2014–15 Premier League

For other uses, see 2014–15 Premier League (disambiguation).

The 2014–15 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 116th season of top-flight English football overall. The fixtures were announced on 18 June 2014.^[5] The season started on 16 August 2014 and concluded on 24 May 2015.^[6]

Premier League

Season	2014–15
Dates	16 August 2014 – 24 May 2015
Champions	Chelsea 4th Premier League title 5th English title
Relegated	Hull City Burnley Queens Park Rangers
Champions League	Chelsea Manchester City Arsenal Manchester United
Europa League	Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool Southampton West Ham United (through UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking)
Matches played	380
Goals scored	975 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sergio Agüero (26 goals)[1]
Best goalkeeper	Joe Hart (14 clean sheets)[2]
Biggest home win	Southampton 8–0 Sunderland (18 October 2014)
Biggest away win	Swansea City 0–5 Chelsea (17 January 2015)
Highest scoring	Everton 3–6 Chelsea (30 August 2014)
Longest winning run	8 games[3] Arsenal
Longest unbeaten run	16 games[3] Chelsea
Longest winless run	13 games[3] Leicester City
Longest losing run	8 games[3] Newcastle United
Highest attendance	75,454[4] Manchester United 0–1 West Bromwich Albion (2 May 2015)
Lowest attendance	16,163[4] Queens Park Rangers 2–2 Stoke City (20 September 2014)
Total attendance	13,746,753[4]
Average attendance	36,175[4]
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

Manchester City came into the season as defending champions of the 2013–14 season. Leicester City, Burnley and Queens Park Rangers entered as the three promoted teams.

On 3 May 2015, Chelsea won the title with three games to spare after a 1–0 home win over Crystal Palace.^[7] It was their first league title since 2010, their fourth Premier League title and their fifth English league title overall.^[8] Holders Manchester City eventually finished second, after a short drop to fourth a few weeks before the final match.^[9]

Burnley were the first team to be relegated despite beating Hull City 1–0, while Queens Park Rangers suffered the same fate after a 6–0 demolition by Manchester City the next day.^[10][11] Hull City were the third and final team to be relegated after Newcastle United beat West Ham United 2–0.^{[12][13][14][15]} They drew 0–0 against Manchester United on the final day of the season.^[16]

Manchester City's Sergio Agüero won the Golden Boot with 26 goals, with his teammate Joe Hart clinching a record fourth Golden Glove, having kept 14 clean sheets.^[17][18] Eden Hazard and José Mourinho were named as Player and Manager of the Season respectively.^[19]

Teams

Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams were Leicester City, Burnley^[20] and Queens Park Rangers, returning to the top flight after respective absences of ten years, four years and one year. They replaced Norwich City, Fulham and Cardiff City, who were relegated to the Championship after their respective top-flight spells of three years, thirteen years and one year.

Stadiums and locations

London

Aston Villa

Burnley

Everton

Hull City

Leicester City

Liverpool

Manchester City

Manchester United

Newcastle United

Southampton

Stoke City

Sunderland

Swansea City

West Bromwich Albion

London teams:
Arsenal
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Queens Park Rangers
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United

Locations of the 2014–15 Premier League teams

Arsenal

Chelsea

Crystal Palace

Queens Park
Rangers

Tottenham
Hotspur

West Ham United

Greater London Premier League football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity[21]
Arsenal	London (Holloway)	Emirates Stadium	60,272
Aston Villa	Birmingham	Villa Park	42,682
Burnley	Burnley	Turf Moor	21,401
Chelsea	London (Fulham)	Stamford Bridge	41,798
Crystal Palace	London (Selhurst)	Selhurst Park	25,747
Everton	Liverpool (Walton)	Goodison Park	39,571
Hull City	Kingston upon Hull	KC Stadium	25,400
Leicester City	Leicester	King Power Stadium	32,312
Liverpool	Liverpool (Anfield)	Anfield	45,276
Manchester City	Manchester (Bradford)	City of Manchester Stadium	46,708
Manchester United	Manchester (Old Trafford)	Old Trafford	75,635
Newcastle United	Newcastle upon Tyne	St James' Park	52,405
Queens Park Rangers	London (Shepherd's Bush)	Loftus Road	18,000
Southampton	Southampton	St Mary's Stadium	32,505
Stoke City	Stoke-on-Trent	Britannia Stadium	27,740
Sunderland	Sunderland	Stadium of Light	48,707
Swansea City	Swansea	Liberty Stadium	20,827
Tottenham Hotspur	London (Tottenham)	White Hart Lane	36,284
West Bromwich Albion	West Bromwich	The Hawthorns	26,445
West Ham United	London (Upton Park)	Boleyn Ground	35,245

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Arsenal	Arsène Wenger	Mikel Arteta	Puma[22]	Emirates[23]
Aston Villa	Tim Sherwood	Fabian Delph	Macron[24]	dafabet[25]
Burnley	Sean Dyche	Jason Shackell	Puma[26]	FUN88
Chelsea	José Mourinho	John Terry	Adidas[27]	Samsung[28]
Crystal Palace	Alan Pardew	Mile Jedinak	Macron[29]	Neteller
Everton	Roberto Martínez	Phil Jagielka	Umbro[30]	Chang[31]
Hull City	Steve Bruce	Curtis Davies	Umbro[32]	12BET[33]
Leicester City	Nigel Pearson	Wes Morgan	Puma[34]	King Power[35]
Liverpool	Brendan Rodgers	Steven Gerrard	Warrior[36]	Standard Chartered[37]
Manchester City	Manuel Pellegrini	Vincent Kompany	Nike[38]	Etihad Airways[39]
Manchester United	Louis van Gaal	Wayne Rooney	Nike[40]	Chevrolet[41]
Newcastle United	John Carver	Fabricio Coloccini	Puma[42]	Wonga[43]
Queens Park Rangers	Chris Ramsey	Clint Hill	Nike[44]	AirAsia[45]
Southampton	Ronald Koeman	José Fonte	Made by club[46]	Veho[47]
Stoke City	Mark Hughes	Ryan Shawcross	Warrior[48]	Bet365[49]
Sunderland	Dick Advocaat	John O'Shea	Adidas[50]	BFS Group[51]
Swansea City	Garry Monk	Ashley Williams	Adidas[52]	GWFX[53]
Tottenham Hotspur	Mauricio Pochettino	Younès Kaboul	Under Armour[54]	AIA[55]
West Bromwich Albion	Tony Pulis	Darren Fletcher	Adidas[56]	Intuit QuickBooks[57]
West Ham United	Sam Allardyce	Kevin Nolan	Adidas[58]	Betway[59]

• Additionally, referee kits are made by Nike, sponsored by EA Sports, and Nike has a new match ball, the Ordem Premier League.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	League position	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
West Bromwich Albion	Pepe Mel	Mutual consent	12 May 2014[60]	Pre-season	Alan Irvine	14 June 2014[61]
Tottenham Hotspur	Tim Sherwood	Sacked	13 May 2014[62]		Mauricio Pochettino	27 May 2014[63]
Southampton	Mauricio Pochettino	Signed by Tottenham	27 May 2014[63]		Ronald Koeman	16 June 2014[64]
Crystal Palace	Tony Pulis	Mutual consent	14 August 2014[65]		Neil Warnock	27 August 2014[66]
	Neil Warnock	Sacked	27 December 2014[67]	18th	Alan Pardew	2 January 2015[68]
West Bromwich Albion	Alan Irvine		29 December 2014[69]	16th	Tony Pulis	1 January 2015[70]
Newcastle United	Alan Pardew	Signed by Crystal Palace	2 January 2015[68]	10th	John Carver	26 January 2015[71]
Queens Park Rangers	Harry Redknapp	Resigned	3 February 2015[72]	19th	Chris Ramsey	12 February 2015[73]
Aston Villa	Paul Lambert	Sacked	11 February 2015[74]	18th	Tim Sherwood	14 February 2015[75]
Sunderland	Gus Poyet		16 March 2015[76]	17th	Dick Advocaat	17 March 2015[77]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Chelsea (C)	38	26	9	3	73	32	+41	87	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Manchester City	38	24	7	7	83	38	+45	79
3	Arsenal	38	22	9	7	71	36	+35	75
4	Manchester United	38	20	10	8	62	37	+25	70	Qualification for the Champions League play-off round
5	Tottenham Hotspur	38	19	7	12	58	53	+5	64	Qualification for the Europa League group stage[a]
6	Liverpool	38	18	8	12	52	48	+4	62
7	Southampton	38	18	6	14	54	33	+21	60	Qualification for the Europa League third qualifying round[a]
8	Swansea City	38	16	8	14	46	49	−3	56
9	Stoke City	38	15	9	14	48	45	+3	54
10	Crystal Palace	38	13	9	16	47	51	−4	48
11	Everton	38	12	11	15	48	50	−2	47
12	West Ham United	38	12	11	15	44	47	−3	47	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round[b]
13	West Bromwich Albion	38	11	11	16	38	51	−13	44
14	Leicester City	38	11	8	19	46	55	−9	41
15	Newcastle United	38	10	9	19	40	63	−23	39
16	Sunderland	38	7	17	14	31	53	−22	38
17	Aston Villa	38	10	8	20	31	57	−26	38
18	Hull City (R)	38	8	11	19	33	51	−18	35	Relegation to Football League Championship
19	Burnley (R)	38	7	12	19	28	53	−25	33
20	Queens Park Rangers (R)	38	8	6	24	42	73	−31	30

Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Play-offs (only if needed to decide champion, teams for relegation or teams for UEFA competitions).^[81]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Since winners of the 2014–15 FA Cup, Arsenal, and winners of the 2014–15 Football League Cup, Chelsea, qualified for the Champions League based on league position, the spot awarded to the FA Cup winners (Europa League group stage) was passed to the sixth-placed team, Liverpool, and the spot awarded to the League Cup winners (Europa League third qualifying round) was passed to the seventh-placed team, Southampton, since those teams were the first teams in the table not already qualified for any European competition.
2. England was given an extra qualification berth for the Europa League first qualifying round as one of the top three associations in UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking.^[78] The spot was given to West Ham United after finishing on top of the Premier League Fair Play table.^[79][80]

Results

On 3 May 2015, Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 1–0 to secure the Premier League title with three games to play. PFA Player of the Year winner Eden Hazard scored the winning goal near the end of the first half, heading in the rebound of his own penalty kick. The win left Chelsea 16 points ahead of Arsenal, which had five games remaining.^[82] Chelsea were atop the standings the entire year, having got off to a good start.^[82][83] For Chelsea, it was the fourth title in the last eleven years, but first in the last six seasons. It was the fifth title in the club's 110-year history. "We showed absolutely everything since day one, everything football demands from a team," said manager José Mourinho. "We had fantastic attacking football, we had fantastic domination ... we defended amazingly well."^[82] It was Mourinho's 22nd career title. He won titles at Chelsea in 2005 and 2006, before being forced out by owner Roman Abramovich, and returning in 2013. Diego Costa led Chelsea with 20 goals.^[82]

Home \ Away	ARS	AVL	BUR	CHE	CRY	EVE	HUL	LEI	LIV	MCI	MUN	NEW	QPR	SOU	STK	SUN	SWA	TOT	WBA	WHU
Arsenal	—	5–0	3–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	2–2	2–1	4–1	2–2	1–2	4–1	2–1	1–0	3–0	0–0	0–1	1–1	4–1	3–0
Aston Villa	0–3	—	0–1	1–2	0–0	3–2	2–1	2–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	0–0	3–3	1–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	1–2	2–1	1–0
Burnley	0–1	1–1	—	1–3	2–3	1–3	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	2–2	1–3
Chelsea	2–0	3–0	1–1	—	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	4–2	3–0	2–0	2–0
Crystal Palace	1–2	0–1	0–0	1–2	—	0–1	0–2	2–0	3–1	2–1	1–2	1–1	3–1	1–3	1–1	1–3	1–0	2–1	0–2	1–3
Everton	2–2	3–0	1–0	3–6	2–3	—	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	3–0	3–0	3–1	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–0	0–1	0–0	2–1
Hull City	1–3	2–0	0–1	2–3	2–0	2–0	—	0–1	1–0	2–4	0–0	0–3	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	0–0	2–2
Leicester City	1–1	1–0	2–2	1–3	0–1	2–2	0–0	—	1–3	0–1	5–3	3–0	5–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	2–0	1–2	0–1	2–1
Liverpool	2–2	0–1	2–0	1–2	1–3	1–1	0–0	2–2	—	2–1	1–2	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	0–0	4–1	3–2	2–1	2–0
Manchester City	0–2	3–2	2–2	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	3–1	—	1–0	5–0	6–0	2–0	0–1	3–2	2–1	4–1	3–0	2–0
Manchester United	1–1	3–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	3–0	3–1	3–0	4–2	—	3–1	4–0	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–2	3–0	0–1	2–1
Newcastle United	1–2	1–0	3–3	2–1	3–3	3–2	2–2	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–1	—	1–0	1–2	1–1	0–1	2–3	1–3	1–1	2–0
Queens Park Rangers	1–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	0–0	1–2	0–1	3–2	2–3	2–2	0–2	2–1	—	0–1	2–2	1–0	1–1	1–2	3–2	0–0
Southampton	2–0	6–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	3–0	2–0	2–0	0–2	0–3	1–2	4–0	2–1	—	1–0	8–0	0–1	2–2	0–0	0–0
Stoke City	3–2	0–1	1–2	0–2	1–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	6–1	1–4	1–1	1–0	3–1	2–1	—	1–1	2–1	3–0	2–0	2–2
Sunderland	0–2	0–4	2–0	0–0	1–4	1–1	1–3	0–0	0–1	1–4	1–1	1–0	0–2	2–1	3–1	—	0–0	2–2	0–0	1–1
Swansea City	2–1	1–0	1–0	0–5	1–1	1–1	3–1	2–0	0–1	2–4	2–1	2–2	2–0	0–1	2–0	1–1	—	1–2	3–0	1–1
Tottenham Hotspur	2–1	0–1	2–1	5–3	0–0	2–1	2–0	4–3	0–3	0–1	0–0	1–2	4–0	1–0	1–2	2–1	3–2	—	0–1	2–2
West Bromwich Albion	0–1	1–0	4–0	3–0	2–2	0–2	1–0	2–3	0–0	1–3	2–2	0–2	1–4	1–0	1–0	2–2	2–0	0–3	—	1–2
West Ham United	1–2	0–0	1–0	0–1	1–3	1–2	3–0	2–0	3–1	2–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–3	1–1	1–0	3–1	0–1	1–1	—

Source: Barclays Premier League football scores & results
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[1]
1	Sergio Agüero	Manchester City	26
2	Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	21
3	Diego Costa	Chelsea	20
4	Charlie Austin	Queens Park Rangers	18
5	Alexis Sánchez	Arsenal	16
6	Saido Berahino	West Bromwich Albion	14
	Olivier Giroud	Arsenal
	Eden Hazard	Chelsea
9	Christian Benteke	Aston Villa	13
10	Graziano Pellè	Southampton	12
	Wayne Rooney	Manchester United
	David Silva	Manchester City

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Premier League hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Diego Costa	Chelsea	Swansea City	4–2[84]	13 September 2014
Sergio Agüero4	Manchester City	Tottenham Hotspur	4–1[85]	18 October 2014
Charlie Austin	Queens Park Rangers	West Bromwich Albion	3–2[86]	20 December 2014
Jonathan Walters	Stoke City	Queens Park Rangers	3–1[87]	31 January 2015
Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	Leicester City	4–3[88]	21 March 2015
Christian Benteke	Aston Villa	Queens Park Rangers	3–3[89]	7 April 2015
Yannick Bolasie	Crystal Palace	Sunderland	4–1[90]	11 April 2015
Sergio Agüero	Manchester City	Queens Park Rangers	6–0[91]	10 May 2015
Sadio Mané	Southampton	Aston Villa	6–1[92]	16 May 2015
Theo Walcott	Arsenal	West Bromwich Albion	4–1[93]	24 May 2015

⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Clean sheets

^[2]

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Joe Hart	Manchester City	14
2	Łukasz Fabiański	Swansea City	13
	Fraser Forster	Southampton
	Simon Mignolet	Liverpool
5	Thibaut Courtois	Chelsea	12
6	Ben Foster	West Bromwich Albion	11
	Costel Pantilimon	Sunderland
8	David de Gea	Manchester United	10
	Tom Heaton	Burnley
10	Brad Guzan	Aston Villa	9

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 14^[94]
  • Lee Cattermole (Sunderland)
• Most red cards: 2^[94]
  • Tom Huddlestone (Hull City)
  • Paul Konchesky (Leicester City)
  • Kyle Naughton (Tottenham Hotspur)
  • Moussa Sissoko (Newcastle United)
  • Mike Williamson (Newcastle United)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 94^[95]
  • Sunderland
• Most red cards: 7^[95]
  • Aston Villa
  • Newcastle United

Awards

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Reference
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Garry Monk	Swansea City	Diego Costa	Chelsea	[96]
September	Ronald Koeman	Southampton	Graziano Pellè	Southampton	[97]
October	Sam Allardyce	West Ham United	Diafra Sakho	West Ham United	[98]
November	Alan Pardew	Newcastle United	Sergio Agüero	Manchester City	[99]
December	Manuel Pellegrini	Manchester City	Charlie Austin	Queens Park Rangers	[100]
January	Ronald Koeman	Southampton	Harry Kane	Tottenham Hotspur	[101]
February	Tony Pulis	West Bromwich Albion			[102]
March	Arsène Wenger	Arsenal	Olivier Giroud	Arsenal	[103]
April	Nigel Pearson	Leicester City	Christian Benteke	Aston Villa	[104]

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
Premier League Manager of the Season	José Mourinho[19]	Chelsea
Premier League Player of the Season	Eden Hazard[19]	Chelsea
PFA Players' Player of the Year	Eden Hazard[105]	Chelsea
PFA Young Player of the Year	Harry Kane[105]	Tottenham Hotspur
FWA Footballer of the Year	Eden Hazard[106]	Chelsea

PFA Team of the Year[105]
Goalkeeper	David de Gea (Manchester United)
Defence	Branislav Ivanović (Chelsea)			John Terry (Chelsea)			Gary Cahill (Chelsea)			Ryan Bertrand (Southampton)
Midfield	Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal)			Nemanja Matić (Chelsea)			Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)			Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Attack	Diego Costa (Chelsea)						Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

Attendances

#	Football club	Home games	Average attendance[107]
1	Manchester United	19	75,335
2	Arsenal FC	19	59,992
3	Newcastle United	19	50,359
4	Manchester City	19	45,365
5	Liverpool FC	19	44,659
6	Sunderland AFC	19	43,157
7	Chelsea FC	19	41,546
8	Everton FC	19	38,406
9	Tottenham Hotspur	19	35,728
10	West Ham United	19	34,871
11	Aston Villa	19	34,133
12	Leicester City	19	31,693
13	Southampton FC	19	30,652
14	Stoke City	19	27,081
15	West Bromwich Albion	19	25,064
16	Crystal Palace	19	24,421
17	Hull City	19	23,557
18	Swansea City	19	20,555
19	Burnley FC	19	19,131
20	Queens Park Rangers	19	17,809