Longest Unbeaten Run in Premier League

Arsenal hold the record for the longest unbeaten run in Premier League history, going 49 matches without a defeat from May 2003 to October 2004. The streak ended only when Manchester United beat them 2-0 at Old Trafford, closing one of the sport’s most famous runs.

Staying unbeaten across nearly a full calendar year of league football is extraordinarily hard: it means never having one flat afternoon, one red card or one moment of bad luck turn into a loss. Here is the full leaderboard of the longest unbeaten runs in English top-flight history, and the story behind Arsenal’s record. All figures are as of the 2025 season.

The record holder: Arsenal and 49 unbeaten

Arsenal’s run began in May 2003 and carried through the whole of the 2003-04 season, when they won the title without losing a game, and deep into 2004-05 before Manchester United ended it. The heart of the streak was the Invincibles campaign itself: 26 wins, 12 draws and no defeats across 38 matches, the only unbeaten season in Premier League history.

That combination of a perfect season wrapped inside a longer streak is what makes 49 so hard to approach. A challenger would need to string together more than a full season of results without a single loss, something no side has managed in the two decades since.

The leaderboard of longest unbeaten runs

The table below ranks the longest unbeaten runs in English top-flight football, spanning the Premier League and the era before it.

Rank	Club	Matches unbeaten	Span	How it ended
1	Arsenal	49	May 2003 – Oct 2004	Lost 2-0 at Manchester United
2	Liverpool	44	Jan 2019 – Feb 2020	Lost 3-0 at Watford
3	Nottingham Forest	42	Nov 1977 – Dec 1978	Pre-Premier League record
4	Arsenal	38	Aug 2003 – May 2004	Unbeaten full season (Invincibles)

Arsenal appear twice: once for the overall 49-game record and once for the unbeaten 2003-04 season contained within it. Nottingham Forest’s 42-game run, set under Brian Clough, was the English record Arsenal broke.

Liverpool and the modern chase

Liverpool’s 44-match unbeaten run under Jurgen Klopp is the closest anyone has come to Arsenal’s mark in the Premier League era. It stretched from January 2019 to February 2020 and coincided with the club’s return to the summit of English football, ending with a surprise 3-0 defeat at Watford just weeks before Liverpool clinched the title. That the streak fell short of 49 despite one of the strongest teams of the modern game shows how demanding the record is.

The records that surround the streak

Arsenal’s unbeaten run is tied to a cluster of other Invincibles feats, from their attacking output to their defensive resilience across that season. For the scoring and clean-sheet marks that define dominant Premier League campaigns, see our leaderboards on the most goals in a Premier League season and the most clean sheets in the Premier League. The single-game scoring extremes are covered in our most goals in a Premier League game list.

Why the record matters

An unbeaten run is a measure of consistency rather than peak: it rewards a team that refuses to lose even on its worst days. Reaching 49 without defeat, as Arsenal did, requires talent, depth and luck to align across more than a full season, which is why the record has stood since 2004. For the continental stage, see our leaderboard on the most Champions League goals.

The short version: Arsenal hold the longest unbeaten run in Premier League history at 49 matches, ended by Manchester United in October 2004, with Liverpool’s 44-game run second. Arsenal’s Invincibles season remains the only unbeaten campaign in Premier League history. As of the 2025 season, no side has come within five games of the record.