Today exactly 125 years ago, The English Football League was founded at the Royal Hotel in Manchester, becoming the first national football league in the world. Twelve teams started into the first season on September 8 1888, which would produce Preston North End as their very first champions.

We've crunched the numbers of all 113 top flight seasons (1888-1892: Football League, 1892-1992: First Division, 1992-today: Premier League). Eleven seasons had been suspended during the first and second world wars.

Since the foundation of the Football League, a total of 64 teams have played at least one season in the respective top flight of English football. Everton, one of the twelve founding members, is currently playing its 110th season in the top league, having missed only four for two spells in the second division. It is topping the list of most seasons played in the top flight.

23 teams have been crowned champions at least once, Manchester United (19 titles), Liverpool (18) and Arsenal (13) being the most successful collectors of silverware.

If we combine the two metrics – championships won and seasons played in the top league – we can calculate an efficiency index in winning tropies when in the race. Which puts Huddersfield Town right in the top group along the above serial winners.

From a geographical perspective, London might have been and still be the city with by far the most teams, but its the North-Western cities that picked up most of the trophies to date. Our map shows how the 113 championship trophies have been spread across the country.

Over all 113 completed seasons, the average number of goals scored is just above three per game. It has been the highest in the very beginning, at 4.63 in the second season. After being at a steady low for the past fourty years, average goals scored per game have been rising again in the past three seasons. They are now – at a current 2.83 goals per game – on course to finish higher than in any other season since 1967-68.

Finally, if we count every single game played in England's top league since it was founded towards one table, this is what it would look like as of April 14 2013. Points are counted as they were awarded at the time, so two points for a win until 1981, three afterwards (did you know that the initial idea of the founders was to award points for wins only, so that it would make no difference if you drew or lost a game?).

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Data summary

How each team compares Click heading to sort table. Download this data Rank Club Games Won Drawn Lost Goal Diff Points 1 Liverpool 3,901 1,800 974 1,127 1,640 5,220 2 Arsenal 3,900 1,753 1,009 1,138 1,500 5,159 3 Everton 4,284 1,746 1,070 1,468 734 5,055 4 Manchester United 3,544 1,688 869 987 1,569 4,975 5 Aston Villa 3,951 1,618 943 1,390 626 4,612 6 Chelsea 3,163 1,246 825 1,092 254 3,837 7 Tottenham Hotspur 3,160 1,275 774 1,111 438 3,827 8 Manchester City 3,385 1,291 836 1,258 140 3,744 9 Newcastle United 3,269 1,278 798 1,193 275 3,704 10 Sunderland 3,183 1,227 735 1,221 122 3,361 11 Blackburn Rovers 2,720 1,017 651 1,052 -42 2,947 12 West Bromwich Albion 2,912 1,053 702 1,157 -232 2,933 13 Bolton Wanderers 2,802 1,017 641 1,144 -311 2,824 14 Sheffield Wednesday 2,582 980 612 990 -44 2,781 15 Derby County 2,468 906 585 977 -146 2,510 16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2,422 943 546 933 79 2,480 17 Leeds United 2,060 846 523 691 295 2,455 18 West Ham United 2,238 761 554 923 -353 2,420 19 Nottingham Forest 2,178 800 549 829 -102 2,404 20 Middlesbrough 2,400 813 601 986 -314 2,401 21 Sheffield United 2,356 871 560 925 -231 2,363 22 Birmingham City 2,306 724 583 999 -607 2,146 23 Stoke City 2,177 716 529 932 -540 2,059 24 Burnley 2,020 792 453 775 -34 2,045 25 Leicester City 1,900 603 500 797 -451 1,839 26 Preston North End 1,720 671 390 659 132 1,732 27 Southampton 1,449 473 402 574 -219 1,671 28 Coventry City 1,390 430 396 564 -350 1,500 29 Portsmouth 1,356 484 322 550 -187 1,367 30 Huddersfield Town 1,260 480 317 463 20 1,277 31 Ipswich Town 1,084 402 265 417 -58 1,206 32 Blackpool 1,172 415 282 475 -153 1,122 33 Charlton Athletic 1,050 355 253 442 -227 1,093 34 Norwich City 935 283 288 364 -277 1,045 35 Queens Park Rangers 893 291 242 360 -131 1,030 36 Notts County 1,068 341 253 474 -309 983 37 Fulham 954 288 253 413 -280 969 38 Bury 804 279 180 345 -164 738 39 Wimbledon 554 186 171 197 -52 729 40 Luton Town 658 213 168 277 -148 725 41 Cardiff City 630 224 154 252 -128 602 42 Crystal Palace 530 137 156 237 -246 514 43 Oldham Athletic 484 159 129 196 -109 483 44 Bradford City 468 152 126 190 -87 444 45 Grimsby Town 488 167 97 224 -184 431 46 Watford 326 104 77 145 -58 389 47 Wigan Athletic 297 84 74 139 -160 326 48 Bristol City 358 114 94 150 -82 322 49 Swansea City 154 53 39 62 -17 198 50 Brentford 210 76 46 88 -29 198 51 Brighton & Hove Albion 168 47 48 73 -62 164 52 Oxford United 124 27 38 59 -79 119 53 Reading 109 31 22 56 -47 115 54 Bradford Park Avenue 122 40 27 55 -32 107 55 Accrington 122 35 33 54 -87 103 56 Millwall 76 19 22 35 -31 79 57 Hull City 76 14 23 39 -66 65 58 Barnsley 38 10 5 23 -45 35 59 Northampton 42 10 13 19 -37 33 60 Swindon Town 42 5 15 22 -53 30 61 Darwen 56 11 8 37 -120 30 62 Carlisle United 42 12 5 25 -16 29 63 Leyton Orient 42 6 9 27 -44 21 64 Glossop North End 34 4 10 20 -43 18

• DATA: download the full spreadsheet

• SOURCE: Myfootballfacts.com, Premier League, Football League, Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation

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