The 2018–19 Premier League was the 27th

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

of the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

, the top English professional league for

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 120th season of top-flight English football overall. The season started on 10 August 2018 and concluded on 12 May 2019. Fixtures for the 2018–19 season were announced on 14 June 2018. The league was contested by the top 17 teams from the 2017–18 season as well as

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswo ...

, who joined as the promoted clubs from the

2017–18 EFL Championship The 2017–18 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the second season of the EFL Championship under its current name, and the twenty-sixth season under its current league structure. Team changes The ...

. They replaced

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional Association football, football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English foo ...

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

and

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Sto ...

who were relegated to the 2018–19 EFL Championship. Defending champions

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

won their fourth Premier League title, and sixth English top-flight title overall. They won their last 14 league games and retained the league title on the final day of the season, finishing on 98 points.

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

finished runners-up with 97 points – the highest total in English top-flight history for a second-placed team.

Summary

claimed the league title on the final day of the season with a 4–1 win at Brighton & Hove Albion, finishing on 98 points after a run of 14 wins.

held a 7-point lead over Manchester City on 3 January, but finished runners-up with 97 points – the third highest total in Premier League history and the highest in English top-flight history for a second-placed team, having lost only one league match all season – to eventual champions City. Chelsea and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

claimed the other two Champions League berths, finishing in third and fourth place respectively. Tottenham were in third place for much of the season and were considered potential title challengers until a 1–2 loss to

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

in February. Chelsea would go on to win the season's

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

, defeating

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the final 4–1. Arsenal had gone on a fourteen-game unbeaten run near the start of the season and began April in third place, but a run of four points in six matches saw them drop to fifth place, finishing outside of the Champions League spots.

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

's worst start to the season for 28 years led to the sacking of manager José Mourinho in December, with former player

Ole Gunnar Solskjær Ole Gunnar Solskjær (; born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a forward who last managed Premier League club Manchester United. As a player, Solskjær spent the majority of his ...

replacing him, initially as a caretaker. Solskjær was appointed permanently after an impressive run of results which culminated in United's away goals victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

, but the team's poor form soon returned, and they eventually finished sixth after the team had won none of their final five league matches. Newly promoted

achieved their highest finish since 1980 by finishing seventh, having taken points off every team in the league except Liverpool and

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. ...

. Their seventh-place finish was the highest for a newly promoted team since Ipswich Town finished 5th in the 2000–01 season. Huddersfield were the first team to be relegated, following their 0–2 defeat at Crystal Palace on 30 March 2019, coinciding with victories for

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

. They were relegated with six games remaining. This made Huddersfield the second team in Premier League history to be relegated before March ended, following

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

in 2007–08. Fulham joined them after a 1–4 defeat at

Watford Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal en ...

on 2 April, relegated with five games remaining.

were the final team to be relegated following a 2–3 loss at home to Crystal Palace on 4 May with one game remaining. The fastest goal in Premier League history was scored this season on 23 April by Shane Long in a 1–1 draw between his side

and

after 7.69 seconds. On 4 May 2019, Fulham's Harvey Elliott became the youngest ever Premier League player at 16 years and 30 days. Tottenham Hotspur had a run of 28 games without a draw, the longest ever recorded from the start of a Premier League season. Manchester City did not draw any of their final 30 matches. The season saw two aviation incidents involving Premier League personnel. On 27 October 2018,

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the Nation ...

owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was killed in a helicopter crash outside the King Power Stadium, shortly after a 1–1 home draw against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium ...

. Almost three months later, on 21 January 2019, Cardiff City player Emiliano Sala, en route to join the club following his record signing from

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabit ...

, died on board a Piper PA-46 Malibu aircraft that

crashed "Crashed" is the third U.S. rock single, (the fifth overall), from the band Daughtry's debut album. It was released only to U.S. rock stations on September 5, 2007. Upon its release the song got adds at those stations, along with some Alternativ ...

off

Alderney Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-larges ...

Teams

Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. The promoted teams were

(returning to the top flight after a six-year absence),

and

(both teams returning after a four-year absence). They replaced

and

, ending their top flight spells of seven, ten and eight years respectively.

Stadiums and locations

:''Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.''

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

League table

Results

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

;Notes (H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Clean sheets

Discipline

Player

* Most yellow cards: 14 ** Étienne Capoue (Watford) * Most red cards: 2 **

Pierre-Emile Højbjerg Pierre-Emile Kordt Højbjerg (born 5 August 1995) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and the Denmark national team. Højbjerg started his career as a youth for Danish clubs B ...

(Southampton) **

Wes Morgan Westley Nathan Morgan (born 21 January 1984) is a former professional footballer who made over 750 professional appearances as a defender for Nottingham Forest, Leicester City and the Jamaican national team, as well as a brief loan spell at K ...

(Leicester City)

Club

* Most yellow cards: 77 ** Watford * Most red cards: 5 ** Leicester City

Awards

Monthly awards

Annual awards

Attendances

References

External links

Official website
at footballsite {{DEFAULTSORT:2018-19 Premier League Premier League seasons

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...