Can Coventry, Ipswich and Hull Stay Up in the Premier League?

Seven games into the season, the three promoted clubs are living very different years. Hull started like a mid-table side. Coventry lost their first four. Ipswich changed manager and signed ten players. None of them has been written off yet, and none of them is safe.

Bookmakers had the same trio in the drop zone before a ball was kicked. A final table built from their summer relegation odds put Ipswich 18th, Coventry 19th and Hull 20th. Anyone tracking those prices at an online casino Malta that offers football betting has had plenty to watch since August.

Hull made the loudest start

Hull finished sixth in the Championship, 22 points behind champions Coventry. Then they won the play-off final 1-0 against Middlesbrough, with Oli McBurnie scoring in stoppage time. It is their first top-flight season since 2016/17, and promotion was reportedly worth around £200 million.

Sergej Jakirovic’s side took eight points from their first four league games. Opta rated that as one of the best starts a promoted team has made in the Premier League. The context matters here. In 2023/24 and 2024/25, when all six promoted clubs went straight back down, none of them took more than three points from its first five games. Hull also beat Coventry 1-0 on the second weekend of the season.

The run has cooled. They lost 2-1 to Newcastle in September, which was their first defeat, and went down at Fulham on 17 October. Opta also pointed out that Hull have started Premier League seasons well before and still had a stressful time of it.

Coventry found points late

Frank Lampard took over in November 2024 with the club 17th in the Championship. Promotion was confirmed on 17 April with a 1-1 draw at Blackburn, three games before the end of the season. It ended a 25-year wait for top-flight football.

The Premier League hit them hard at first. They lost their first four league games, then won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest and 4-1 against Newcastle on 12 October. That was their first top-flight home win in 25 years and their first win over Newcastle since 1999. Stephen Mfuni, on loan from Manchester City, scored. So did 19-year-old Sidiki Cherif, a summer signing from Fenerbahce.

Tottenham then beat them 3-1 on 19 October. After seven games Coventry have six points and sit 17th.

Ipswich spent big and changed manager

Ipswich went straight back up, finishing second after a 3-0 win over QPR on the final day. Kieran McKenna announced he was leaving on 10 June, and Gary O’Neil took over. O’Neil has already managed Bournemouth and Wolves in the Premier League.

The club reportedly spent more than £100 million on ten new players. Exequiel Palacios arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for £19.2 million and Florentino Luis from Burnley for £16 million. A 5-2 defeat at Manchester United on 30 August showed how big the step up still is.

What history says about promoted clubs

Opta counted 42 of 89 promoted clubs going straight back down up to the end of 2024/25. Burnley added one more last season. That is just under half. The last three seasons show how fast the picture can flip:

• 2023/24: all three promoted clubs went down (Burnley, Sheffield United, Luton)
• 2024/25: all three went down again (Leicester, Ipswich, Southampton)
• 2025/26: Sunderland finished seventh and qualified for Europe, Leeds ended 14th and eight points clear of the drop, and Burnley were relegated

Too early to call

Hull’s start can still fade. Coventry only began collecting points in October. Ipswich still have to turn the spending into results. Survival for all three will not be settled before the winter.