Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland are back in the Premier League. But how are their squads looking with only two weeks until the new season starts?
As you probably know, all the promoted teams have gone straight back down to the Championship across the past two Premier League seasons. It’s the first time this has ever happened in the competition over successive campaigns.
In fact, before the 2023-24 season, there’d only been one other instance of all three promoted teams suffering relegation, and that had been as many as 26 years earlier.
Luton Town, Burnley, Sheffield United, Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town were the clubs party to this historic quirk across 2023-24 and 2024-25 – but is it a symptom of an ever-widening chasm between the top two tiers in English football, or did it say more about those specific teams?
Plenty will be considering if it’s going to happen for a third season in a row, and so there’s arguably a greater interest in the three promoted teams this summer than there usually is.
Burnley are back again. Leeds United will hope they’re here to stay. Sunderland have ended their eight-year top-flight absence. But with just two weeks to go until the 2025-26 campaign starts, how are they shaping up for their respective survival bids?
Leeds United
Championship winners and automatic-promotion contenders for the entire season, Leeds may get the most backing as the likeliest of the promoted sides to stay up.
But unsurprisingly, there has been an understanding right from the moment promotion was confirmed that they’d require a busy transfer window to get their squad anything close to good enough to stay up.
At the start of the summer, the majority of Leeds fans will have been hoping to see reinforcements in goal, at centre-forward, centre-back and left-back as a minimum. All of those areas have been strengthened already, while all of the players they’ve brought in are 26 or 27 years old and approaching their peaks.
The arrival that supporters were potentially happiest to see was goalkeeper Lucas Perri. Illan Meslier has been around for a while now and the “promise” of his potential is yet to truly bear fruit, with the Frenchman frustratingly error-prone.
His inconsistent form last term contributed to him committing three Opta-defined errors leading to goals in the Championship, second only to James Beadle (4) among goalkeepers.
Perri, on the other hand, made just one such error in 45 games last term across all competitions for Lyon. Meanwhile, his saves saw him prevent 8.5 goals, according to our expected goals on target (xGOT) conceded model; only nine goalkeepers across the top five leagues had a better record last term.
But while Leeds have invested throughout their squad, there’s one aspect that unites the majority of the players they’ve brought in: height.
Perri, Jaka Bijol, Anton Stach, Sebastian Bornauw and Lukas Nmecha are all over six feet tall, while Sean Longstaff and Gabriel Gudmundsson aren’t far off. Physicality or height don’t guarantee you much, but they can potentially provide advantages in certain situations. And it makes sense if you want your team to be broadly (no pun intended) more imposing.
Where such facets could be impactful is at set-pieces. On the face of it, Leeds’ record in dead-ball situations last term wasn’t horrific. Their 11 goals scored from corners was the joint best, and their four goals conceded from corners was the joint-second best. However, dig a little deeper into the numbers and the picture changes.
Excluding penalties, Leeds conceded the greatest share of their goals from set-pieces (corners, direct and indirect free-kicks, and throw-ins) of all clubs in the Championship (40.7%). The biggest contributor to that was the six goals they let in from indirect free-kicks, which accounted for 22.2% of their total (excl. penalties).
At the other end of the pitch, just 14.1% of the goals Leeds scored (excl. penalties) were from set-pieces, which was the smallest proportion of all 24 Championship clubs.
Of course, these figures are influenced by the fact Leeds generally scored a lot and were good defensively anyway. But, as Daniel Farke has touched upon in pre-season, they cannot expect to have the same kind of control in the Premier League next term; they still need to be a threat (and solid) even when they aren’t dominating teams, and set-pieces could be key to that.
They apparently remain hopeful of also bringing in Rodrigo Muniz from Fulham, who’d be another physical presence, while they’re seemingly – judging by their failed pursuit of Feyenoord’s Igor Paixão, who went to Marseille – in the market for an explosive inverted left-winger.
While they haven’t brought in masses of Premier League experience, the industriousness and robust qualities of Leeds’ signings could be just what they were missing.
Burnley
The Clarets’ promotion last season was fuelled by a nearly impenetrable defence. They conceded just 16 goals in 46 matches, averaging 0.35 per game, which was the best by any team ever in a season in English Football League history.
Similarly, their 30 clean sheets matched the all-time record for a single EFL season.
Given the recent failures of promoted teams who’ve tried to stay up playing expansive or possession-based football, Burnley’s remarkable defensive numbers might be a positive omen that they’ll prioritise being difficult to beat rather than being pretty.
However, Burnley have suffered two significant blows to their plans, with centre-back CJ Egan-Riley joining Marseille on a free transfer and goalkeeper James Trafford moving back to Manchester City.
Trafford had an especially good season. According to our xGOT conceded model, his saves prevented 12.9 more goals than would’ve been expected based on the quality of chances faced; only Stoke City’s Viktor Johansson (15.8) was deemed to have had a better record in that respect, and he faced far more shots on target (214 – the most) than Trafford (103).
Burnley will likely be prioritising a new first-choice goalkeeper and a commanding centre-back now as a result, even with the arrival of 21-year-old keeper Max Weiss from Karlsruher and Hjalmar Ekdal’s return from loan. Otherwise, though, they have been pretty busy already.
That’s partly linked to their business last season. Zian Flemming, Jaidon Anthony, Marcus Edwards and Bashir Humphreys all spent at least part of 2024-25 on loan at Turf Moor and have since seen their deals made permanent to the tune of about £36m combined.
Meanwhile, Quilindschy Hartman, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Axel Tuanzebe and Kyle Walker add depth and, particularly in the case of the latter, experience.
Their biggest outlay went towards 21-year-old French winger Loum Tchaouna, who reportedly cost £13m from Lazio. Part of France’s squad at the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, Tchaouna is a dynamic and exciting left-footed right-winger who’ll add flair in attack, though he does represent something of a gamble.
He was deemed surplus to requirements at Lazio after an underwhelming solitary campaign in Rome. In all competitions, he spent just 1,364 minutes on the pitch as he was used mostly from the bench. He recorded only three goal involvements in that time.
Two other areas Burnley will presumably still be planning to bolster are central midfield and up top. Josh Brownhill was their top scorer last term with 18 goals from midfield, but he’s since left. They’ll need someone – or multiple players – to pick up the slack in that respect, and a reliable centre-forward to compete with or partner Flemming would be ideal. Lyle Foster hasn’t been good enough, Ashley Barnes is 36 in October, and although Zeki Amdouni is back at the club, his impact was minimal during his last Premier League season.
And then in midfield, Scott Parker’s options are limited to just four senior players: Josh Cullen, Josh Laurent, Hannibal Mejbri and Aaron Ramsey. Meanwhile, they have 10 wingers on their books, so offloading some of them – whether permanently or on loan – will be high on their list.
It’s been a busy couple of months for Burnley, but you still get the sense they need some important arrivals if their squad is going to cope with the step up to the Premier League.
Sunderland
If any of the three promoted sides have captured the imagination of neutrals with their transfer dealings this summer, it’s probably Sunderland.
Sure, the exits of Tom Watson and Jobe Bellingham might have got their summer off to an inauspicious start, but their incomings have been a cause for excitement.
Enzo Le Fée joined Sunderland on loan from Roma in January and had his move made permanent just before Bellingham departed, the Frenchman having made a strong impression in 2024-25.
From joining until the end of the season, on a per-90 basis Le Fée ranked eighth for chances created in open play (1.5), third for ball carries (17.9), seventh for progressive carries at least 10 metres in length (4.2), second for all progressive carries and third for dribbles attempted (4.6) among all midfielders (550+ minutes played) in the Championship.
There’s no guarantee he’ll translate his effectiveness and purposeful style of play to the top flight, but he’s a bit of a maverick who could make a difference with his individual quality from the left.
Sunderland didn’t stop with his arrival, however. Generally speaking, there’s been a concentration on promising players with room to grow and good sell-on potential – that also goes for Habib Diarra, even with his £27m price tag.
Diarra is probably the standout signing. The 21-year-old Senegal international had been linked with a host of major clubs around Europe, having developed into one of Ligue 1’s most promising midfielders at Strasbourg. A well-rounded and versatile midfielder, he should offer a lot to the Sunderland midfield.
Noah Sadiki is another promising midfield addition. Whereas Diarra is more likely to be impactful towards the right from his midfield berth, Sadiki has operated more frequently towards the left during his fledgling career. Again, he’s another well-rounded midfielder who’ll make his presence known on and off the ball in a number eight role, and at 20 years old, should be a player with considerable potential.
Similar should be said of their two arrivals out wide. On a per-90 basis among all players (900+ mins) in the Belgian Pro League last term, Chemsdine Talbi ranked eighth for chances created in open play (1.9), 10th for progressive carries at least 10m in length (5.9) and seventh for shot-creating actions following a carry (1.9). The 20-year-old is still raw but will be a player who gets bums off seats.
And then there’s Simon Adingra. His arrival probably caught plenty of people by surprise but arguably went down as one of those transfers that looks like a good move for all parties at £21m.
Despite showing promise, Adingra appeared considerably less often last term than he did in 2023-24, and Brighton coach Fabian Hürzeler acknowledged he was unable to “guarantee” the dynamic winger first-team football. He should be good enough to get it at the Stadium of Light, and that could see him develop quite quickly.
But it’s not just potential Sunderland have invested in. Reinildo has vast experience of top-level European football from his time at Lille and Atlético Madrid, while Granit Xhaka’s signing represents a significant coup.
The Switzerland international may not have been universally loved during his last spell in the Premier League with Arsenal, but his impact at Bayer Leverkusen was remarkable.
He helped Leverkusen win three trophies during his two years in Germany, including the 2023-24 Bundesliga title. He was an immensely influential player, too, playing a role in the third-most open-play attacking sequences across those two seasons.
He arguably returns with a point to prove as well, while he brings experience into a midfield that’s mostly been bolstered with promising young players.
A new goalkeeper, Robin Roefs, has also joined, while 19-year-old striker Marc Guiu is set to arrive on loan from Chelsea to add depth to their options up top.
But they still look incredibly light at centre-back, potentially requiring multiple new faces in that department if they are to stand a chance of surviving.
Sunderland probably had the most work to do in the transfer market, and it’s fair to say their dealings have captured the imagination, even if there remains one area for concern. But whether they, Burnley or Leeds can do enough to buck the recent trend of swift returns to the Championship remains to be seen.
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