Burnley Face Fear of a Double Drop as Leicester and Luton Show How Quickly It Can Happen
Burnley could become the third club in three years to be relegated twice in a row, from the Premier League down to League One, according to a BBC Sport analysis. Burnley were relegated from the top flight in April, after a 1-0 home defeat to Manchester City. They now sit in the relegation zone of the Championship, the second tier.
Relegation means going down a division at the end of a season. Going down twice in a row is what football people call a double drop. It used to be extremely rare. In the first 20 seasons of the Premier League, it happened only once, to Swindon Town in 1994-95. Swindon finished fourth from bottom of the second tier that season, but they still went down, because the leagues were reshaped to cut the Premier League to 20 clubs.
Since then, the drop has happened more often. Luton Town and Leicester City both went down from the Premier League to League One in consecutive seasons. Leicester's fall was the most dramatic. Within 15 months they had gone from playing Liverpool in the Premier League to facing Notts County, Burton Albion and MK Dons in the third tier.
Leicester's slide was not only about results. They received a six-point deduction for breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules during their Championship season. They finished 23rd, five points short of safety, and their relegation to League One was sealed by a 2-2 draw with Hull City in April. On the same day, Coventry clinched the Championship title. Leicester had been Premier League champions a decade earlier.
Sunderland have the most painful record of all. They fell from the Premier League to League One in 2016-18, and they were the only club to finish bottom of both divisions during that double drop. They won 13 of their 84 league games across those two seasons. They had spent 10 seasons in the top flight before that, and had reached 40 points three times. It took them four years to return to the Championship.
Burnley's latest setback came on the road. A crowd of 1,450 Burnley supporters travelled to Lincoln City, and they watched their side lose 4-1. That defeat came just before Nicky Hayen left as head coach. Fabio Celestini has been installed as the new boss, and Diego Lopez has been appointed as the club's chief football officer, a senior role that oversees football matters across the club.
Leicester's own return to League One has been steadier than the drop suggests. By mid-October, they had nine points from their first eight league games, according to the English Football League's pre-match stat pack. Luton and Leicester are now both in League One, and the two clubs are in the same league again.
For Burnley, the next few months will decide whether this becomes a short stay in the Championship or the start of a longer fall. Their fans have shown they will travel, and the new coaching structure is now in place. The table will do the rest.
