Alex McLeish’s Birmingham City side were hot favourites for relegation at the start of the season but their victory over Blackburn – their fifth consecutive Premier League triumph – temporarily moved them above Liverpool and into 6th. Blues fans were critical of the dour tactics employed by McLeish to get the club promoted but now they will be more concerned with nosebleeds and checking if their passports need renewing. It’s easy to get carried away, but history shows that Brummies should enjoy it while it lasts. Join Sport.co.uk in remembering some of those other early-season ‘surprise packages’ of recent times…
1. Hull City – Six wins from their first nine Premier League games – including wins at Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur – had the Tigers sitting in 3rd place and on 20 points by late October. Just two wins from their remaining 29 games saw them escape relegation by a single point.
2. Reading – Steve Coppell’s Royals side finished the 2006/07 Premier League campaign in 8th place on 55 points, just three points off 6th placed Everton, but were relegated the following season.
3. Wigan Athletic – Paul Jewell’s newly-promoted Latics won eight of their first 11 games in 2005/06, giving them enough of a platform to finish a very respectable 10th. They survived relegation on the final day of the following season and are close to establishing themselves as a decent mid-table top-flight outfit.
4. Ipswich Town – George Burley’s Tractor Boys finished the 2000/01 season in 5th place, five points ahead of Chelsea and just four points off 2nd placed Arsenal. 20 league wins from a newly-promoted side surprised everyone and earned Burley recognition as the manager of the year. Naturally, they were relegated the following year.
5. Leicester City – Peter Taylor replaced Martin O’Neill as manager at Filbert Street and got off to a stunning start to the 2000/01 season, with City sitting top of the Premier League for two weeks in October. Europe beckoned, but nine defeats from their final ten matches saw them finish 13th. Taylor was sacked after a 5-0 home defeat by newly-promoted Bolton Wanderers at the start of the following season. By the end of it, they’d finished bottom and were relegated.
6. Sunderland – Peter Reid took the Black Cats (if they were even called that back then) straight from the Championship (which probably wasn’t called that back then) to successive 7th place Premier League finished in 1999/00 and 2000/01. In 2001/02, they survived relegation by one place before finishing bottom the following season on 19 points, a pathetic total which they were to better (or, rather, worse) in 2005/06 when they registered just 15. Derby County of course upped (or, rather, downed) the stakes in 2007/08 with 11 points.
7. Derby County – Jim Smith’s Rams went up in 1995/96 and achieved 9th and 8th place finishes in their first Premier League seasons before 16th, 17th and finally 19th place respectively took them protractedly back down.
8. Nottingham Forest – The acoustic guitar-playing Frank Clark was the manager behind Forest’s promotion in 1993/94, their stunning 3rd place finish in 1994/95, their 9th place finish in 1995/96 and, ultimately, half of the 1996/97 season in which they finished bottom. The two-time European Cup winners have not returned to the top flight since 1998/99.
9. Norwich City – Mike Walker’s Canaries led the league for most of the inaugural Premier League season in 1992/93 and finished in a remarkable 3rd place. They would famously go on to win 2-1 away to Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup the following season but a 12th place was followed by relegation in 1994/95.
10. Blackburn Rovers – Rovers were also a surprise package in 1992/93, finishing 4th having only just gained promotion. Funded by Jack Walker’s millions and Kenny Dalglish’s managerial skills, they would last the course to finish runners-up and then Champions in the following two seasons before a gradual slide took them back down again.