It’s easy to look at upcoming Premier League fixtures and forecast results based on a club’s rankings. However, in this article we take a closer look into stadiums in the Premier League and if they have more of an impact on a team’s results than we think.
In this article we take a look at the data from the first 15 match weeks of the 25-26 Premier League season in an effort to determine which is the hardest stadium to play away.
Specifically, we look at home team win percentage, home team number of shots per match, and the number of supporters that attend each stadium on average per match.
Keep reading below to see how your clubs ranks in terms of how hard it is to get a result for visiting clubs.
Home Win Percentage by Stadium (2025-26 Season)
Highest Home Win Rates
In terms of home team winning percentage, Manchester City hold the highest record after the first 15 match weeks. At the Etihad Stadium, City have won 88% of their Premier League games so far this season.
They’ve played eight matches at the Etihad and only lost one (a 0-2 loss to Tottenham back in August), winning the remaining seven.
In close second is Arsenal, who are yet to lose a game at the Emirates in the 2025-2026 Premier League season. So far, Arsenal have played seven matches at home, winning six and drawing one against Manchester City in September (one-all draw).
Arsenal is one of only two teams who is yet to lose a match at home so far, this Premier League season.
The other team is Sunderland, who are also yet to lose at their ground, the Stadium of Light, after the first 15 match weeks in the 25-26 Premier League season. However, the newly promoted Sunderland has a home winning percentage of 57%, based on four wins and three draws.
One other notable football ground is the Gtech Community Stadium (for Brentford). Brentford have a win percentage of 71% at home, which is fourth best in the Premier League after the first 15 match weeks.
What is interesting though, is that out of Brentford’s total of six wins so far this season, five of them have come at home, meaning they have only won one match on the road.
Out of the eight matches Brentford have played away from home, they have lost seven of them. This underscores the importance that playing at the Gtech Stadium has on Brentford’s ability to win.
A graph of the home team win percentage at all stadiums in the Premier League after the first 15 matches in the 25-26 season can be seen below. Most clubs hover around the 50%-win percentage, with some clubs significantly higher or lower.
Lowest Home Win Rates
At the other end of the spectrum is Wolves, who are the only team in Premier League yet to win a home match in the Premier League. As of writing, Wolves have lost seven matches and drawn 1 match at Molineux Stadium, by far the worst home record in the league. All other clubs have at least two home wins.
Another notable mention at the other end of the spectrum is Selhurst Park, which is Crystal Palace’s stadium. So far, Palace have won two, drawn one and lost four at Selhurst Park in the Premier League. In terms of home win percentage, Palace are tied for third worst in the league.
Interestingly though, Crystal Palace sit fourth in the Premier League after match week 15, with seven wins, five draws and three losses.
On the road, Palace have five won matches, drawn one and lost two. This means their form on the road far outperforms their home form, which is typically reverse of the expectation.
Based strictly on the home team’s win percentage at each club’s respective stadiums, it appears that Etihad is the hardest to play at, while Wolves is the easiest.
Shot Data: Which Stadiums Generate the Most Pressure?
Stadiums with the Most Home Shots
When looking at shooting data, there are some stadiums that stand out for having the most or least number of shots, by both home and away clubs.
For instance, when another Premier League club travels to Old Trafford to face Manchester United, they can expect to be berated with shots. At home, United average 18.4 shots per match, which is the highest average shot per match for a home club after the first 15 match weeks in the 25-26 Premier League season.
As expected, Manchester City sit high on the list at second with 18.3 shots per match at the Etihad. This is followed by Leeds who, maybe surprisingly, sit in third with 17.4 shots per match when playing at home at Elland Road.
Below is a graph of the top three and bottom three clubs, ranked by number of shots the home team takes per match.
Stadiums Allowing the Least Home Shots and Most Opponent Shots
Wolves, Sunderland, Brentford, West Ham and Burnley all have, on average, negative shot spreads per match. Meaning, while playing at home, their opponents have more shots than them. Again, this is after the first 15 match weeks of 25-26 season and only including data from the Premier League.
Turf Moor (Burnley’s stadium) is the lowest in the Premier League, with Burnley only averaging 6.9 shots per match when playing at home. This is in comparison to Burnley’s opponents who, when playing at Turf Moor, average 14.6 shots per match.
14.6 shots per match is the third highest number of shots for an away team in the Premier League. This is only beaten by away teams at West Ham’s London Stadium (14.7 shots per match by away clubs) and at Wolves’ Molineux Stadium (15.1 shots per match by away clubs).
When a club travels to Emirates Stadium to play Arsenal away in the Premier League, they can expect to have minimum shots. On average, Arsenal only allows 4.7 shots per match at the Emirates Stadium from their opponents. This is by far the lowest in the Premier League after the first 15 match weeks.
Next is Old Trafford (average 8.4 shots against per match when playing Manchester United) and Vitality Stadium (average 9.3 shots against per match when playing Bournemouth).
Attendance: Do Bigger Crowds Really Help?
Stadiums with the Largest Average Attendance
After the first 15 match weeks in the 25-26 English Premier League, there have been 6,217,121 fans attend matches in-person across the 20 stadiums. In total, there have been 150 Premier League matches, meaning on average, 41,448 fans attend each match.
However, as expected, capacity at certain stadiums either far exceeds or greatly lags behind that average.
Old Trafford is the largest stadium in the Premier League. On average, Manchester United has 74,011 supporters attend each match (this includes both home and away supporters).
In total, there have been 518,080 attendees to Old Trafford for Premier League matches in the 25-26 season so far. The attendances at Old Trafford account for 8.3% of all Premier League match attendances this season so far.
After Old Trafford, West Ham’s London Stadium and Tottenham’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have the next largest turn outs per match. On average, the London Stadium has 62,455 supporters attend, while Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has 60,984 supporters attend.
However, despite these large turnouts, West Ham and Tottenham’s record at home so far is 29% and 25% respectively. So, one can argue that the large crowds don’t necessarily result in improved performances on the pitch.
The graph below provides a visual of the average home supporters per match at each stadium in the Premier League (grey bars) against the home club win percentage (orange line). It clearly shows that a large stadium with lots of supporters doesn’t always mean more wins on the pitch for the home team.
Small Stadiums with Strong Home Records
Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium is the smallest in the Premier League and on average, they have 11,179 supporters (both home and away) in attendance each match. To put it in perspective, that’s only about 15% of the supporters at the average match at Old Trafford.
Despite this, Bournemouth’s win percentage at the Vitality Stadium is 50%, which is only 7% less than Manchester United’s 57% win percentage at Old Trafford. This again, reiterates the fact that a larger stadium with more supporters doesn’t always equate to better on-field performance.
In fact, Brentford, who have the second smallest stadium in the Premier League, have a 71% win percentage at home. Which is the fourth highest win percentage at home in the Premier League, as noted previously in this article.
Brentford averaged only 17,064 supporters (both home and away) for all of their home matches in the first 15 match weeks of the 25-26 season. Again, to put this in perspective, that’s about 23% of the number of supporters that attend a United match on any given Premier League match at Old Trafford.
Final Rankings: The Hardest Stadiums to Play At
Well, that’s it for this article. In this post, we look at which stadiums are the toughest to play at based on match results from the first 15 match weeks of the 25-26 English Premier League season.
As a recap, win percentage are the highest for Manchester City (88%) and Arsenal (86%) when they play at their respective home grounds, Etihad Stadium and Emirates Stadium. Based on the data, it is likely that clubs will lose when playing at these two grounds.
However, clubs can expect a win when traveling to Wolves and playing at Molineux Stadium, given they have a 0% win percentage at home in the Premier League so far this season.
At Old Trafford, Etihad Stadium, and Elland Road, expect to see a barrage of shots as an away club. These three grounds lead the Premier League for most shots per match for a home club.
While the opposite can be said at the Gtech Community Stadium, London Stadium, and Turf Moor. These three stadiums have the lowest shots per match for a home club in the Premier League.
Lastly, we looked at the average number of supporters that attend a match at each stadium. As expected, Old Trafford and Vitality Stadium have the highest and lowest supporters (both home and away) that attend each match, respectively. It is expected given the capacity at each ground.
However, the number of supporters in the ground doesn’t always translate to a better home record. In fact, Brentford have a home win percentage of 71%, despite having the second smallest supporters attend each match on average (17,064 supporters). That’s a higher win percentage than at Old Trafford (57%) who have 74,011 supporters attend each match on average.
What are your thoughts on which is the hardest stadium to play at in the English Premier League? As a fan, do you find one to be particularly harder to get a result at for your club?
We’re interested to hear your thoughts, so let us know in the comments section below.
Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Additionally, if you have any ideas on how we can improve these articles, please let us know.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!
JC
All data in this article is from fbref.com so, thanks to them!
Main photos by Carlos Wathome on Pexels, Tembela Bohle on Pexels, Dom Le Roy on Pexels, and Mylo Kaye on Pexels