The Premier League’s Strong Starters To The Season

The 2026/27 edition of the Premier League begins in just over 24 hours as defending champions Arsenal play host to a Coventry side that earned promotion to the top tier in May by virtue of winning last season’s EFL Championship.

A baptism of fire for Frank Lampard’s men as they travel to the Emirates, but perhaps a free hit for the Sky Blues at the same time. Although they will be looking to get off to the best possible start in London, they may have to wait until the following week to pick up their first points of the campaign.

Each of the 20 teams in the division will be looking to get off to a strong start, but what does a strong start actually look like? Should it be measured by success in the opening game of the season or do you extend the form guide out a little longer?

On the basis that we extend the concept of a strong start to a team’s first five Premier League games of the season, we can start to get an idea of which teams are quick out of the blocks and who ends up getting left behind.

Therefore, we have looked at each of the last 10 Premier League campaigns (2016/17 to 2025/26) and seen how each of the class of 2026/27 has fared early on, with a maximum of 50 games being played per club.

There is one important caveat to the numbers. Not every club has played 50 matches across the 10-season sample, with teams that have spent time outside the Premier League having fewer games available.

The figures below are therefore based on the matches each club has played during that period, with the win percentage calculated from the number of games won. The larger the sample, the more representative the figure is likely to be.

With new managers at both Liverpool and Manchester City, it bodes well for both Andoni Iraola and Enzo Maresca when you look at the previous 10 seasons. These two teams have seemingly wasted no time in the opening weeks of the season.

Liverpool have the highest win percentage across their 50 early-season games (10 seasons, 5 games per season), and of that half-century, they have picked up 37 wins at a win rate of 74% - two higher than that of Manchester City.

While the only difference between the Anfield and Etihad outfits is the fact that City have drawn one more game than their Merseyside rivals. Their record of 36-9-5 leaves them two points behind with a 72% success rate in the early weeks of the season.

However, the weight of history may also end up being too much for either Iraola or Maresca, and when you remember that they would have inherited those records from previous men in charge, it means the bar has already been lifted rather high in these two pockets of the North West of England.

Staying on the topic of expectation, it is Arsenal that will arguably have the greatest going into this new Premier League season and with the Gunners favourites to win the title for the second year in a row, they may have to improve on their early results in order to do so.

Of the maximum 50 games in the sample, Arsenal have only won 30 of them. Giving the North London outfit a success rate of 60%. 14% less than Liverpool at the top, but then again it is not all about how you start; it is also how you finish.

THE CHASING PACK

Behind Arsenal and filling out the rest of the top six, there is a big six lockout, and there is little difference between the remaining three members of the Premier League’s elite, as Chelsea and Tottenham have identical records.

They have each managed to win 27 games from their early 50-game sample, also drawing 13 and losing the remaining 10 in the process. They each have a 54% win rate, the same as Manchester United, but the Old Trafford outfit have recorded it differently.

By comparison, the Red Devils have also collected 27 wins in order to generate a 54% win rate, but whereas their London-based counterparts draw 13 of their 50 games, United draw just seven. The trade-off subsequently being no less than 16 defeats – the most of each of the big six teams.

The big six lock out the top six, but they are not the only teams to have competed in each of the last 10 Premier League seasons, and if we were to hand out memberships for being ever-present, then both Everton and Crystal Palace would also be a part of the group.

The Toffees find themselves operating in mid-table when it comes to measuring their success at the start of each season. Across 50 games in their sample, they have picked up just 17 wins to go alongside 14 draws and 19 losses, a set of performances that equates to a win rate of 34%.

Good enough to sit 10^th in the starting table and six places behind the other permanent member of the past 10 seasons. By comparison, Crystal Palace have won 14 of their 50 games, drawing the same amount and also going on to lose 22. This all adds up to a win rate of 28%.

UPS AND DOWNS

Looking past the teams that have got a full sample of results, it is Aston Villa who are adept at strong starts in the Premier League. They have contested seven of the last 10 editions of the competition and are therefore eligible for 35 matches in the sample.

Those 35 outings for the West Midlands outfit have seen Villa win 15 and lose just as many; an additional five draws round things up, and this sees last season’s Europa League winners sitting on an early-season win rate of 42.86%.

Unai Emery’s men sit one place above Brighton, who have a 40% win rate after 45 games (courtesy of nine unbroken seasons in the Premier League after earning promotion from the Championship at the end of the 2016/17 campaign), the same percentage as that of promoted Hull.

NEW BOYS AND SLOW STARTS

However, there does need to be an element of caution when measuring Hull’s early-season success as they have competed in just one of the last 10 Premier League campaigns and that 40% win rate comes from winning two from their opening five matches.

That being said, a record of two wins, a draw and two losses is still good enough to collect seven points, and if the Tigers can get off to a similar start over the next few weeks, then there will be few complaints from their supporters.

There could, however, be complaints from Newcastle supporters and like Brighton, they have had nine consecutive Premier League seasons after earning promotion from the Championship. Unlike the Seagulls, the Magpies have not swooped as high in the first few weeks of proceedings.

The St James’ Park outfit have won 13 of their 45 games in the sample, giving them a win rate of 28.89% before the start of the new campaign. This may give Matthias Jaissle an excuse if the same thing happens in his first five games in charge; it could also place him under early pressure.

While promoted side Ipswich could be under pressure from the off as Gary O’Neil takes the reins at Portman Road, and with the Tractor Boys failing to win any of their first five games under Kieran McKenna a couple of seasons ago, they have a win rate of 0% to their name.

The small sample of games may be serving as a mitigating circumstance, but it could also be a precursor to how tough things have been for promoted sides in the Premier League over the past few years as the gap between the first and second tier of English football becomes more of a chasm.

This also serves as a word of warning to Coventry, who get us underway on Friday night and with no appearance in the Premier League for a quarter century, they have no results in the sample. A blank canvas, as it were, for Frank Lampard and his players.

Which means, they could mimic the efforts of fellow promoted outfit Ipswich and fail to win any of their five games of the season, or they could pull off the biggest shock of all on the opening night. The devil, as always, is in the detail.