The Premier League teams that were 'too good to go down' but were still relegated

One of football's oldest clichés is describing a team as 'too good to go down'. 

The phrase is often thrown out at sides, surprisingly struggling at the wrong end of the table, who are perceived as having too much talent to slip out of the league, yet it is a pitfall many have already fallen into. 

This season, it's a term few expected to hear in the direction of Tottenham Hotspur; however, the predicament is real. Spurs are just four points off the bottom three and are the only side to not taste a Premier League victory in 2026. 

Igor Tudor has less than a dozen games now to save the North London club from the ultimate humiliation and to prevent them ending up on this list of previous club's who were deemed too good to drop out of England's top flight. 

Blackburn Rovers 1998-99 

The first Premier League champions to fall out of England's shinest new division were Blackburn Rovers, just four years after lifting the trophy. 

Jack Walker had spent a fortune transforming Rovers from a second-tier side to spending millions on some top names and besting Manchester United to win the title in 1995. 

They actually went into the season as dark horses to repeat the championship win, but after just one win in their first 15 games, Roy Hodgson was sacked amid fears the campaign could turn sour. 

Brian Kidd replaced him in his first managerial post, but couldn't turn the tide and the club were famously relegated after a defeat to Kidd's former club Manchester United, even if Sir Alex Ferguson claimed to not realise at the time. 

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Leeds 2003-04 

Just two seasons after reaching the Champions League sem-finals, Leeds found themselves in financial ruin thanks to the overspending from Peter Risdale and thus the club felt the brunt of it on the pitch, too. 

Players were sold to even up the books, but even after the fire sale, it was still a surprise to see United still fighting for their lives at the wrong end of the league. 

A strike force of Mark Viduka and Alan Smith, Paul Robinson in goal and even a teenage James Milner (what happened to him?) couldn't stop the rot.

Peter Reid and then Eddie Gray tried, but eventually there was no halting Leeds' slide into peril, both on and off the pitch. 

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Newcastle 2008-09

If you've ever wondered why Alan Shearer never turned to management, then look no further than his baptism of fire at beloved club Newcastle in 2009. 

A squad that boasted England's Michael Owen, as well as steady pros including Shay Given, Nicky Butt, Damian Duff and Mark Viduka were all part of a mess of a season that saw three different names in charge before Big Al rocked up on his white horse. 

Kevin Keegan had begun the season in charge, but after falling out with the board, it was the team that suffered following his departure. Chris Houghton had two disastrous caretaker spells either side of Joe Kinnear's ill-fated four months in the dugout, but in the end, the hope lay with Shearer to save the day. 

However, for once, the club's record-scoring couldn't find the finishing touch and managed just one win in eight games that saw the Magpies fly out of the top flight. 

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Middlesbrough 1996-97

Ah, the summer of 1996. England almost tasted Euros glory, the Spice Girls were everyone's newest crush and Teeside was alive with the delights of names they dared not dream about previously...but the dream didn't last long. 

Fabrizio Ravanelli and Emerson joined Juninho in Bryan Robson's Boro squad, and everything looked rosy when their new Italian striker kicked off the campaign with a hat-trick against Liverpool. 

However, it proved to be a false dawn. Boro lost both cup finals and, most disappointingly, were relegated on the last day of the season, in what was a triple blow for Boro fans. 

The relegation was made harder to take thanks to the club being deducted three points after failing to appear for their fixture against Blackburn in December because of a wave of illness and injury through the club. Without that punishment, they'd have finished 14th. 

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Leciester 2022-23

The fairytale story of Leicester's astonishing Premier League win in 2016 got its unwanted reverse in 2023, when, just seven years after that title triumph, the Foxes were relegated from the top flight. 

Following their championship win, Leicester had also bagged an FA Cup and managed two consuective fifth place finishes going into this campaign, and no one expected the fall from grace that followed.

Brendan Rodgers failed to work the same magic that had seen them flirt with the Champions League places and by April was sacked with the club staring relegation in the face after failing to upgrade the squad that summer. 

Still, the squad still boasted Jamie Vardy, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, yet their collective talent, nor interim boss Dean Smith, could prevent a bitter drop out of the Premier League. 

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West Ham 2002-03

The Hammers have become the poster boys for a team that was too good to go down when their star-studded side of 2003 shockingly slipped out of the top flight. 

The club went into the campaign having finished in the top half for four of the last five seasons and boasted a squad that included the mercurial Paulo Di Canio and stalwart David James, alongside some of the best young English players around, like Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe. 

However, they managed to win just three times in their first 24 games and after boss Glen Roeder fell ill, club legend Trevor Brooking couldn't stop the rot. 

West Ham's decade-long stay in the Premier League ended with defeat at St Andrews and has become a warning to those teams who ever dare think they are too good a side to be relegated. 

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How to watch the Premier League in Canada

Soccer fans in Canada can watch every Premier League match during the 2025-26 season on DAZN.

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For pricing information and to sign up to watch,  click here.