Have All Three Relegated Teams Ever Been Immediately Promoted Back to the Premier League?
The 2023/24 season has been a wild ride. In the Pr
The 2023/24 season has been a wild ride. In the Premier League, Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool are all battling it out to be crowned champions. Meanwhile, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur are fighting each other for the fourth and final UEFA Champions League qualifying spot. Finally, both Everton and Nottingham Forest are looking to avoid relegation after suffering points deductions earlier in the campaign.
Crazy Championship Campaign
In the Championship, things are just as crazy. At the bottom, there are still seven teams who could all mathematically join Rotherham United in League One next term. At the summit, Leicester City, Leeds United and Ipswich Town have fought all year long for the two automatic promotion spots. With just two games remaining, websites providing betting on the Championship make the former two the favourites to secure an immediate and automatic return to the Premier League, pricing them at 1/200 and 8/11 respectively. The Tractor Boys meanwhile are priced at even money, despite being two points behind second-placed Leeds with a game in hand.
Should the top two remain as it is, then Southampton will have the opportunity to make it three from three for last year's relegated sides to make an immediate return to the top flight. The Saints' Championship promotion odds have been slashed down to 5/4 in recent weeks following their upturn in form however, they harbour no real hopes of securing an automatic promotion spot. They are five points adrift of second place with just two games remaining.
Should it be Leicester and Leeds that secure the automatic promotion spots and Southampton find their way past Ipswich in the playoffs, it would mark the first time in history that all three relegated sides have secured an immediate to the big time. The closest we came to seeing such a scenario came back in 2007 when Birmingham City, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion were relegated to the Championship. The former two of that trio secured an immediate return to the top flight however, the Baggies lost the Championship playoff final to Derby County.
On this day in 2007... 🗓
— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) May 28, 2023
Derby won promotion to the Premier League 🙌
Stephen Pearson with the goal!#DCFC
pic.twitter.com/aNoh00Ti2n
History Beckons at the Bottom of the Premier League Also
That may come as somewhat of a surprise, especially because many consider the gap between the Premier League and the second tier to be bigger than ever. But it isn't just in the Championship where history could be made. The top flight's relegation zone also consists of an unusual scenario.
Last term was just the fourth time in Premier League history and the first time in half a decade that all three promoted clubs managed to survive, with Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth all avoiding a trip through the trap door. This year could be just the second in Premier League history that all three newly promoted teams, namely Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town suffer an immediate relegation. The first and only time this has happened throughout history thus far was back in 1998 when Barnsley, Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers were immediately sent packing just one year after the ecstasy of promotion.