May 31st, 2024, Steve Hatch
Manchester City recently claimed their fourth Premier League title in a row. But while Pep Guardiola’s team won this year’s competition, which clubs saw the biggest changes to their public standing over the 2023-2024 season?
YouGov FootballIndex shows that Liverpool, who were title contenders for much of this year, can console themselves with the largest improvements in Index scores – our measure of overall brand health. These scores rose from 20.1 to 25.8 (+5.7) over the season, a 28% improvement on the previous year. We can potentially attribute this to goodwill following the announcement of manager Jürgen Klopp’s departure, and the club’s triumph in the League Cup earlier this year. As they did when the season began, Liverpool still have the highest brand health of any club in the Premier League overall.
Arsenal improved nearly as much after a close-fought title challenge that only concluded on the last day of the season. Scores rose from 14.6 to 20.2 (+5.6), leaving them with the second highest brand health overall, overtaking the league champions in the process.
Aston Villa, who clinched a Champions League berth after finishing seventh last year, also saw significant gains. Index scores rose from 4.0 to 9.3 (+5.3) over a season that saw Ollie Watkins score 19 goals in 37 games.
Manchester City weren’t among the biggest improvers: scores increased from 18.5 to 19.6 (+1.1) over another title-winning campaign. Reasons why might include the club’s alleged breaches of financial rules, and the fact that, having come off a treble-winning season, anything less may look like a disappointment. Nevertheless, the club has the third-highest brand health of any Premier League side.
At the other end of the scale, Manchester United, who saw Index scores fall from 12.1 to 6.0 (-6.1) after earning an eighth-place finish, saw the biggest loss in brand health – although if they beat their cross-city rivals to win the FA Cup on Saturday, that could rapidly change. The next-biggest declines were for two relegated teams: Sheffield United, who saw scores fall from -4.5 to -0.4 (-4.1) and Burnley, whose scores fell from 0.6 to –3.3 (-3.9) over the season.