Best Teams to be Relegated (PL era)

[charlenefan]

Just watching Norwich who have played some truly excellent football tonight and have done since the very first game at Anfield and yet they're rock bottom of the PL by quite a number of points and it got me thinking are they the best side in the PL era to get relegated?

I've always felt the West Ham team in 2003 had that honour, I think at the time they were relegated with a record number of points, then you have the Wigan side who were relegated days after wining the FA Cup beating Man City. Any other contenders?

(I obviously realise Norwich could theoretically survive)

 

[Pagh Wraith]

West Brom 2017/18

 

[Dancfc]

Yeah it's West Ham by a distance.

First half that season was awful for them points wise but they always seemed to deserve to draw or wins but unprecedented percentages denied them constantly while from January onwards their form was European qualification level and they got sent down on 44 points.

I don't think a team of that quality will go down again for a long time, it's probably the second most bizarre and surreal thing ever in PL bar Leicester's title.

 

[Chipper]

Middlesbrough 96/97 has to be up there even if they were totally unbalanced as a team.

39 points so a hight points tally, would have been 42 and safe if they weren't docked points so they were actually better than that. Got to both domestic cup finals so had something about them and if they'd have concentrated purely on the league you've got to think they'd have stayed up. Played 16 games in those cup runs.

 

[Dirty Schwein]

QPR had a good team on paper, full of mercenary champions League winners. Glad they got relegated.

 

[Dancfc]

QPR had a good team on paper, full of mercenary champions League winners. Glad they got relegated.

I don't think they were tbh. Julio Cesar and Park were well past it while Fabio was average and Bosingwa was never anything even remotely decent anyway. Only decent player I can recall them signing was Remy.

 

[Davicho]

Watford also has a pretty decent team with some very good players.

 

[Robbie Boy]

QPR had a good team on paper, full of mercenary champions League winners. Glad they got relegated.

That team was full of nonsense tbf. Totally past it players on huge money.

West Ham wins this hands down. They were relegated with the likes of Carrick, Joe Cole, Kanoute, Defoe, James and Di Canio.

This Norwich side have played nice stuff but that's a full testament to Farke. They probably punched above their weight even getting promoted last season and their actual team isn't very impressive bar the odd player.

 

[Chipper]

That 'Boro team I flagged up earlier also had the best goal difference of any team to be relegated in the PL era at -9.

Crystal Palace 92/93 are an interesting statistical shout. 49 points and the most points of any to go down. 42 game season though cries everyone! Still more points per game than anyone else to be relegated at 1.17. West Ham's 42 from 38 (the same as what 'Boro earned on the pitch) was 1.11. Palace's -13 from that season is the second best GD of any team to go down in the PL era too.

Weaker league in that Palace season but they still had some interesting players. Nigel Martyn, Gareth Southgate and Chris Coleman most notably. Geoff Thomas - perhaps one of the worst players to be capped for England but it's more than many others have done. John Salako could be dangerous at times, Chris Armstrong was looking a promising striker before eventually flopping at Spurs 2 or 3 years later. Richard Shaw would go on to play 250+ times in the division. If not one of the best there's been a lot worse.

 

[432JuanMata]

Newcastle and Leeds stand out

 

[Siorac]

Yeah it's West Ham by a distance.

First half that season was awful for them points wise but they always seemed to deserve to draw or wins but unprecedented percentages denied them constantly while from January onwards their form was European qualification level and they got sent down on 44 points.

I don't think a team of that quality will go down again for a long time, it's probably the second most bizarre and surreal thing ever in PL bar Leicester's title.

And to put that West Ham points total into another perspective: they finished 18th but they were closer to Southampton in 8th place (10 points behind) than to West Brom in 19th (16 points ahead).

 

[manutddjw]

16/17 Sunderland. They had a champions League caliber manager apparently.

 

[FootballHQ]

I'd go for

Watford also has a pretty decent team with some very good players.

In their two prem relegations they finished bottom by miles (99-00) and (06-07).

One team that wasn't star studded but I thought massively overperformed and were very unlucky to go down were Blackpool in 10/11. Think they finished on 39 points and Holloway had them playing some cracking football for most of that year, Charlie Adam at the heart of it all. Sure a few on here can remember them being outstanding v Man. United and 2-0 up after an hour but they lost that 3-2 and started to fall down the league after that game.

Think that was the highest total to be relegated from premier league in last decade although could change this season.

 

[FootballHQ]

Newcastle and Leeds stand out

Leeds were a shell by the time they went down. That season they had likes of Domi and Roque Junior on loan who were total flops. Likes of Milner and Pennant were very young aswell.

Newcastle is a better shout. Had a strikeforce of Owen, Viduka, Obafemi Martins and Alan Smith with Damien Duff out wide that season. Also likes of Coloccini, Jonas Gutiterez and Jose Enrique in their line up although all three were seen as foreign flops at that stage, they turned out o.k for Newcastle in the long run.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Looking at it on paper

Middlesbrough 96-97
Schwarzer
Juninho
Emerson
Ravanelli
Robson

West Ham 02-03
Di Canio
Joe Cole
Carrick
David James
Defoe
Kanoute

Newcastle 08-09
Coloccini
Enrique
Martins
Owen
Smith
Duff
Butt

QPR 14-15
Rob Green
Rio Ferdinand
Wright-Phillips
Fer
Taraabt
Austin

Stoke 17-18
Butland
Allen
Zouma
Shaqiri
Fletcher
Bojan

 

[Robertd0803]

Blackpool from a purely entertaining point of view were the best team to be relegated. They were great fun to watch that season and our 2 games against them were cracking.

Ill go with Leeds and Newcastle though just because it was almost inconceivable that they could be relegated let alone it actually happen.

I cant remember what Blackburn were like when they were relegated.

 

[RedTiger]

West ham. No contest.

 

[Offside]

Blackpool 10/11 had a great season but were still relegated. Won home and away to Liverpool, gave us 2 good games, beat Spurs and all round played entertaining football.

West Ham 02/03 were the best team though. The points total they got would have comfortably kept them up in a lot of other seasons and they had some top players.

 

[AltiUn]

Looking at it on paper

Middlesbrough 96-97
Schwarzer
Juninho
Emerson
Ravanelli
Robson

West Ham 02-03
Di Canio
Joe Cole
Carrick
David James
Kanoute

Newcastle 08-09
Coloccini
Enrique
Martins
Owen
Smith
Duff
Butt

QPR 14-15
Rob Green
Rio Ferdinand
Wright-Phillips
Fer
Taraabt
Austin

Stoke 17-18
Butland
Allen
Zouma
Shaqiri
Fletcher
Bojan

That QPR team sounds good on paper but in reality they were absolutely horrendous.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Leeds United 03/04 were too good to go down in terms of the individuals they had. A good team with a solid core and a really good crop of young players. They'd just lost Harry Kewell and Nigel Martyn that summer, but they still had a team good enough to be around mid-table. They had a bad start and never recovered.

 

[Cheech Wizard]

Blackpool if we're talking 'off paper' because of the limited resources they had. Their highest transfer at the time was 1.5million for DJ Cambell, the rest were free agents or loans. They had to play all their games over the xmas period away from home something to do with the pitch or stadium renovation. There we're many games where they took the lead or scored first, all they needed was a point to stay up and they were unlucky because the season at the time I think they set the highest points tally of 39 points since the 02-03 and still get relegated.

 

[lysglimt]

Palace in 1993 had a strong side - and shouldn't have gone down.

Nigel Martyn in goal was one of the hottest young goalkeeping prospects
Gareth Southgate was really good in central midfield for most of that season
Geoff Thomas was a good central midfielder
Eddie McGoldrick was an ok winger
John Salako was a very good winger
Chris Armstrong was a very talented striker
Dean Gordon, Richard Shaw, Chris Coleman and Andy Thorn were all respectable defenders

 

[Pow]

Arsenal 19/20
Aubemyang
Lacazette
Ozil
David luiz

Won one game against West ham from october onwards.
Dt and troopz burned the emirates down. Robbie made enough money to buy arsenal. Lets see if he can get them back up...

 

[noodlehair]

Probably Newcastle when they went down (has this happened once or twice?)

West Ham in 2003 up there as well, though I felt like the "too good to go down" line was used so much with them it was almost just a cliche. They actually weren't very good even though they had some very good players.

Norwich are an awful side to be honest. Play nice football but they defend like school children.

Norwich need to very quickly stop listening to everyone telling them what a good football team they are. Being a "good" football team in the championship makes you a very poor one in the Premier League.

There's nothing unlucky about conceding soft goals because you can't do basic defending. It'll get you relegated with barely a win all season.

That's what I had to say about them after the very first game. You can't defend how Norwich do at this level and be considered anything above rubbish.

 

[FootballHQ]

Blackpool from a purely entertaining point of view were the best team to be relegated. They were great fun to watch that season and our 2 games against them were cracking.

Ill go with Leeds and Newcastle though just because it was almost inconceivable that they could be relegated let alone it actually happen.

I cant remember what Blackburn were like when they were relegated.

Had likes of Tim Flowers, Sherwood and Chris Sutton still all in their team when they'd won the league four years previously so still pretty good.

 

[FootballHQ]

Arsenal 19/20
Aubemyang
Lacazette
Ozil
David luiz

Won one game against West ham from october onwards.
Dt and troopz burned the emirates down. Robbie made enough money to buy arsenal. Lets see if he can get them back up...

Haha can you imagine... They won't go down but they actually haven't won at home now for 7 games after yesterday's defeat and it could easily be 8 on NYD.

1 win in the last three months so proper relegation form. We and Watford have won more in last six weeks, both teams in bottom three.

 

[adexkola]

How were Leeds the year they went down? They were a few years away from being in the CL

 

[Pow]

Haha can you imagine... They won't go down but they actually haven't won at home now for 7 games after yesterday's defeat and it could easily be 8 on NYD.

1 win in the last three months so proper relegation form. We and Watford have won more in last six weeks, both teams in bottom three.

Its not a good sutuation for arteta. Both home games hes gonna have so far being us and united, one hes lost and hw could very well lose the other. Then they are back on the road away at palace before playing sheff united at home then chelsea away after that. Hard to see where the next win is coming from.
Talk of auba putting in a transfer request and without him theyd be bottom.

 

[Mr Smith]

If Watford get relegated this year they will be up there.

 

[FootballHQ]

Its not a good sutuation for arteta. Both home games hes gonna have so far being us and united, one hes lost and hw could very well lose the other. Then they are back on the road away at palace before playing sheff united at home then chelsea away after that. Hard to see where the next win is coming from.
Talk of auba putting in a transfer request and without him theyd be bottom.

They've used up lots of "easy" home games already.

Played us, Bournemouth, Burnley, Southampton, Palace and Brighton already at home so decent chunk of mid table/bottom half. Likes of Leicester and Liverpool still to come to Emirates yet.

Ultimately though they'll have 4-5 more games like West Ham away when they were rubbish for an hour and then their forward line got hot for 10 minutes. Will easily stay up. Probably be about 8th on 52 points.

 

[Acrobat7]

Haha can you imagine... They won't go down but they actually haven't won at home now for 7 games after yesterday's defeat and it could easily be 8 on NYD.

1 win in the last three months so proper relegation form. We and Watford have won more in last six weeks, both teams in bottom three.

They are an Aubameyang injury away from being in real trouble.

 

[Yagami]

Middlesbrough 96/97 has to be up there even if they were totally unbalanced as a team.

39 points so a hight points tally, would have been 42 and safe if they weren't docked points so they were actually better than that. Got to both domestic cup finals so had something about them and if they'd have concentrated purely on the league you've got to think they'd have stayed up. Played 16 games in those cup runs.

I came in here to say them.

I remember the trio of Juninho, Emerson and Ravanelli always being highlighted on TV.