The tables below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found at website and in Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79, with home and away statistics separated. Beginning with the season 1894–95, clubs finishing level on points were separated according to goal average, or more properly put, goal ratio. In case one or more teams had the same goal difference, this system favoured those teams who had scored fewer goals. The goal average system was eventually scrapped beginning with the 1976–77 season. Since the goal average was used for this purpose for such a long time, it is presented in the tables below even for the seasons prior to 1894–95, and since the goal difference is a more informative piece of information for a modern reader than the goal average, the goal difference is added in this presentation after the goal average. During the first five seasons of the league, that is, until the season 1893–94, re-election process concerned the clubs which finished in the bottom four of the league. From the 1894–95 season and until the 1920–21 season the re-election process was required of the clubs which finished in the bottom three of the league. From the 1922–23 season on it was required of the bottom two teams of both Third Division North and Third Division South.
First Division
won their second league title of the postwar era, finishing ahead of runners-up Preston on goal average - denying their nearest rivals a first league title since they won the first two English Football League titles more than 60 years earlier. Wolves bounced back after two disappointing seasons to finish third - a mere three points short of the title. They finished one point ahead of their local rivals West Bromwich Albion. Defending champions Manchester United, in a period transition as the team captained by Johnny Carey started to make way for a younger generation of players, finished eighth. Stoke City and Derby County, who had been among the First Division's leading lights in the first few postwar seasons, went down to the Second Division after several seasons of gradually declining form. Liverpool, the 1947 champions, avoided the drop by just two points.
