✨ Explore this insightful post from BBC Sport 📖
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📌 Main takeaway:
Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leicester City were the three names at the top of the bet for promotion to the Championship at the height of the summer.
The ladder from the Premier League to the Premier League has turned into a revolving door in recent years, with the three teams promoted from the Championship heading straight back to relegation in the past two seasons.
In each of the past five seasons, two of the three teams promoted to the top flight have received parachute payments, following previous relegation.
But if this pattern continues, two of those three teams, or Sheffield United, the only other team in the Championship to receive parachute payments this season, will need to find their feet very quickly.
The current top eight consists of teams that finished fifth, tenth, eighth, sixth and fourth in League One, eighteenth, 21st and fifteenth last season.
The Blades climbed out of the relegation zone on Tuesday with a third win in their opening 11 games, but Saints have won just twice, the Tractor Boys three and the Foxes four times – the only one of the relegated sides sitting in the top half heading into the weekend.
Ipswich kick off their program on Saturday with a lunchtime visit of West Brom to Portman Road (12:30 GMT).
Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat to newly promoted Charlton ended Town’s five-game unbeaten run at home, with Kieran McKenna making seven changes to the side that lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough last Friday.
Leicester head to Millwall (15:00 GMT) with one win in seven games following their midweek defeat to Hull City, while Saints have won just one of their last 10 games after a disappointing defeat to Bristol City on Tuesday and head to Blackburn (15:00 GMT) in a bid to avoid the ignominy of being dragged into the relegation zone.
It is worth noting that Luton were the only team relegated to the Second Division and were unable to promote to the Premier League last year, and ended up being relegated to the First Division.
In total, only one of the 10 teams relegated from the Premier League, Championship and League One is currently ranked sixth, and that is Cardiff in League One.
Interesting anomaly or a sign of things to come?
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