Promoted sides break the trend – but will they stay up?

Promotion to the Premier League is always cause for celebration.

For those who achieve it there is the chance to compete against the country’s top sides, travel to world famous, historic grounds and have some of the best players on the planet visit your stadium – and that’s before you get to the enormous financial benefits.

But for the past two seasons, that joy has quickly faded for newly-promoted teams once the season begins and reality hits.

Prior to this season, each of the past six teams to come up from the Championship have gone straight back down.

Last season it was Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton, suffering the same fate as Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United the year before.

All came up with great hope and each and every one of them was consigned to relegation – mostly long before the end of campaign, too.

The manner in which it has occurred has led to concerns that the English top flight has become something of a ‘closed shop’ with the riches of the league turning what was once merely a jump in quality into a chasm.

But after wins for Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley over the first two weekends, could things be a little different this year?

In the past two seasons it has taken until the 11th round of fixtures for each of the Premier League newcomers to get a win on the board.

Sheffield United were the last to achieve that feat in 2023-24, while Ipswich managed five draws before eventually recording their first win – away at Tottenham – in game 11 last season, just a week after Southampton secured their first three points.

It was the same story for Norwich City back in 2021-22.

What will encourage this year’s trio though, is the 2022-23 season.

Fulham, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth were the promoted clubs and all three had a win on the board after three games.

More importantly, having got those early wins, all three managed to avoid relegation with Fulham even claiming a top-half finish.

As much as they’d bite your hand off for that, the current crop would surely all shake it for 17th.

Burnley’s win over Sunderland on Saturday means that, between them, the three clubs have already made a little bit of history.

While getting that first win takes a bit of the pressure off, it is clearly no guarantee of survival.

Neither is spending money but given the leap from Championship to Premier League, all three clubs have felt the need to do so this summer.

Leeds made AC Milan striker Noah Okafor their ninth signing of the window on Thursday in an £18m deal, taking their total spending up to nearly £93m.

That number goes up to around £107m for Sunderland, who have brought in 11 players, while Burnley have signed 13 players for roughly £109m.

Sizeable outlays and while all three have won at home, they have been well beaten on the road: Burnley 3-0 at Spurs last weekend, Leeds 5-0 at Arsenal and Sunderland were second-best in their 2-0 loss at Turf Moor.