London Premier League Teams: Top Flight Football Clubs in London

Elsewhere on this site you can read about the myriad of football clubs that play their home games in the national’s capital. There are several teams that have reached the pinnacle of football in the English pyramid and play their games in London, though, so it only seemed right to give them their own page.

Some teams are Premier League stalwarts, whilst others have only managed a fleeting appearance or two in the top-flight before slipping back down into the lower leagues of the English game. Of the 14 teams that we consider to be London-based, ten of them have spent at least one season the Premier League.

The Teams

Here is a look at the teams that were in the Premier League at the start of the 2024-2025 campaign, considering the first season they played in the division, how many seasons they’ve enjoyed in it in total including the 2024-2025 one and the number of titles they’ve won, if any:

* Stats correct as of the 2024-25 season

Premier League Performance

As you can see from the table, each team has enjoyed different runs in the Premier League over the years, so it is worth having a closer look to see how they’ve performed from one season to the next.

Arsenal

Arsenal were one of the founding members of the Premier League and the competition’s second-most successful club from the capital. The Gunners began their time in the new-look English top-flight by finishing tenth, which was seen a disappointment considering the fact that they had won the First Division just two seasons prior. It was a somewhat turbulent time during the league’s formative years, with the North London club finishing fourth in their second second and then 12th in the third. It was for that reason that a decision was taken to bring in French manager Arsène Wenger, who brought with him attacking football and a modern approach.

Wenger’s arrival in 1996 transformed the club, finishing third in his debut season before they won the title a year later. He helped to turn the Gunners from just another team to one of the top sides in the country, finishing in the top four every time he managed them up until his final two years in the hot-seat. The first title win of the Premier League era was followed up by a hat-trick of second-place finishes, all part of a period when the club finished either top or in second-place eight times in his first nine seasons. Another titles was won in the 2001-2002 season with nine more points than four years earlier.

If you want to talk about Arsenal and the Premier League, however, then you need to give adequate time to discuss the 2003-2004 campaign. Not only did the Gunners win the title with 90 points, they did so without losing a single game along the way. There were 26 wins and 12 draws across the campaign, but they achieved something that no side had done previously in the Premier League era and none has done since: they were invincible. The club was given a small golden version of the trophy in recognition of their achievement, which was also the final time that the won the title under Wenger’s management.

Brentford

Brentford had enjoyed a few seasons in the country’s top-flight in the 1930s, but other than that had spent most of the club’s history in the lower divisions. It was the management of Thomas Frank, a Danish head coach, that changed everything for the Bees, taking them to third in the Championship for two years running. The first time they lost in the play-offs, but the second time around they won and earned promotion to the top-flight as a result. If there was an expectation from many that Brentford would go straight back down then it was a one that the club was happy to disprove, ending up 13th thanks to 13 wins.

Many thought that it might be something of a one-off, but the Bees actually improved in their second year in the Premier League, lasting 12 matches without losing a game between October and March. They enjoyed some big wins during the campaign, defeating Manchester United 4-0 in the second game of the season and being the only club to win against Manchester City at the Etihad. They also defeated Pep Guardiola’s side at the Community Stadium, being the only side that did the double over the eventual Premier League champions. It felt to many as though Brentford were now an established Premier League side.

The problem with the English top-flight, of course, is that things can change quickly and the strength of the other sides in the division is such that you can never rest on your laurels. The Bees enjoyed just one win in the their first eight matches of the 2023-2024 season, having to cope without main striker Ivan Toney for the first half of the campaign after he was found guilty of committing 232 breaches of the Football Associations rules on gambling. In the end, Brentford won just ten games, drawing nine and losing the other 19, but the poorness of the teams promoted the previous season allowed them stay up quite comfortably.

Chelsea

It is hardly outrageous to suggest that the arrival of Roman Abramovich as Chelsea owner in 2003 completely changed the club’s standing in the Premier League. Prior to then, Chelsea had struggled to break into the top ten for the first few seasons of the new top-flight, finishing 11th three out of four times and 14th on the other occasion. Things had started to turn around a little bit for the Blues, seeing a few top four finishes come their way, but it was the arrival of Abramovich that changed everything not just for Chelsea but for the Premier League in general. The Russian owner wasn’t shy of spending money, signing game-changing players for the Stamford Bridge side.

The club’s first title came at the end of the 2004-2005 season thanks to the work of self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ José Mourinho. He won the title two years in a row before things blew-up somewhat inevitably two years later. That began a period of managerial merry-go-round for the club, with Abramovich never shy of sacking someone if he felt as though they were underperforming. Names like Avram Grant, Luis Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink came and went, but the Blues just ticked along and picked up numerous titles along the way. Their first title without Mourinho came courtesy of Carlo Ancelotti in 2009-2010.

Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge for the 2013-2014 season and won the title again a year later, but was sacked in December 2015 when the club was on the way to finishing tenth. Another title was won under Italian manager Antonio Conte, but when the war in Ukraine saw Russian’s in the United Kingdom get their assets frozen, Abramovich had to sell the club to a Consortium led by American Todd Boehly. Boehly decided that gaming the transfer system was the right way forward, signing countless players to long-term contracts to such an extent that the squad for the 2024-2025 season contained more than 40 players.

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace were on of the founding clubs of the Premier League era, but lasted just one season in the new-look top-flight before a 20th place finish saw them drop down to the First Division. They bounced straight back up but again lasted just one season, with the first few years of the Premier League seeing them bounce around between the two leagues. They then settled in the First Division before winning the play-offs in 2003-2004 to get back into the top-flight, only to finish 18th and head straight back down to what was, by then, known as the Championship, remaining there for the next eight seasons.

When the Eagles won the Championship play-off final at the conclusion of the 2012-2013 season, it saw them gain promotion back into the Premier League and they managed to establish themselves as a regular top-flight team. Their first season back saw them finish a comfortable 11th, which they then improved upon during the second year when they ended up tenth. The club went through a number of managers in the years that followed, including bringing in Sam Allardyce to replace Alan Pardew in 2016-2017 when they were struggling initially, losing eight of their first 13 games and winning just three of them.

The club gave Frank de Boer a chance at the start of the following campaign but hit the panic button when they lost aka if their opening four games. The arrival of Roy Hodgson did little to improve things initially, but the former England manager eventually turned things around enough to 11th, winning their final three games of the season. Hodgson remained in charge until 2021, when former Arsenal midfielder Patrick Viera got the job, but when he began to struggle they turned back to Hodgson, who once again got them to an 11th-place finish. He finally left the Eagles for the last time in the February of 2024.

Fulham

Fulham were a third-tier team when the Premier League was established, but made their way up through the leagues in order to gain promotion into the top-flight for the 2001-2002 campaign. They began life in the division with a reasonably comfortable 13th-place finish, becoming something of a mid-table side in the years that followed. Although they finished no higher than seventh, they also didn’t really trouble the relegation zone all that often. Only in the 2006 to 2008 period was their Premier League survival at any real risk, thanks to a 16th and then a 17th-place finish. They followed that up by finishing seventh to prove they belonged.

Craven Cottage has always been a relatively nice place to travel for away teams, with Fulham being an entirely unthreatening side for the most part. They are what many people might consider to be the definition of a bland side in Premier League terms, rarely getting involved in any of the conversations for the European places nor being at risk of relegation. That all changed in 2013-2014 when, having finished 12th the year before, they chopped and changed manager in the hope of staying in the division. First Martin Jol was sacked and replaced with René Meulensteen, then he was given the bullet and Felix Magath came in.

Ultimately it wasn’t enough to stop them from finishing 19th and being relegated, thanks in no small part to the fact that Steve Sidwell was the top scorer with seven league goals. After barely surviving in the Championship in the two seasons that followed, they made it to the play-offs two years running and returned to the Premier League for the 2018-2019 season. Sadly that was short-lived, with managerial changes again doing the club no favours, kick-starting a period of bouncing between the two divisions prior to the arrival of Marco Silva and a period of stability, with a 10th-place finish followed by a 13th-place one.

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur were on of the founding members of the Premier League, finishing the club’s first season in the new division in eighth. For the majority of the existence of the new league, Spurs neither troubled the upper echelons of it nor looked as though they were in any danger of being relegated. They finished 15th in the second season of the Premier League, then came seventh the year after, perfectly demonstrating the yoyo nature of their time as a top-flight team. There was a period when they were rooted to mid-table, coming tenth, 14th, 11th, tenth, 12th, ninth, tenth, 14th and 9th.

The arrival of Martin Jol in the November of 2004 began to change things, with the Dutch manager taking them to two successive fifth-place finishes. The 2007-2008 season saw him drop off a little bit, resulting in him being replaced by Juande Ramos, who led the club to 11th whilst also winning the League Cup. It could be argued that that was the beginning of something of a renaissance for Spurs, who began to genuinely cause issues for the top club and even have a crack at the league themselves. The combination of the smarts of Daniel Levy as club chairman and the wheeler-dealer nature of Harry Redknapp as manager was ideal.

He took them to fourth, fifth then fourth again, whilst André Villas-Boas also managed a fifth-place finish. It was the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino in the summer of 2014 that really gave the club a rocket boost, however. Having come fifth in his first season, the Argentine then challenged for the Premier League title and came third, second and third, finishing fourth in the 2018-2019 season whilst missing out on the Champions League title to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool. He was sacked in the November of the following season to be replaced by José Mourinho, but to some extent it felt as though the magic was over for them.

West Ham United

West Ham United missed out on joining the Premier League in its debut season on account of the fact that the club finished 22nd in the First Division at the end of the 1991-1992 campaign. They got promoted the following season, however, with the Hammers then enjoying a decade in the top-flight. During that time they managed to finish fifth, as well as a number of 14th-place finishes. When they ended up in 15th in 2000-2001, there was a fear that they might be heading in the wrong direction, only for a seventh-place finish a year later to allay those fears. That proved to be a false dawn, however, with relegation following.

The Hammers spent two years in the second-tier of English football before regaining promotion, ending up ninth during their first season back in the Premier League. Six seasons later and another relegation struck after they finished 20th, but that only lasted for one year before they came back up through the play-offs. From there, the club managed to settle in to a relatively relaxed period, with no genuine relegation threat until the 2019-2020 season. Manuel Pellegrini couldn’t do the job he’d managed at Manchester City, with the Hammers deciding to sack him in the December and bring in David Moyes as his replacement.

Moyes then managed to get the club higher up the table, ending up sixth and seventh in his first two full season back in the role that he had briefly enjoyed from the November of 2017. Although they finished 14th in the 2022-2023 campaign, Moyes led them to success in the Europa Conference League, which was the club’s first ever European trophy. Despite finishing ninth a year later, even though Declan Rice had left to join Arsenal, the general feeling amongst supporters was that the style of place wasn’t good enough. Moyes left when his contract expired, replaced by former Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Julen Lopetegui.

Results in Full

Across the existence of the Premier League, London clubs have had a variety of different finishes to boast about. Here is a look at how each club, which are currently in the Premier League, got on each season:

Brief Premier League Appearances

Over the course of the history of the Premier League, a number of teams that play their games in London have appeared in the top-flight, even if they weren’t in it when the 2024-2025 campaign got underway. Some of them enjoyed more success than others, with Queens Park Rangers, for example, playing just seven seasons in the Premier League. They were, of course, involved in one of the most exciting moments in the history of the competition, playing against Manchester City on the final day of the 2011-2012 season when the Cityzens won their first title thanks to a last minute Sergio Agüero goal.

There was a time when Charlton Athletic were considered to be an established Premier League team, playing seven seasons in a row and enjoying a high of seventh in one of them. Watford were also Premier League stalwarts for a period, playing in the division for five seasons in succession after enjoying a few seasons in the top-flight previously. Ultimately, though, none of those clubs had what it took to compete in the Premier League for long enough for us to talk about them in the same in-depth way than we have done with the other London-based clubs on this list, even if a club like Brentford is only a relatively recent addition.

Here’s a look at the clubs who made brief Premier League appearances and how they fared in the Premier League over the years.

Season	Charlton Athletic	Watford	Queens Park Rangers
1992-1993	x	x	5th
1993-1994	x	x	9th
1994-1995	x	x	8th
1995-1996	x	x	19th
1996-1997	x	x	x
1997-1998	x	x	x
1998-1999	18th	x	x
1999-2000	x	20th	x
2000-2001	9th	x	x
2001-2002	14th	x	x