What tiebreaker is used if teams finish level on points in the Premier League?

The three-horse race for the Premier League title has been reduced to two, with Liverpool dropping out of contention to leave Manchester City and Arsenal as the two pretenders in the closing games of the season. The 2023/24 league champions will be crowned on Sunday 19 May and there is still a realistic chance Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta’s teams could end the campaign level on points.

City favourites to win another Premier League title

Pep Guardiola’s side have won four of the last five titles and are in pole position to win another one. Next Sunday, Arsenal have to make up two points on their rivals for the two to be locked at the top after 38 games.

The Gunners host Everton on the final day, while City finish against West Ham at the Etihad.

What tiebreakers are used in different soccer leagues?

Things are pretty tight at the top, so much so that there is even a chance that the two teams could finish level on points on 19 May. How would they be separated if that were the case?

Head-to-head record

One curiosity of elite-level soccer is that different competitions in different countries use different tiebreakers. For instance, Real Madrid famously won LaLiga in 2006-07 by virtue of having a better head-to-head record in their two league matches that season against Barcelona, with whom they finished level on points. Serie A uses the same system, as does the UEFA Champions League in the group stage.

The argument in favour of that system is that the team that has proved themselves to be ‘superior’ is seen to come out on top. The downside is that potential drama is lost, with goal difference taken out of the equation and permutations limited as a result.

Goal difference

Like Liga MX, Ligue 1 in France and Germany’s Bundesliga, the Premier League uses goal difference as the first tiebreaker. Unusually, City are one goal worse off as things stand, although with Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland back in the team, and Phil Foden in superb form, that could quite easily change.

In the unlikely event that two teams finish on the same number of points and have the same goal difference, Premier League rules state that “the number of goals scored, then the team who collected the most points in the head-to-head matches, then who scored most away goals in the head-to-head” will determine who finishes ahead of who in the table.

As a separate point of interest, MLS uses a different system to the two mentioned in their regular season standings, with the total number of wins across all matches acting as the first tiebreaker ahead of goal difference.

Has the Premier League title ever been decided on goal difference?

The name Sergio Agüero is probably enough to trigger your memory. In 2011-12, City and Manchester United were tied on points going into the final game of the season. The Sky Blues’ goal difference was eight better than the Red Devils’, which realistically meant that all they had to do was beat relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers at home.

With United having won 1-0 away to Sunderland, City found themselves facing a shock 2-1 defeat and title heartbreak until two goals in injury-time from Edin Dzeko and Agüero clinched the most dramatic of league titles, their first since 1968.

“I swear you’ll never see anything like this again, so watch it, drink it in!” said Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler. He may be right, although there is still a small chance history could repeat itself on 19 May.