It was a bloodbath. If you weren't a Manchester City fan, the EPL 2017 18 table was basically a 38-week long horror movie. We’ve seen dominant teams before, sure. Fergie’s United had that aura. Wenger’s Invincibles had the grace. But Pep Guardiola’s "Centurions" were a different kind of monster. They didn't just win; they essentially broke the math of the Premier League.
Honestly, looking back at the final standings from that year feels like staring at a glitch in the Matrix. One hundred points. It’s a nice, round, terrifying number. Before this specific season, the idea of a team hitting triple digits in the world's most competitive league felt like a fever dream or something you’d only see on a FIFA career mode set to 'Amateur' difficulty.
The Gap That Swallowed the Rest of the League
When you pull up the EPL 2017 18 table, the first thing that hits you isn't just City at the top. It’s the sheer, yawning chasm between them and everyone else.
Manchester United finished second. Ordinarily, finishing as a runner-up with 81 points is a solid campaign. In many other years, that might have kept the title race alive until May. But in 2018? Jose Mourinho’s United were 19 points adrift. Nineteen! That is the largest margin between first and second in the history of the English top flight. Mourinho later famously called finishing second with that squad one of his "greatest achievements," and while people laughed at the time, the data kinda backs him up. He was chasing a spaceship with a tractor.
The rest of the "Big Six" were essentially playing a different sport. Tottenham took third with 77 points, while Liverpool—who were just beginning to find their final form under Jurgen Klopp—landed in fourth with 75. This was the season Mo Salah went nuclear, scoring 32 goals and breaking the record for a 38-game season. Yet, despite having a literal goal-scoring deity on their wing, Liverpool still finished 25 points behind the leaders.
How the Centurions Rewrote the Record Books
It’s easy to say "they were good." It’s harder to grasp the sheer volume of records that fell. City didn't just win the most points; they won the most games (32), scored the most goals (106), and had the best goal difference (+79).
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Think about that goal difference for a second. +79.
To put that in perspective, the bottom four teams—Swansea, Stoke, West Brom, and even 17th-place Southampton—combined for a total of 113 goals. One team almost outscored the entire bottom quarter of the league by themselves. It was relentless. Gabriel Jesus’s 94th-minute winner against Southampton on the final day wasn't just a goal; it was the moment that pushed them into the triple-digit stratosphere. It felt like scripted drama, but the quality of football was purely clinical.
The Mid-Table Purgatory and the "Best of the Rest"
Further down the EPL 2017 18 table, things got weird. Chelsea, the defending champions, absolutely imploded. Antonio Conte’s "season of suffering" saw them finish 5th with 70 points, missing out on the Champions League entirely. It was a stark reminder of how quickly the league moves; you can go from lifting the trophy to Europa League Thursdays in exactly twelve months.
Then there was Arsenal. The end of an era. Arsène Wenger’s final season saw the Gunners finish 6th with 63 points. It was a sad, lingering goodbye. They lost 11 games away from home—a stat so bad it felt like a typo. Fans were divided, the atmosphere at the Emirates was often toxic, and the table reflected a club that had lost its North Star.
But shoutout to Burnley. Seriously. Sean Dyche guided a squad built on grit, low blocks, and probably a fair amount of gravel-eating to 7th place. They finished with 54 points and qualified for Europe. In a season defined by City’s billion-dollar brilliance, Burnley’s presence in the top seven was the ultimate "football is still unpredictable" middle finger to the elite.
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The Relegation Dogfight: A Slow-Motion Car Crash
While City were flying, the bottom of the EPL 2017 18 table was a grim struggle for survival.
West Bromwich Albion were the first to go. They tried a "Great Escape" under Darren Moore late in the season, including a shock win at Old Trafford, but the damage done by Alan Pardew earlier in the campaign was too much. They finished rock bottom with 31 points. Stoke City followed them, ending a 10-year stay in the Premier League. Their demise was particularly shocking because they actually had some decent names on paper—Shaqiri, Arnautovic (briefly), Butland—but they simply forgot how to defend.
Swansea City occupied the final relegation spot. They had been flirting with the drop for years, and the luck finally ran out. What’s wild is that Southampton survived with just 36 points. Usually, the "magic number" for safety is 40, but the 2017-18 season was so top-heavy that the bottom teams were barely picking up scraps.
Tactical Shifts: Why 2017-18 Changed Everything
This season wasn't just about the numbers; it was about how the game was played. Guardiola’s use of "inverted fullbacks" and the extreme high press forced the rest of the league to adapt or die.
- The Death of the Traditional 4-4-2: Almost everyone moved toward a 4-3-3 or a 3-4-3 to try and cope with City's midfield overloads.
- The Rise of the Goalkeeper-Playmaker: Ederson’s arrival at City changed what we expected from keepers. His passing range was better than most mid-table midfielders.
- High Lines and High Risk: Teams started realizing that sitting deep against City was just a slow death. This led to more expansive (and sometimes suicidal) tactical setups across the league.
Why We Still Talk About This Specific Table
We talk about it because it represents the peak of "Project City," but also because it serves as a benchmark. Every time a team starts a season well now, we check the "Centurion pace." It changed the expectations of what a title-winning season looks like. Before 2017-18, if you got 90 points, you were legendary. Now, if you want to beat the best, you basically have to be perfect.
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It was also the year that truly birthed the modern Liverpool-City rivalry. Even though the points gap was huge, Liverpool’s 4-3 win over City in January 2018 was the only time the champions looked truly human. It laid the groundwork for the 90+ point dogfights that would follow in subsequent years.
Real-World Takeaways for Fans and Analysts
If you're looking back at the EPL 2017 18 table to settle an argument or just for a hit of nostalgia, here are the cold, hard facts you need to remember:
- City’s dominance was total: They held the top spot for 240 days.
- Goal scoring was peaked: Salah's 32 goals remains a benchmark for individual brilliance in a single season.
- Home advantage mattered (mostly): Only City and United managed to win more than 10 games on the road.
- Consistency is a myth for most: Everton finished 8th despite a season that felt like a total disaster to their fans, proving that everyone below the top six was essentially beating each other up in a giant mosh pit.
To truly understand this era, you have to look at the points-per-game metrics. City averaged 2.63 points per match. That's a level of efficiency that usually requires a "cheat code." For anyone analyzing the league today, the 2017-18 season is the ultimate case study in what happens when world-class coaching meets an almost unlimited budget and a perfectly synchronized squad.
If you’re researching this for a project or just a deep dive into football history, pay close attention to the "Goals Against" column for the bottom half. The lack of defensive discipline in 2017-18 was startling, with 10 teams conceding 50 or more goals. It was a season of extremes—extreme attack, extreme dominance, and extreme struggle.
Next Steps for Your Research:
Dig into the specific match-day lineups of Manchester City during their 18-game winning streak that season. Notice how Guardiola rotated his wingers—Sané and Sterling—to maintain high-intensity pressing. Also, compare the "Points at Christmas" versus the final table; you'll see that the relegation battle was actually decided much earlier than the final day theatrics suggested. For a deeper tactical understanding, look up the "half-space" movements of Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva from this period, as that was the engine room that made the 100-point season possible.