Which Premier League club are best at penalty shootouts?

Whether Arsenal and their fans are actually disappointed to have exited the Europa League or not, it happened.

Of course, Mikel Arteta’s team didn’t lose to Sporting Lisbon in the competition’s round of 16 this week, they drew 3-3 on aggregate. As a result, the tie was decided by that classic invention of the 1970s, the penalty shootout.

Shootouts are one of those elements of football where fans might have a reasonable grasp of their team’s record, and can usually recall some infamous moments from elsewhere — John Terry slipping in the rain in Moscow 2008, perhaps — but other than that, it’s a fairly nebulous concept. “Oh, (insert team name) are terrible in penalty shootouts,” someone might claim. But is that actually the case?

We delved into the complete history of penalty shootouts to try to learn the truth.

Let’s start with volume, where the main thing to note is that being either a team who regularly play in European competition or one who have spent a good amount of time in the EFL is advantageous. Chelsea lead the way having taken part in 33 shootouts, five more than any other club currently in the Premier League.

The method has been a painful one for them recently, losing to Liverpool on penalties in both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals last season, although they did begin their 2021-22 campaign by winning the European Super Cup on penalties against Villarreal.

And the culmination of the 2012 Champions League final in Munich was pretty good, too.

The second most experienced club in shootouts are from slightly further out into London’s western districts — Brentford. The list of their opponents in these penalty duels is understandably less glamorous than Chelsea’s, but frequent experience of the play-offs and EFL Trophy has subjected them to 28 shootouts, one more than Liverpool.

Brentford also have the honour of being the current Premier League team who first kept a clean sheet in a shootout (is that a thing? It should be). It came in an EFL Trophy (then known as the Leyland DAF Cup) game against Wrexham in February 1991 when — after 120 goalless minutes in front of 2,247 souls at Griffin Park — Brentford won 3-0 on spot kicks. You won’t hear about that in a Disney+ documentary.

And while we’re talking shootout shutouts, top flight Manchester City, with David James and Nedum Onuoha in the side and Micah Richards on the bench, suffered the ignominy of a 3-0 defeat on penalties to third division Doncaster Rovers 18 years ago. Times may have changed, but Donnie fans, you’ll always have the 2004-05 EFL Cup second round.

Meanwhile, the least experienced Premier League team in shootouts are Aston Villa, who have only ever taken part in nine. They enjoyed two memorable ones in 1994: first at home to Tranmere Rovers in the February’s EFL Cup semi-finals after an all-time classic of a tie ended 5-5 on aggregate, and then in September in the home leg against Inter Milan (the defending champions) in the first round of the old UEFA Cup (today’s Europa League), participation in that competition their prize for having gone on to win the EFL Cup.

At least Dennis Bergkamp scored his penalty for Inter in that shootout — something he wasn’t able to do with his non-shootout effort for Arsenal against Manchester United back at Villa Park in an FA Cup semi-final replay nearly five years later.

But more important than being in a shootout is winning it.

Surely there’s no event less suited to the phrase ‘it’s the taking part that counts’ than the penalty shootout. So congratulations to Nottingham Forest who — along with winning the European Cup twice, as you may have heard — have an 83 per cent win rate when games go to penalties. As shown above, their total of 12 is the second lowest ahead of Villa, but winning 10 of those 12 is exceptional all the same.

It’s even more exceptional when you learn that Forest lost their shootout they took part in — 5-4 to Airdrieonians in a Texaco Cup tie in September 1970. No one wants to crash out of the Texaco Cup like that, Clive. But since that dark day, Forest have won 10 of 11, failing only against Bristol City in an EFL (then LDV Vans) Trophy game when they were down in League One in 2006.

And, in case you were wondering, none of Forest’s 12 shootouts came in the Brian Clough era. Which feels right, somehow.

At the other end of the joy spectrum are Newcastle United, with a pretty dismal 27 per cent win rate.

Newcastle began their shootout odyssey with a 5-3 loss to Hungary’s Pecsi MSC in the 1970-71 Fairs Cup, which must have been frustrating after knocking out Inter Milan in the previous round. They bounced back a year later with a shootout win over Hearts in, you guessed it, the Texaco Cup, but then began a run of seven successive shootout defeats between 1979 and 2003. The only current Premier League club to ever match that sort of losing streak are Tottenham Hotspur, between 1996 and 2013.

Newcastle have won two of their last three shootouts, though, so perhaps Wolves and Crystal Palace, next above them in the (lack of) success table, should be concerned.

And we should probably offer some sort of prize to Fulham and Southampton who both have a penalties success rate of 50 per cent. For people who like to use phrases such as “it’s a lottery” or compare shootouts to a coin flip (coincidentally, the very thing it replaced in football), any club with an equal number of defeats and wins should be respected.

Finally, if you were wondering who took part in the very first penalty shootout involving an English club, and whether it was Manchester United against Hull City in the Watney Cup in August 1970, and if George Best took the first penalty, and if Ian McKechnie saved from Denis Law but then missed the deciding kick himself then congratulations. You were spot on.

Unlike Ian McKechnie.

(Photo: James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)