Premier League: Most clean sheets and fewest goals conceded in a season

Chelsea are still the standard bearers when it comes to keeping goals out, with their 2004/05 title winners conceding the fewest goals in a Premier League season.

Fewest goals conceded in a Premier League season

Jose Mourinho arrived in England on the back of an unlikely Champions League win with Porto the previous season, modestly declaring himself to be a ‘special one’. Armed with an enormous transfer budget (Chelsea spent £121m the previous season – more than double the amount spent by any Premier League club in any season), Mourinho added £95m of talent, including Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira. 

The Blues kept 25 clean sheets that campaign with Cech responsible for 24. The former Chelsea stopper still holds the record for most clean sheets in a Premier League season with 24 (ahead of Alisson and Edwin van der Sar with 21 each).

Despite falling short in the title race on the final day, Arsenal conceded a miserly 17 goals in the entirety of the 1998/99 season, keeping 23 clean sheets in the process (with David Seaman between the sticks for 19 of them). Impressively, they only conceded more than once on just one occasion, but were ultimately handicapped by seven 0-0 draws and five 1-1 draws. 

In Mourinho’s second season, Chelsea would run away with the title again, albeit conceding 22 goals this time. Manchester United in the 2007/08 season in which they’d also win the Champions League conceded the same 22 goals, as did Liverpool in their 97-point campaign in which they finished a point behind Manchester City.

Most clean sheets in a Premier League season

*42-game season

Liam Williams

• Liverpool F.C.
• Arsenal F.C.
• Chelsea F.C.
• Manchester United F.C.
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