What does history tell us about Leicester’s survival prospects?

It’s always a struggle for promoted teams to find their footing in the Premier League. The evidence for this is overwhelming. In just four of the 31 top-flight seasons between 1993/94 and 2022/23, no promoted club was relegated. In 17 of them, a club went straight back down. In another eight seasons, two clubs have bit the dust at the first time of asking. Only twice, however, were all three promoted clubs immediately relegated. That was in 1996/97 when Bolton, Burnley and Palace returned to what was then the First Division and the season just ended when Burnley, Luton and Sheffield Union went down. In total, of the 92 clubs promoted between 1994 and 2023, no fewer than 39 failed to survive their first season in the top flight. Still, at least this gives the Foxes a better than 50/50 chance of staying up for at least a year. More worryingly, only eight of the 39 relegated clubs are currently in the Premier League.

What about LCFC’s record? Well, it’s mixed. As befits a yo-yo club, since Leicester City were elected to the Football League in 1894 (known as Leicester Fosse until 1919), there have been 13 promotions to English football’s top flight. In 12 of them, of course, we know the result. First, the bad news. Five of these promotions (nearly half of them) resulted in a one-year stay before relegation back to the second tier. A promotion, in 1937, led to a two-year stay in what was then Division One. More promisingly, the other six promotions were followed by longer stays in prime time. These were: