Well, FIVDA is back! We’re just under two weeks away from the start of the Premier League 2025-2026 season. The first match takes place on Friday August 15^th between title holders, Liverpool vs. Bournemouth.

In the next two weeks until the first match, we have a lot to catch up on. There has been extended action throughout the summer from the Club World Cup.

The transfer market has seen lots of action so far and with just over a month left until it closes on September 1^st, we’re expecting more deals to happen. And last but not least, we have the three newly promoted teams to the Premier League: Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland.

So, that’s where we’ll start today, focusing on the three newly promoted teams and providing a high-level overview of their statistics in the 24-25 Championship season.

Leeds United: Championship Winners Return to the Premier League

Leeds United finished first in the Championship last season and were automatically promoted. Leeds’ last stint in the Premier League started in 2020-2021 season and they stayed up for three seasons, until they were relegated at the end of the 2022-2023 season.

Despite finishing with a staggering 100 points, they weren’t the only ones. Burnley also finished with 100 points but lost out on the top of the table ranking as their goal difference ranking was less than Leeds United.

Of the 46 matches played last season, Leeds won 29, drew 13 and lost 4. They scored an average of 2.07 goals per game and only conceded 0.65 goals per game.

When playing at their home ground, Elland Road, they won 64% more games than when on the road, and only lost once at home all season. Out of their 29 wins, 20 of them were clean sheets. Those are some staggering statistics.

On the attacking side, Joel Piroe, Daniel James and Manor Solomon all managed to hit double digits with their scoring tally.

They scored, 19, 12 and 10 goals respectively, with Joel being the top scorer in the league last season. Manor Solomon also hit double digits with assists, with 12 and Dan James not far behind with 9 assists.

On the defensive side, Jayden Bogle led his teammates with 98 total tackles, while Ao Tanaka had the most blocks totaling 46 (averaging more than 1 per game he played).

Illan Meslier played 39 of the 46 games between the posts for Leeds and while he had 21 clean sheets, all four losses came when he played. Of all 1201 of Meslier’s attempted passes, only 21% of them were launched 40 yards or more, outlining the build from the back playing style that Leeds aim to implement.

Burnley’s Defensive Record and Their Premier League Promotion

Next up is Burnley, who finished second in the Championship last season and earned automatic promotion. Burnley have had a bit of a rollercoaster last few years, after bouncing between the Premier League and Championship.

Starting at the end of the 21-22 season, they have moved between the Premier League and Championship every season (21-22 relegated, 22-23 promoted, 23-24 relegated, 24-25 promoted).

When looking at Burnley’s track record over the last 4 or 5 years, it underlines just how hard it is for newly promoted teams to remain in the Premier League for an extended period of time. To put it in perspective, all newly promoted teams for the 24-25 season (Leicester, Ipswich, and Southampton) were all relegated back to the Championship at the end of the season.

Anyways, back to Burnley, who tied Leeds on 100-points last season but placed second due to goal difference. Out of 46 matches played, Burnley won 28, drew 16 and lost only 2 (the lowest number of losses out of any Championship team last season).

As with any team who had the lowest number of losses, you would expect them to have the least amount of goals scored against them, which held true for Burnley last season.

Burnley only conceded 16 goals last season, which equates to 0.35 goals scored against them per match. Or said differently, Burnley conceded one goal every 2.9 games or about every 260-minutes of football played (not including stoppage time).

To put that statistic in perspective, Leeds United conceded 30 goals in the Championship last season, which was the second lowest (and almost double Burnley’s).

What’s interesting though, is that Burnley doesn’t top any charts for standard defensive actions. When looking at tackles, blocked passes or shots, or interceptions, Burnley weren’t near the top of the leader board in any category.

However, Burnley’s squad goal keeping statistics led the league in several areas. We should note that James Trafford, played 45 of 46 games in net for Burnley last season, so when we say Burnley’s squad goal keeping statistics, it really is Trafford’s stats.

Anyways, Burnley had the highest save percentage last season at 85%, making 89 saves from 107 shots on target (next highest was Sheffield United at 78.5%). Burnley also had 30 clean sheets, which is a staggering number (league average was 13 clean sheets).

Said differently, over 65% of Burnley’s matches resulted in a clean sheet. We combed through data of the last 10 EFL Championship seasons and the closest to that statistic was Wolves, who had 24 clean sheets in the 2017-2018 season. It makes sense why James Trafford was just re-bought by Manchester City!

On the attacking front, Josh Brownhill and Zian Flemming were the only two players for Burnley who managed to find the back of the net with double digit figures, at 18 and 12 goals, respectively.

To add to Brownhill’s attacking threat, he also contributed 6 assists last season, which was the second highest for Burnley. Burnley’s XG (expected goals) was 57.5 vs. the 66 goals scored last season, outlining how clinical they were in front of net.

Overall, Burnley are looking like a strong team based on their 24-25 statistics. However, Trafford was a rock at the back for Burnley last season and as he has now moved back to Man City, it will be interesting to see if they can cope in the Premier League without one of their star performers.

Sunderland Earn Promotion After Championship Playoff Run

Last but not least is Sunderland, who finished fourth in the league but gained promotion through a grueling run in the play-offs. Sunderland beat Coventry City 3-2 on aggregate over a two match semi-final play-off and ended up beating Sheffield United 2-1 at Wembley to earn promotion back to the Premier League.

Sheffield United placed third in the league standings (one place above Sunderland) but couldn’t finish the job to secure promotion when it counted.

The promotion to the Premier League has been a long journey for Sunderland, who last played in England’s top division in the 2016-2017 season. They saw back-to-back relegations starting in 2017 after being relegated from the Premier League and then being relegated from the Championship in the 2017-2018 season.

Sunderland spent four seasons in League One, England’s third division of professional football before earning promotion back to the Championship at the end of the 21-22 season. Now, after three seasons in the Championship, placing 6^th, 16^th and 4^th, they have earned promotion back to the Premier League.

On a weekly basis last season, Sunderland didn’t reach the heights of the top three teams in the Championship. Sunderland finished with 76 points, 14 points back from Sheffield united in third who had 90 points.

While they were always chasing the top group of squads, they did lead the second-best group of teams. Coventry, Bristol, Blackburn and Millwall finished with 69, 68, 66, and 66 points respectively, and were all chasing Sunderland.

Regardless of where they finished in the league, Sunderland managed to get the job done and earn promotion.

In total, Sunderland had 21 wins, 13 draws and 12 losses. Of the 58 goals they scored, Wilson Isidor scored 12 of them and lead the squad with goals scored (Mayenda was second with 8 goals scored).

Patrick Roberts led Sunderland in shot creating actions (SCA) with 148 or 4.06 SCA per 90-minutes played. On the defensive side, Trai Hume led the squad with 119 tackles (3^rd highest in the league last season).

Summary

That’s it for this article. In this post, we take a look at some high level statistics from the last season for the three squads that have earned promotion to the Premier League for the 25-26 season: Leeds United, Burnley, and Sunderland.

How will these three squads hold up against the high standard of the English Premier League? If history can forecast any outcome, it will be a difficult season for all three teams.

In the last two seasons, all three newly promoted squads have been relegated after their first season in the Premier League.

Will this be the third season on the run? Or will the recent struggles of Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland allow one of these squads to muster up the strength to stay up in the Premier League for a run of consecutive seasons?

For Leeds, they’ve been out of top division for two seasons now and will be looking to stake their claim.

Burnley are like a yo-yo, bouncing up and down between the Premier League and Championship, will the 25-26 season continue the trend or are brighter futures ahead?

Lastly, for Sunderland, who have been out of the Premier League for 8-seasons, they’ve shown true resiliency to claw their way back to England’s top division; will it be a quick visit or are they here to stay?

Have your say in the comments. It was an impressive 24-25 seasons to earn all three squads’ promotion. However, what do you think the outcome will be in this new season? Are you secretly rooting for one team to stay up?

Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Similarly, if you have some ideas on how we can improve these articles, please send them our way too.

Next up, we’ll cover some of the highlights of the transfer market over the summer before the Premier League season officially starts on August 15^th.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!

JC

All data in this article is from fbref.com so, thanks to them!