The longest anyone has led a Premier League race without winning it: Newcastle United ended 82 of the 1995-96 English Premier League race's 106 playing days in first place, 77% of them, and finished behind Manchester United. The longest unbroken spell of that lead ran 65 days. At the other end, Manchester City won the 2013-14 English Premier League race having led on nine of its 95 playing days, never more than two in a row. Both lists below rank by the share of a race's playing days a team spent in first place. How that is counted is spelled out under the tables.
Companion pages: Closest Premier League races and Biggest Premier League comebacks and collapses.
| Rank | Race | Team that led | Days in first | Playing days | Share | Eventual winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1995-96 English Premier League | Newcastle United | 82 | 106 | 77% | Manchester United |
| 2 | 2022-23 English Premier League | Arsenal | 90 | 117 | 77% | Manchester City |
| 3 | 1997-98 English Premier League | Manchester United | 72 | 105 | 69% | Arsenal |
| 4 | 2002-03 English Premier League | Arsenal | 63 | 97 | 65% | Manchester United |
| 5 | 2018-19 English Premier League | Liverpool | 59 | 108 | 55% | Manchester City |
| 6 | 2007-08 English Premier League | Arsenal | 50 | 96 | 52% | Manchester United |
| 7 | 2013-14 English Premier League | Arsenal | 38 | 95 | 40% | Manchester City |
| 8 | 1992-93 English Premier League | Norwich City | 46 | 119 | 39% | Manchester United |
| 9 | 1998-99 English Premier League | Aston Villa | 40 | 104 | 38% | Manchester United |
| 10 | 2011-12 English Premier League | Manchester United | 37 | 104 | 36% | Manchester City |
| Rank | Race | Winner | Days in first | Playing days | Share | First place for good |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2013-14 English Premier League | Manchester City | 9 | 95 | 9% | May 7, 2014 |
| 2 | 2002-03 English Premier League | Manchester United | 13 | 97 | 13% | April 12, 2003 |
| 3 | 2001-02 English Premier League | Arsenal | 21 | 102 | 21% | April 21, 2002 |
| 4 | 1995-96 English Premier League | Manchester United | 22 | 106 | 21% | March 23, 1996 |
| 5 | 2022-23 English Premier League | Manchester City | 25 | 117 | 21% | May 3, 2023 |
| 6 | 2023-24 English Premier League | Manchester City | 27 | 120 | 23% | May 14, 2024 |
| 7 | 1997-98 English Premier League | Arsenal | 24 | 105 | 23% | April 18, 1998 |
| 8 | 1992-93 English Premier League | Manchester United | 35 | 119 | 29% | April 10, 1993 |
| 9 | 2007-08 English Premier League | Manchester United | 36 | 96 | 38% | March 15, 2008 |
| 10 | 1998-99 English Premier League | Manchester United | 41 | 104 | 39% | May 9, 1999 |
Everything on this page comes from the same day-by-day season files the charts draw, with standings read as each day ended. All 34 charted Premier League races from 34 finished seasons enter: every title race from 1992-93 to 2025-26. Wild card races are not ranked; their story is the playoff cutoff, not first place. The 2026-27 season joins these lists when it ends. A team's time in first place is counted once per season, at its longest, whichever of its charted races it came in.
Longest leads lost is the club that ended the most of a race's playing days in first place and did not finish first. Any club in the race qualifies, not the runner-up alone, because a club can lead for four months and finish fifth.
Winners who led least is the same count for the club that did win, ranked from the fewest days up. Its last column is the day the winner took first place for good, which the comebacks page ranks on.
Only days this race's teams played are counted, the same rule the closest races page counts closeness over. A strike or a pause freezes the standings, and a leader sitting out an idle stretch would collect time on top for nothing.
The ranking is by share rather than by the raw count, because a league's seasons are not all the same length and a short one would otherwise win by being short. Seasons cut short by a strike or a stoppage are ranked on what was played, which is the same rule and the reason for it. The count and the total are printed beside the share, so the order can be checked; where two rows print the same whole percent, the unrounded share put them in that order.
A day two clubs end level at the top is a day in first place for both of them, which is what holding first place means in English. So the two counts of one race can add up to more than the race's playing days. Races whose top two the standings cannot separate appear on neither list: with no winner, the data can name neither the club that lost a lead nor the club that kept one.
A lead measured in days and a lead measured in points are different questions, and the two lists often disagree about which season was the bigger collapse; the comebacks page ranks the same blown leads by size. Only finished seasons are ranked; every irregularity in the record is listed in the data notes.