Most Shocking Premier League Relegations

With Southampton already relegated to the Championship, the battle to avoid the drop is heating up. Leeds, Leicester and Everton are all in contention for relegation with only two points separating the three of them.

If The Toffees were to make the drop they’d leave the esteemed group of clubs to have never been relegated from the Premier League: Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool. Despite a positive season last time out, finishing eighth, Leicester are in real contention to make the drop just seven seasons after they won the Premier League.

After a successful 2001/02 season where West Ham finished an impressive seventh, there were expectations of a similar performance for the 2002/03 season. This would not be the case.

This West Ham team was also stacked with stars. Paolo Di Canio was The Hammers’ top scorer in the league with the Italian grabbing nine goals. Jermain Defoe was the overall top scorer for the season with 11 goals in all competitions. Other notable names in West Ham’s roster at the time included David James, Glen Johnson, Les Ferdinand and captain Joe Cole.

However, this wasn’t enough to prevent relegation. In 38 games, West Ham could only register ten wins, 12 draws and 16 losses, notching a disappointing 42 points for the season. This would see them relegated to the Championship where they would spend two seasons after suffering a loss in the Play-off Final against Crystal Palace in 2003/04 before beating Preston North End in the 2004/05 Play-off Final.

Newcastle’s 2008/09 season is infamous for a number of reasons. The first being the sheer amount of managers The Magpies went through this season. Kevin Keegan opened the season with Newcastle but departed by early September to be replaced by Chris Hughton. Hughton lasted an incredible 22 days before Joe Kinnear was brought in until February. His departure led to the reintroduction of Hughton until April where club legend Alan Shearer took over until the end of the season before Hughton returned yet again, the most managerial changes in a Premier League season.

This managerial instability was apparent on the pitch as well. Newcastle only won on seven occasions in the Premier League, grabbing 13 draws and losing 18 times. This left The Magpies with just 34 points, two points above West Brom who finished bottom of the table but cruelly only a single point from safety.

This Newcastle team was not short of talent either, hosting the likes of Joey Barton, Obafemi Martins, Nicky Butt and Michael Owen. However, these players couldn’t prevent the drop, though The Magpies did not spend long in the Championship, finishing top of the table and being automatically promoted back to the top flight.

The 2003/04 season for Leeds rang in a particularly perilous era for the lub. Much of the problems for the club stemmed from the deep financial issues. The debt at Leeds had reached the £100 million mark and led to tampering with the team with the sale of key players.

Peter Reid had managed to steer Leeds away from relegation in the 2002/03 season, finishing 15th, but he didn’t even see out 2003. Sacked on the 10th of November, Leeds brought in Eddie Gray. However, Leeds still finished 19th with just eight wins, nine draws, 21 losses and a dismal 33 points - all three relegated sides finished on 33 points, six points from 17th.

The likes of Mark Viduka (top scorer), Alan Smith, David Batty and James Milner all suffered relegation, in an event that would see Leeds omitted from the top flight for a further 16 years before they made their triumphant return in 2020. However, if the current side don’t win their last game of the season against Tottenham, Leeds could well go back down to the Championship after only three seasons back.

The 1997/98 season was an incredibly successful one for Blackburn, finishing sixth and securing qualification for the first round of the UEFA Cup. However, the success from this season would all be undone by the end of the 1998/99 season.

Blackburn’s squad was strong, including the likes of Chris Sutton, Kevin Davies, Jason Wilcox and Damien Duff. However, this team could only scrape together seven wins, 14 draws and 17 losses. This only added up to 35 points, seeing Blackburn finish 19th and relegated.

Overseen by Roy Hodgson until November and then Brian Kidd for the rest of the season, Blackburn were also knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the first round after a 3 - 2 aggregate loss to Lyon and were also knocked out of the FA Cup relatively early after a Fifth Round replay against Newcastle ended 1 - 0 to The Magpies.