Which teams have won the Premier League the most times

Like their fans sing ‘Twenty Times, Twenty Times, Man Utd’, the most successful English Division side is Manchester United, amounting to twenty league titles in the clubs history, with their honours spanning over a century, winning their first league title in the 1907/08 season under Ernest Mangnall and their last coming in the 2012/13 season under Sir Alex Ferguson.

United’s best periods in their clubs’ history came under two different Scotsmen, Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson, with both managers not only having great success in England, but also abroad, being the only managers to win the Champions League for the club.

Sir Matt Busby had two spells, with his first one a lasting much longer, managing over 1000 games between 1945 and 1969 and despite going through one of football’s biggest tragedies in 1958, losing large portions of his team in a plane crash after winning three league titles, he still managed to win two more titles in 1964/65 and 1966/67, with the likes of Geroge Best and Sir Bobby Charlton spear heading his team

Undoubtedly Sir Alex Ferguson reigned over United’s best periods as a club, winning the Premier League thirteen Premier League titles in 26 years in charge, winning the league three times on the trot twice, between 1999-2001 and 2007-2009, whilst also winning the Champions League during those periods.

United’s best ever team will always split opinion between the two Champions League winning teams, with both very different teams and it will be personal preference on the players in the squad, with the ‘08 team led by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, whilst the ‘99 team included the likes of David Beckham, Jaap Stam, Andy Cole and Roy Keane whilst Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were heavily involved in both teams.

For forty years, Liverpool held the record for the most English League titles won, but in 2009, they levelled with them on 18 league titles and then they fell further behind, but after a thirty year drought, they picked up their nineteenth league win in 2020.

Their first league win came in the 1900/01 season under Tom Watson, who managed the second most games in the clubs’ history, 742, only 41 games behind first placed, Bill Shankley, who in his long time at the club, also led out some very successful teams, winning three league titles and is known as the godfather of Liverpool FC.

Alongside Shankley, Kenny Dalglish also won three league titles as a manager in only five and a half seasons as a manager, continuing the major success that came before him, where not only were Liverpool the best team in England, but also had major success in Europe, winning the Champions League four times between 1977 and 1984 under their most successful manager ever, Bob Paisley.

Paisley had a very short amount of time at the club for the great success he had in Merseyside, winning eight league titles, two of which came in the same season as a Champions League win, with his greatest side including a spine of many club legends with the iconic front two of Ian Rush and Kenny Dalgleish, the midfield enforcer that was Graeme Sounness with Alan Hansen and Phil Thompson the controlling centre-half duo.

Despite holding the record for the most FA Cups won, Arsenal are third in the most league titles won with thirteen and whilst their last league win was in 2003/04, that win remains special as they became the second English side to go unbeaten in a top flight season and the only team to do so since the introduction of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season.

Their first league title came in the 1930/31 season under Herbert Chapman, which started a run of great success for the club, winning the title four more times in the next seven years, under three different managers and then post-WW2, they got straight back to success under Tom Whittaker, who guided them to league titles in the 1947/48 and 1952/53 seasons.

After just one more league title in the next thirty-five years, Scotsman George Graham brought success back to North London, winning league titles in the 1988/89 and 1990/91 and really setup the success that followed under Arsene Wenger, who would unanimously be voted as Arsenal’s greatest manager and led Arsenal’s greatest players.

Wenger led Arsenal to three league titles in an era dominated by Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, being the only team to beat United to the league title between 1995/96 and 2003/04, with a bunch of legendary players gracing the pitch at Highbury.

Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp were one of the best strike forces to grace a football pitch whilst Patrick Vieira was dominating midfielders by himself behind them, with flying wingers like Marc Overmaars and Robert Pires whilst also playing a foreign style of passing play first introduced into the league by Arsene Wenger, which gave Arsenal the trademark to this day of having to play a good on the eye style of football.

Despite having not won a league title in nearly forty years, Everton remain the fourth most successful English side, with their first league title win coming in 1890/91 which was only the third year of professional football in England.

Everton have had three managers win two Division One titles each, with the most success coming under Howard Kendall, who managed the club between 1981 and 1987 and during that time he not only won the two Division One titles, but brought European success to the Toffees, winning the UEFA Cup Winners Cup while having the best win ratio of a permanent manager in the clubs’ history at 54%.

Howard Kendall mixed youth and experience in his squad, bringing through youngsters like Peter Reid and Trevor Steven, but his most successful singing was Andy Gray, who noy only saved his job, but was also key in winning him the 1984/85 League title.

After he was sold, he brought in Gary Lineker, and despite both being and the club for one seasons before they both moved to Spain, they had a great season together, with Lineker scoring 38 goals in all competitions on the way to winning the league by nine points over local rivals Liverpool, which made that title so sweet for Evertonions.

Just a decade ago, Manchester City would be nowhere near this list as up until 2012, they only won two league titles, in 1936/37 and 1967/68, but six titles in the past ten years have shot them up this list and with their trajectory, they will soon move to fourth in this list and even move even further up the list in the future.

City’s best period as the club is ongoing right now, winning four of the last five Premier League titles under Pep Guardiola and are looking to become the third team in Premier League history to win three titles in a row and only sixth in English First Division history,

Manchester City’s 2017/18 broke many records, including becoming the first team to past the hundred point mark, biggest title winning margin (18), most wins in a single season (32), most away wins in a season (16), most consecutive wins (18).

The fans’ sweetest title win will no doubtedly be their 2011/12 win, with it not only being their first league title win in forty-four years, but they won the title with the last kick on the last day of the season, to beat rivals Manchester United to the title with the goal from Sergio Aguero going down as one of the single greatest moments in not only English football history but in football history.