Relating to the Premier League, it’s a stage the place giants battle for supremacy, the place even the smallest victory is well known with enthusiasm, and the place typically issues go catastrophically improper.
For each champion who lifts the trophy, there are those that tumble into the relegation abyss, eternally remembered for his or her struggles quite than their triumphs.
On this article, we’ll journey via the grim but fascinating underworld of the Premier League‘s worst performers, specializing in seven golf equipment with the bottom factors totals within the competitors’s historical past.
Buckle up, as a result of this isn’t a story of glory. It’s a narrative of despair.
1. Derby County (2007-08): 11 Factors
Derby County’s 2007-08 marketing campaign was so unhealthy, it’s develop into the footballing equal of a horror story whispered in locker rooms. “Bear in mind Derby 07-08?” is a phrase no fan ever needs to listen to related to their membership.
Derby’s season began with hope, doesn’t it all the time? They’d simply secured promotion after beating West Bromwich Albion within the Championship play-off closing, however the euphoria rapidly soured.
Their opening match, a 2-2 draw with Portsmouth, hinted that perhaps, simply perhaps, they’d be okay.
However that sparkle of optimism was rapidly snuffed out. By September 17, they’d scraped collectively a lone win—a 1-0 victory over Newcastle United, courtesy of Kenny Miller, whose purpose wasn’t even captured stay on TV as a result of the cameras had been busy displaying a replay.
From there, the season descended into farce.
By November, supervisor Billy Davies was gone, and Paul Jewell arrived to try to salvage one thing, something, from the wreckage.
However even with new signings in January – together with seasoned execs like Robbie Savage and Alan Stubbs, their destiny was sealed.
They turned the primary crew relegated within the Premier League that season, managing a pitiful 11 factors in whole, with a record-low 20 objectives scored and 29 defeats.
By the point the ultimate whistle blew on their depressing marketing campaign, Derby had gone 32 video games with no win, and their purpose distinction was a mediocre -69.
To today, no crew has managed to “beat” Derby’s tally of 11 factors. That, in itself, may simply be their legacy.
2. Sunderland (2005-06): 15 Factors
Sunderland’s flirtation with footballing catastrophe wasn’t a one-off occasion; they managed it twice in three years. But it surely was their 2005-06 season that actually cemented their place within the archive of Premier League failure.
After getting promoted in 2005, Sunderland had been stuffed with hope. Sadly, hope doesn’t preserve you within the Premier League. The season started with 5 consecutive defeats, extending their top-flight dropping streak to a report 20 video games.
Issues briefly seemed up after they grabbed 5 factors from three video games in October, however that glimmer rapidly pale as they launched into one other soul-destroying run of 9 consecutive losses.
By December, Sunderland followers had witnessed one win in 32 Premier League video games, a stretch that’s sufficient to make any supporter query their life selections.
With three wins all season and a complete of 15 factors, the Black Cats tumbled again into the Championship. No participant scored greater than three objectives all season, and their 29 defeats equalled Derby’s report for many losses in a 38-game marketing campaign.
Generally, it’s laborious to know whether or not to snort or cry.
3. Sheffield United (2023-24): 16 Factors
Sheffield United’s 2023-24 marketing campaign was a automotive crash in gradual movement. The Blades had managed a miraculous promotion the earlier season, however life again within the Premier League was something however forgiving.
The crew spent a complete of 5 matchdays outdoors the relegation zone, earlier than plunging into the underside three by Matchday 6, the place they remained for the remainder of the season.
By the point Paul Heckingbottom was proven the door in December, Sheffield United had received only one recreation and picked up a meagre 5 factors from 14 matches.
Chris Wilder had famously led the Blades to a top-half end in 2019-20, however this was not a Hollywood comeback story.
Regardless of Wilder’s efforts, Sheffield United continued to leak objectives at a historic charge. They conceded a staggering 104 objectives, an all-time Premier League report, and completed with a purpose distinction of -69, eerily mirroring Derby County’s 2007-08 calamity.
Two extra wins, together with one towards fellow relegation-strugglers Luton City, couldn’t save them from ending backside of the desk with 16 factors.
If there was a silver lining, it was that, not like some groups on this checklist, Sheffield United’s followers are used to the yo-yo of promotion and relegation. However nonetheless, 2023-24 will go down as a season they’d quite overlook.
4. Huddersfield City (2018-19): 16 Factors
If ever there was a crew destined to wrestle within the Premier League, it was Huddersfield City.
Their first season within the prime flight, 2017-18, was a miracle of types—they defied expectations by staying up regardless of scoring solely 28 objectives, the fewest by any non-relegated crew in Premier League historical past.
However the second season? It was a automotive crash ready to occur.
Huddersfield managed simply three wins all season, two of which got here towards Wolves, bizarrely sufficient. They scored solely 22 objectives and had been formally relegated in March, after struggling 28 defeats. Second-season syndrome hit them laborious, and so they may solely muster 16 factors.
If not for a few late-season attracts towards Manchester United and Southampton, they might’ve completed with 14 factors, which is nearly as unhealthy because it will get.
For Huddersfield, it was a brutal actuality verify that whereas they could have flirted with Premier League standing, they had been by no means constructed to remain there.
5. Aston Villa (2015-16): 17 Factors
Whereas Leicester Metropolis was rewriting historical past books with their fairy story Premier League triumph in 2015-16, Aston Villa was busy writing a tragic one.
Villa’s fall from grace had been within the publish for years. As soon as a Premier League staple, and even European champions in 1982, the membership had been in regular decline, ending seventeenth the earlier season.
They entered the 2015-16 marketing campaign with Tim Sherwood on the helm, however by November he was out, changed by Rémi Garde, who would solely final till March.
The managerial merry-go-round was a symptom of a membership in freefall.
Villa ended the season with simply three wins and 17 factors, scoring solely 27 objectives. For followers of the membership, it wasn’t simply the defeats that damage—it was the sheer listlessness of the performances. They went two video games with out even profitable a nook in February, for crying out loud.
Villa’s relegation was confirmed with weeks to spare, and the three seasons they spent within the Championship earlier than clawing their method again to the Premier League felt like an eternity for a membership with such a wealthy historical past.
6. Sunderland (2002-03): 19 Factors
And right here we’re once more with Sunderland.
You’d suppose they’d be taught their lesson after their first catastrophic Premier League season, however nope, they had been again at it once more in 2002-03. If there’s a ebook referred to as “How one can Get Relegated in Type,” Sunderland should’ve learn it cowl to cowl.
The Black Cats started the season below Peter Reid, who had guided them to 2 seventh-place finishes simply a few years earlier. However the wheels had come off by 2002, and Reid was sacked in October.
His alternative? Howard Wilkinson, who, regardless of being the final English supervisor to win the highest flight (with Leeds in 1992), couldn’t cease Sunderland’s slide.
Wilkinson lasted till March earlier than Mick McCarthy took over. By then, the writing was on the wall. Sunderland misplaced their closing 15 video games of the season—a Premier League report—and completed with a pitiful 19 factors.
In a single match, a 3-1 loss to Charlton, they even managed the doubtful feat of scoring all 4 objectives, with three of them being personal objectives. You may’t make these things up.
7. Portsmouth (2009-10): 19 Factors
Portsmouth’s 2009-10 marketing campaign was a lesson in what occurs when monetary mismanagement collides with soccer. Simply two years after lifting the FA Cup and taking part in in Europe, the membership was in chaos each on and off the pitch.
By March 2010, Portsmouth had been docked 9 factors for getting into administration, successfully sealing their relegation.
However even with out the factors deduction, they had been already doomed, having received simply seven matches all season.
Regardless of the turmoil, Portsmouth’s followers caught with the crew, and so they even managed to succeed in the FA Cup closing, dropping to Chelsea.
Nonetheless, their league kind was a catastrophe. They completed with 19 factors (28 with out the penalty), and their monetary woes would see them tumble all the way down to League Two within the years to come back.
25 Unbelievable Premier League Information That Are Virtually Not possible to Break
You May Additionally Need To Learn This
(Visited 2 occasions, 1 visits at the moment)
