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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

of the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, 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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

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 referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

, Cardiff City and

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

, who joined as the promoted clubs from the 2017–18 EFL Championship. They replaced

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

, Swansea City and Stoke City who were relegated to the 2018–19 EFL Championship. Defending champions

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

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

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

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 fourth 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 simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

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 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

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

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, 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 United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

's worst start to the season for 28 years and 3–1 loss to Liverpool led to the sacking of manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

in December, with former player Ole Gunnar Solskjær 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 Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, 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 association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

. 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 and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

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

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

on 2 April, relegated with five games remaining. Cardiff City 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 owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was killed in a helicopter crash outside the

King Power Stadium King Power Stadium is a football stadium in the city of Leicester, East Midlands, England, and the home of Leicester City. The stadium opened in 2002 as the Walkers Stadium and has a capacity of 32,259. The club attracted worldwide attenti ...

, shortly after a 1–1 home draw against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. Almost three months later, on 21 January 2019, Cardiff City player

Emiliano Sala Emiliano Raúl Sala Taffarel (; 31 October 1990 – 21 January 2019) was an Argentine professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. After playing youth football in Argentina and following ...

, en route to join the club following his record signing from

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

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

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

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 sys ...

. The promoted teams were

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

(both teams returning after a four-year absence). They replaced Swansea City, Stoke City and

, who were relegated to the

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

Stadia 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 (Southampton) ** Wes Morgan (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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...