The last time Liverpool finished outside the top eight in England’s top division was in the 1961-62 season, when they weren’t even in the top division. They were winning the old Second Division title that year, ending an eight-year spell outside the top flight, one of the rare periods in their history when they have played below the elite.

In the 110 seasons they have played league football since promotion from the Lancashire League to the Second Division of the Football League in 1893, they have finished, on average, eighth.

That means they have the highest average finish, all-time, of any club. Their precise average finish is 8.26, which puts them ahead of next-best Arsenal (average finish 8.78, also in 110 seasons) and third-placed Everton, who have averaged a placing of 9.71 in their 115 league seasons.

Daniel Sturridge equalises for Liverpool at Anfield against Manchester United on Sunday

Liverpool players celebrate in the dressing room having won the Division One title in 1990

Luis Suarez, now at Barcelona, guided Liverpool to second place in the Premier League last season

The average finishing positions have been calculated as part of a MailSport study to explore which English clubs are the ‘biggest’; 59 different teams of the current 92 in the top four divisions have been considered, having played in England’s top division for at least a season.

Liverpool’s incredible consistency over time means they have only spent 11 seasons of 110 outside the top division. Those were their inaugural season, plus 1895-96, then 1904-05, then the eight-year spell between 1954 and 1962.

At the peak of their powers, between 1972-73 and 1990-91, they finished outside the top two in the top division just once, when they were fifth in 1980-81.

Chelsea, celebrating a 3-2 win at Hull on Saturday, lead the Premier League this season so far

Phil Neal is pictured with the UEFA Cup, Charity Shield, and League Championship trophies in 1976

Arsenal last won the Premier League title in 2004, when they went unbeaten for the entire season

Steve McMahon (centre) lifts with Division One trophy in 1986 with his Liverpool team-mates

CLUBS RANKED BY AVERAGE LEAGUE FINISH Rank Club Average finish Years in league 1 Liverpool 8.26 110 2 Arsenal 8.78 110 3 Everton 9.71 115 4 Manchester United 10.42 111 5 Aston Villa 11.27 115 6 Tottenham Hotspur 12.4 95 7 Chelsea 13.66 98 8 Newcastle United 14.17 110 9 Manchester City 14.23 111 10 Sunderland 15.46 113 11 West Bromich Albion 17.89 115 12 Leeds United 18.99 87 13 West Ham United 19 88 14 Blackburn Rovers 19.12 115 15 Derby County 20.11 115 16 Wolverhampton Wanderers 20.65 115 17 Middlesbrough 20.76 104 18 Bolton Wanderers 20.77 115 19 Sheffield Wednesday 21.05 111 20 Sheffield United 21.63 111 21 Birmingham City 22.32 111 22 Stoke City 23 107 23 Nottingham Forest 23.07 111 24 Leicester City 23.17 109 25 Burnley 27.06 115 26 Southampton 27.75 87 27 Ipswich Town 29.8 69 28 Preston North End 29.89 115 29 Portsmouth 31.02 87 30 Huddersfield Town 33.6 93 31 Charlton Athletic 34.06 86 32 Fulham 34.15 96 33 Blackpool 35.05 106 34 Coventry City 37.08 88 35 Norwich City 41.2 87 36 Notts County 42.17 115 37 Cardiff City 42.43 87 38 Barnsley 42.63 105 39 Hull City 43.43 98 40 Queens Park Rangers 43.48 87 41 Luton Town 43.58 85 42 Oldham Athletic 44.17 96 43 Bury 44.24 109 44 Bristol City 45.33 102 45 Crystal Palace 46.28 87 46 Wigan Athletic 48.5 36 47 Bradford City 50.02 100 48 Millwall 50.21 87 49 Swansea City 50.92 87 50 Oxford United 52.52 48 51 Watford 53.11 87 52 Reading 55.78 87 53 Leyton Orient 56.44 98 54 Brighton and Hove Albion 57.17 87 55 Brentford 58.1 87 56 Carlisle United 59.27 78 57 Swindon Town 60 87 58 Northampton Town 72.74 87 59 AFC Wimbledon 86.67 3

In that 19-year period Liverpool won the title 11 times and their finishing positions in a list looked like this: 1-2-2-1-1-2-1-1-5-1-1-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2.

Arsenal have been in the top division non-stop since 1919-20 but had 13 seasons in the second tier at times before that. Although famously a top-four team since Arsene Wenger arrived in 1996-97, they have finished outside the top 10 as recently as 1994-95 (when 12th) and were distinctly mediocre and finishing well down the pecking order in the mid-1970s.

Everton are one of 10 current league clubs who have played all 115 seasons since the league began in 1888-89; the others being Preston, Aston Villa, Wolves, Blackburn, Bolton, West Brom, Burnley, Derby and Notts County.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has kept the Gunners in the Premier League top four since 1997

Former Arsenal forward Paul Merson celebrates scoring against Liverpool as the Gunners won the 1991 title

Arsenal broke Liverpool's dominance of Division One to win the title in 1989, held by Tony Adams

Kevin Ratcliffe holds the Division One title up, after Everton won the Championship in 1987

Everton have had an unbroken run in the top division since 1954 and have only ever played four seasons lower down, from 1951 to 1954 and for a single season in 1930-31 before that - when they won the Second Division.

Manchester United are the fourth-best club in average finish (from 111 seasons), followed by Villa, Tottenham, Chelsea, Newcastle, Manchester City and Sunderland.

The best team in this regard currently outside the Premier League are Leeds.