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A history of Premier League thrashings

By on October 18, 2014

The number of goals-per-game in the Premier League is often commonly thought be gradually receding, but in reality the last five years have been some of the best for strikers in the Premier League. Say what you want about what it all means, whether it has anything to do with the big money at the top of the league or the defenders or strikers or whatnot, but over the past five years the average goals-per-game in the EPL has been 2.79, up over .20 on the early days of the league. And not only have there been goals, there have been quite a few thrashings in the past few years.

Today, Southampton beat Sunderland 8-0. This not only left the Black Cats’ manager Gus Poyet “embarrassed”, but even Southampton boss Ronald Koeman voiced his shock at the scoreline in his post-match conference. It was the biggest winning margin the Premier League has seen since Chelsea beat Aston Villa by the same scoreline in 2012. Even that doesn’t do it justice, though. The only way to think of it may be the fact that in 23 seasons spanning nearly a quarter century, and 8683 matches, the modern Premier League (since it was rebranded in 1992), has only seen five matches with the same or bigger winning margin – and only one 9-0 win. It’s fair to say the last few years have treated us well.

The first thrashing with a winning margin of seven or over came in 1995/96, when Blackburn Rovers beat Nottingham Forest 7-0, however since there have been a bigger host of matches with the same scoreline. Later that year, though, Manchester United put nine past Ipswich Town and kept their visitors off the scoreboard, a record which has not even been equalled since. Andy Cole scored five that day, a record which has since been equalled but not beaten. Oddly enough United only finished second that season as Blackburn took the title.

In the late nineties and early twenty-first century United won by seven multiple times, as well as Arsenal, but it would take until 1999 for anybody to even come close to United’s record, with Newcastle United crushing Sheffield Wednesday 8-0. Alan Shearer got five on the day and matched Cole’s record. Yet it would take over a decade for that winning margin to be equalled again. It was well worth the wait, however, as Tottenham Hotspur beat Wigan Athletic 9-1 in 2009, and in the very same season Wigan lost 8-0 to Chelsea. Yet somehow Wigan stayed up by a pretty comfortable six points. Perhaps it was more Chelsea than them, as The Blues would beat Villa 8-0, as aforementioned, in 2012. And with today’s win four of the six winning margins of eight goals or more in Premier League history have come in the past five years.

Still, there is one main trend that sticks throughout all six matches. All escalated towards the end. In every one of them more goals came in the second half than the first (except for Newcastle-Sheffield, in which four were scored on either side of the half). Today Southampton scored five second half goals and three in the first, but all five came in the final third of the match. And in the case of Tottenham’s thumping of Wigan, the scoreline was only 1-0 to Spurs at the half with an early Peter Crouch goal. The other ten goals (including one for Wigan) came in the second half. In the majority of the matches it escalated near the hour mark with a bunch of goals, and then multiple more trickled in inconsequentially in the final ten minutes or so. That is what happened today as well.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.