With the season drawing to a close and the playoff final solidifying the promotion of Southampton, now feels the perfect time to predict the teams who will survive next season and who won’t be so lucky.
Last season was a very good relegation battle but unfortunately, all three promoted teams went straight back down for the first time in a few seasons. I think this season might have some of the promoted teams stay up, spoiler alert, and I think there could be a surprise drop.
1. Leicester
The Championship champions from last season played some really great soccer and they have the strongest team of the three that were promoted, so why are they the first team I mentioned?
Well, in the middle of last season, a piece of news dropped that announced that the Premier League are looking to charge Leicester for financial rules that they have broken. Now these charges are similar to Nottingham Forest and very similar to the Everton charges that saw them get a points deduction.
As well as this news, it is looking like the manager that got them promoted, Enzo Moresca, could be getting the Chelsea job which shows why the Premier League betting odds have them to go down at such low odds. These are massive factors that could result in some of their best players wanting to leave and Leicester going back down.
2. Ipswich and Southampton
These two were more unexpected ones to go up, with Leeds and Leicester being the favorites to come back up. Southampton were always going to be one of the favorites to go up but Ipswich did a double promotion and caused a massive upset by taking the automatic spot of Leeds.
The playoff final with Southampton and Leeds showed a side to Southampton that had defensive security and showed that they can be under pressure for a long time in the game and come away with a result which is needed in the Premier League, they don’t want to have any regrets post a loss that could’ve done more.
Ipswich was a great League One team 2 seasons ago and if they can do back-to-back promotions, who’s to say they can’t stay up comfortably?
3. Everton
Everton has been flirting with relegation for the better part of three years, and I think everyone is just waiting for them to finally go down. Last season could have been it when they got their points deduction. Luckily, they had good form earlier in the season, and this is what kept them up.
This good form and the great management by Sean Dyche gave them great security last year but could this year be any different? Personally, I think they will be fine, I think if they give Dyche two or three more years they will be fighting for European places.
4. Who will Go Down?
As I said earlier, I do think there will be a surprise team in the relegation battle this season and my choice is Brentford. I think Brentford have done really well since they came up and have surprised a lot of people but last season they were riddled with injuries, although Thomas Frank is a great manager, I think they will lose some key players and they don’t have enough depth in case of injuries.
I would also like to throw in a really really rogue idea. I think Brighton won’t do well next season and I don’t think they will get relegated by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that the way the club is run is a mixture of really great and bad, if they let De Zerbi, make the signings he wanted, they would’ve been fighting for Europe again and kept him in the job. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and I think that they will suffer because of this.