The 3 teams who have gone unbeaten away in a Premier League season: Liverpool next?
Arne Slot’s Liverpool are close to becoming only the fourth Premier League side – and just the fifth in English top-flight history – to manage the feat of going a whole season unbeaten away from home.
The Reds’ 1-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest back in September remains their only league defeat of the 2024-25 campaign so far. They now just need to avoid defeat at Fulham, Leicester City, Chelsea and Brighton if they’re to achieve it.
Prior to the Premier League rebrand in 1992, only Preston North End – English football’s ‘other’ invincibles – managed to do it way back in 1988-89.
Here are the only three sides in the Premier League era that have managed an entire season unbeaten on the road.
Arsenal (2001-02)
It’s fitting that the defining image of Arsenal’s 2001-02 title triumph was away from North London – Sylvain Wiltord sealed it on the penultimate weekend at Old Trafford to cap off one of the best winning runs in the Gunners’ history.
Leeds, Charlton and Newcastle all came away from Highbury with three points that season, but Arsene Wenger’s men were sensational away from home.
They won 14 of their 19 away matches – only Pep Guardiola’s 100-point Manchester City in 2017-18 (16 away wins) have managed more.
Arsenal’s steely knack for grinding out results on their travels is what inspired Wenger to believe that his team could go on and avoid defeat – home and away – for an entire league campaign.
“It’s not impossible to go through the season unbeaten and I can’t see why it’s shocking to say that,” Wenger told reporters back in September 2002.
“Every manager thinks that but they don’t say it because they’re scared it would be ridiculous.
“It’s not healthy to be negative. If today I am healthy I know tomorrow I could die, but if I think like that there’s more chance I will die.”
Wenger was roundly mocked for his comments at the time, but sure enough…
Arsenal (2003-04)
Obviously the Invincibles are one of the three.
The Gunners drew eight of their 19 away matches that season but always found a way to come away with something.
History-makers.
Manchester United (2020-21)
Surprisingly enough, in the recent era of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool racking up mammoth 90+ points tallies, neither of them ever managed a full season unbeaten away from home.
But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United did.
There were a number of strange anomalies in the 2020-21 season, best explained by the lack of spectators – the Premier League yielding both its lowest-ever rate of home wins (37.9%) and the highest-ever rate of away wins (40.3%).
Solskjaer’s Red Devils suffered six defeats that campaign, but all of them came behind closed doors at Old Trafford.
But their formidable record on the road – including a brilliant knack of coming from behind to win or draw – saw them end up second, their joint-best placing since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
READ NEXT: The top 10 Premier League players with the most match-winners in history
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to appear for Arsenal in the Invincibles season?