What would you rather your football team be: successful but boring, or entertaining but mediocre? Most fans, you suspect, would opt for the former, although there’s no doubt that football is very much an entertainment business these days – managers continue to be sacked for their adherence to a subjectively dull brand of the beautiful game.
Everyone will have their own idea of what constitutes ‘entertainment’ in a footballing sense, but for neutral spectators it almost always means goals… and lots of them. To that end, arise AS Monaco; you are the crown princes of entertaining football in Europe.
It’s Raining Goals
✅ 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒊𝒓𝒆
🔒 𝑪𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒆𝒕1️⃣-0⃣ #ASMPSG pic.twitter.com/mvdZ0VMxLj
— AS Monaco 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco) November 29, 2025
At the time of writing, Monaco had played 13 French Ligue 1 games during the 2025/26 season. And those fixtures had witnessed a combined 50 goals… Yep, you read that correctly, the Monegasque outfit’s outings average nearly four goals per game this term – spread with beautiful symmetry across 25 scored and 25 conceded.
Monaco
Monaco, typically one of the strongest teams in French football, are languishing in the middle portion of the Ligue 1 table – but, at least, their fans are getting good value for their ticket money. They’ve already gone through one manager this season having sacked Adi Hutter in October, although his replacement – Sebastien Pocognoli – has so far recorded a lower points-per-game ratio than his predecessor.
But at least Pocognoli is keeping up with appearances. In six Ligue 1 games at the helm, he’s overseen a 5-3 victory and two 4-1 defeats. At their current rate, Monaco will end the 34-game Ligue 1 campaign with a staggering 130 goals scored in their fixtures… a record that would surely take some topping.
Barcelona
Barcelona can one-up Monaco – their 13 La Liga games have witnessed 51 goals. But the Catalonians have scored 36 of those, with a formline of W10 D1 L2, so it could be argued that they’re less entertaining than the French side, whose games have that ‘anything could happen here’ quality to them.
West Ham
In the Premier League, West Ham are the most ‘entertaining’ side with 15 goals scored and 25 conceded, at the time of writing. But that’s a whole 20% fewer than Monaco’s end-to-end barnstormers. Mind you, it’s not as if the EPL hasn’t had its own fair share of great entertainers over the years…
Who Is the Most Entertaining Team in Premier League History?
When we think about pure footballing entertainment in the EPL, thoughts turn to the stylish attacking principles of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal sides and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. But if we go with the logic that goals equal entertainment, some other unexpected contenders come to the fore.
Swindon Town
During the 1993/94 season, the Premier League’s 22-team set up meant that each team played 42 games. For Swindon Town, that served up more opportunities to entertain – which they did, with gusto. John Gorman’s side scored 47 goals and conceded a nice round 100; that 147-goal tally in 42 games works out at a mammoth 3.5 goals per 90 minutes.
Sheffield United
On a goal-per-game basis, we have another contender to the throne: the Sheffield United side of 2023/24. Although the Blades broke an unwanted record for most goals conceded in an EPL season (104), they did at least manage to score 35 of their own. All told, across the 38-match campaign, that mean that Sheffield United’s games in 2023/24 averaged a cool 3.65 goals per 90 minutes.
Manchester United
For teams that were rather more dominant, the Manchester United vintage of 1999/00 is one of those flying the flag. Ferguson’s title winners were just shy of a unique milestone: scoring 100 or more goals and conceding 50 in a 38-game Premier League season. They notched 97 and conceded 45 for a grand total of 142 – or 3.73 per game, if you prefer.
Liverpool
But the undisputed heavyweight champions of Premier League entertainment are Liverpool, whose class of 2013/14 will forever be remembered as the masters of mirth. Brendan Rodgers’ men scored 101 goals and conceded 50 in their 38 outings, which equates to an extraordinary 3.97 per game. If its pure goal-based entertainment you’re after, grab yourself a DVD of one of the most chaotic campaigns in EPL history.
Who Is [Really] the Most Entertaining Team in Premier League History?
If you wanted to use subjectivism to determine the most entertaining team in Premier League history, as opposed to pure goals, who would come out on top?
Manchester City
That would be a matter of opinion, of course, although shrewd judges might consider the Manchester City side of 2017/18 to take some topping. They weren’t entertaining for the neutral, given that they won 32 of their 38 games and won the Premier League title by 19 points, but this was a City squad that reached heights never before seen: breaking records for most points, most wins, most goals and biggest goal difference in EPL history.
Sergio Aguero scored three hat-tricks, five of their players appeared in the Premier League Team of the Season and, unsurprisingly, Pep Guardiola was named Manager of the Year. They thrived with such style too, as a team that included the likes of Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne, David Silva and Leroy Sane delivered performances of such class and guile that it marked ground zero for the Premier League mark 2.0.
Who Is the Most Entertaining Team in Football History?
If we define footballing entertainment as flair, fluidity and a knack for beautiful team and individual goals, two contenders spring to mind.
Barcelona
Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona teams reinvented the beautiful game with their ‘tiki taka’ styling. The 2008/09 vintage, which won the La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey in an extraordinary treble, was sheer poetry in motion. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure, Dani Alves… it’s a combination made in footballing heaven.
Brazil
But a nomination must also go to Brazil, especially their team at the 1970 World Cup. Hailed by some as the greatest ever, Mario Zagallo somehow managed to create a starting line up in which Pele, Jairzinho, Gerson, Tostao and Rivellino – all forward players – could not only co-exist but thrive.
They won their quarter final, semi final and the final by scorelines of 4-2, 3-1 and 4-1… the latter, against Italy in the final in front of 107,000 people in Mexico City, considered by many to be one of the most complete performances in football history.
