The Premier League non-champions table-topping list
Liverpool went top of this in-no-way contrived list last season before foolishly then rendering themselves ineligible. Idiots. Tottenham and Everton were not on this list until this season. So which non-champions have spent longest at the top of the table?
Everton (38 days)
Last day top of the Premier League – Friday October 30, 2020
It’s faintly ludicrous really for ever-presents who have at various points been quite good, but Everton had only been top of the Premier League table for eight days before this season. After sitting at the summit for barely a week in nearly three decades, they decadently took top spot for almost the whole of October in what really did look for an all-too-brief while like it could be a genuine and joyous tilt at something extraordinary. It, er, no longer looks like that. But still. What times we all had. We shall always have October 2020.
Tottenham (50 days)
Last day top of the Premier League – December 9, 2020
Jose Mourinho’s all-conquering Spurs have now been top of the Premier League for 17 of the last 19 days, which represents just over a third of the total time they have sat top of the Premier League in 28 years of trying, bless them.
They’ve racked up a half-century now and, while we’re loathe to make over-confident predictions, it looks fairly likely they’ll get another couple of days more at the very, very least. A Chelsea win at Everton would knock them off their f***ing perch on Saturday night, as would Liverpool getting a better result at Fulham than Spurs manage at Palace (or, and this couldn’t be entirely ruled out, Liverpool managing the same result as Spurs but engineering a five-goal swing in their favour; Fulham are quite bad and Palace have started knocking in goals).
After that, it’s Liverpool v Spurs at Anfield next week and surely an end to the madness. Either way, never have Spurs been top for quite so long as this current stint, finishing each of the last three matchdays out in front, and never at such a crucial late stage as <checks notes> 11 whole games into the season. Mauricio Pochettino’s sides, for all their great qualities, were really more about putting an indeterminate amount of pressure on leaders for an indeterminate length of time rather than actually having a crack at hitting the front themselves.
It all means that Spurs and Everton, having been bobbing around the Premier League since it began, have been top of the Premier League for just 88 days between them and over half of those have been this season. We’re pretty confident that in years to come it will be considered the weirdest and most memorable event of an otherwise quiet year.
Norwich (129 days)
Last day top of the Premier League – March 19, 1993
The first club to end a day top of the Premier League table courtesy of anything other than alphabetical order (philosophical questions: do Arsenal get credit for all the days in all the off-seasons? And what of AFC Bournemouth and their cheeky Acme-style scam to try and jump the list?) was Mike Walker’s Norwich City. Tipped by many as relegation candidates in 1992, the Canaries stunned Arsenal to win 4-2 on the inaugural league’s opening day. With Coventry beating Middlesbrough, Leeds overcoming Wimbledon and Sheffield United shocking Manchester United all by one goal, Norwich climbed straight to the summit.
They were expected to fall quickly and sharply, yet did no such thing. Chelsea were beaten next at Carrow Road as Norwich proceeded to win 12 of their first 18 league games, ending the calendar year top with a goal difference of zero and a three-point gap over Manchester United and Aston Villa in second and third place respectively.
Both sides leapfrogged Norwich by the first game of 1993, and although they clawed back their advantage by the end of the month with consecutive wins over Crystal Palace and Everton, United would soon assert their dominance. The Canaries had flown so close to the sun, but have been locked in their cages since.
Leeds (159 days)
Last day top of the Premier League – January 11, 2002
One of the best teams never to win a trophy came ever so close in those halcyon days under David O’Leary. Leeds never finished lower than 5th from 1997/98 to 2001/02, reaching the FA Cup quarter-final and two European semi-finals in that time. They famously ended the millennium as the Premier League leaders, sitting one point clear of Manchester United as the year 2000 beckoned.
Leeds had been top even before O’Leary’s appointment in 1998. Their first spell on the throne was brief, with three straight wins to open the season under Howard Wilkinson in 1995/96 seeing them go top for just over a week. They then went top for a full day after beating Southampton in O’Leary’s fourth game in charge. Have done lots of fun things since returning to the Premier League this season, but topping the table is not one of them. Yet. Let’s rule nothing out.
Aston Villa (162 days)
Last day top of the Premier League – August 13, 1999
The aforementioned tussle with Norwich gave Aston Villa the unlikely taste of a Premier League title race that they managed to sate throughout the years. The Villans topped the table after an opening-day thrashing of QPR in August 1993, ended 1998 with a two-point gap over second-placed Chelsea, then climbed to first again in late 1999, when they opened that season with victories over Newcastle and Everton. John Gregory could not quite keep that pace however, and they soon fell away. Villa have been as high as second in 2014 and third in 2015 since without ever going top this century.
Newcastle (360 days)
Last day top of the Premier League – August 13, 2007
It is almost impressive to spend five days short of an entire year at the top of the Premier League without ever actually winning it. Newcastle have been top of the Premier League for a longer total time than two winners (Blackburn, 238 days, and Leicester, 187 days), as well as being at the summit almost three times as long as Tottenham (50 days), Bolton (38 days), Everton (38 days) and West Ham (1 day) combined.
It all started with Kevin Keegan’s infamous title races – and collapses – but the baton was gamely picked up by Sir Bobby Robson, and even Sam Allardyce at the start of the 2007/08 season. Oh, those heady early days under Mike Ashley’s ownership.