Liverpool FC Record Premier League Losses by Team

We all like to think that the Reds are incapable of losing, forgetting poor results and celebrating the good ones as if they’re the only ones that count. In truth, though, Liverpool have been on the receiving end of some terrible results over the years.

Each manager has their own moment of shame, with even the best ones having to accept being given a hiding every now and then. Obviously, it makes total sense when that happens against a behemoth like Manchester United, but when you consider that even the likes of Blackpool have beaten us, it becomes a bit more cringeworthy.

The Results

Here, we are looking at the worst defeats suffered by the Reds in the Premier League era. It means that we will be ignoring losses suffered back before the arrival of Bill Shankly, when Liverpool were a Division Two team, so if you’re convinced that we’ve been given a pasting by a club worse than the ones flagged up here, just bear in mind when it happened and ask yourself if it was post-1992. If we have lost by the same number of goals more than once, like 4-0 and 5-1, we will opt for the one in which Liverpool got on the scoresheet, if that’s available.

We will also put Liverpool’s score first, so a 4-0 loss will be displayed as 0-4 regardless of whether the game was played at Anfield or away from home. If you want to check our working, the information has been taken from LFCHistory.net or 11v11.com.

Interestingly, there was only one team that Liverpool failed to beat during their stay in the Premier League, which was Blackpool. There are four sides that the Reds have yet to lose to in the Premier League area, which are Cardiff City, Huddersfield Town, Luton Town and Swindon Town. They are denoted by N/A in the table above.

Some Noteworthy Losses

Whilst Liverpool have lost at least once to all but four teams since the formation of the Premier League in 1992, there will always be some defeats that stand out more than others. Any loss to a rival team will always be one that is remembered by supporters, for example. It is also interesting to see that the Reds have lost to Nottingham Forest four times in the Premier League at the time of writing, losing 1-0 each time. Here, though, is a look at those standout losses:

Stoke City – 1-6 (24/05/2015)

It is not usual for Liverpool to lose by a significant margin against teams that aren’t direct rivals. Even then, huge losses aren’t common for the Reds regardless of who the opposition is. It is certainly noteworthy, therefore, that the club’s biggest defeat in the Premier League era came at the hands of Stoke City. Interestingly, Liverpool also suffered a 6-1 defeat to the same opposition on the sixth of February 1897, with this being the club’s biggest defeat since a 7-2 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on the 15th of April 1963. It was thought by many that it would be Brendan Rodgers’ last game as manager.

Stoke 6-1 Liverpool 14/15

Steven Gerrard’s Final Liverpool Game

Diouf 21’25’, Walters 29′, Adam 41′ N’Zonzi 44′, Crouch 85′

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— My Greatest 11 (@mygreatest11.bsky.social) 28 December 2024 at 16:19

It was Steven Gerrard’s final game in a Liverpool shirt, with the midfielder departing that summer in order to join LA Galaxy. Rodgers, meanwhile, clung on for a little while longer, changing his backroom staff in an attempt to solve whatever had gone wrong. If Jürgen Klopp had been available in the summer, then Rodgers might not have been in charge at the start of the following campaign, but Klopp had decided to take a break after his final season with Borussia Dortmund, and so the Reds had to wait until the October in order to get their man through the door.

Aston Villa – 2-7 (04/10/2020)

The 6-1 loss to Stoke City was embarrassing, but at least it was in the final throes of Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool career. The 7-2 mauling at the hands of Aston Villa, meanwhile, happened when the Reds were defending champions. Yes, the game was played behind closed doors, but that is the only light relief in the situation. Many Liverpool fans might falsely imagine that this loss came after Virgil van Dijk was severely injured by Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside derby, but in truth the future Liverpool captain and leader of the defence was still part of the team for this game.

The Reds were aiming to become the first team to win their first four games of three consecutive seasons, which made it even more painful that what followed was complete humiliation. An Ollie Watkins hat-trick in the first-half hurt, made worse by a Jack Grealish brace. Mo Salah did relieve a bit of the pain by scoring a brace of his own, but it was very much a matter of making it a consolation rather than anything substantive. We were 4-1 down at half-time, so not even Jürgen Klopp’s powers of positivity could rescue us from the slaughter.

Man City – 0-5 (09/09/2017)

It is fair to say that many thought that Liverpool had turned a corner after Jürgen Klopp’s arrival at Anfield. The German told supporters that they needed to turn from ‘doubters to believers’, which happened pretty quickly, all things considered. Manchester City, though, were just beginning to hit their stride under their new owners and Pep Guardiola was getting them ticking over nicely. Although we now know that the club would be hit with 130 Premier League charges for financial mismanagement, all we knew at the time was that they had spent lots of money getting a talented squad together.

@sanmyfc Mancity destroyed Liverpool 5-0 #sané #aguero #mancity #liverpool ♬ sonido original – SanmyFC9

It was always going to be difficult for Liverpool to compete with City regardless, but when Sadio Mané got sent off by referee Jon Moss for a high boot, it was always liable to be downhill from there. The home team was already 1-0 up, with a brace from Gabriel Jesus either side of half-time and then two from Leroy Sané killing us off. If you’d have thought that the Reds were miles of their opposition when the full-time whistle was blown, you’d have been right, but they would go on to win the Champions League two years later and be the only side to stop City from winning the Premier League in the years after.

Man United – 0-4 (05/04/2003)

Liverpool have suffered some heavy defeats at the hands of Manchester United over the years, including a 6-1 loss at Old Trafford in the First Division back in 1928. The Reds have also been able to hand the old enemy more than a few bloody noses of their own in the Premier League era, which actually makes 4-0 look like a decent score. Even so, losing by a big scoreline to the Red Devils will never not smart, so it is hardly surprising that Liverpool fans would rather forget it happened. It certainly didn’t help that Sammi Hyypia was sent off after just three minutes.

Tottenham Hotspur – 0-4 (18/09/2011)

There was a general sense of joy around Liverpool when Kenny Dalglish was brought back as manager in order to replace the hapless Roy Hodgson, but the 4-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on the 18th of September 2011 was proof that King Kenny couldn’t always depend on the old magic. In fact, it ended up being the biggest-ever defeat of Dalglish as Liverpool manager, which says something. It certainly didn’t help the cause that Charlie Adam was sent off after 28 minutes, nor that Martin Skrtel joined him 35 minutes later, especially as the Reds had only been 1-0 down prior to the Slovakian getting his marching orders.

Chelsea – 0-4 (16/12/2001)

A 4-0 loss to Chelsea isn’t the most disgraceful of scorelines when you consider the money that has been spent by the Blues since the takeover of the club by Roman Abramovich. The reason this scoreline rankles, though, is that it came before that takeover happened. It came just months after Gérard Houllier had won a treble with Liverpool, and the feeling was that a title charge could be mounted, but a Graeme Le Saux goal after just three minutes and another by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink 25 minutes later killed us off, with the two second-half goals being unnecessary cruelty.

Everton – 0-3 (09/09/2006)

In some ways, a 3-0 loss isn’t really one to write home about. It is the fact that the defeat was suffered at the hands of Everton that make this one so difficult for supporters to stomach. The Blues have been largely rubbish in the Premier League era, lucky to avoid relegation on more than a few occasions, but we happened to catch them when they were in a good place under David Moyes back in 2006. Rafael Benítez’s side arrived at Goodison Park as defending Champions League holders, but were shown no forgiveness with a crushing 3-0 defeat in front of rapturous home fans.