The Big Six’s biggest Premier League defeats

Despite lifting their first silverware for the first time since the 2016-17 UEFA Europa League, Manchester United fans were definitely licking their wounds after this weekend’s games. United were humiliated by a scoreline of 7-0 against their fierce rivals Liverpool on Sunday.

The dominance of the top six is both a blessing and a curse in the Premier League. The unpredictability of the English top flight though means that even these clubs can be on the receiving end of a drubbing.

So, that got us thinking, what are the biggest defeats of the top six clubs in the Premier League era? We’ve gone through the archives to find the largest margins of defeat for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur as well as both Manchester United and Manchester City.

Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool

We’ll start with the club who scored seven at the weekend, with the only time they’ve conceded seven in the Premier League era. You might be forgiven for thinking that Liverpool had an injury crisis or played the kids on this day, but they fielded a full-strength eleven.

Aside from Adrian in goal, this was a first-choice team, but Jurgen Klopp might as well put the Under-21s out.

Ollie Watkins scored a hat-trick, with Jack Grealish bagging a brace and both Ross Barkley and John McGinn getting in on the act. A Mohamed Salah brace was nowhere near enough for The Reds to return to Merseyside with anything to show for their efforts.

Liverpool have also lost 6-1 to Stoke City and 5-0 to Manchester City in the Premier League era, but this has to go down as the worst of the lot.

Sheffield United 6-0 Tottenham Hotspur

This result really shows how bad Tottenham Hotspur were in the early Premier League days. Spurs have also lost by six goals to both Newcastle United (7-1, 1995-96) and Man City (6-0, 2013-14), but a 6-0 loss against Sheffield United in 1992-93 has to go down as their worst over the past 30 years.

Franz Carr, James Bryson (2), Paul Rogers and the evergreen Brian Deane all netted for the Blades. To rub salt into Tottenham’s wounds, Andy Gray scored an own goal to make it half a dozen without reply for the Red and White Wizards.

Sheffield United would go on to finish 14th that season, with Spurs a respectable eighth place. This was definitely one to forget for the Lilywhites, though.

Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal

The phrase “I 8-2 be an Arsenal fan” was trending after this match in 2011-12. Arsenal had also lost 6-0 to Chelsea in 2013-14, but this loss was absolutely embarrassing for the Gunners fans that travelled up from North London.

Arsenal had an injury crisis to put it mildly and Manchester United were all too happy to get one over their traditional rivals.

Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick for United, with Ashley Young (2), Danny Welbeck, Nani and Ji-Sung Park all getting in on the act. Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie both scored for the away side, but couldn’t rescue much.

Van Persie missed a penalty to bring it back to 1-1, but in truth, Carl Jenkinson’s sending off in the second half would’ve ended the contest anyway.

This was the third match of the season and saw The Gunners drop to 17th and only just outside the relegation zone. They’d recover to third by season’s end, but this was one that nobody in North London could put behind them.

Despite Arsene Wenger’s legendary status at the Emirates, this loss genuinely had many fans calling for the Frenchman’s head to be on the chopping block. Arsenal wouldn’t challenge for a Premier League title again until their brilliant run this season.

Manchester City 6-0 Chelsea

Another six-goal loss for a London side happened in 2018-19 at the hands of Manchester City. City were in imperious form, as they romped to another Premier League title this season. The Citizens actually completed a domestic treble under Pep Guardiola.

Chelsea weren’t at the races this day, they actually had a good season, winning the Europa League and finishing third in the Premier League.

Raheem Sterling (2), Ilkay Gundogan and Sergio Aguero (3) made it an easy match for the home team. This was also just a few matches before City would beat Chelsea in the EFL Cup final.

Middlesbrough 8-1 Manchester City

Before Manchester City were purchased by representatives of the United Arab Emirates, they really weren’t anything special in the Premier League. The Citizens were far from ever-present in the early days of the Prem and even spent time in the third tier as recently as 1999.

The sudden rise in City’s fortunes is perhaps best illustrated by their biggest defeat of the Premier League era, losing 8-1 to Middlesbrough in 2007-08. This was the final day of the season and in truth, the Sky Blues had nothing to play for.

Still though, this was an unforgivable result and saw Sven-Göran Eriksson leave the Etihad for good in disgrace. Manchester City would qualify for the UEFA Cup (today’s Europa League) ironically via the UEFA Fair Play award.

City would be down to ten men after just 15 minutes thanks to Richard Dunne receiving a straight red card for taking out a Boro attacker through on goal. The resulting penalty was converted by Stewart Downing and it only got worse from there.

Afonso Alves scored a hat-trick, with Adam Johnson, Fabio Rochemback, Jeremie Aliadiere and Downing adding one each to make it a scarcely believable eight on the day. Incredibly, this was the only time Boro scored more than three league goals in a match that campaign.

Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United

The Northwest rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United has failed to live up to the hype in recent seasons. This Sunday brought this fixture back to life though, with a magnificent seven for The Reds.

Liverpool have been off the pace much of this season, but this result will go down as one of the greatest in their history. Nobody would’ve expected this at half-time, as only a Cody Gakpo goal narrowly separated the two sides.

Nunez made it two shortly after the break, and the floodgates opened from there. Gakpo and Nunez would add another each, with Salah getting in on the act with another brace and Roebrto Firmino sealing the deal in injury time.

Could this give The Reds a chance at a top four finish? Absolutely.