Since the FA Premier League began at the start of the 1992–93 season, its members have received larger amounts of money in TV rights than their Football League counterparts. This has resulted in newly promoted teams finding it increasingly hard to establish themselves in the Premiership, and the Premiership relegation places have been filled by at least one newly promoted club in all but one of the 13 seasons since its introduction. In the 1997–98 season all three clubs were relegated. Even if a newly-promoted team is lucky enough to avoid relegation the first season, the large majority tend to end up going down again within the next year or two.
Ipswich Town: Promoted to the newly-formed Premier League as champions of the old Second Division. Started their Premiership career well, having the longest unbeaten start in the division, and entered 1993 in fourth place. But a slump in results during the final four months of the season turned a potential title challenge into a battle to avoid relegation which lasted until the penultimate game of the season. Ipswich finished 16th in the final table and survival was well achieved.
Middlesbrough: Runners-up in the old Second Division during 1991-92, Boro's Premiership debut began with the hope that survival could be achieved. On Boxing Day 1992 the club stood 12th in the table but a series of bad results during the final months of the season saw Boro go down in second bottom position.
Blackburn Rovers: Bankrolled by owner Jack Walker's fortunes and motivated by former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, Blackburn had an impressive comeback to the top flight after nearly 30 years out of it. They were tipped by some to challenge for the Premiership title thanks to the efforts of an expensively-assembled squad, particularly with high-scoring English-record striker Alan Shearer scoring at a prolific rate. But Shearer missed the second half of the season with a knee injury and Rovers had to be content with a fourth-place finish.
Newcastle United: With strike partnership of Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley scoring 59 Premiership goals between them, the Magpies followed their Division One title glory with an impressive third-place finish and qualified for the UEFA Cup, just two seasons after they narrowly avoided relegation to the third tier of the English league.
West Ham United: Stayed clear of the relegation zone throughout their first Premiership season and finished a respectable 13th place in the final table.
Swindon Town: Three years after winning the old Second Division playoffs but been denied promotion due to financial irregularities, the Robins reached the top flight for the first time thanks to a playoff victory over Leicester at Wembley. Manager Glenn Hoddle defected to Chelsea and was replaced by his assistant John Gorman, but Swindon never really adjusted to the pace of Premiership football. Went down in bottom place with just five wins from 42 games.
Crystal Palace: Experienced a unique season. Reached the semi finals of both domestic cups and finished fourth from bottom, but due to the streamlining of the Premiership they were relegated back to Division One just one season after gaining promotion as champions.
Nottingham Forest: Marked their Premiership comeback with a third place finish and a place in the UEFA Cup, largely down to 22 goals from striker Stan Collymore who was sold to Liverpool shortly afterwards in a (then) English record £8.5million deal.
Leicster City: Finally made the Premiership through the playoffs after three seasons of trying. Manager Brian Little moved to Aston Villa in November and from then on the Foxes were stuck in the bottom two under new manager Mark McGhee. They went down with just six wins from 42 games and only Ipswich Town below them.
Middlesbrough: Returned to the Premiership after two seasons with a quality new stadium and a side containing some of the biggest names in world football. But the expensively signed likes of Nick Barmby and Juninho were unable to take Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough beyond 12th place in the final table, although good early season form had suggested they could challenge for a UEFA Cup place.
Bolton Wanderers: Bolton's first top division season since 1979-80 ended in relegation after the dismissal of Roy McFarland and the failure of his assistant Colin Todd to turn the club's fortunes around.
Sunderland: Peter Reid's rejuvenated Sunderland won promotion to the Premiership as Division One champions for the 1995-96 season, but a shortage of goals sabotaged their chances of succeeding at the highest level and they were relegated on the final day of the season. This meant that the club's new 42,000-seat stadium at Monkwearmouth would initially stage Division One football after the relocation from Roker Park.
Derby County: The Rams gave their century-old Baseball Ground a good send-off with a sound debut in the Premiership. They finished 12th in the final table and were never in real danger of being relegated. This guaranteed that the club's new stadium would host Premiership football.
Leicester City: As everyone's favourites to go straight back down, Martin O'Neill's Leicester side surprised all the observers by finishing ninth in the Premiership and winning the League Cup - their passport to a UEFA Cup place.
Bolton Wanderers: Back in the Premiership at the first time of asking, but went straight back down again despite moving into a new stadium and making some expensive new signings.
Barnsley: In the Premiership for the first time and ousted Manchester United from the F.A. Cup in a good run to the quarter finals, but could not repeat this good form in the Premiership and went straight back down.
Crystal Palace: As had happened in both of their previous Premiership seasons, the Eagles were relegated. This time their form was even more dismal - just two wins from 19 home fixtures. In 1997-98, all three newly promoted teams went down from the Premiership after just one season.
Nottingham Forest: Despite the appointment of Ron Atkinson after Dave Bassett's dismissal, and the comeback of AWOL striker Pierre van Hooijdonk, Forest could not re-establish themselves in the Premiership and went down in bottom place.
Middlesbrough: Made a good Premiership comeback by finishing ninth, although they never looked serious contenders for European qualification or a major trophy.
Charlton Athletic: Went down on the last day of the season despite putting up a strong fight to preserve the Premiership status that Alan Curbishley had been trying to earn for the last seven years.
Sunderland: After an excellent campaign as Division One champions, Sunderland quickly became one of the most feared sides in the Premiership and striker Kevin Phillips was the country's top scorer with 30 Premiership goals. A seventh-place finish was not enough for European qualification, but it was an excellent performance for a newly promoted side.
Bradford City: After nearly 80 years outside the top flight, the Bantams endured a difficult Premiership debut but fought in a determined mood and it was a tough battle which was eventually won. A surprise 1-0 win over Liverpool kept Bradford up, deprived Liverpool of a UEFA Champions League place and sent Wimbledon down.
Watford: Graham Taylor's side were bottom of the Premiership virtually all season long and their first top division campaign in more than a decade ended in relegation.
Charlton Athletic: This time Alan Curbishley got it right as Charlton had a strong Premiership campaign and finished in ninth place - just a few more wins would have secured them European qualification. Such a good Premiership debut meant that Charlton were now a force to be reckoned with.
Manchester City: Joe Royle lost his job after just over three years in charge which had seen City go down to Division Two and achieve two straight promotions which took them to the Premiership before they were relegated once more. His successor Kevin Keegan was appointed with the expectation that he gave City some stability after they developed a notorious reputation for going up and down.
Ipswich Town: George Burley's playoff winning side were many people's favourites to slip out of the Premiership, but the Tractor Boys surprised all the observers by finishing fifth and qualifying for the UEFA Cup - an achievement which earned George Burley the Manager of the Year award.
Fulham: The expensively-assembled Fulham side stayed well clear of relegation but fell well short of chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed's grand promises.
Blackburn Rovers: Under the management of Graeme Souness, Rovers had a strong Premiership comeback by finishing 10th in the final table and lifting the League Cup for the first time in their history.
Bolton Wanderers: Top of the Premiership after collecting 10 points from their first four games, manager Sam Allardyce boasted that newly promoted Bolton were capable of winning their first ever league title. But the Bolton squad simply did not have the strength to maintain their initially good form, and wallowed away to finish 16th in the final table.
This was the first time in the history of the Premiership that none of the newly promoted clubs had gone back down after just one season.
Manchester City: New manager Kevin Keegan gave City some much needed stability as their last season at Maine Road ended with a secure ninth place finish. This ensured that the world class City of Manchester Stadium would stage Premiership football.
West Bromwich Albion: After their promotion dream had turned into a nightmare due to close-season boardroom disputes, even most of Albion's fans had written their survival chances off before the season began. Three successive wins in September suggested that manager Gary Megson could at least achieve the ultimate target of Premiership survival, but only three more games were won all season and Albion went down with just six wins and 26 points from 38 games. Only Sunderland (with a worst-ever Premiership record of just 4 wins, 21 goals and 19 points) finished below Gary Megson's men.
Birmingham City: Steve Bruce's newly-promoted Blues entered 2003 in real danger of relegation, but he made some astute mid-season signings who contributed greatly to a turn-around in fortunes at St Andrews which saw the club finish in a respectable 13th place.
Portsmouth: Back in the top flight for the first time since 1988, Harry Redknapp's Division One title winners were in for a hard time in their first Premiership campaign. But they pulled together and moved up the table towards the end of the season and finished 13th.
Leicester City: The Foxes fought and fought throughout their comeback season in the Premiership, but in the end Micky Adams and his players were unable to pull off the survival act which they had hoped for. They had failed to meet the standards set by the Leicester side of the late 1990's which had won two League Cups and finished in the top 10 four seasons in a row.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sir Jack Hayward's £50million expenditure in Wolves over a period of 13 years had finally paid off with promotion, but once the midlanders got there they found it hard. There were some good results during the season, including a 1-0 home win over Manchester United, but in the end survival proved beyond Dave Jones's black and gold army as they went down bracketed together on 33 points with Leeds and Leicester.
Norwich City: The £3million arrival of Crewe striker Dean Ashton had a positive effect on Norwich's results during the second half of the season, and on the final day a win would have secured their safety regardless of what happened to the three teams below them. But a 6-0 hammering at Fulham and a 2-0 win for West Bromwich Albion in their match at home to Portsmouth meant that the Canaries were relegated at the end of their first Premiership campaign since 1994-95.
West Bromwich Albion: When Bryan Robson succeeded Gary Megson as Albion manager in November, he was faced with achieving survival in the top flight for a club who had not enjoyed that luxury since the early 1980's. In the end survival was achieved thanks to a 2-0 win over Portsmouth on the final day of the season, as well as Norwich's defeat at Fulham and Crystal Palace's draw at Charlton Athletic. Albion were the first Premiership side to avoid relegation after being bottom of the division on Christmas Day, and had achieved this despite winning just six Premiership games and collecting just 34 points.
Crystal Palace: Iain Dowie's side were 2-1 ahead away to Charlton Athletic as they entered the final 10 minutes of the season, but a Charlton equaliser sent them down and denied them the win that would have kept them up.
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Sunderland: On Good Friday (14 April), Sunderland's relegation was sealed. A scoreless draw at Old Trafford against Man United left them on 12 points, making it impossible for the Black Cats to reach safety. The main question for Sunderland now is whether they can keep from setting a new Premiership record for fewest points in a season; the current record is 19, set by Sunderland in the 2002-03 season. Sunderland's virtually impossible task was made even more difficult by a failure to sign any new players during the January transfer window.
Wigan Athletic: In the top division for the first time in their history, Wigan have made a brilliant Premiership debut less than 30 years after joining the league. For the first half of the season, they regularly occupied the top five places, although they have since faded to tenth. Paul Jewell's side also advanced to the League Cup final, losing to Manchester United in a match that would have assured Wigan a spot in the UEFA Cup. They now look to finish in midtable; they stand six points out of the last UEFA Cup place (sixth this year, since Man United are now assured of Champions League qualification) with four matches left.
West Ham United: Alan Pardew's men have made a good Premiership comeback after a two-year exile, as they stood seventh the Premiership at Easter weekend. They now have only an outside chance of a European place through league position, but are also in the last four of the FA Cup.
Bouncing Back
Due to the ever-widening gulf between the Premier League and Football League, the teams who go down from the Premiership often regain their Premiership place very quickly after losing it - most seasons at least one relegated team has regained its Premiership place at the first attempt.
Crystal Palace: Alan Smith's first season of management ended in success as he secured Palace the Division One title and returned them to the Premiership at the first time of asking.
Middlesbrough: Finished ninth in Division One the season after losing their Premiership place. The club's directors felt it was time for a change and replaced Lennie Lawrence with Manchester United legend Bryan Robson, who accepted the role of player-manager.
Nottingham Forest: Frank Clark succeeded the legendary Brian Clough and returned Forest to the Premiership at the first time of asking, although in the long term he was unable to come close to the glories achieved by his predecessor.
Sheffield United: Finished highest out of the three relegated teams, but eighth place was not even good enough for a playoff place and the Blades have remained in the second tier of the league for each of the 12 seasons since their relegation - although they were losing playoff finalists in 1997 and 2003.
Oldham Athletic: Finished 14th in their first season following relegation. Despite keeping virtually the same squad as they had fielded in the Premiership, the departure of manager Joe Royle marked the end of an era at Boundary Park and his successor Graeme Sharp was unable to turn things around. The Latics went down to Division Two in 1997 and have remained at this level ever since, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in 2003.
Swindon Town: Reached the League Cup semi-finals in 1994-95, but they were dreadful in Division One despite John O'Gorman being sacked in favour of 33-year-old Steve McMahon. The sale of striker Jan Aage Fjortoft saw the club's performances suffer even more, and they suffered a second successive relegation. Promotion back to Division One was achieved at the first attempt, but the Robins went back down again in 2000 and have yet to gain promotion. None of the sides relegated from the Premiership in 1993-94 have regained their place in the top division, although Championship high flyers Sheffield United look like ending their 12-year exile this season.
Crystal Palace: Steve Coppell was briefly put back in charge of team affairs for the season that followed Palace's relegation, but reverted to his boardroom role after a poor start to the season and made way for Dave Bassett. Palace climbed from 16th to 3rd place during the final 15 games of the season, but their promotion dream was killed by a 2-1 defeat against Leicester in the playoff final.
Norwich City: Martin O'Neill briefly took charge of Norwich before defecting to Leicester, and his successor Gary Megson was unable to take the Canaries beyond 16th place in the final table. His short-term contract was not renewed and he was made redundant in favour of returning hero Mike Walker, who had taken Norwich to third place in the 1992-93 Premiership.
Leicester City: After losing Mark McGhee to Wolves, the Foxes drafted in Norwich manager Martin O'Neill who took them to playoff final glory over Crystal Palace. The Foxes were the only team relegated from the Premiership in 1995 to win promotion at the first time of asking.
Ipswich Town: Ipswich were the highest scoring team in the English league during the 1995-96 Division One campaign, but too many goals were conceded and they missed out on the playoffs by one place.
Manchester City: Failed to impress during 1996-97, with relegation looking more likely than promotion, and the following season City slipped into the league's third tier for the first time ever. The next four seasons saw three promotions and one relegation as City climbed from Division Two to Division One to the Premiership and then back to Division One before finally regaining their Premiership place in 2002. They have been in the Premiership ever since.
Queen's Park Rangers: Never looked like regained their place in the Premiership and five years later slipped into the third tier of the league for the first time since the 1960's. Three years later they achieved promotion and are now just one division away from the Premiership, although there is still some way to go before the current squad can look like real contenders.
Bolton Wanderers: After such a dismal Premiership debut saw them relegated after just one season, Bolton pulled together in 1996-97 and won the Division One championship with 98 points and 100 goals from 46 games. It was a fine send-off for Burnden Park in the club's last season at their century-old home before relocating to the Reebok Stadium.
Sunderland: Ended their first season at the Stadium of Light by finishing third in Division One and having to navigate the playoffs. They drew 4-4 with Charlton in the final but were eliminated after a pulsating penalty shoot out which they lost 8-7. Some compensation for this disappointment was the fact that Kevin Phillips scored a club record 34 league goals in one season for the Wearsiders.
Middlesbrough: As one of the biggest clubs in Division One, Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough were expected to achieve promotion and that is just what they did - by finishing runners-up. The only disappointment of the season was defeat against Chelsea in the League Cup final.
Nottingham Forest: In Dave Bassett's first (and what proved to be his only) season as manager, Forest won the Division One title and returned to the Premiership at the first attempt.
Bolton Wanderers: Lost the Division One playoff final to Watford. This meant that none of the newly-relegated teams would return to the Premiership at the first attempt.
Barnsley: Failed to get anywhere near the playoffs in the season that followed their only top division season to date. Have since plunged into the third tier of the league and have yet to make a serious push for promotion.
Crystal Palace: Almost went out of business after ambitious owner Mark Goldberg turned his back on the club and most of the club's staff had their contracts paid up by the official receiver. But the club was rescued by new owner Simon Jordan who secured the club's long-term future.
Charlton Athletic: Won the Division One title and got back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. Have remained there ever since and quickly established themselves as a strong Premiership club on and off the pitch.
Blackburn Rovers: Had a disappointing campaign in 1999-2000 but a revival the following season saw Rovers get back into the Premiership where they have remained since and achieved some success.
Nottingham Forest: David Platt's hopes of getting Forest back to the Premiership in his first season as manager were ruined by financial problems. Their 14th place finish was their lowest for decades and the glory days were by now a distant memory.
Wimbledon: Just missed out of the Division One playoffs and manager Terry Burton was disappointed, but it was about as good as Wimbledon's fortunes would get over next few seasons.
Sheffield Wednesday: Financial problems had finally contributed to Sheffield Wednesday's relegation from the Premiership, and they almost went down again in 2000-01. But the key success of the season was avoiding bankruptcy rather than avoiding relegation.
Watford: An excellent start to the season gave hope for Watford, but they slipped to mid-table at the end of the season and manager Graham Taylor retired. None of the three newly-relegated teams regained their Premiership place in 2000-01.
Manchester City: Under new manager Kevin Keegan, City were crowned runaway champions of Division One and by the time Keegan left in March 2005 he had achieved the much needed stability that the blue half of Manchester had craved for in recent seasons.
Coventry City: After their 34-year spell at the top finally ended, the Sky Blues were determined to be back before long, but the last five seasons have mostly been spent trying to avoid another relegation rather than gaining promotion back to the Premiership. The recent relocation to a new stadium at Foleshill has made little, if any, difference to the club's fortunes.
Bradford City: Financial problems almost killed Bradford City following their relegation from the Premiership, but the club has managed to keep its head above the water despite been relegated again in 2004.
Ipswich Town: Narrowly missed the playoffs under new manager Joe Royle in 2002-03, and were losing semi-finalists during the next two seasons. Every season since their relegation, Ipswich have been among the favourites to go up but have yet to meet these expectations.
Derby County: Financial problems have forced Derby to sell many key players since their relegation from the Premiership in 2002, and it has not helped the Rams in their so far unsuccessful quest to the return to the Premiership.
Leicester City: With £30million debts and a transfer embargo, Leicester were perhaps the least favoured side to regain their Premiership status in 2002-03. But they did it thanks to the efforts of Micky Adams and his hard working squad.
West Ham United: Reached the 2003-04 playoff final under new manager Alan Pardew but lost to Crystal Palace. Went one better a year later to beat Preston North End and return to the Premiership after two years away.
West Bromwich Albion: Were the only side going down in 2002-03 to regain their Premiership status at the first time of asking. Survived by the skin of their teeth in 2004-05 and are hoping to do even better this time round.
Sunderland: After a dreadful Premiership campaign led to relegation in 2002-03, the Black Cats improved greatly under new manager Mick Carthy and although there was disappointment after playoff failure and F.A Cup semi final elimination, things were much better than most people had expected them to be.
Leicester City: Finished a dismal 15th in the Coca-Cola League Championship - lower than any of the newly-relegated sides that season. The sacking of Micky Adams and appointment of Craig Levein did little to turn the club's fortunes around.
Leeds United: After huge debts wrecked the club's playing fortunes and cost them their Premiership status just a few seasons after they had been a power in Europe, new manager Kevin Blackwell brought some stability to Elland Road as Leeds finished 14th in the Championship. They had never really looked like gaining promotion, but the barely recognisable squad could have slumped to another relegation without such encouragement from the loyal supporters.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Dave Jones was sacked at the beginning of November after what should have been a promotion challenge turned into a battle to avoid a second successive relegation. Under new manager Glenn Hoddle, Wolves lost just one of their final 25 games (which included 15 draws) and climbed to ninth in the final table. They were the best placed of the three newly relegated teams, but just four more wins would have put them in the playoffs and given them the chance of being the only newly relegated team that year to gain promotion.