Premier League: Black Cats odds-on at 3/10 to make an immediate return to Championship | OneFootball

English Premier League

Who are the favourites to be relegated next season?

Sunderland secured the final place in the Premier League for next season thanks to a dramatic play-off final win on Saturday. However, the good news stops there with the Black Cats strong favourites to go straight back down...

Black Cats favourites to be relegated

Sunderland are the overwhelming favourites on the Betfair Sportsbook to make an immediate return to the Championship following Saturday's dramatic 2-1 play-off final win over Sheffield United.

Regis Le Bris' men are 3/10 in the Relegation market, and they are one of three teams currently odds-on to go down along with the two other promoted teams, Leeds and Burnley, who both can be backed at 7/20.

Next season will be the first time since 2017 that the Black Cats will play in the Premier League thanks to teenager Tommy Watson's 95th minute winner at Wembley, which incredibly was his last kick of the ball for Sunderland with the 19-year-old set to  leave to join Brighton.

It's the first time on the Betfair Sportsbook that all three newly-promoted clubs can be backed at shorter than 1/2 to go straight back down, and it's perhaps an indication of how big the gulf has become between the first and second tiers of English football.

For the second Premier League season in a row, all three promoted clubs have made an immediate return to the Championship with Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton finishing in the bottom three this season, following in the footsteps of Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United the season before.

Alarmingly, this season's three relegated teams recorded just 12 wins between them from 114 games played!

Signs not good for Sunderland

Finishing the regulation season on just 76 points Sunderland are statistically one of the worst teams to be promoted from the Championship in the last 20 years.

You have to go back to 2013 to find a club that were promoted to the Premier League with fewer points than the Black Cats. Crystal Palace won the Championship play-off final that year having secured just 72 points during the 20012-13 season.

And to put Sunderland's points tally into perspective, Southampton, who finished rock bottom of the Premier League this season with just 12 points, won promotion the season prior with 87 points, 11 more than what Le Bris' men achieved this term.

However, Sunderland's play-off spot was guaranteed with plenty of games of the season remaining, meaning that perhaps we shouldn't read too much into their points tally given that they lost their final five games of the regulation season with their eyes fully focussed on the play-offs.

And in more encouraging news, Aston Villa in 2019 also won promotion to the Premier League having secured just 76 points, and they are now firmly established as a club that challenges at the top end of the table and is regularly in the hunt to qualify for European football.

Premier League Relegation Odds:

- Sunderland 3/10- Burnley 7/20- Leeds 7/20- Wolves 7/2- Fulham 5/1- Brentford 5/1- Crystal Palace 11/2- BAR 7/1