10 Earliest Relegations in Premier League History [Ranked]

In the Premier League, relegation is a necessity which, for three teams each season, is particularly unfortunate. For all the competitiveness and fight that is present within the English top flight, three sides will bow out of the league in each campaign, dropping down to the Championship.

At the time of writing, no team has been mathematically relegated from the Premier League in the 2024/25 season, though it would take a miracle for any side currently in the bottom three to lift themselves out of it. Southampton are rooted to the foot of the table, as they have been for most of the term, with just 10 points from 30 matches.

Should results go against them elsewhere, then Southampton could be officially relegated with seven matches remaining. If nothing else, the Saints will be desperate to acquire at least 12 points to ensure that they do not go down in the history books as the worst-ever Premier League team.

While Ipswich Town and Leicester City have fared better than Southampton, that is not to say that either club are well-poised to survive, with both being well adrift of safety. With all of this being considered, just which 10 teams in history have been relegated from the Premier League the earliest?

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Ranking Factors

It is worth clarifying that this list has been ranked according to the date on which teams were relegated, rather than by how many games they had left to play at the time of their relegation.

10

Aston Villa – 2015/16

16th April

Now a firmly-established Premier League side that are consistently pushing for European competition, it can be easy to forget that Aston Villa were in such a sorry state not even a decade ago. In the years between Martin O’Neill’s departure and their eventual drop from the Premier League, Villa struggled to ascend beyond the bottom half of the table.

Their close calls with relegation finally caught up to them in the 2015/16 season. Remi Garde was drafted in to replace Tim Sherwood in an effort to change their fate, but the Frenchman’s tenure was nothing short of disastrous. Villa would finish the campaign with just 17 points and their relegation was confirmed in mid-April with four league matches remaining, the first time Villa had dropped out of the top flight in almost 30 years.

9

Sunderland – 2005/06

14th April

Sunderland in the present day are a young, exciting team who look set to push for promotion back to the Premier League in the coming years. Across the last two decades or so, the club have faced their troubles, such as during the 2005/06 campaign, which began for the Black Cats with five-straight defeats.

Sunderland never quite managed to capture a consistent run of form, staying in the bottom three for the season’s remainder after dropping into it just months into the campaign. Anthony Le Tallec was their top scorer across all competitions with just five goals, which says all that needs to be told about the term. With just 15 points, Sunderland’s fate was confirmed in mid-April, plummeting to the Championship by finishing 20th in the league.

8

Ipswich Town – 1994/95

14th April

The second of two sides to have seen relegation confirmed on the 14th April, the Premier League consisted of 22 teams in the 1994/95 campaign, with four sides being condemned to the drop as opposed to the trio of clubs that now face it in modern iterations of the competition.

There was added risk for relegation, this much was true, but Ipswich would have succumbed regardless, recording just seven wins across a season in which they conceded an eye-watering 93 goals. The Tractor Boys, who as of 2025 are competing in the Premier League for the first time in over two decades, saw their relegation confirmed with six games remaining after a run of seven-straight defeats between March and April.

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7

Leicester City – 1994/95

13th April

Where Ipswich faced struggles across the 1994/95 season, Leicester City did so too. The Foxes ascended to the Premier League in the campaign prior after seven years away from the top flight, but managed to win just two of their opening 10 games upon their return, a suggestion that the term would be anything but simple for the Midlands side.

Manager Brian Little departed the club in late November to join Aston Villa and from there, the Foxes fortunes appeared bleak at best. Ipswich spared them the blushes of being that season’s worst Premier League side, but only by two points. Leicester, in fact, had their fate confirmed a day before Ipswich.

6

Sunderland – 2002/03

12th April

All good things must come to an end, or so the adage goes. Such was true for Sunderland in the 2002/03 season, which saw Peter Reid sacked from his post as manager after seven years at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland’s form had been shaky towards the end of the campaign prior and despite his experience, Reid was unable to turn things around.

In his place, Sunderland turned to Howard Wilkinson, a First Division winner with Leeds United, but a manager who had not worked domestically for six years at the time. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wilkinson struggled massively, picking up just one point between Christmas and his sacking in March. Mick McCarthy was drafted in to replace him, but the change was made far too late for Sunderland to avoid the drop.

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5

Portsmouth – 2009/10

10th April

The 2009/10 campaign saw Portsmouth reach the FA Cup final, yet such a memory is forever tainted by the crippling financial problems that they faced across the season. Portsmouth were at the foot of the Premier League table after the second matchday and never moved from that position.

Avram Grant, who managed the club from November 2009 until the term’s end, did all that he could, but a deduction of nine points that hit Pompey in March was the final nail in the coffin for the Southern side and within the opening days of April 2010, their relegation from the top flight was confirmed.

4

Leicester City – 2001/02

6th April

The final campaign that Leicester City spent at their old home of Filbert Street was, unfortunately for the Foxes, not a good one. By the 2001/02 season, Leicester had been in the Premier League for six years, though by this very term, financial problems had mounted and were pressuring the club.

It was a season that saw four different managers try their luck at Leicester’s helm, with Dave Bassett’s near-six-month tenure in charge being the longest of them all. With just five wins across the entire campaign–in which Brian Deane finished as their league top scorer with just six goals–Leicester were officially relegated to what was then known as Division One in early April.

3

Fulham – 2018/19

2nd April

Slavisa Jokanovic guided Fulham back to the Premier League in 2018, though struggled to adapt to the top flight upon arrival. In November, Jokanovic was sacked and replaced by Claudio Ranieri, who had stunningly won the top flight with Leicester just a few years prior. Despite his pedigree, however, the Italian struggled to change Fulham’s fortunes.

The Cottagers’ biggest win of the season came in August, in the League Cup, against Exeter City, a 2-0 victory, a telling tale of the campaign that they endured. Fulham’s relegation was confirmed on the 2nd April, by which point Scott Parker had been appointed as caretaker manager. They ended the campaign with just 26 points.

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2

Huddersfield Town – 2018/19

30th March

Huddersfield Town’s fate in the 2018/19 season was confirmed three days before Fulham suffered the same, with the Terriers becoming one of only two teams to have their relegation from the Premier League confirmed in March. While they were level with Fulham for much of the campaign, the Cottagers at least picked up three-straight wins in their final five games.

Though inconsequential regarding Fulham’s fate, it was this run which meant that there was a sizable difference between the tallies accumulated by the sides at the end of the campaign. Huddersfield, who sacked promotion-winning manager David Wagner in January 2019, won just three matches from 38, ending the term with 16 points – 20 adrift of safety.

1

Derby County – 2007/08

29th March

Much has been said over the years about Derby County and that infamous 2007/08 season which saw them become the worst-ever Premier League team in terms of points acquired. It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that the Rams also bear the unfortunate mantle of being the side that were relegated the quickest from the English top flight.

Billy Davies won just one game between the start of the season and his dismissal in late November. His replacement, Paul Jewell, won none, with Derby going an agonising 32 league matches without a victory. Though some have been broken since, Derby’s relegation campaign set numerous records, none of which were desirable.

(Facts regarding relegations have been taken from either Opta Analyst or Reddit and are correct 03/04/2025)

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