Premier League kit stats 2019/20 - the season in shirts
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Right then, I guess that’s it for another season.
Now that everything’s finally come to a close, the Premier League is sadly saying goodbye to David Silva, Jan Vertonghen and yet another Watford manager. More importantly, we’re also waving a fond farewell to all of last season’s kits, while some clubs have been busy showing off their new 2020/21 shirts already.
Yep, it’s almost time to open our wallets and fork out another £60 on our club’s latest designs, but the biggest question is what to spend your money on. Every top-flight club now produces three (or even four) brand-new kits every single season, so keeping up-to-date can quickly become very expensive. Time to remortgage, then.
The problem is that many of these designs barely even see the light of day, and you might not fancy splurging on a new third kit if it’s never even used on the pitch. To find out which clubs have been cashing in on pointless kits, we teamed up with Football Kit Geek to find the least worn Premier League kits of 2019/20.
In fact, we’ve even found out which shirts were the best and worst for picking up points last season...
Most Used Premier League Kits 2019/20 (Away & Third)
Let’s start with the good news.
Not every away and third kit was locked away in a dark cupboard, and some of these alternate strips were actually shown off quite regularly. While some kits definitely feel like an obvious money-spinner, these are the shirts which proved to be the most useful on the pitch over the past season.
Sheffield United and Southampton are leading the way here, with both clubs wearing their away shirt an impressive 13 times. Although this obviously highlights that red and white stripes tend to clash with everything, it’s still great to see that fans are really getting their money’s worth when buying the away. Oh, and this also beats the high-score set by Brighton and Watford in 2018/19.
Remarkably, Southampton actually picked up 4 more points in their change shirts than they did while wearing the home design, a shirt which also received a humbling 9-0 drubbing at the hands of Leicester City. The Foxes pink away shirt, incidentally, sits at the opposite end of the spectrum, which is disappointing considering the hype around its release.
But no shirt caused more excitement than Arsenal’s stunning “bruised banana” throwback, which we were fortunately treated to 11 times in the Premier League last season. This sits just ahead of Crystal Palace’s sashed third kit, which saw double the action of their black away to become the most popular third kit of the season.
Least Used Premier League Kits 2019/20 (Away & Third)
Home kits will always see the most game-time. Last season, home kits were worn 73.4% of the time, with most clubs only switching to their change kit whenever there was a colour clash or if they had to fulfil some kind of contractual obligation for their supplier. That last one is definitely becoming more common.
This means that Premier League clubs wore their away strips in just 15.8% of all matches, with third kits even lower at 10.4%. Since there’s now so much hype around these kits every summer, you’d probably expect to see them get a bit more game time, and these were the most underused kits of 2018/19:
PLEASE NOTE: Burnley, Southampton and Everton were all forced to wear a fourth shirt due to colour clashes. These were either recycled old shirts or unavailable for purchase, so they haven’t been included in our table. They were all worn just once, but this still kinda defeats the point of having three kits in the first place.
The most pointless shirt of the season was Watford’s third kit, which made just a solitary Premier League appearance - a draw against Newcastle way back in August. In all honesty, I’d completely forgotten that shirt even existed, but the biggest disappointment was undoubtedly Leicester City’s away shirt.
Although it’s a basic adidas template, their pink away strip caused plenty of excitement when it was first released. After all those fashion shots of James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira, the shirt was worn just twice in the league all season. It definitely wasn’t worth any of the fuss, to be honest.
Third kits from Wolves and Everton were also worn just twice throughout the campaign, with both clubs sticking with their home kit for more than 30 of their matches. The fact Everton’s gorgeous salmon away shirt only featured four times has definitely left a sour taste, especially since they failed to win any of those games in a very disappointing year.
Manchester United and Arsenal have both sold a significant number of third shirts this season, so the fact they only featured three times certainly feels like a slight slap in the face. Norwich City, Southampton and Sheffield United also used theirs on just three occasions, but it’s fair to say those shirts weren’t quite so popular.
Basically, if you bought any of the shirts above, then you’ve got every right to feel a little annoyed. I know I do.
Read Our 2021/22 Premier League Shirt Ranking
Biggest Winners: Kits with the Most Points Per Game
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Liverpool’s home shirt claimed the most points per game last season, clinching 77 points from the 27 games it was worn. Their away shirt wasn’t too far behind with a PPG ratio of 2.60, so it’s fair to say that New Balance have signed off with a collection which will go down in history at Anfield.
But we all knew Liverpool would be top. The more surprising result came from Chelsea, who matched The Reds’ score to claim the joint-most successful away shirt of the season (though this does include a single use of their 2020/21 design).
Manchester City are a little way behind with both their home and away kits, comfortably ahead of rivals United to round off the top five. The Citizens will feel disappointed by how the season has ultimately panned out, but there’s still nothing more frightening than those sky blue shirts coming at you on their day.
United haven’t been beaten in their home shirt (or any other shirt) since the middle of January, while Mikel Arteta’s revival of Arsenal has seen their home shirt climb up the rankings. Sandwiched between them is Leicester City’s black third kit - perhaps hinting The Foxes might’ve been better off wearing this more during the last few weeks of the season.
Biggest Losers: Kits with the Fewest Points Per Game
There was only one Premier League kit which failed to pick up a single point: Norwich City’s third strip. Arsenal, Everton and Wolves also failed to win while wearing their third kit, and Leicester only picked up a solitary point in their pink away strip. However, none of these were worn five times, so they don’t appear in the above table.
After appearing in seven matches and picking up just a measly point, Aston Villa’s away kit is officially the worst of the season. They should count themselves lucky they had to wear their green third kit against West Ham instead, otherwise their survival showdown may just have ended up a little differently. Their away shirt is obviously jinxed, after all.
Norwich didn’t have much better luck in their home shirt, either, picking up just 17 points while wearing their trademark canary yellow. They actually performed much better in their away shirt, clinching 4 points from 4 games, while Bournemouth experienced the complete reverse - picking up slightly more points while in their home strip.
It’s no surprise to see lowly Watford in this table, though I don’t think we can really blame the kits for their nightmare season, whereas Brighton were far less productive in their away kit than the home and third designs. The real disappointment is West Ham’s away shirt, which we liked so much we actually named it the best shirt of last season!
Now that we’re already waiting for the new season, you’ll probably have your eye on your club’s latest kits. There are fantastic home, away, third and goalkeeper kits dropping all over the place right now, and we’re comparing prices to help you find the best deals possible! So, even if your new away kit is hardly used in the league, at least you will have saved a few extra pennies.
