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Only ten Premier League teams have strung together 25 matches or more unbeaten
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Manchester United have managed the feat on three different occasions
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Arsenal’s record run saw them crowned as ‘Invincibles’
Titles and silverware are not the only barometer to measure a great side. Avoiding defeat week after week, month after month is also the mark of an elite team, several levels above the rest.
These ten built up momentum then ran with it, stringing together wins and draws for so long it felt like nothing or nobody could ever stop them.
Nottingham Forest (1995) – 25 matches
Frank Clark’s Forest are largely overlooked when the great Premier League sides are recalled, a consequence of how briefly they shone and how far they fell when it all went wrong.
Just two years after posting a third-place finish in the early days of the competition, the Tricky Trees plummeted to the Championship.
Across much of 1995 however they were an absolute joy to behold, with Stan Collymore scoring for fun and nostalgia-inducing midfielders such as Kingsley Black and Ian Woan always productive.
After avoiding defeat from February that year to November, Clark’s men were shockingly trounced 7-0 at Blackburn. It was all downhill from there.
Manchester United (2016/17) – 25 matches
What an odd season this was for the Red Devils. On the one hand, they finished sixth, a distant 24 points behind champions Chelsea and unquestionably more had been expected from Jose Mourinho’s first year in charge.
On the other, they hoovered up three trophies, or two depending on how you view the Community Shield.
Then there was this extended run that further muddied the waters. Remaining unbeaten for two-thirds of a campaign would usually see a team challenge at the top but with so many draws included – 12 all told – it merely kept United in the reckoning for Europe.
The ultimate take-away from United’s season was that Mourinho had made them hard to beat. Not even that held true for long.
There are plenty of football bets being made right now backing against the current-day side securing a top four spot this term, as their struggles continue.
Manchester United (2010/11) – 29 matches
Whereas this was more like it; this was the Manchester United we admired and feared in equal measure, who gobbled up silverware with the entitlement of a side that knew it was admired and feared.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s indomitable Reds marched to a twelfth Premier League crown by swatting aside allcomers until February, the highlight of which was a seven-goal hammering of Blackburn with Dimitar Berbatov scoring five.
By the time Wolves got the better of them as Spring approached, the destination of the title already felt like a foregone conclusion.
Chelsea (2007/08) – 29 matches
When Avram Grant got the ‘Chelsea dagger’ in May of 2008 it was arguably one of the most unjust sackings in recent times.
Admittedly, his team had failed to win a trophy that season, finishing runner-up in the league and losing two finals, the latter a Champions League clash with Manchester United that went to penalties.
But given the state of flux he inherited that September, taking on a side in crisis following Jose Mourinho’s departure, it was little short of astonishing how quickly the Israeli coach had orchestrated positive change.
As evidenced by an unbeaten run that began a couple of days before Christmas and lasted until the end of the campaign.
It was a sustained streak that announced the Blues were back in the business of winning games on a weekly basis. Regrettably that was not enough.
Manchester United (1998/99) – 29 matches
A surprise loss at home to Middlesbrough during the festive period gave way to several months of dominance in the league, a stranglehold made even more imposing by ruthless thrashings doled out to Leicester and Nottingham Forest as Yorke, Cole and Solskjaer ran riot up front.
The famed Class of 92 were at their peak during this period and with Peter Schmeichel and Jaap Stam both residing on other planets at the back, and Roy Keane consistently playing like Roy Keane, nobody domestically could touch them.
The same could be said of course for European opposition, as the Reds completed an incredible treble mere moments before the 1998/99 season drew to a dramatic close.
Manchester City (2017/18) – 30 matches
The sceptics were out in force for Pep Guardiola’s first season in England with four-goal thumpings at Leicester and Everton giving rise to the belief that his tiki-taka ways wouldn’t cut it in the Premier League.
Indeed, so focused was the media on his perceived shortcoming they failed to acknowledge that City greatly improved as the season wore on, signing off with eight unbeaten outings.
The following August, Guardiola had a squad he was now happy with and twelve months of his schooling took full affect from the get-go as the Blues roared into an insurmountable lead at the top.
City went 22 matches undefeated and ultimately became the first team ever to reach 100 points. Our Premier League predictions tip the reigning champions to make it four titles in five years this term.
Arsenal (2001/02) – 30 matches
Between December 2001 and October 2002 the Gunners were imperious, winning a league title with style to spare along the way as Arsene Wenger’s Gallic revolution took hold.
Testing trips to Anfield and Old Trafford were successfully navigated and home bankers banked but if the results impressed, they paled to the manner in which Henry, Bergkamp and company achieved them.
It was always going to necessitate something special to halt their swaggering victory march and it duly came at Goodison when a 16-year-old Wayne Rooney curled a beauty past David Seaman in the final minute.
“Remember the name,” commentator Clive Tyldesley intoned that day. We should remember the team he scored against too because they were special indeed.
Chelsea (2004/05) – 40 matches
Jose Mourinho had arrived at Stamford Bridge just months earlier from Porto and the self-anointed ‘Special One’ wasted no time in moulding a formidable collective that at times felt like half a team, half a machine.
An October loss to Manchester City was taken in stride after an otherwise encouraging start to Mourinho’s reign.
From that day forward, Chelsea were different gravy amassing a stunning 95 points on route to the club’s first league title for half a century.
The following season, the Blues were just as unassailable, racking up ten straight wins before eventually being downed at Old Trafford.
Highlighting to what extent a back-line of Cech, Terry and Carvalho contributed to their success, those 40 games included 24 clean sheets.
Liverpool (2019/20) – 44 matches
For a full calendar year and more, Jurgen Klopp’s ‘Mentality Monsters’ could not be stopped, accumulating wins and draws week in, week out, between January 2019 and late February 2020.
Up front, a ferocious trio of Mane, Salah and Firmino struck fear into every rearguard, great, good or otherwise, while bolstering the frenzied brilliance Virgil Van Dijk was a totem of calm.
It is a testament to Manchester City’s equal esteem that Liverpool was restricted to a single title triumph – as memorable as it was – from a period that saw them lose only once in 66 league games.
In any other era, the Reds would boast a collection of trophies, regarded as the high watermark of their day.
The current Premier League odds may have the Merseysiders down as second favourites for this season’s crown but recent history tells us not to take anything at all for granted.
Arsenal (2003/04) – 49 matches
When Arsenal were a significant number of games in to their 30-match unbeaten run two years earlier, Arsene Wenger dropped his cautious guard and admitted that he dreamed of going an entire season undefeated.
At the time it felt possible, so consistently magnificent were the Gunners, yet also surely it was impossible. How can any side ace a whole campaign without experiencing a single off-day?
The record books inform us of course that it was subsequently done, and with 38 games of Arsenal’s 49-match spell of supremacy encompassing the entirety of the 2003/04 league season, the North London giants were acclaimed invincible.
During that vintage year Patrick Vieira was immense, as too Thierry Henry and Robert Pires while that summer Wenger strove to improve on perfection, bringing in Cesc Fabregas on a free.
The latest football transfer odds show slimmer pickings are presently available for an Arsenal seeking to rebuild on past glories.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 23rd March 2022
