With all three newly-promoted sides surviving in the Premier League during the 2022/23 campaign, it was Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton who were relegated to the second tier. A host of clubs in the Championship will be in the hunt for Premier League football by the end of the campaign and those three were, naturally, among the early favourites.
The division was expected to be more competitive than ever next season, but the relegated trio are running away with things alongside Ipswich Town, and it looks certain that two of those four will be the sides to finish in the automatic promotion places.
The Championship automatic promotion race is to be one of the most intense and hotly contested in many years with the standard being set at the top of the table at an all-time high. The pace being set by Southampton and Leeds in particular of late has been ferocious.
Ipswich having also dropped off the pace in recent weeks has added fuel to the idea that it will be either Southampton or Leeds to join Leicester, who are clear at the top and on course to return to the Premier League.
Those three are aided by the likes of parachute payments, more saleable assets, and the expectation, therefore, was always that they would compete at the top end of the division to bounce back to the top flight at the first time of asking, be that from their own fans or those of other teams in the second.
Speaking of supporters, we’ve taken a look at how much fans of other Championship clubs are paying to go away to the recently relegated trio, here.
