Most goals and best defences – the winners in 2024’s Premier League stats

Liverpool begin 2025 in the perfect position of top spot as they look to win the Premier League for the second time.

Manchester City lifted the title last year, but their surprising dip in form this term has meant a challenge for a fifth in a row looks exceptionally difficult.

As we embark on a new calendar year, BBC Sport takes a look at the players and teams who were the best performers of 2024.

Erling Haaland has been prolific since arriving in the Premier League, so it was perhaps no surprise that he scored the most goals in 2024 with 27.

He started this season in free-scoring fashion with 10 in his first five Premier League games – a run that included back-to-back hat-tricks.

But a drop-off in form and goals has coincided with Manchester City’s poor run since the start of November, with the powerful Norwegian hitting the back of the net just three times in his last 10 league games.

When it comes to overall involvements – goals and assists – it was Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah who led the way.

Few – perhaps not even Palmer himself – could have anticipated just how impressive 2024 would be for the 22-year-old forward, who moved from Manchester City to Chelsea in September of the previous year.

Across the whole of 2024, he scored 26 times in the league and provided 13 assists for a total of 39 goal involvements.

Salah, meanwhile, has been instrumental to Liverpool’s title charge and is their top scorer this season with 17 goals, while also providing a hugely impressive 13 assists.

Across the whole calendar year, the Egyptian scored 23 goals and set up a further 16, matching Palmer’s combined total.

The further down the table a team is in the Premier League, the busier their defence is likely to be.

Therefore it is important that within that defensive unit there are players who can win a few tackles, and no-one did a better job of that in 2024 than Crystal Palace’s Daniel Munoz.

The Colombian full-back won 79 tackles over the course of last year, with his Palace team-mate Tyrick Mitchell on 72 – the second most in the Premier League.

Overall, Munoz attempted the second-most tackles out of any player in any position with 121, eight behind Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Joao Gomes.

Arsenal’s centre-back mainstays came out on top in the 2024 rankings of players who helped to keep the most clean sheets.

When William Saliba played, the Gunners blanked the opposition 18 times, with his defensive partner Gabriel not far behind on 16.

Arsenal’s defensive strength in 2024 was once again on show in this area, with David Raya standing above all others with 18 clean sheets.

The Spaniard’s tally was four more than any other goalkeeper.

In the first half of the current campaign, Nottingham Forest have been the top flight’s surprise package and started the new year second in the table.

It was quite a turnaround from battling against relegation towards the end of last season and their goalkeeper, Matz Sels, has been a key part of their impressive form.

The Belgian has kept the most clean sheets in the Premier League so far in the 2024-25 season with eight.

Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken led the Premier League for most saves made across 2024, with 156 in 37 games.

The statistics also highlight why Ipswich, who were promoted to the top flight at the end of last season, brought in Kosovo international Arijanet Muric to help in their bid to stay up this term.

Muric played the final 10 games of last season with Burnley, where he had an average save percentage of 79.8% – more than any other goalkeeper who made 20 or more saves.

Including his 17 games for Ipswich so far this term, he boasted the best save percentage of any Premier League goalkeeper, with 73.14% in the calendar year.

Liverpool underwent a significant change in 2024, with Jurgen Klopp departing as manager at the end of last season. He left after nine years at the club, in which he led the Reds to Premier League and Champions League titles.

However, the transition to the Arne Slot era has been seamless and the Reds sit top of the table at the start of 2025.

Under Klopp and Slot, the Reds won 26 games in 2024 – a league high they shared with Arsenal.

The Gunners proved a difficult side to beat last year as they lost just three Premier League games – the fewest of any team in the competition.

Liverpool have become more pragmatic under Slot, but that doesn’t mean the goals have stopped flowing.

The Premier League leaders, who scored five at West Ham in their most recent outing, had the most goals throughout the year with 92 in 37 games.

While the table-topping statistics below are not what would be referred to as winners, they are interesting nonetheless.

The player who hit the woodwork the most times in 2024 was Palmer, with six of his shots striking the frame of the goal.

Four players were booked more than anyone else with James Tarkowski, Nelson Semedo, Marcos Senesi and Joao Gomes all shown 12 yellow cards.

Only three players were sent off more than once – Bruno Fernandes, Kalvin Phillips and Jack Stephens all receiving two red cards each.

The player most frustrated by the offside flag was Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The Everton striker was ruled offside 39 times, with Newcastle’s Alexander Isak caught out the second most amount of times on 26.

Finally, here is the overall table for sides that played in the Premier League in 2024.