Ten of the greatest Premier League comeback wins in 2024

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Comeback wins have happened more often than ever in the Premier League since the start of last season, making 2024 a vintage year for fans of fightbacks – and a particularly testing one for Tottenham fans.

With 63 games contributing, the 16.6% of matches to feature a victory from behind in 2023/24 represented the highest percentage on record of contests in which it had happened across a whole Premier League campaign, according to Opta.

By mid-October, the 2024/25 season was on an even higher tally of 17.1%. Several more epics have followed, including spirit-sappers for teams at the bottom, one in the Manchester derby and seemingly inevitable misery for Spurs.

From Molineux to St Mary’s, 101GreatGoals.com takes a look back at 10 of the greatest comebacks of the calendar year.

Wolves 3-4 Manchester United, February 1

Long before Wolves were battling relegation and Erik ten Hag’s reign at Manchester United was mercifully ended, a 97th-minute Kobbie Mainoo winner cruelly denied Gary O’Neil’s side a point they thought they had won two minutes earlier.

The now-exiled Marcus Rashford opened the scoring days after a whirl of newspaper reports about the striker enjoying a night out in Belfast, and United looked well on course for victory when Scott McTominay made it 3-1 after 75 minutes to give them a two-goal lead for the second time.

After Max Kilman pulled one back, Pedro Neto equalised in the fifth minute of added time. Astonishingly, there was still time for Mainoo to curl in the deciding goal, launching a four-game winning run for Ten Hag that would end with a 97th-minute home defeat to Fulham on February 24.

Bournemouth 4-3 Luton, March 13

More than 20 years after a top-flight team last recovered from three behind to win – Wolves at home to Leicester City, in 2003 – Bournemouth repeated the trick at Luton, recovering from a 3-0 half-time deficit.

Dominic Solanke started the comeback five minutes after the break, with Illia Zabarnyi adding another in the 62nd minute and Antoine Semenyo scoring in the 64th and 83rd minutes.

“Once we score the first one, everyone starts believing,” Cherries manager Andoni Iraola told Sky Sports. Luton would let in 85 goals on their way to relegation.

Newcastle 4-3 West Ham, March 30

Reacting in style to Alexander Isak’s sixth-minute opener for Newcastle, West Ham equalised 15 minutes later through Michail Antonio and muddied the half-time mood among the home fans by taking the lead through Muhammed Kudus, whose strike after 54 minutes and two seconds was the second-latest first-half goal in Premier League history.

Those Toon fans might have wished they had not re-emerged for the second half when Jarrod Bowen put West Ham 3-1 ahead after 48 minutes, an advantage they retained until Isak converted his second spot kick with 13 minutes remaining.

Newcastle’s introduction of Harvey Barnes midway through the second half ultimately proved pivotal. Isak set the winger up for his first inside the box seven minutes from time, and his spectacular long-range 90th-minute winner gave his team their first win from being two goals down in five years.

Chelsea 4-3 Manchester United, April 4

During a dizzying individual season, Cole Palmer scored two of the 10 latest Premier League goals on record to thwart what had been an admirable comeback by Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.

Goals by Conor Gallagher and Palmer put the hosts 2-0 ahead after 19 minutes, with Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes drawing United level by the 39th minute and Garnacho adding another with 23 minutes of regular time to play.

Nine minutes and 18 seconds of added time had passed when Palmer scored the ninth-latest goal among the records with an equaliser that would have left most Chelsea fans happy with the result. His second, after 100 minutes and 39 seconds, was the third-latest overall and the latest ever to win a game.

Everton 2-3 Bournemouth, August 31

Having lost both of their opening games of the season without scoring, Everton appeased the majority of Goodison Park by scoring twice inside eight minutes through Michael Keane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin to establish a 2-0 lead over Bournemouth.

After Antoine Semenyo’s 87th-minute reply and Lewis Cook’s 92nd-minute header to draw Bournemouth level, the Cherries had time for Marcus Tavernier and Semenyo to go close to a winner before Luis Sinisterra headed in Justin Kluivert’s cross in the 97th minute.

The result extended Everton’s wait for a first win in August since 2021 to 11 games. There was more anguish in their subsequent game, spurning a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 at Aston Villa.

Brighton & Hove Albion 3-2 Tottenham, October 6

In a game between teams known for riskily high defensive lines, Tottenham seemed strongly placed to follow up their 3-0 win at Manchester United with another away victory after Brennan Johnson and James Maddison put them 2-0 ahead at half-time.

Brighton had taken the lead before having their shortfalls badly exposed in a 4-2 defeat at Chelsea eight days earlier, but The Seagulls showed their attacking verve to score three times in 19 minutes after the break, starting with Yankuba Minteh’s 48th-minute strike.

Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck completed the comeback to leave Ange Postecoglou ashen-faced as he trudged across the pitch at full time. The visiting manager described his players’ performance as “unacceptable” and “probably” the worst of his tenure.

Southampton 2-3 Leicester City, October 19

Southampton had lost their previous two matches against Leicester by an aggregate score of 9-1, with Jamie Vardy enhancing his record to eight goals and four assists in 19 league appearances against them.

Cameron Archer and Joe Aribo’s first-half goals looked to have put the Saints well on course for a measure of revenge even after Facundo Buonanotte’s 64th-minute reply.

Ryan Fraser’s dismissal 17 minutes from time prefaced the Foxes haunting their opponents again. Vardy converted the resulting penalty to equalise, and Jordan Ayew’s 98th-minute winner was another nail in the coffin for Southampton manager Russell Martin’s spell at the club.

Brentford 4-3 Ipswich Town, October 26

Another game in which both teams came back, with Ipswich – seeking a first win of the season – perhaps scoring too early when Sam Szmodics and George Hirst put them 2-0 ahead after 31 minutes.

Yoane Wissa netted twice in three minutes to bring Brentford level before half-time, and Bryan Mbeumo’s penalty six minutes after the break seemed to have turned the game around until Liam Delap equalised four minutes from the end of regular time.

Mbeumo was the hero in the 96th minute as Brentford proved they could be potent following Ivan Toney’s exit, although manager Thomas Frank described himself as “irritated” afterwards. “They were by far the better team for the first 40 minutes,” he said of Town. “There was only one team on the pitch – one of our worst ever in the Premier League.”

Tottenham 3-4 Chelsea, December 8

It is an unfortunate reflection of Tottenham’s defending this season that they are the only team to sustain two defeats on this list and accumulated both of them within the space of little more than two months.

After a rancorous 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth three days earlier, Tottenham capitalised on two Marc Cucurella errors to move 2-0 in front after 19 minutes at home to Chelsea via goals from Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski.

Cucurella set up Jadon Sancho for a swift reply before two second-half Palmer penalties either side of an Enzo Fernandez goal put Chelsea out of sight. Son Heung-min, who scored during added time, said afterwards that Spurs were in a “dark tunnel”.

Manchester City 1-2 Manchester United, December 15

In a game that was arguably more memorable for Ruben Amorim than anyone else watching, the Portuguese won his first Manchester derby with a victory on enemy territory inspired by Amad Diallo.

Josko Gvardiol’s header had given out-of-form City a first-half lead, but Bruno Fernandes equalised two minutes from time with a penalty following a Matheus Nunes foul on Amad, who hit United’s second from a tight angle in the 90th minute.

It was the latest into a game that a team who are reigning champions have led in a Premier League game and lost. City also received an unwelcome reminder of their 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord in the Champions League in October, when they were 3-0 ahead with 27 minutes remaining and conceded an 89th-minute equaliser.

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