Wretched Southampton fire themselves into list of earliest Premier League relegations ever
Southampton’s drop back into the Championship has been confirmed following their defeat to Tottenham, with Saints relegated despite having seven games of the Premier League season left to play.
The different start and end times of each season means that going by calendar date can be a bit tricky, so we’re sorting them first by how many games the side in question had played when their relegation was confirmed, and then by calendar date.
10) Aston Villa 2015/16 – 34 games (16th April)
The culmination of several years of steady decline in the latter years of Randy Lerner’s time as club owner, Villa finally succumbed to relegation after multiple near misses with a miserable 17 points.
A ninth defeat in a row in the shape of a 1-0 loss at Old Trafford confirmed Villa’s fate under the caretaker management of Eric Black after Tim Sherwood and Remi Garde weirdly turned out not to be the answer to their deep-lying problems.
9) Leicester City 2001/02 – 34 games (6th April)
At the time the earliest calendar relegation in Premier League history, with Leicester breaking their own record from the 42-game 1994/95 campaign by a week.
Leicester had previously established themselves as a decent Premier League side, appearing in three League Cup finals in four years under Martin O’Neil, winning it twice, but they struggled to deal with their manager’s departure for Celtic and the loss of key players like Emile Heskey and Neil Lennon.
8) Sunderland 2005/06 – 33 games (14th April)
We’ll come onto Mick McCarthy’s arrival at Sunderland shortly, but the manager had overseen promotion, relegation and then promotion again before finally getting the boot early in February 2006 after mustering just two wins.
Sunderland got just one more victory under caretaker boss Kevin Ball, and finished the campaign with just 15 points – then the lowest ever claimed by a Premier League side.
7) Sunderland 2002/02 – 33 games (12th April)
Peter Reid had taken Sunderland to two yo-yo promotions into the Premier League as they moved into the Stadium of Light, but a narrow escape from relegation in 2001/02 followed by a poor start to the following season brought his long tenure to an end.
Things only got worse under Howard Wilkinson, however. The former title-winning Leeds manager put together just two wins in his five months in charge. Enter McCarthy in March; they lost every game under their third gaffer of the season, setting a record for the longest Premier League losing streak that still stands to this day. Just one point after Christmas is absolutely wretched.
6) Portsmouth 2009/10 – 33 games (10th April)
A glorious few years on the south coast rapidly spiralled into a nightmare for Portsmouth that was only just beginning as their relegation from the top flight was confirmed in 2010 after over-spending and mismanagement went close to wiping the club out of existence altogether.
A points deduction helped ensure Pompey’s early drop, and they would continue to slide and slide all the way into League Two before gradually finding their feet again under the ownership of the fans. They only got back up into the Championship last year.
READ MORE: The biggest point deductions in English football history with Man City FFP verdict expected
5) Fulham 2018/19 – 33 games (2nd April)
The Cottagers’ first season back in the Premier League after four years in the Championship turned into the beginning of a rollercoaster spell for the club as Slavisa Jokanovic was unable to make a success of his possession-heavy approach in the top flight…which sounds familiar.
Claudio Ranieri’s spell in charge proved forgettable and ineffective, and by the time they actually strung three wins together under Scott Parker in April to take their final points tally to a more respectable 26, their relegation had already been confirmed.
4) Sheffield United 2020/21 – 32 games (17th April)
Chris Wilder’s side had looked like surprise European contenders in their first spell back in the Premier League following a 12-year absence that included a lengthy League One spell.
But they were utterly hopeless in a hugely difficult second season. They didn’t win their first game until January in the late-starting campaign behind closed doors, and while they were (inevitably) better in the second half of the season, it was still nowhere near enough to keep them up.
3) Huddersfield Town 2018/19 – 32 games (30th March)
Jan Siewert is a lovely lovely man, but he was on an absolute hiding to nothing after he took over from a burnt-out David Wagner midway through an absolutely dismal second Premier League season for the Terriers.
Huddersfield’s only real cause for ‘celebration’ was that they didn’t quite finish as badly as the infamous Derby side of 2007/08, with their relegation confirmed a day later and Town finishing with five points more. Hooray?
2) Derby County 2007/08 – 32 games (29th March)
And here they are, as you knew they would be even before we told you just now. God they were just rubbish, weren’t they? Surely nobody will ever be wor… oh.
1) Southampton 2024/25 – 31 games (6th April)
A new entry at number one! It’s taken some doing, but Southampton have outstripped even that terrible terrible Derby County side, going down with seven games still to play.
It’s got to the point where Southampton fans were openly laughing at their own side’s late concession of an equaliser to Crystal Palace in midweek. It’s always a matter of when, not if; now we know the answer.