor for survival dropped to an all-time low, while the ceiling for winning the title moved almost out of reach for everyone else. It was a season of extremes.