Defending champions Liverpool have made a perfect start to 2025/26, winning all five matches. However history suggests that all is far from lost for their rivals, as football writer Ben Bloom explains.
The clocks have not gone back yet to mark the end of British Summer Time and already the Premier League table has an ominous look to it.
Fresh off the back of last season’s triumph, Liverpool are yet to drop a single point at the start of this campaign, kicking off their title defence with a perfect record of five wins from five matches.
Having watched the reigning champions splash a reported £400million on new signings over the summer, supporters of rival clubs were already fearing the worst. Now some are starting to believe the title race is a foregone conclusion.
Liverpool’s unblemished record has seen them open up a five-point lead over the chasing pack, headed by Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and AFC Bournemouth. Continue at the current rate and silverware will be secured not long into the new year.
But fear not. A look at similar situations throughout Premier League history suggests crowning Liverpool as champions would be wildly premature. The title race is far from over.
Past five-point leaders
Only twice before in the competition’s history has a club opened up a five-point lead after five matches and on the first occasion this happened, the final standings would go on to prove that advantage was little indication of eventual title credentials.
This came in 2015/16, when Manchester City had not even conceded a goal in their five opening wins to put them five points clear of Manchester United at the end of Saturday 12 September.
In fact, by the end of the following day, Leicester City had moved to within four points of Manuel Pellegrini’s side after their fifth game of the campaign.
Despite their impeccable start, Man City would quickly falter and finish only fourth in an extraordinary season that saw Leicester prevail.
Watch: Leicester win at Man City on their way to the title
The only other time a club led by five points after five matches was in 2019/20, when Liverpool began their season with a bang.
On that occasion, it was indeed a sign of remarkable things to come. Jurgen Klopp’s team went unbeaten for their first 27 games, winning 26 of them, and wrapped up the title with a record seven matches still to play.
But will this season’s Liverpool side match their 2019/20 predecessors or follow the path of Man City’s ill-fated 2015/16 team?
The perfect starters
Ignoring the points tallies of clubs beneath them, 13 teams have previously won their first five Premier League matches, with Arne Slot’s side the 14th to do so.
However, of those 13, just four went on to become champions.
Teams to win first five PL matches and final league position
| Season | Team | Final pos. | Season | Team | Final pos. |
| 94/95 | Newcastle | 6 | 16/17 | Man City | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04/05 | Arsenal | 2 | 18/19 | Liverpool | 2 |
| 05/06 | Chelsea | 1 | 18/19 | Chelsea | 3 |
| 09/10 | Chelsea | 1 | 19/20 | Liverpool | 1 |
| 10/11 | Chelsea | 2 | 22/23 | Arsenal | 2 |
| 11/12 | Man Utd | 2 | 23/24 | Man City | 1 |
| 15/16 | Man City | 4 | 25/26 | Liverpool | ? |
Scroll across to see the full table
In fact, a year before their dominant 2019/20 title success, Liverpool were one of two sides – alongside Chelsea – who began the season with five wins. Yet neither would win the title, as Man City triumphed.
The worst a team has fared after winning their opening five matches was in 1994/95, when Newcastle United only managed to finish sixth after an alarming drop off that included a period of only two wins from 13 games around the turn of the year.
The four teams to claim the title after a perfect five-match start were Chelsea in 2005/06 and 2009/10, Liverpool in 2019/20 and Man City in 2023/24.
How to win the title
So what does it take at the start of a season for a club to win the Premier League? Well, there is no one-sized-fits-all method of success.
The table below shows the number of points each of the Premier League’s 33 title winners had after five matches.
How many points champions have won after five matches
| Points after five matches | No. of champions |
| 7 | 1 |
|---|---|
| 8 | 5 |
| 9 | 2 |
| 10 | 4 |
| 11 | 4 |
| 12 | 4 |
| 13 | 9 |
| 14 | 0 |
| 15 | 4 |
While four eventual champions did indeed have a perfect record at this stage, a far greater number had 13 points, and – interestingly – five had just eight points, including Man City in 2020/21.
In the inaugural Premier League season (1992/93), Man Utd even came back to triumph after a distinctly average start saw them pick up just seven points from five games, with a negative goal difference. So all is far from lost for Liverpool’s rivals.
On Saturday, the reigning champions face Crystal Palace in a battle between the top flight’s only remaining unbeaten teams.
Indeed, Palace have not lost in 17 matches across all competitions – and beat Liverpool in the Community Shield on penalties in August – with one more win or draw equalling the longest unbeaten run in the club’s history.
The table could take on a very different slant by the end of the weekend.