Premier League clubs ranked by entertainment value; Man Utd higher than mid-table Arsenal

We all have a limited time on this earth so why spend any of those precious minutes watching boring football matches?

Unless you happen to be an unfortunate fan of one of the most boring teams in the league, you have free will to pick and choose the football games you want to watch.

So the next time you’re debating which teams to commit to, let us rank every Premier League team by entertainment…

20) Manchester City At the risk of subjecting ourselves to the ire of City fans on Twitter/X, there is a reason.

Yes, City do have a lot of fun players to watch such as Rayan Cherki, Iliman Ndiaye and Erling Haaland, but it all just feels so pointless right now.

While the appeal is pending, City games just feel like they don’t really exist, a bit like playing FIFA on the easiest mode then telling everyone how you won the Champions League with Yeovil.

Your view on City will depend on how much you are able to separate on-field and off-field but the fakeness of it all means it is hard to be entertained by anything you are watching.

19) Sunderland Sunderland have been a very tough watch this season.

A European campaign has taken a lot of their attention and seemingly all of their energy, with their Premier League performances suffering as a result.

They’ve got one point from the three games that followed European fixtures and they simply don’t score goals.

They’ve averaged less than one a game and even those numbers are skewed by Brian Brobbey’s hat-trick at City.

They also ship almost two goals a game but not even in a funny way that makes them enjoyable.

18) Newcastle United Initially, Newcastle were quite fun to watch thanks to the tactics of chaos introduced by Matthias Jaissle but after they shipped nine goals in three games, the manager has rather annoyingly tried to stop that.

The result now is some dreadfully dull games and anyone who sat through the 1-0 defeat to Everton on Monday can testify to that.

To make it even more tedious, Newcastle are awful at trying to score goals. Their usual tactic is give it to Harvey Barnes and hope he can curl it into the top corner, but that runs into the undeniable fact that he is only Harvey Barnes.

Against Everton, they had 17 shots from all over but only managed two on target, both of which were straight down the middle.

It’s just boring and a Jacob Ramsey head loss is the only thing you can enjoy watching.

17) Crystal Palace Palace are not very good. Their forward line is Jeremy Pino, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Dwight McNeil, which does not exactly scream excitement, and the only enjoyment you can glean from watching them is seeing how many times their back three can make mistakes.

Palace also don’t really fit into the category of ‘so bad they’re laughable’, which means they are really quite forgettable.

16) Hull City Defensive football gets results but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

Hull are amongst the best defensive teams in the league this season but they see less than a third of the ball and don’t have the flair players of their fellow promoted teams.

15) Fulham Fulham haven’t scored more than one goal in their last six Premier League games, which should be enough on its own to justify their low placing.

When you are relying on Alex Iwobi for your flair, you’re going to be in trouble; while their games were initially fun to watch in the hope of an Alvaro Arbeloa sideline meltdown, they’re boringly competent now.

14) Coventry City Coventry would have been way down this list a few weeks ago, but they have rediscovered some of the scoring form that saw them walk the Championship last year.

They hit four past a sorry-looking Newcastle and then proved it was not a one-off by getting three against Sunderland.

Jack Rudoni also appears to be coming into form and is a really fun player to watch.

13) Leeds United Leeds would have been near the top of this list if after their 4-1 win over Newcastle but their goals have massively dried up since then.

They’ve scored two goals in their last four matches and aside from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, lack a threat in front of goal.

12) Nottingham Forest Forest are quite a fun watch if only to see how many chances they can make without scoring any of them.

They’re 19th in the table but if xG is anything to go by, they really, really shouldn’t be.

Forest have an xG of 14.6, the fifth best in the league; they have created 26 big chances and yet have scored just six goals. In their 2-0 loss to Brentford, they had 15 shots and yet just one of them was on target.

Watching Forest is like watching a contestant on Bake Off create a perfect cake only to drop it on the way to the judges.

11) Ipswich Town It’s not always pretty but it is effective with Ipswich so far beating pre-season predictions that they were destined for the drop.

Ipswich are a robust team with plenty of physicality but the team is punctuated with some little magicians.

Chiefly amongst them is Julio Enciso who rather enjoyably does not give two s**ts about recycling possession and is more than happy to have a crack from range.

10) Everton With Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and the like, Everton have rather more flair than in recent years. If they had a better striker, they would be even more fun to watch.

It reminds you of the first time round for Moyes at Everton when they had players like Tim Cahill who would produce memorable moments. If they can get Jack Grealish back in the side and focused on football, the fun factor would only increase.

And if you’re a fan of towering centre-backs smashing into strikers, they’ve got you covered.

Plus if it gets a little boring, Jordan Pickford still has a little bit of madness in him.

9) Arsenal It’s not quite Set-Piece FC as it was last season but Arsenal are still not a free-flowing attacking force.

They’re a team built on defensive stability – it did win them the title after all – but if you had the choice of watching them or another one of the title contenders, you’d probably look elsewhere.

They score an average of 1.6 goals a game, which is only the fifth most in the league, and their 117 shots puts them in the bottom half of Premier League teams.

Perhaps most of all, their forward line is just very boring. It is substance over style and you would be hard-pressed to name any player you would describe as a baller.

8) Aston Villa After recovering from their slow start, Villa are now one of the best teams to watch in the Premier League.

Their summer signings have made a big impact with Johan Manzambi taking to the league like a duck to water while Nicolas Jackson has five goals already this campaign.

In goal, Zion Suzuki is an entertaining watch not only for his saves but also his distribution. Even if he does occasionally throw it in his own net.

7) Brentford Brentford under Keith Andrews are an example of how much coaching can do for a team.

Their goals this year look like the result of highly orchestrated moves and you need only look at Keane Lewis-Potter’s finish against Spurs for an example of a well-worked move coming to fruition.

They also spread the goals around with 10 different scorers and while it may not be as silky as Brighton, it is still a good watch.

6) Manchester United Hate-watch fans have been feasting this year on United.

They are fun to watch simply because they find new ways to embarrass themselves each week.

Maybe it’s playing well against Chelsea but still losing 2-0. Maybe it’s considering defending as an optional part of football. Maybe it’s producing one of the worst starts in Manchester United history.

And if you’re a fan of off-field dramas then you are in luck too. We’ve got players slagging off the sporting director only to then be awful themselves. We’ve got the club captain having a pop at the manager, getting dropped and acting like a moody teenager with his group in the stands. We’ve even got the fans orchestrating applause followed by loud boos depending on who is walking past the Stretford End.

They won against Roma with three of the most gifted goals you are ever likely to see which means Carrick will probably be in the job for another six months. More time for us all to be entertained.

5) Liverpool Liverpool would be an excellent watch if you didn’t find yourself shouting “SHOOOOOOOT” every five minutes.

No team looks more averse to having a go than Liverpool, who have created just 12 big chances this year, the second worst in the league.

And while Coventry’s position at the bottom of that list is explained by a lack of talent, Liverpool are actually very good in two-thirds of the pitch.

Ronald Araujo has been a fun addition to the league if you’re a fan of defenders who take no prisoners, while Virgil Van Dijk remains dependable as ever.

But going forward, there’s a problem. Florian Wirtz still looks pretty but ineffective and expensive summer signing Bradley Barcola has been poor so far.

Alexander Isak seems to be getting close to his best with six goals, but someone needs to tell them that they should just have a crack from range every now and again.

4) Tottenham Hotspur The laughing-at-Spurs era is over and has been replaced by a team that’s actually a lot of fun to watch.

They have got goals all around the team with two of their back four having already scored this season, while Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes have developed a good partnership. When they were finally allowed.

The loss of James Maddison is a big blow to their entertainment factor but there is something enjoyable about the fallibility of their attacking players. Every one of them is capable of producing a match-winning display and every one of them is equally capable of producing a stinker.

3) Bournemouth Even when Bournemouth were struggling for points there wasn’t too much concern with the way they were playing, and now it seems to have clicked into gear.

Marco Rose has picked up the baton left by Andoni Iraola and ran (really fast) with it, maintaining that high-intensity forward-first football.

They also just have a lot of fun players to watch. Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson have both been excellent this year and the return of Kroupi Junior will only add to their flair.

2) Chelsea If you like goals, Chelsea are your team to watch. For as good as they are up front, they are equally as bad at the back.

Chelsea have let in 15 goals already this season, the most of any team in the top 12, but have scored 19 of their own and have one of the best front threes in the league.

The free-flowing goal glut has slowed a little recently with Xabi Alonso trying to insert a plug into the gaping hole that is their defence, but even still, Chelsea have two of the league’s top five scorers this season.

1) Brighton Brighton are easily the most fun team to watch in the league right now.

They play a super-aggressive style meaning their games feel frantic and yet the squad assembled and tactics deployed by Fabian Hurzeler mean Brighton are the team in control of that chaos rather than the other way round.

It really does feel like the result of a long-term project with each player seamlessly following Hurzeler’s plan.

They are the top scorers in the league with 11 different players on the scoresheet and they have already claimed the scalps of City and Arsenal.