Arne Slot machine paying out early – Dutchman tops list of most points won in first 11 PL games

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6 managers with 27+ points 

©TM/IMAGO

When long-serving manager Jürgen Klopp announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season last November, a fair amount of panic set in among some sections of the Liverpool fanbase. The German won the Champions League and the Premier League with the Reds, and consistently had Liverpool dining at football’s top table. In May, it was announced Feyenoord manager Arne Slot would be his successor. It was again met with as much apprehension as excitement. Slot had done a fantastic job with Feyenoord, but Erik ten Hag had done stellar work with Ajax but struggled in the Premier League.

Following a quiet summer transfer window, in which Federico Chiesa was Liverpool’s only signing (€12 million from Juventus), there was a lot of uncertainty about how Liverpool would perform this season. However, just 11 Premier League games in, and the Slot machine is already paying out – Liverpool are five points clear at the top of the table, after taking 28 points from their opening 11 matches. They are also top of the Champions League ‘league phase’ and in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup. No Liverpool manager has had a better record at this stage of their tenure in the Premier League. In fact, no manager has in the division’s history since its inception in the 1992/93 season. Let’s take a look back at the bosses who hit the ground running with the most Premier League points after their first 11 games in the division – some of the names near the top may come as a surprise!

The old proverb goes that ‘the league table starts taking shape after 10 games’ and it’s true that after some shock early results may have skewed the standings, around November, the table does start to become a better indicator of how a team’s season may be heading. When we go back across the last 33 seasons of the Premier League, and look at the managers to have picked up the most points from their opening 11 matches in the division, Liverpool’s Slot is now top of the tree. He has picked up 28 points, with his side boasting a goal difference of +15, having scored 21 and conceded just six. No manager in Premier League history can better that.

Two other bosses have also accumulated 28 points from their first 11 games in the Premier League, but with an inferior goal difference to Slot’s Liverpool. John Gregory takes second spot on the list, having sent Aston Villa flying out the blocks in the 1997/98 season, taking 28 points with a +12 goal difference, and 21 goals scored. In third is former Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink, who joined the Blues midway through the 2008/09 season, and won 28 points from his first 11 matches, with a +12 goal difference and 19 goals scored. Ex-Chelsea bosses feature heavily on the list, with the west London side having had 18 permanent Premier League managers – the second most in the league’s history.

Three managers picked up 27 points from their opening 11 games in the dugout in the Premier League. Carlo Ancelotti is fourth with Chelsea in the 2009/20 season with a goal difference of +20, Maurizio Sarri in the 2018/19 campaign is fifth with a +19 goal difference, while Frank Clark with Nottingham Forest on the Premier League return in the 1994/95 season is sixth with a +14 goal difference. In seventh is Luiz Felipe Scolari, who took 26 points with Chelsea in the 2008/09 season with a +23 goal difference – he was sacked three months later.

In eighth spot, having taken 26 points from his first 11 games with Chelsea back in the 2004/05 season is José Mourinho – his side had a +13 goal difference from those matches. People may remember around this time last season Tottenham were actually top of the Premier League – Ange Postecoglou takes ninth spot on the list, having led Spurs to take 26 points from their opening 11 games last term with a +10 goal difference. Completing the top 10 is Ronald Koeman, who remarkably took 25 points from his first 11 matches with Southampton back in the 2014/15 season.