Intro
The Premier League is often lauded as one of the best and most competitive divisions in European football. With this in mind, it’s very easy for smaller clubs to end up in a seemingly endless downward spiral, where even partisan home fans can’t turn the tide.
In honour of Liverpool losing six home games in a row in 2020/21, here are the longest home winless streaks in Premier League history. The Reds just about managed to avoid cracking the top five, but the following clubs weren’t so lucky. In fact, the majority ended up being relegated, which most bookies will have favoured anyway after seeing these losing streaks grow. Click here for the latest football betting odds for the upcoming season.
Huddersfield Town – 7 defeats
Huddersfield Town were viewed as the ultimate underdog story when they were promoted to the Premier League for the 2017/18 season. Remarkably, the Terriers managed to stay up in their debut campaign, meaning they’d have another year in the topflight in 18/19, despite their financial inferiority.
Resilience and desire alone was enough to keep the club afloat during their first Premier League season, but by year number two the novelty had somewhat worn off. Huddersfield didn’t win a single home game until November 2018, with the club taking just three home wins altogether that year. The run of defeats started on the 1st of December and didn’t end until February 2019, when David Wagner’s side finally registered a 1-0 win over Wolves.
It was a heroic effort over two years, but in the end, relegation back down to the Championship could not be avoided.
Bolton Wanderers – 7 defeats
Bolton’s run of home defeats is slightly different from the rest of the entries on this list, as it was spread across two seasons. The streak started on the penultimate match-day of the 2011/12 campaign, where the club lost 2-1 to Sunderland.
This form was then carried over into 2011/12, with the Trotters subsequently getting beaten 5-0 by Manchester United, and 5-1 by Chelsea over the following few months. They did manage to break the run of defeats at home in spectacular style, by thrashing Stoke City 5-0 at the Reebok in November 2011.
Stoke would end up having the last laugh however, as in a cruel twist of irony, a defeat away at Stoke on the final day of the 11/12 season would end up relegating Bolton to the Championship.
Derby County – 7 defeats
Statistically speaking, Derby County in 2007/08 were the worst team in Premier League history, breaking almost every unwanted record in sight. They recorded just one win in 38 games, ended the campaign with only 11 points to their name – and scored the fewest number of goals in a single season (20).
During this dire period for the East Midland outfit, they naturally went on a dismal run of home defeats that helped cement their status as one of the league’s worst-ever sides. Derby’s best performances that year were all on home turf, with their only league victory being a 1-0 win over Newcastle United at Pride Park.
That result was immediately followed by a run of seven home defeats in a row, which was only halted thanks to a January draw with Manchester City.
Wolverhampton Wanderers – 9 defeats
Wolves performed the greatest of escapes to stay in the Premier League in the 2010/11 season, but nothing could seemingly prevent their inevitable relegation just 12 months later. The club won just one of their last 24 league games, setting a club record by going 30 matches without a single clean sheet to their name.
Mick McCarthy started the season as Wolves’ manager in 2011/12, only to be booted out after a shameful 5-1 humiliation at the hands of bitter local rivals West Brom. His assistant, Terry Connor, took over for the rest of the campaign, but he could do very little to prevent the club’s slide into the Championship.
Ironically, Wolves managed to end the run of defeats on the penultimate day of the season, when the already relegated side held Everton to a scoreless draw.
Sunderland – 10 defeats
It doesn’t get much worse than Sunderland’s pitiful 2005/06 Premier League campaign. Fans of the club must have thought they’d reached rock bottom three years prior when the club finished 20th after 15 straight defeats in a row.
And yet, the Black Cats managed to outdo themselves in 05/06, losing 10 games in a row at home and registering just 15 points – yet another unwanted record for manager Mick McCarthy. They were without a win in 28 consecutive matches that season, 12 more than any other club in Premier League history.
Mercifully, Sunderland fared a lot better when they were promoted at the first time of asking in 2007, becoming a Premier League ever-present until their eventual relegation a decade later.