The Worst Premier League Team Ever: Derby County 2007–08

The worst team in Premier League history is Derby County of 2007–08. They finished the season with 11 points from 38 games — one win, eight draws and 29 defeats — the lowest points total and the fewest wins the competition has ever produced across a 38-game campaign.

That is the record measured from the wrong end. Most Premier League history is written about champions and record-breakers; the bottom of the table has its own extremes, and Derby sit at the very floor of it. No side has come within a single point of them since.

Derby County 2007–08: the record low

Derby were promoted through the Championship play-offs in 2007 and looked out of their depth from the opening weeks. Their only victory came on 22 September, a 1-0 home win over Newcastle United. They did not win another league match all season. By the end they had set a run of unwanted records:

• 11 points — the fewest in a 38-game Premier League season
• 1 win — the fewest in any Premier League season
• 29 defeats — a record at the time
• 20 goals scored — the fewest in a 38-game season
• 89 goals conceded — the most in a 38-game season at the time

They were mathematically relegated in late March, with weeks of the season still to play. One win, eight draws and 29 losses adds up to a team that was competitive in almost nothing.

The teams that came close to beating it

Derby’s record has been threatened since, most seriously in 2024–25, but the 11-point mark has held. Here is the losing end of the Premier League table:

Team	Season	Points	Wins	Games
Derby County	2007–08	11	1	38
Southampton	2024–25	12	2	38
Sunderland	2005–06	15	3	38
Sheffield United	2023–24	16	2	38
Huddersfield Town	2018–19	16	3	38
Aston Villa	2015–16	17	3	38

Southampton’s 2024–25 season is the closest anyone has come. They finished on 12 points, one clear of Derby, but claimed a grim record of their own: they became the first team in Premier League history to lose 30 games in a single season, and were relegated with seven matches still to play — the earliest confirmed drop in the competition’s history. Convert one of those 38 defeats into a draw and they would have equalled Derby. They didn’t.

Why the 42-game teams don’t count

Before 1995–96 the Premier League ran 22 clubs and a 42-game season, so those early sides had four extra matches to gather points in. Ipswich Town’s 27 points in 1994–95 was the low of that era, alongside 93 goals conceded and a 9-0 defeat at Manchester United that still stands as the joint-record Premier League loss. It was a wretched season, but it is not comparable to Derby’s — more games mean more chances to scrape a result. When people talk about the record low, they mean the 38-game figure, and that is Derby’s 11.

The worst defence: Sheffield United, 104 conceded

Fewest points and fewest wins belong to Derby. The worst defensive season belongs to Sheffield United, who let in 104 goals in 2023–24 — the most ever conceded across a Premier League season, and the first time any side passed 100 in the 38-game format. They took 16 points and went straight back down. A team can survive leaking goals if it scores enough of its own; United did neither.

The other end of the record book

The bottom of the table is only half the story. The same league that produced Derby’s 11 points also produced Manchester City’s 100 — the two extremes of what a 38-game season can hold. For the record highs, see the most points in a Premier League season and the full Premier League record book. For the clubs that have dominated rather than collapsed, our list of the richest football clubs covers the other side of the money-and-results divide. Derby proved the floor is real; most seasons, mercifully, land nearer the middle.