As Arsenal attempt to challenge Chelsea’s 15 goals conceded in 2004-05, we run through the teams with the best defensive records in Premier League history.
Fewest Goals Conceded in a Premier League Season
15 goals conceded – Chelsea, 2004-05
17 – Arsenal, 1998-99
22 – Chelsea, 2005-06
22 – Manchester United, 2007-08
22 – Liverpool, 2018-19
23 – Manchester City, 2018-19
24 – Chelsea, 2006-07
24 – Chelsea, 2008-09
24 – Manchester United, 2008-09
25 – Liverpool, 2005-06
***15 Goals Conceded*
Chelsea 2004-05**
In José Mourinho’s first season at the club, Chelsea won their first Premier League title and did so with a frankly ludicrous defensive record. Their 15 goals conceded in 38 games remains the best ever by any team in a Premier League season.
Mourinho took very little time to stamp his mark on his new team, spending big in the summer to bring in nine players, including defenders Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho from former club Porto and future Chelsea legend Petr Cech in goal. He turned them into the best side – defensively – in the Premier League era.
Chelsea team photo 2004-05
Chelsea conceded only one goal in their first eight matches under Mourinho – a rocket from Southampton’s James Beattie at Stamford Bridge – but scored just eight times themselves.
After losing their ninth game 1-0 at Manchester City, they started to score a few more goals and went unbeaten through their final 29 games. They ended the season with a record 25 clean sheets and earned a then-record 95 points on their way to the title.
With 72 goals scored, they are the fifth-lowest-scoring title-winners in Premier League history, but with the best ever defensive record, that lack of goals meant very little.
***17 Goals Conceded*
Arsenal 1998-99**
Although Arsenal appear in second place in this list, it will be very little consolation to their team of the final full season of the 20th century.
That’s because Arsène Wenger’s side conceded just 17 goals in 38 games but still failed to win the title. It remains the best defensive record for a team who didn’t win the Premier League.
tony adams and martin keown
Predictably, scoring goals was a big problem. They managed just 59 all season and ultimately finished one point behind Manchester United, let down in the main by their 12 draws, seven of which were goalless.
A below-par start to the campaign was another reason for their failure to win the title, as they won only seven of their first 18 games of the season to leave them way down in sixth at Christmas. They also crashed out of the League Cup in November and failed to make it out of a Champions League group containing Dynamo Kyiv, Lens and Panathanaikos.
In the second half of the season, they came alive, going 19 Premier League games unbeaten and conceding just six goals in their final 20 games, but it proved too little, too late.
To add insult to injury, arch-rivals United went on to win the treble.
22 Goals Conceded
Chelsea 2005-06, Man Utd 2007-08, Liverpool 2018-19
Three teams are level in third place in our list, having each conceded 22 goals in a 38-game Premier League season. However, while Chelsea won another title in José Mourinho’s second season in 2005-06 and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United won their 10th before adding the Champions League trophy a couple of weeks later in 2007-08, Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool of 2018-19 could only finish second in the table.
They did so with the fourth-highest points total in Premier League history (97), which is, unsurprisingly, the most for a team who failed to win the title not just in the Premier League era, but in top-flight history. Klopp’s men won 30 matches, kept 21 clean sheets and scored 89 goals, but they still failed to win the league, beaten to top spot by a single point by Pep Guardiola’s relentless Manchester City.
Liverpool xg against 2018-19
Chelsea followed up their record-setting 2004-05 with a relatively modest summer of spending before winning the title again in 2005-06, though this time with a worse – but still very good – defensive record. Again, they only scored 72 goals, but a defence that was breached just 22 times provided the foundations for a second title in two years under Mourinho.
United won the league two years after Chelsea while also conceding just 22 goals. A team that is remembered for their attacking firepower, with Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez scoring the goals to fire them to domestic and European glory, actually had their watertight defence to thank for their success. Edwin van der Sar, behind a central-defensive partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, made up the backbone of one of the most formidable teams in Premier League history.
Van der Sar, Vidic and Ferdinand 2008
Will Arsenal Break Chelsea’s Record in 2025-26?
Arsenal have started 2025-26 like they mean business. Top of the league, already a good distance clear of the chasing pack, and boasting what is by a distance the best defence in the league, they are the early frontrunners as they chase a first Premier League title since 2003-04.
After nine games, they have conceded just three times, meaning they are letting goals in at a rate of 0.33 per game. Chelsea’s team of 2004-05 conceded 0.39 goals per game over the season, so Arsenal are currently going at record-breaking pace.
If they continue at this rate, they will set a new Premier League record: they are on course to concede just 12.7 goals.
Of course, keeping up that rate over the opening quarter of a season is one thing; doing it over a full 38-game season is quite another, so Arsenal still have a long way to go if they are to take top spot in this list.
Premier League Stats Opta
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