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Ranking every team in England’s top four divisions based on their performance in 2024

diciembre 31, 2024

English football in 2024 served up a bit of everything: stunning strikes, comical own goals, baffling errors, refereeing controversies, promotions, relegations, trophies lifted, CVs sifted and much more besides.

So as 2024 draws to a close, we have decided ignore those opposed to calendar-year stats and unify all 94 teams (yes, Sutton United and Forest Green Rovers, you may no longer be in the EFL but we haven’t forgotten your efforts between January and May), even if it is only for a few hours before yet more football gets under way on New Year’s Day.

You can sort the main table by games played (which includes play-off games), wins, defeats, win percentage and points per game (the latter excludes play-off games, for obvious reasons). Click on a column header to sort by that category.

Team	Games	Wins	Defeats	Pts/game ▼	Win%
Arsenal	36	26	3	2.36	72.2
Liverpool	37	26	4	2.30	70.3
Manchester City	38	25	6	2.16	65.8
Leeds United	48	30	8	2.13	62.5
Wrexham	45	27	9	2.00	60.0
Wycombe Wanderers	45	25	8	1.93	55.6
Chelsea	37	20	7	1.89	54.1
Doncaster Rovers	47	25	11	1.84	53.2
Walsall	44	24	11	1.84	54.5
Stockport County	44	22	10	1.77	50.0
Birmingham City	42	21	13	1.69	50.0
Bolton Wanderers	47	21	13	1.66	44.7
Newcastle	38	18	11	1.66	47.4
Lincoln City	44	20	11	1.66	45.5
Reading	44	21	14	1.64	47.7
Mansfield Town	44	21	15	1.61	47.7
Milton Keynes	46	21	18	1.59	45.7
Crewe Alexandra	47	19	13	1.57	40.4
Bradford City	44	19	13	1.57	43.2
Middlesbrough	45	19	13	1.56	42.2
Derby County	47	21	16	1.55	44.7
West Brom	47	17	11	1.53	36.2
Norwich City	47	18	13	1.53	38.3
Exeter City	45	20	16	1.53	44.4
Barnsley	48	20	15	1.52	41.7
Portsmouth	44	18	13	1.52	40.9
Leyton Orient	44	20	17	1.52	45.5
Blackpool	43	18	14	1.51	41.9
Sheffield Wednesday	45	19	16	1.49	42.2
Aston Villa	37	15	12	1.49	40.5
Chesterfield	23	9	7	1.48	39.1
Huddersfield Town	43	17	14	1.47	39.5
AFC Wimbledon	44	18	16	1.45	40.9
Burnley	42	15	11	1.45	35.7
Salford City	44	17	14	1.45	38.6
Ipswich	40	15	13	1.43	37.5
Wigan Athletic	44	17	15	1.43	38.6
Nottm Forest	37	15	14	1.43	40.5
Peterborough United	46	19	21	1.41	41.3
Fulham	37	13	11	1.41	35.1
Bromley	22	7	5	1.41	31.8
Sunderland	45	17	16	1.40	37.8
Bournemouth	38	14	13	1.39	36.8
Tottenham	37	15	16	1.38	40.5
Sheffield United	42	16	16	1.38	38.1
Manchester United	37	14	14	1.38	37.8
QPR	45	15	14	1.36	33.3
Swansea City	45	17	18	1.36	37.8
Blackburn Rovers	44	15	14	1.36	34.1
Millwall	44	16	17	1.34	36.4
Grimsby Town	44	17	19	1.34	38.6
Gillingham	44	16	16	1.34	36.3
Stevenage	43	15	16	1.33	34.9
Watford	44	15	16	1.32	34.1
Bristol City	45	15	16	1.31	33.3
Crystal Palace	37	12	13	1.30	32.4
Notts County	43	15	17	1.30	34.9
Crawley Town	47	19	19	1.30	40.4
Coventry City	45	16	19	1.29	35.6
Oxford United	48	17	17	1.29	35.4
Charlton Athletic	45	13	14	1.27	28.9
Preston North End	45	14	16	1.27	31.1
Leicester	40	14	19	1.23	35.0
Newport County	43	15	22	1.19	34.9
Brentford	37	12	17	1.19	32.4
Hull City	45	13	18	1.18	28.9
Stoke City	45	14	20	1.18	31.1
Fleetwood Town	44	12	16	1.18	27.3
Brighton	38	10	13	1.18	26.3
Tranmere Rovers	42	13	19	1.17	31.0
Cheltenham Town	46	15	22	1.17	32.6
Harrogate Town	45	13	19	1.16	28.9
Barrow	44	13	19	1.16	29.5
Sutton United	22	5	7	1.14	22.7
Colchester United	43	9	12	1.14	20.9
Forest Green Rovers	23	7	11	1.13	30.4
West Ham	38	10	16	1.11	26.3
Cardiff City	44	14	23	1.11	31.8
Northampton Town	45	12	20	1.09	26.7
Everton	36	8	13	1.08	22.2
Port Vale	46	12	21	1.07	26.1
Southampton	43	14	22	1.05	32.6
Morecambe	46	12	24	1.00	26.1
Bristol Rovers	45	13	26	1.00	28.9
Accrington Stanley	42	10	21	0.98	23.8
Swindon Town	44	9	20	0.95	20.5
Plymouth Argyle	44	10	23	0.93	22.7
Wolves	37	9	21	0.92	24.3
Shrewsbury Town	43	9	24	0.86	20.9
Luton Town	43	9	25	0.84	20.9
Cambridge United	45	9	25	0.84	20.0
Rotherham United	42	8	24	0.81	19.0
Burton Albion	44	7	26	0.73	15.9
Carlisle United	44	8	29	0.70	18.2

Barnsley, Leeds United, and Oxford United were the busiest sides, all playing 48 times, with Leeds and Oxford reaching the Championship and League One play-off finals respectively.

Leeds led England for wins in 2024, with 30 (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)

Leeds also picked up the most wins with 30, though their win rate of 62.5 per cent was only fourth-best behind Arsenal (72.2), Liverpool (70.3) and recent strugglers Manchester City (65.8). Arsenal lost the fewest matches, with three out of 36, closely followed by Liverpool (four in 37), Bromley (five in 22 since being promoted to League Two), Manchester City (six in 38) and Chelsea (seven in 36). Carlisle United lead the table in losses with 29 from 44 matches, with Bristol Rovers and Burton Albion (26 each) just behind them.

Wrexham’s excellent form in both League Two and League One, meanwhile, was reflected with their total of 27 wins — second only to Leeds.

Wrexham tasted victory 27 times in the EFL in 2024 (Cody Froggatt/PA Images via Getty Images)

Arsenal’s 2.36 points per game was the highest across the four divisions, with Liverpool (2.30), Manchester City (2.16), Leeds (2.13) and Wrexham (2.00) making up the top five. At the other end, Carlisle and Burton Albion averaged just 0.70 and 0.73 points per game, with Rotherham United, Luton Town and Cambridge United rounding out the bottom five. Will fans of those five clubs one day look back and reminisce about 2024? Probably not.

But, like Carlisle’s league position, you can always go deeper. So here we’ve ranked all 94 teams across eight other categories, including goals scored, passing accuracy, points after falling behind, and more.

Arsenal and Liverpool picked up more points per game than any other side in the Premier League or EFL in 2024 (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Goals scored

The Premier League averaged 3.2 goals per game across 2024. Unsurprisingly, top-flight teams take the top six spots in these charts. The averages stood at 2.5 in the Championship, 2.6 in League One and 2.7 in League Two.

Team	Games	Goals per Game
	37	2.49
	36	2.47
	37	2.19
	38	2.18
	38	2.11

Leeds (1.84 goals per game) are the first non-Premier League team on the list, level with Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough United and Stockport County also in the top 10. Manchester United were 27th with 1.51 goals per game, stuck between Leicester City and Crawley Town.

Everton were the lowest-ranked Premier League side, ranking third from bottom with just 31 goals from 36 matches.

Team	Games	Goals per Game
Rotherham United	42	0.83
Burton Albion	44	0.84
Everton	36	0.86
Cambridge United	45	0.87
Bristol Rovers	45	0.87

Alexander Isak led Newcastle’s attack throughout 2024 (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

xG over and under-performance

Fifty-six of the 94 teams from the top four divisions overperformed their xG (the number of goals a team is expected to score based on the quality of chances created) by at least 1.0, while 24 underperformed by 1.0 or more.

Reading — a club with plenty of off-field issues in 2024 — ranked best here, just ahead of Wrexham. Arsenal are the only Premier League team in the top 10, with the next, Wolverhampton Wanderers, all the way down in 15th (+11.1).

Team	Games	Goals For	xG	Goals – xG
Reading	44	73	53.1	19.9
Wrexham	45	76	56.3	19.7
Wycombe Wanderers	45	82	65.5	16.5
Arsenal	36	89	72.6	16.4
Newport County	43	54	38.5	15.6

If you like teams performing as close to average in front of goal as it’s possible to get, then why not head to the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire? Because if Sheffield Wednesday (+0.1) came close to doing it in 2024 then Sheffield United did indeed crack the code by scoring 53 goals from precisely 53.0 xG.

Sheffield: a city that respects the expected goals model (Ed Sykes/Getty Images)

The Premier League put some space between themselves and the lower leagues when it came to underperforming xG, with Bournemouth , Everton, and Brighton & Hove Albion (-6.1) forming three of the bottom 10.

Team	Games	Goals For	xG	Goals – xG
Bournemouth	38	55	67.5	-12.5
Everton	36	31	42.1	-11.1
Swansea City	45	54	64.3	-10.3
Rotherham United	42	35	42.7	-7.7
Stoke City	45	48	55.3	-7.3

GO DEEPER

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Passing accuracy

Pass masters Manchester City are top of this metric — the only team to complete more than 90 per cent of their passes. The increased impetus on passing across divisions is evident as 74 of the 94 teams (and all 22 teams that played in the Premier League) attempted 350 or more passes per game on average, with 93 averaging more than 300 per game (kudos to Bromley for bucking the trend).

Games	Passes per Game	Pass Success %
38	665.3	90.5
43	581.1	88.6
37	550.4	87.6
37	556.6	87.2
37	562.2	86.7

Team	Games	Passes per Game	Pass Success %
Cheltenham Town	46	318.9	59.8
Bromley	22	263.1	62.2
Sutton United	22	313.9	62.6
Accrington Stanley	42	323.8	64.6
Shrewsbury Town	43	311.7	65.1

Bromley have not brought a pass-heavy approach to the EFL (Tom Dulat/Getty Images)

Aerial duel success

EFL sides would always back themselves to compete in their air, so it’s no surprise to see Stockport County take this one, averaging a 57 per cent success with aerial duels across their 44 matches. Fellow Merseyside clubs (yes, Edgeley Park is the closest league football ground to the River Mersey) account for two more of the top five, with Liverpool manager Arne Slot and Everton boss Sean Dyche both laying emphasis on winning duels within contrasting tactical approaches. Brentford, Ipswich, Stevenage, Bromley, and Birmingham City (all on 54 per cent) made the top 10.

Team	Games	Aerial Duel Success %
Stockport County	44	57.3
Liverpool	37	55.8
Wrexham	45	55.3
Barnsley	48	54.9
Everton	36	54.1

Swansea struggled the most aerially, while Aston Villa and Wolves (both 46 per cent) were the only Premier League teams in the bottom 10.

Team	Games	Aerial Duel Success %
Swansea City	45	42.1
Plymouth Argyle	44	43.1
Burnley	42	44.4
Crawley Town	47	44.7
Cambridge United	45	45.1

An aerial duel won is still guaranteed to make Sean Dyche smile (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Penalties won

Wycombe Wanderers lead this one, winning 13 penalties across 45 matches. Six teams were awarded eight penalties, including Chelsea, Bournemouth, Newport County, Stockport, and Accrington Stanley.

Richard Kone scores one of the 13 penalties Wycombe were awarded in the league during 2024 (MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Among the other Premier League teams, Manchester City and Newcastle received seven each, while Manchester United and Arsenal were awarded six. Tottenham Hotspur received two, one of which was missed by Son Heung-min in their final match of the year against Wolves. They were one of seven Premier League teams (Villa, Fulham, Brentford, Brighton, Crystal Palace, and Nottingham Forest being the others) to win just two penalties in 2024.

Team	Games	Penalties Taken
Wycombe Wanderers	45	13
Portsmouth	44	11
Liverpool	37	9
Leicester City	40	9
Bolton Wanderers	47	8

At the other end, Burton Albion ended the year without being awarded a single penalty across their 44 matches, while eight teams, including Salford City, Plymouth Argyle and Cardiff City, won just one.

Team	Games	Penalties Taken
Burton Albion	44	0
Chesterfield	23	1
Plymouth Argyle	44	1
Blackburn Rovers	44	1
Cambridge United	45	1

Points won from behind and dropped from ahead

Teams such as Jurgen Klopp’s 2022-23 Liverpool and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s 2020-21 Manchester United made winning games after going behind look easy, but that level of consistency is tough to maintain over a year.

Manchester City and Tottenham were the Premier League’s best at this in 2024, while leaders Barnsley’s record may provoke concern and joy in equal measure at Oakwell.

Barnsley were the comeback kings of 2024 (Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Arsenal trailed in just seven games all year, the lowest, picking up eight points, while Liverpool collected 21 from 15 games where they faced a deficit. Chelsea (20 from 17), Wrexham (17 from 16) and Leeds (18 from 18) were the others to average at least one point collected per match when they went behind.

Team	Games trailed	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points won from losing positions
Barnsley	30	9	6	15	33
Man City	17	8	3	6	27
Tottenham	26	8	2	16	26
Coventry City	31	6	6	19	24
MK Dons	27	7	2	18	23

Plenty of teams struggled, though. Eight, including Millwall, Chesterfield, Wigan Athletic and Stoke, failed to win when they went behind, though, on a positive note, they faced fewer deficits than some of the teams that won more points. Among Premier League teams, Everton won just once in 19 attempts, while Fulham (16 games), Brighton (19), Forest (20) and Palace (20) all won twice each.

Team	Games trailed	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points from losing positions
Millwall	19	0	2	17	2
Chesterfield	10	0	3	7	3
Wigan Athletic	19	0	4	15	4
Port Vale	25	0	4	21	4
Grimsby Town	21	1	1	19	4

Brighton, Palace, and Brentford struggled to hold on to leads too, dropping 24 points each in such games. Norwich City were the biggest offenders, dropping 35 points from the 33 matches in which they led, thanks to 10 draws and five losses. Outside the top five, Derby County (26 points dropped from winning positions), Barnsley and Portsmouth (25 each) all struggled. Wolves, Manchester United and Everton dropped 18 points apiece in games where they took the lead.

Team	Games Led	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points Dropped from winning positions
Norwich City	33	18	10	5	35
Cheltenham Town	27	15	5	7	31
Barrow	26	13	9	4	30
Luton Town	20	9	3	8	30
Shrewsbury Town	20	9	6	5	27

At the other end of the spectrum, West Brom, Blackburn, Sutton United, Forest Green, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Leeds did not lose a single game from winning positions. Leeds were the most effective, winning 30 of 32 matches when they took the lead.

Sheffield Wednesday, Stevenage, Wimbledon, and Bradford City also left single-digit points on the table in games where they took the lead (nine points each).