What Does 'Goal Difference' Actually Mean in the Premier League?

**TL;DR: **Goal difference is the number of goals a team has scored minus the number they have conceded across the season. It is the first tiebreaker in the Premier League when two teams finish on the same points.

If you ever stare at the league table and notice the columns labelled GF, GA and GD, those are doing more work than fans usually credit. Goal difference is the silent decider for everything from title wins to relegation, and it is calculated more often than people think.

The basic definition

Goal difference is goals for minus goals against. A team that has scored 60 and conceded 40 has a goal difference of plus 20. A team that has scored 30 and conceded 50 has a goal difference of minus 20. The Premier League calculates this from your full season's matches - 38 in total.

In the table, you will see it written as a number with a plus or minus, or just as a number with a leading sign. A goal difference of zero means you have scored exactly as many as you have conceded - rare but it happens, especially in mid-table.

Why it matters: tiebreakers

Two teams finish a season on, say, 71 points. Who finishes higher? Goal difference is the first answer. The team with the better goal difference takes the higher position. The Premier League tiebreakers explained article goes through the full chain of decisions, but in practice goal difference resolves nearly every tie before it ever reaches the next layer.

If goal difference is also tied, the next tiebreaker is goals scored. After that, it gets into head-to-head and away goals. The same points tiebreaker piece walks through what happens when two teams refuse to separate.

Goal difference and the title race

Plenty of Premier League titles have been decided on goal difference. Manchester City over Liverpool on the final day of the 2018-19 season, separated by a single point. Earlier in the league's history, the 1989 First Division title (under the old format) was famously decided on goals scored, with Arsenal beating Liverpool to the title at Anfield.

In the modern Premier League, teams in title contention often try to run up the score against weaker opponents in November and December - because every extra goal in the bank is a buffer for May.