The most boring teams in Premier League history? Fulham, Coventry, Leeds, Aston Villa, Sheffield United … and Stoke

By Brian Sears

17 February 2012

A blank Premier League weekend leaves a statistician with no top-flight matches to get statistically steamed up about.

No goals will be scored, and none conceded as England’s top level takes a break for the FA Cup.

Don’t get me wrong, I know all too well that football exists outside of the Prem. I’m a Watford fan. Yes, yes, thanks for your sympathy.

Still, a lack of goals did provoke the thought: which teams have been involved in the most 0-0 draws?

And can we therefore conclude they’re boring?

Should a 0-0 result be considered a pain or a pleasure? A success or a failure?

On this season’s evidence, there is no rational conclusion. Take the three Premier League clubs who have so far managed to avoid a goalless draw in 2011-12. Manchester United are riding high, Everton are mid-table and Blackburn in a relegation dog fight.

Then there’s Swansea with their five no-score draws from 25 games played, which might be construed as a feather in their Welsh caps. They do play such pretty football, after all.

Liverpool and Aston Villa fans might conclude (with four 0-0s each this season) that the goalless draw is a symptom of unfavourable times.

What about the history of the Premier League though, the full 20 seasons?

The 0-0 records of every Premier League team past and present are in the graphic at the bottom of this article.

Of those clubs most likely to record a 0-0, Fulham come out on top of the snore bore goalless draws, with 12.1 per cent of their games 0-0 in the Premier League over the years. Their fans have endured 49 in 405 games.

They are followed by Coventry (11.58 per cent) and Leeds (10.68 per cent) with Aston Villa, Sheffield United, Palace, Charlton and Stoke being the other clubs with a full season or more to have had more than 10 per cent of their games ending 0-0.

ELSEWHERE: The most successful clubs in English football history by trophies

Goalless games in the Premier League this season

5 Swansea

4 Aston Villa, Liverpool

3 Fulham, Newcastle, Stoke

2 Arsenal, Chelsea, Sunderland, West Brom, Wigan

1 Bolton, Man City, Norwich, QPR, Tottenham, Wolves

0 Blackburn, Everton Man Utd

More on Villa / Man City (or search for anything else in box at top right)