Premier League format 2026/27: how the season works

The Premier League is a plain double round-robin: 20 clubs play each other home and away, 38 matches each and 380 in total, with three points for a win and one for a draw. The club with the most points is champion of England, the bottom three are relegated to the EFL Championship, and there is no title play-off and no relegation play-off. Clubs level on points are separated by overall goal difference first, then goals scored; head-to-head results only come into play after that.

The format at a glance

How the season runs

Calendar

The 2026/27 season kicked off on Friday 21 August 2026, when champions Arsenal hosted newly promoted Coventry City at 20:00 UK time. That was a week later than usual: the league pushed the start back because of the summer's World Cup, leaving 33 days between the final and the opening night. The season is built from 33 weekend rounds and five midweek rounds.

Christmas and New Year remain the league's busiest stretch. There is a full round on Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December 2026, and the league has promised clubs that no two rounds over the festive period will fall within 60 hours of each other. The last round is on Sunday 30 May 2027, with all ten matches kicking off at the same time, 16:00 UK time, so that nobody plays knowing a rival's result. Every date is subject to change, mainly for television selections and cup commitments.

Points and the order of the table

Clubs are ranked by points. If two or more are level, the table is ordered by:

1. Goal difference across all 38 matches
2. Goals scored

If clubs are still level and the title, relegation or a European place depends on it, two more criteria apply:

1. Points won in the matches between the clubs concerned
2. Away goals scored in those head-to-head matches

Only if all of that fails would the clubs meet in a one-off play-off at a neutral venue. The league notes that this has never happened. Goal difference, on the other hand, has decided the title once: in 2011/12 Manchester City and Manchester United both finished on 89 points and City were champions with +64 against +56. Other leagues order these steps differently, as the guide to league table tiebreakers shows.

Relegation and promotion

The clubs finishing 18th, 19th and 20th go down to the EFL Championship, the second tier. Three come up: the Championship's top two are promoted automatically and the third place goes to the winner of the Championship play-offs, which end with a final at Wembley.

For 2026/27 that meant West Ham United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Burnley went down, while Coventry City (champions), Ipswich Town (runners-up) and Hull City came up. Hull beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in the play-off final on 23 May 2026.

Referees and VAR

The video assistant referee is used in every match, together with semi-automated offside technology. Two changes arrived in 2026/27: VAR may now step in when a second yellow card that leads to a sending-off was clearly wrong, and a five-second countdown applies to throw-ins and goal-kicks that are obviously being delayed. The basics are covered in the guides to how VAR works and cards and suspensions.

How English clubs reach Europe

The general rule, as the Premier League describes it:

• Champions League: the top four go straight into the league phase.
• A fifth Champions League place exists only if England earns one of UEFA's two European Performance Spots, awarded to the two countries whose clubs did best in Europe that season. It is settled each spring, so it cannot be known in advance.
• Europa League: the next league position and the FA Cup winners, who enter the league phase.
• Conference League: the EFL Cup winners, who enter the play-off round.

If a cup winner has already qualified through the league, its place passes to the next-highest club in the table that has not qualified. That is what happened in 2025/26: Manchester City won both domestic cups and finished second, so the cup places slid down to seventh and eighth.

The result is a record-equalling nine English clubs in Europe in 2026/27:

Crystal Palace's place is an extra one: they beat Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in the Conference League final in Leipzig, and the title holders' Europa League ticket took nothing from the other clubs. Aston Villa won the Europa League (3-0 against Freiburg in Istanbul) and Arsenal reached the Champions League final, where they lost to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Places for 2027/28 will again depend on the final table, the two cups and the performance spot. The tournaments themselves are explained in the guides to the Champions League format, the Europa League format and the Conference League format.

The cups

The FA Cup matters for the table because of its Europa League place. All 20 Premier League clubs enter in the third round, on 9–10 January 2027; ties are settled on the day, with extra time and penalties if needed, and the final is scheduled for 22 May 2027.

The EFL Cup is open to the clubs of the Premier League and the EFL. Top-flight clubs without European football enter in the second round and those playing in Europe in the third; the semi-finals are played over two legs and the final is set for 21 March 2027. Clubs involved in cup semi-finals or finals have their league fixtures of that weekend rearranged, which is one reason the calendar keeps moving in spring.

Following the Premier League on ScoreMondo

The Premier League table and fixtures page shows the standings and every round. On matchdays the live scores update as goals and cards happen, and each match page has events, statistics and line-ups. If you missed an evening, yesterday's results are listed by day, the Champions League page follows the English clubs in Europe, and all leagues leads to the rest. In the apps you can add a club to your favourites and switch on goal alerts.

A short history

On 20 February 1992 the 22 clubs of the old First Division resigned from the Football League together; the Premier League was established as a company on 27 May, and its first matches were played on 15 August 1992. It began with 22 clubs and was cut to 20 at the end of 1994/95, when four went down and only two came up.

In 34 completed seasons there have been seven champions: Manchester United (13 titles), Manchester City (8), Chelsea (5), Arsenal (4), Liverpool (2), Blackburn Rovers (1) and Leicester City (1). Arsenal are the holders, and their 2003/04 side remains the only one to go a whole season unbeaten. Manchester City own two other landmarks: 100 points in 2017/18, when they finished 19 points clear, and four titles in a row from 2020/21 to 2023/24. Fifty-one clubs have played in the competition, and six have never left it: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Frequently asked questions

How many teams are in the Premier League?

Twenty. Each plays 38 league matches, 19 at home and 19 away, for 380 in total.

How many teams are relegated?

Three. The clubs in 18th, 19th and 20th go down to the Championship automatically; there is no relegation play-off.

What happens if two teams finish level on points?

Goal difference decides, then goals scored. Head-to-head points and head-to-head away goals are used only if the clubs are still level and the title, relegation or a European place is at stake.

Could the title be decided by a play-off?

Only in theory. A play-off at a neutral venue is the last step when every other criterion is exhausted, and it has never been needed.

How many English clubs play in the Champions League?

Four through the league, and a fifth when England earns a European Performance Spot. Five took part in 2026/27.

When does the 2026/27 season end?

On Sunday 30 May 2027, with all matches of the final round played simultaneously.