After six games this season, there are still five Premier League teams without a win. Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Southampton and Wolves are still waiting for their first three points of the campaign. The Foxes and the Tractor Boys have looked good in parts while the other three have been woeful from start to finish. With all of this in mind, I decided to look at the first six games of the last five Premier League seasons to see if there were any that were quite as bad as this.

2023/24 Season

After Gameweek six of last season, there were four teams still waiting for their first win. AFC Bournemouth, much like Ipswich and Leicester this season, lay outside the drop zone despite having not picked up a win. They managed three draws in their opening six games against the likes of Chelsea and West Ham, and looked good at times, albeit without earning a win. It took ten games for them to get their first three points of the season, and they managed to finish in 12th spot after a series of good runs later in the season.

🚨🚨| OFFICIAL: Sheffield United are 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗚𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 from the Premier League 📉 pic.twitter.com/TbgiZFqyks

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) April 27, 2024

The other three teams who hadn’t managed a win after the first six games were Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United, and at that time, they all sat in the relegation zone. Luton and Burnley had played a game less than everyone else because of refurbishments at Kenilworth Road. All three sides were relegated at the end of the season, so could that allude to this season’s relegation candidates?

2022/23 Season

In this season, there were only two clubs who were waiting for their first win by the end of the sixth gameweek. Everton were on four points, having drawn four and lost two of their opening six games. Due to their low number of losses, their goal difference wasn’t too bad, so they ended the day in 16th after drawing with Liverpool.

Leicester on the other hand were struggling. After drawing with Brentford on the opening day, they had lost five in a row. It wasn’t until they beat Leeds in October that they started really getting results, but even then, they couldn’t avoid relegation. Despite winning on the final day, Everton’s victory against Bournemouth sent them down in 18th place. The relegation battle in the 2022/23 season was, for a while, one of the tightest in Premier League history.

2021/22 Season

For the first time in this article, one team was on zero points after six games in the 2021/22 season. Norwich, along with four other teams, were still waiting for their first win by the time October came around. The Canaries were pretty much guaranteed relegation from the offset, the highest they managed that season was 17th, which they achieved for one week in January.

BREAKING: Norwich have been relegated from the Premier League

Sorry, just practicing for next season pic.twitter.com/e614UNajFP

— ODDSbible (@ODDSbible) April 17, 2021

Southampton, Newcastle, Leeds and Burnley were all also struggling without a win, but they had all managed at least two draws before this point. Burnley did join Norwich in getting relegated that season, as did Watford, who started brightly but ended up going on two massive winless runs towards the end of the season.

2020/21 Season

The 2020/21 season saw one of the most boring relegation battles in Premier League history. After six weeks, West Brom, Burnley, Sheffield United and Fulham were all without a win, but managed to pick up points quickly and leave the other three in the dust.

After Gameweek 12, the bottom three teams all stayed in the same position until the end of the season. Fulham, who finished in 18th, were 11 points from safety, with just 28 points. I’m sure that their fans were glad that most of the games in this season were played behind closed doors due to the COVID pandemic.

2019/20 Season

In terms of relegation, the 2019/20 season was a little more competitive than the season after. After six games, there were just two teams without a win: Wolves and Watford. Wolves had four points from their opening six games, having drawn four. From gameweek seven, they went on a 10 game unbeaten run to steer them clear of relegation, and at the end of the season, they found themselves in seventh place, which was a remarkable turnaround.

🗣 "I'm very emotional trying to keep it together, I feel really sad for the supporters of this club"

An emotional Eddie Howe on Bournemouth's relegation pic.twitter.com/fQeLiJB0pW

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) July 26, 2020

Watford on the other hand, ended that season in 19th place and were relegated from the Premier League along with Norwich and Bournemouth. The Hornets looked for a short while as if they had avoided relegation, but they ended their season with three losses while the teams above them earnt draws and wins.

So, this season has started similarly to the 2021/22 season, with five teams still waiting for their first win, however, in that season one team was still without a single point at this stage. With that being said, there were no teams with just a single point in 2021/22, but this season there are still two. Overall, I think that this season has seen some terrible football from some of the bottom clubs, but there is enough ability in squads such as Wolves’ and Crystal Palace’s to convince me that this is not quite the worst Premier League season in recent history.