The 6 best newly-promoted teams in Premier League history: Sunderland, Leeds… | OneFootball

The best newly-promoted Premier League teams do more than just survive and these sides took to top-flight football like a duck to water.

Even though it’s harder than ever for newly-promoted clubs to thrive in England’s top division, some of them have been incredibly refreshing additions to the league.

We’ve listed the six best newly-promoted teams since the Premier League reverted to a 20-team division in 1995.

6. West Ham (2005-06, 55 points)

After fluking their way to promotion, spending most of the season in crisis before a late run saw Alan Pardew’s men go up in the play-offs, West Ham were expected to go straight back down in 2005-06.

But the Hammers found their feet quickly, picking up three wins in their opening five games and rising as high as fourth, before a mid-season blip left them needing a late surge to finish in the top half.

A talented team containing Yossi Benayoun, Dean Ashton, Bobby Zamora and others also reached the FA Cup final and only lost to a Steven Gerrard masterclass.

5. Reading (2006-07, 55 points)

In the previous campaign, Reading were promoted with the record of the most points accumulated in a Championship season (106) and they carried their form into the following campaign, finishing an impressive eighth on 55 points.

Steve Coppell won Manager of the Month for September and November, while strikers Kevin Doyle and Leroy Lita formed a deadly partnership, scoring a collective 20 goals in the league.

They missed out on a place in the UEFA Cup by a single point, with a surprise 2-0 loss at home to bottom-place Watford on the penultimate game of the season ending their chances of Europe.

Reading went down the following year and have only spent one season in the Premier League since. They are ahead of West Ham here as they finished with a better goal difference.

4. Wolves (2018-19, 57 points)

Wolves returned to the big time with a bang under ambitious new owners in 2018, as Nuno Espirito Santo led the Midlands club to seventh place.

It was their highest finish in 38 years, and the best campaign by a newly promoted club in 18 years.

The likes of Raul Jimenez, Diogo Jota, Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho impressed as Wolves qualified for Europe and reached the FA Cup semi-final.

Impressively, they finished seventh again the following year and got to the Europa League quarter-final.

3. Sunderland (1999-2000, 58 points)

Sunderland opened their season with a 4-0 defeat to Chelsea, but incredibly lost just two more league games before Christmas and gained revenge for the Chelsea spanking with a 4-1 win at the Stadium of Light.

The Wearsiders were actually third at Christmas, but an 11-game winless streak that began on Boxing Day saw them fall out of Champions League contention.

Five wins from their last nine games moved them back up to seventh, missing out on a place in the Intertoto Cup on goal difference alone.

Incredibly, Kevin Phillips scored 30 goals in his first-ever Premier League season to win Europe’s Golden Boot and he’s spoken to us about his achievement.

2. Leeds (2020-21, 59 points)

Leeds fans had to wait a long 16 years to return to the Premier League, but Marcelo Bielsa’s entertaining side made sure it was worth the struggle in 2020.

Playing a high-energy, attacking style of football, the Yorkshire club provided thrills and spills aplenty as Patrick Bamford scored 17 goals and new signing Raphinha dazzled on the wing.

A ninth-place finish was their reward, and unforgettable memories were made along the way – not least the astonishing 2-1 win away to runaway league leaders Manchester City in April with ten men.

Sadly, this was the COVID season and games were mostly played in empty stadiums. Very Leeds, that.

1. Ipswich (2000-01, 66 points)

The biggest surprise package on this list.

Ipswich had only earned promotion via the play-offs yet somehow finished just three points off a Champions League spot in fifth place – and only four points behind second-placed Arsenal.

The Tractor Boys barely added to their squad over the summer and were tipped to struggle, but keeping the core of the team together proved to be the right decision as George Burley’s young team adapted brilliantly to the Premier League.

Marcus Stewart finished second behind Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in the race for the Golden Boot with 19 goals, and along with the likes of Richard Wright, Titus Bramble and James Scowcroft was soon being tipped for bigger things.

Wright and Scowcroft did move on, to Arsenal and Leicester respectively, and combined with the need to add depth to the squad for a crack at the UEFA Cup, Ipswich lost that special formula and were relegated in 2002.