Premier League

Premier League
Country	England Wales
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	20 February 1992
Number of teams	20
Relegation to	Championship
Level on pyramid	1
Domestic cup(s)	FA Cup League Cup
UEFA cup(s)	Champions League Europa League
Current champions	Manchester City (5th title) (2020-21)
TV	Sky Sports BT Sport (live matches) Sky Sports BBC (highlights)
Website	Official website
2020-21

The Premier League is an English professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL; known as "The Football League" before 2016–17). Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify.

The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each (playing each team in the league twice, home and away), totalling 380 matches in the season. Most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; others during weekday evenings. It is colloquially known as the Premiership and outside the UK it is commonly referred to as the English Premier League (EPL).

The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from the Football League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal. The deal was worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB and BT Group securing the domestic rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively. The league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights. In 2014/15, teams were apportioned revenues of £1.6 billion.

The Premier League is the most-watched football league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. In the 2014–15 season, the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000, second highest of any professional football league behind the Bundesliga's 43,500. Most stadium occupancies are near capacity. The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons.

While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, only six have won the title: Manchester United (13), Chelsea (5), Arsenal (3), Manchester City (4), Blackburn Rovers (1), Leicester City (1) and Liverpool (1). The current champions are Liverpool, who won the title in 2019-20 Premier League

2020–21 season

Twenty clubs compete in the 2020-21 PL, with three promoted from The Championship:

2020–21 Club	2019–20 Position	First season in top division	First season in Premier League	Seasons in top division	Seasons in Premier League	First season of current spell in top division	Top division titles	Most recent top division title
Arsenal	&0000000000000008.0000008th	1904–05	1992–93	104	29	1919–20	13	2003–04
Aston Villa	&0000000000000017.00000017th	1888–89	1992–93	107	26	2019–20	7	1980–81
Brighton & Hove Albion	&0000000000000015.00000015th	1979–80	2017–18	8	4	2017–18	0	–
Burnley	&0000000000000010.00000010th	1888–89	2009–10	58	7	2016–17	2	1959–60
Chelsea	&0000000000000004.0000004th	1907–08	1992–93	86	29	1989–90	6	2016–17
Crystal Palace	&0000000000000014.00000014th	1969–70	1992–93	21	12	2013–14	0	–
Everton	&0000000000000012.00000012th	1888–89	1992–93	118	29	1954–55	9	1986–87
Fulham	&0000000000000020.0000004th (CS)	1949–50	2001–02	27	15	2020–21	0	–
Leeds United	&0000000000000018.0000001st (CS)	1924–25	1992–93	51	13	2020–21	3	1991–92
Leicester City	&0000000000000005.0000005th	1908–09	1994–95	52	15	2014–15	1	2015–16
Liverpool	&0000000000000001.0000001st	1894–95	1992–93	106	29	1962–63	19	2019–20
Manchester City	&0000000000000002.0000002nd	1899–1900	1992–93	92	24	2002–03	6	2018–19
Manchester United	&0000000000000003.0000003rd	1892–93	1992–93	96	29	1975–76	20	2012–13
Newcastle United	&0000000000000013.00000013th	1898–99	1993–94	89	26	2017–18	4	1926–27
Sheffield United	&0000000000000009.0000009th	1893–94	1992–93	62	5	2019–20	1	1897–98
Southampton	&0000000000000011.00000011th	1966–67	1992–93	44	22	2012–13	0	–
Tottenham Hotspur	&0000000000000006.0000006th	1909–10	1992–93	86	29	1978–79	2	1960–61
West Bromwich Albion	&0000000000000019.0000002nd (CS)	1888–89	2002–03	81	13	2020–21	1	1919–20
West Ham United	&0000000000000016.00000016th	1923–24	1993–94	63	25	2012–13	0	–
Wolverhampton Wanderers	&0000000000000007.0000007th	1888–89	2003–04	66	7	2018–19	3	1958–59

• Bournemouth, Watford, and Norwich City were relegated to the EFL Championship for the 2020–21 season, while Leeds United, West Bromwich Albion and Fulham, as winners, runners-up and play-off final winners respectively, were promoted from the 2019–20 season.
• Brighton & Hove Albion are the only club to have remained in the Premier League since their first promotion, having been in 4 seasons (out of 29).

Sponsorship

From 1993 to 2016, the Premier League had title sponsorship rights sold to two companies; Barclays was the most recent title sponsor, having sponsored the Premier League from 2001 through 2016 (until 2004, the title sponsorship was held through its Barclaycard brand before shifting to its main banking brand in 2004).

Period	Sponsor	Name
1992–1993	No sponsor	FA Premier League
1993–2001	Carling	FA Carling Premiership
2001–2004	Barclaycard	FA Barclaycard Premiership
2004–2007	Barclays	FA Barclays Premiership
2008–2016		Barclays Premier League
2016–	No sponsor	Premier League

Barclays' deal with the Premier League expired at the end of the 2015–16 season. The FA announced on 4 June 2015 that it would not pursue any further title sponsorship deals for the Premier League, arguing that they wanted to build a "clean" brand for the competition more in line with those of major U.S. sports leagues.

As well as sponsorship for the league itself, the Premier League has a number of official partners and suppliers. The official ball supplier for the league is Nike who have had the contract since the 2000–01 season when they took over from Mitre.

Managers

See also List of Premier League managers

Managers in the Premier League are involved in the day-to-day running of the team, including the training, team selection and player acquisition. Their influence varies from club-to-club and is related to the ownership of the club and the relationship of the manager with fans. Managers are required to have a UEFA Pro Licence which is the final coaching qualification available, and follows the completion of the UEFA 'B' and 'A' Licences. The UEFA Pro Licence is required by every person who wishes to manage a club in the Premier League on a permanent basis (i.e., more than 12 weeks, the amount of time an unqualified caretaker manager is allowed to take control). Caretaker appointments are managers that fill the gap between a managerial departure and a new appointment. Several caretaker managers have gone on to secure a permanent managerial post after performing well as a caretaker, including Paul Hart at Portsmouth and David Pleat at Tottenham Hotspur.

Arsène Wenger is the longest-serving manager, having been in charge of Arsenal in the Premier League from 1996 to his retirement at the conclusion of the 2017–18 season, and holds the record for most matches managed in the Premier League with 828, all with Arsenal. He broke the record set by Alex Ferguson, who had managed 810 matches with Manchester United from the Premier League's inception to his retirement at the end of the 2012–13 season. Ferguson was in charge of Manchester United from November 1986 until his retirement at the end of the 2012–13 season, meaning he was manager for the last five years of the old Football League First Division and all of the first 21 seasons of the Premier League.

During the 2019–20 season, 6 managers have been sacked as of 28 December: Javi Gracia and Quique Sánchez Flores of Watford, Mauricio Pochettino of Tottenham Hotspur, Unai Emery of Arsenal, Marco Silva of Everton and Manuel Pellegrini of West Ham United.

There have been several studies into the reasoning behind, and effects of, managerial sackings. Most famously, Professor Sue Bridgewater of the University of Liverpool and Dr. Bas ter Weel of the University of Amsterdam, performed two separate studies which helped to explain the statistics behind managerial sackings. Bridgewater's study found clubs generally sack their managers upon dropping below an average of one point per match.

The current managers in the Premier League are:

Current managers

Nat.	Name	Club	Appointed	Time as manager
England !	Dyche, SeanSean Dyche	Burnley	02012-10-30-30 October 2012	&0000000252460800.0000008 years, 0 days
Germany !	Klopp, JurgenJürgen Klopp	Liverpool	02015-10-08-8 October 2015	&0000000157788000.0000005 years, 0 days
Spain !	Guardiola, PepPep Guardiola	Manchester City	02016-07-01-1 July 2016	&0000000126230400.0000004 years, 0 days
Portugal !	Espirito Santo, NunoNuno Espírito Santo	Wolverhampton Wanderers	02017-05-31-31 May 2017	&0000000126230400.0000004 years, 0 days
England !	Hodgson, RoyRoy Hodgson	Crystal Palace	02017-09-12-12 September 2017	&0000000094672800.0000003 years, 0 days
Argentina !	Bielsa, MarceloMarcelo Bielsa	Leeds United	02018-06-15-15 June 2018	&0000000094672800.0000003 years, 0 days
England !	Smith, DeanDean Smith	Aston Villa	02018-10-10-10 October 2018	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
Austria !	Hasenhuttl, RalphRalph Hasenhüttl	Southampton	02018-12-05-5 December 2018	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
Norway !	Solskjaer, Ole GunnarOle Gunnar Solskjær	Manchester United	02018-12-19-19 December 2018	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
Northern Ireland !	Rodgers, BrendanBrendan Rodgers	Leicester City	02019-02-26-26 February 2019	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
England !	Parker, ScottScott Parker	Fulham	02019-02-28-28 February 2019	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
England !	Potter, GrahamGraham Potter	Brighton & Hove Albion	02019-05-20-20 May 2019	&0000000063115200.0000002 years, 0 days
England !	Bruce, SteveSteve Bruce	Newcastle United	02019-07-17-17 July 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
Spain !	Arteta, MikelMikel Arteta	Arsenal	02019-12-20-20 December 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
Italy !	Ancelotti, CarloCarlo Ancelotti	Everton	02019-12-21-21 December 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
Scotland !	Moyes, DavidDavid Moyes	West Ham United	02019-12-29-29 December 2019	&0000000031557600.0000001 year, 0 days
England !	Allardyce, SamSam Allardyce	West Bromwich Albion	02020-12-17-17 December 2020	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days
Germany !	Tuchel, ThomasThomas Tuchel	Chelsea	02021-01-26-26 January 2021	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days
England !	Heckingbottom, PaulPaul Heckingbottom (caretaker)	Sheffield United	02021-03-13-13 March 2021	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days
England !	Mason, RyanRyan Mason (caretaker)	Tottenham Hotspur	02021-04-19-19 April 2021	&-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.0000000 days

2020–21 Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Manchester City  (C)	38	27	5	6	78	32	+46	86	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Manchester United	38	21	11	6	73	44	+29	74
3	Liverpool	38	20	9	9	68	42	+26	69
4	Chelsea	38	19	10	9	58	36	+22	67
5	Leicester City	38	20	6	12	68	50	+18	66	Qualification for the Europa League group stage
6	West Ham United	38	19	8	11	62	47	+15	65
7	Tottenham Hotspur	38	18	8	12	68	45	+23	62	Qualification for the Europa Conference League play-off round
8	Arsenal	38	18	7	13	55	39	+16	61
9	Leeds United	38	18	5	15	62	54	+8	59
10	Everton	38	17	8	13	47	48	−1	59
11	Aston Villa	38	16	7	15	55	46	+9	55
12	Newcastle United	38	12	9	17	46	62	−16	45
13	Wolverhampton Wanderers	38	12	9	17	36	52	−16	45
14	Crystal Palace	38	12	8	18	41	66	−25	44
15	Southampton	38	12	7	19	47	68	−21	43
16	Brighton & Hove Albion	38	9	14	15	40	46	−6	41
17	Burnley	38	10	9	19	33	55	−22	39
18	Fulham  (R)	38	5	13	20	27	53	−26	28	Relegation to EFL Championship
19	West Bromwich Albion  (R)	38	5	11	22	35	76	−41	26
20	Sheffield United  (R)	38	7	2	29	20	63	−43	23

Source: Barclays Premier League
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

a. The fourth-placed team will play in the Europa League group stage instead of the Champions League group stage if Chelsea wins the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League, Arsenal or Manchester United win the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League, and both winners finish in fifth place or lower.
b. Since both 2020–21 FA Cup finalists (Leicester City and Chelsea) would currently qualify for European competition based on league position, the Europa League group stage berth awarded to the FA Cup winners would pass to the sixth-placed team.
c. Since 2020–21 EFL Cup winners Manchester City have qualified for European competition based on league position, the Europa Conference League berth awarded to the EFL Cup winners will transfer to the highest-placed Premier League team who have not already qualified for European competition, which is currently the seventh-placed team.

Champions

Season Champions / (Pos next season) Total Points / Wins 92-93 Manchester United (1st) 84 (24) 93-94 Manchester United (2nd) 92 (27) 94-95 Blackburn Rovers (1st) 89 (27) 95-96 Manchester United (3rd) 82 (25) 96-97 Manchester United (4th) 75 (21) 97-98 Arsenal (1st) 78 (23) 98-99 Manchester United (5th) 79 (22) 99-00 Manchester United (6th) 91 (28) 00-01 Manchester United (7th) 80 (24) 01-02 Arsenal (2nd) 87 (26) 02-03 Manchester United (8th) 83 (25) 03-04 Arsenal (3rd) 90 (26) 04-05 Chelsea (1st) 95 (29) 05-06 Chelsea (2nd) 91 (29) 06-07 Manchester United (9th) 89 (28)

Season Champions / (Pos next season) Total Points / Wins 07-08 Manchester United (10th) 87 (27) 08-09 Manchester United (11th) 90 (28) 09-10 Chelsea (3rd) 86 (27) 10-11 Manchester United (12th) 80 (23) 11-12 Manchester City (1st) 89 (28) 12-13 Manchester United (13th) 89 (28) 13-14 Manchester City (2nd) 86 (27) 14-15 Chelsea (4th) 87 (26) 15-16 Leicester City (1st) 81 (23) 16-17 Chelsea (5th) 93 (30) 17-18 Manchester City (3rd) 100 (32) 18-19 Manchester City (4th) 98 (32) 19-20 Liverpool (1st) 86 (28) 20-21 Manchester City (5th) TBD

Top scorers

As of 21 March 2021.

Rank	Player	Years	Goals	Apps	Ratio
1	Shearer, AlanAlan Shearer	1992–2006	260	441	0.59
2	Rooney, WayneWayne Rooney	2002–2018	208	491	0.42
3	Cole, AndyAndy Cole	1992–2008	187	414	0.45
4	Aguero, SergioSergio Agüero	2011–	181	271	0.67
5	Lampard, FrankFrank Lampard	1995–2015	177	609	0.29
6	Henry, ThierryThierry Henry	1999–2007 2012	175	258	0.68
7	Fowler, RobbieRobbie Fowler	1993–2009	163	379	0.43
8	Defoe, JermainJermain Defoe	2001–2003 2004–2014 2015–2019	162	496	0.33
9	Kane, HarryHarry Kane	2012–	160	237	0.68
10	Owen, MichaelMichael Owen	1996–2004 2005–2013	150	326	0.46

Italics denotes players still playing professional football,
Bold denotes players still playing in the Premier League.

The Premier League Golden Boot is awarded each season to the top scorer in the division. Former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer holds the record for most Premier League goals with 260. Twenty-eight players have reached the 100-goal mark. Since the first Premier League season in 1992–93, 23 players from 11 clubs have won or shared the top scorer title. Thierry Henry won his fourth overall scoring title by scoring 27 goals in the 2005–06 season. Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer hold the record for most goals in a season (34) – for Newcastle and Blackburn respectively. Ryan Giggs of Manchester United holds the record for scoring goals in consecutive seasons, having scored in the first 21 seasons of the league. Giggs also holds the record for the most Premier League assists, with 162.

See also

• Premier League Hall of Fame

External links

• Premier League Portal
• Official website