Premier League: Most defeats to start a season

Mark Mothershaw Updated: 04 Dec 24 15:59

Successive defeats at the start of a Premier League season often herald devastating consequences for the team in question, but not always.

Incredibly, a club has miraculously survived the top-flight trap-door despite succumbing to defeats in each of their opening seven Premier League fixtures, whilst others have eventually succumbed to relegation despite making profitable starts.

We take a look at the worst starts ever made to a Premier League campaign.

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Crystal Palace

2017/18 - 7 defeats

Who can ever forget Crystal Palace's 'Frank de Boer experiment'?

Those of a Palace persuasion will certainly wish they could after the revered Dutchman oversaw one of the most catastrophic periods in the club's recent history.

Steve Parish, the Eagles chairman at the time, opted for change in the summer of 2017, hiring the Ajax great to implement a new style of football at Selhurst Park on the back of the more cautious set-ups overseen by Tony Pulis, Neil Warnock and Sam Allardyce.

It was a hugely ambitious and risky call, and one that ended in de Boer's dismissal after just four top-flight games and 77 days in the South London hot-seat.

His brief reign began with an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat at the hands of newly promoted Huddersfield Town, whilst three successive losses followed - against Liverpool, Swansea City and Burnley - with Palace failing to score a single goal.

That 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley forced Parish to pull the plug on de Boer, with lifelong supporter, and former Academy youth team prospect, Roy Hodgson quickly drafted in as his successor.

It was a decision that ultimately paid dividends with the club remarkably ending the season in 11th spot despite Hodgson seeing his new charges beaten in his opening three games.

Between de Boer and Hodgson, Palace lost seven successive Premier League games without notching a single goal. Their goal difference at that time, a staggering -17.

Portsmouth

2009/10 - 7 defeats

Along with Crystal Palace, Portsmouth remain the only other side since the formation of the Premier League in 1992 to have been beaten in their opening seven matches.

Financial issues had engulfed the club during the summer of 2009, with fan-favourites Glen Johnson, Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar all being sold in a bid to stave off the bailiffs and keep the club afloat.

It didn't take long for those off the field issues to be matched by those on the field however.

Under the stewardship of Paul Hart, Pompey's 2009/10 hopes were immediately in tatters, with Fulham, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers and Everton all departing Fratton Park with maximum points.

Their fortunes on the road were equally as dire too, with Birmingham City, Arsenal and Aston Villa all triumphing in relatively trouble-free fashion.

It was a torturous period for the club who never managed to recover from their dreadful start.

Avram Grant did somehow lead the side to the FA Cup Final - in which they lost to Chelsea - but was never able to elevate them from 20th place in the table, a position they held from August right the way through to May.

Norwich City

2021/22 - 6 defeats

Norwich City are the proverbial 'yo-yo' team, having been in the Premier League three times in the last decade, yet haven't managed to survive their first campaign back in the top-flight.

For any of the newly-promoted sides it's always vitally important to hit the ground running, something the Canaries typically struggle in doing.

In 2021/22, fresh off their Championship title winning campaign, there were genuine hopes that the club could break their cycle and make Carrow Road the fortress it needed to be to survive the rigours of the Premier League.

Sadly for Daniel Farke, his side and the club's supporters, those hopes were short lived.

Defeats against Liverpool (0-3), Manchester City (0-5), Leicester City (1-2) and Arsenal (0-1) were maybe not unexpected, but it was more than manner of them that had a telling impact.

Watford and Everton rubbed further salt into the wounds in September, inflicting 3-1 and 2-0 defeats upon the Norfolk club, leaving them perched precariously inside the drop zone, and setting the tone for what was to prove yet another uninspiring spell back in the big league.

Norwich eventually ended the season rock bottom having conceded 84 goals - the seventh worst defensive record in Premier League history.

Sunderland

2005/06 - 5 defeats

It's easy to forget that Sunderland enjoyed an impressive decade-long run in the top-flight in the not too distant pass, but prior to that period the Black Cats produced the worst run of form the Premier League has ever seen.

The North East club reeled off a remarkable 20 straight Premier League losses, with 15 coming at the end of the 2002/03 season and five at the start of the 2005/06 season when they returned to the top flight.

Charlton Athletic, Liverpool, Manchester City, Wigan Athletic and Chelsea were the culprits for Sunderland's unprofitable return across August and September 2005.

Five points from three matches against West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough and West Ham United offered a glimmer of hope that Sunderland could produce an escape act, but it was ultimately in vain.

Nine further defeats followed that three-match unbeaten run; a run of form that ultimately cost Irishman Mick McCarthy his job at the Stadium of Light.

Caretaker bosses Kevin Ball and Niall Quinn were both unable to halt Sunderland's slide too, with the side winning just three matches across the whole season and chalking up just just 15 points in the process.

Not a record that anybody would want to break, but it's the closest any Premier League side has come to Derby County's infamous 38 game 11 point haul.