Chelsea have picked up only six points from behind all season. That’s worse than every other Premier League club. But Newcastle have developed the knack.
20) Chelsea – 6pts
16 deficits, 2 wins, 0 draws, 13 defeats
They really have been sodding shite this season. Rotten. The worst. They simply do not have either the goals or the gumption to drag themselves out of holes.
19) Aston Villa – 7pts
17 deficits, 1 win, 4 draws, 12 defeats
Unai Emery transformed Villa’s season in the space of two games. Certainly on this table anyway. Danny Ings’ double at Brighton not only secured Villa’s first away win of the season, but also their first win from behind this season. Shrewd work from the Villans – if you’re going to win from behind it makes sense to concede in the very first minute to maximise the opportunity of a comeback. That’s just maths. And Ings earned them a point against Wolves too. He is the master scrambler. And then they sold him. Fools. Wisely then decided to stop going behind. Except v Brentford and Man Utd.
18) Nottingham Forest – 8pts
24 deficits, 1 win, 5 draws, 18 defeats
The 96th-minute own-goal equaliser they snaffled against Brentford in November wasn’t just the first point Forest had salvaged from a losing position, it was also their first equaliser of any kind in the Premier League this season. That seems really quite mad. And then they did it against Chelsea, which is even more mad. And then against Bournemouth, which seems pretty sane. And then Manchester City, which is pretty mad again. Everton at home? Less mad. And then finally…a first win from behind against Brighton. Well bloody done.
17) Everton – 8pts
23 deficits, 1 win, 5 draws, 17 defeats
That draw at Manchester City was a lovely old bonus point that seemed to show there was still some fight in what looks at times like a p***-poor Everton side. But it remains an exception that proves the rule. Sean Dyche has improved Everton markedly, but he is only a man and he cannot buy the goalscoring capability required for regular point-snaffling. But then they came back twice v Chelsea and then against Tottenham so what do we know? The point v Leicester was gratefully received.
16) Wolves – 8pts
21 deficits, 2 wins, 2 draws, 17 defeats
Both those wins have come since Julen Lopetegui turned up and cut out much of Wolves’ previous nonsense. They won from behind against Everton in his very first game and managed to get Nathan Jones the sack when coming from behind with the obvious advantage of a man disadvantage at St Mary’s. A recent point v Forest was well-earned.
15) Fulham – 8pts
19 deficits, 2 wins, 2 draw, 15 defeats
A pair of 3-2 comeback wins at Forest and Leeds are the headlines here, while Fulham came within a whisker of being the first team this season to take a point off Manchester United after falling behind in the final Premier League game before the World Cup. Grabbing a point against Wolves at Craven Cottage was a nice little bonus because the Cottagers were mainly crap that evening.
14) Manchester United – 8pts
11 deficits, 2 wins, 2 draws, 7 defeats
The wins came early in the season against Everton and more memorably and recently against City. Everton’s early lead became a United lead before half-time thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s (remember him?!) long-awaited 700th club goal. Then they did this to Manchester City. Almost snagged a point in a game they’d already led and trailed at Arsenal but then they didn’t. Back to those scrambling ways at home to Leeds but a draw at home was sub-optimal. The other point from behind came against Chelsea thanks to a Casemiro header.
13) Brentford – 9pts
15 deficits, 1 win, 6 draws, 8 defeats
Avoiding defeat in almost half the games you fall behind is solid enough, but you’d really want one of those draws to become a win to really find yourself in proper Fighting Qualities territory. That said, these were good fighting draws. From 2-0 down at Leicester on the opening day, and then equalisers in the 84th and 88th minutes against Everton and Palace in back-to-back games. Pesky fact: all that happened in August. The point gained at Forest was really more a case of two lost given both the lateness of the Forest equaliser and the fact Forest hadn’t previously managed an equaliser all season. But then there was a 96th-minute equaliser of their own against Palace and all was forgiven.
12) West Ham – 10pts
26 deficits, 1 win, 7 draws, 18 defeats
It’s a reasonable number of points recovered, but they’ve come from far too many deficits really, haven’t they? The draw at home to Spurs felt important – I mean, it’s always an important fixture but especially so after the Hammers had just arrested a three-game losing start – and a 3-1 home win against Fulham would have been worthy enough even without having to come back from conceding inside five minutes. Getting a point after going behind to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Southampton is just par for everyone because losing points from winning positions was just one of the things Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side liked to do. He will be missed. A point from behind at Newcastle and against Chelsea is more than credible. And then there’s Villa at home, which did not end well despite the point. The point scrambled v Arsenal was far more impressive.
11) Manchester City – 10pts
8 deficits, 3 wins, 1 draw, 4 defeats
Bonus points in the ‘making life unnecessarily hard for themselves just to feel alive’ stakes for salvaging the first seven points from two goals down via a 3-3 draw at Newcastle, and 4-2 home wins over Crystal Palace and Spurs in which they not only trailed 2-0 but did so at half-time. Life then got a whole lot less interesting until that 4-1 win over Liverpool in which the Reds were daft enough to get all nostalgic and take the lead.
10) Southampton – 12pts
28 deficits, 3 wins, 3 draws, 22 defeats
Southampton are seemingly contractually obliged to drop more points from winning positions than pretty much anyone else every season, so it’s probably prudent of them to develop a happy knack of scavenging some of their own. Let’s gloss over the division-worst ’26 deficits’ element of this for now and focus on the sweet, sweet nectar of 12 precious points snaffled after falling behind. Winning three games from behind is impressive enough for anyone, never mind a team that has only managed six wins full stop. Chelsea, Leicester and Everton the fall guys in a trio of 2-1s, if you were wondering. A draw from 3-1 down v Tottenham is just beautiful.
9) Leeds – 12pts
24 deficits, 3 wins, 3 draws, 18 defeats
The first win came on the opening day against Wolves, the second thrillingly yet to the disgust of professional misery guts Gabby Agbonlahor from 3-1 down against Bournemouth. Further points scrambled at home to West Ham and at Brighton show this side has some heart. They showed it again to come from behind against Nottingham Forest.
8) Bournemouth – 12pts
21 deficits, 4 wins, 0 draws, 17 defeats
The wondrously improbable second-half fightback at Nottingham Forest kickstarted the Gary O’Neil revolution, while Leicester were also beaten in a game Bournemouth trailed at half-time. Wins when you’re not just losing but losing at half-time are particularly satisfying and neat, so well done Bournemouth for that. They waited a long, long time for another but repeated the trick v Fulham. Then they came from behind against a not-arsed Spurs and they now look improbably safe.
7) Brighton – 12pts
15 deficits, 3 wins, 3 draws, 9 defeats
Thrashing early-season Leicester barely counts because early-season Leicester made something of a habit of getting thrashed from winning positions, but scrambling a 3-3 draw at Liverpool through a Leandro Trossard hat-trick after going 2-0 up and 3-2 down was certainly memorable. Were 1-0 up and 2-1 down against Wolves before finally taking all the points thanks to Pascal Gross’ late winner. A point from a 2-2 draw at Leicester thanks to an 88th-minute equaliser would be better were it not for the twin facts that a) it is Leicester and b) Brighton had actually led 1-0 in that one. Three times coming back v Brentford was glorious. And coming back to beat Chelsea also fits in that category.
6) Leicester City – 13pts
27 deficits, 3 wins, 4 draws, 20 defeats
Just look at that. Behind not just once but twice against Aston Villa and then went on to actually win. Was that a corner turned? Well they recovered from conceding the opener to score four unanswered goals against Spurs also appeared to bode well. But they then lost loads of bloody games to such an extent they had to sack the manager then carried on losing, so probably not. Now facing another potential corner turned after coming from behind v Wolves and getting a point at Leeds and v Everton.
5) Liverpool – 13pts
16 deficits, 3 wins, 4 draws, 9 defeats
Given where Liverpool have been for the last few years, the headline figure is the sheer number of deficits; they’ve gone behind in half their Premier League games this season, which is too many. And while their record in those games is okay by most standards, for a club forced to aim at 90 points and up every season, it’s a tightrope too narrow to walk. They have fallen off it. The 2-2 against Arsenal was batshit good fun, though, fair play. The win v West Ham was better.
4) Newcastle – 13pts
11 deficits, 3 wins, 4 draws, 4 defeats
Finally got their first win from behind of the season when beating Forest at the City Ground. Bonus points (fake news, there are no bonus points) for doing so via goals in both first-half and second-half stoppage time. And yet more fictitious bonus points for then becoming the first team to overturn a deficit against Brentford. Beating Southampton from behind was less impressive but still welcome enough.
3) Tottenham – 15pts
19 deficits, 4 wins, 3 draws, 12 defeats
Kept getting away with all sorts of nonsense earlier in the season, winning all manner of games they had no business winning. They had totally lost that knack until Ryan Mason took charge and turned a dispiriting 2-0 half-time deficit against Man Utd into a hard-fought 2-2 draw, then a 3-0 deficit at Liverpool into a 3-3 stoppage-time draw. Shame about the whole conceding immediately after to lose 4-3 thing.
2) Arsenal – 16pts
10 deficits, 5 wins, 1 draw 4 defeats
Two of those nine deficits were against Manchester United. They couldn’t sort it out at Old Trafford but thrillingly did so at the Emirates in a proper game-of-the-season contender. They might now actually be even more likely to win this league than the actual league, which is a bit mad. They had no answer against Sean Dyche’s Everton or Manchester City, but thrillingly got off the canvas to beat Villa 4-2 and reinvigorate both title races before pulling off the most absurd comeback yet to beat Bournemouth after falling behind inside the first 10 seconds and scoring a winner in the last 10 seconds. Claimed a point from 3-1 down at Southampton, which is nice but really not what you want/expect from title contenders.
1) Crystal Palace – 23pts
23 deficits, 7 wins, 2 draws, 14 defeats
Thirteen points from Roy Hodgson’s first six games back in the dugout, and nine of them from losing positions. The first three came absurdly late against Leicester, the other just absurdly at Leeds thanks to a second-half paddlin’ that really hadn’t looked on the cards. Then they put four past West Ham after giving the Hammers a headstart. Add that to the very creditable 14 points from behind Palace had already accrued under Vieira and you’ve got a huge lead over nearest rivals Arsenal.
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