Coventry, Ipswich and Hull: meet the Premier League's newly promoted teams

Still, this is a competent Premier League squad. Attackers Brandon Thomas-Asante of Ghana and Taiwo Awoniyi of Nigeria are built for top-flight competition and are primed for a breakout season. Jamaican defender Joel Latibeaudiere is perpetually underrated. 

And coach Lampard, himself a veteran of the Premier League on both sides of the touchline, is exactly the right man to lead this squad into this season. He's experienced title challenges and relegation fights; there's nothing that will surprise him here. 

Prediction: 17th (safe from relegation)

Ipswich Town

Regular Premier League viewers may remember Ipswich Town. The rural club known lovingly as the Tractor Boys appeared in the league in the 2024-25 season. It was relegated to the second division after finishing in 19th place under coach Kieran McKenna, but it bounced straight back up to the Premier League after finishing second with just eight losses to its name.

McKenna has since left the club, but Ipswich found a suitable replacement in Gary O'Neil. The English manager led Bournemouth and Wolves in the Premier League in previous seasons and just finished a stint at Strasbourg in France. He knows the league well, and he's accustomed to getting big results with sparse resources.

Ipswich has rebuilt itself to stay in the Premier League for more than one season. It signed Celtic forward Daizen Maeda and Fulham midfielder Sasa Lukic to help it do that, but its most interesting signing came just a few days ago in Paraguayan winger Julio Enciso, who arrived from Strasbourg on the recommendation of his former coach O'Neil. 

Enciso is a tricky, fast and delightfully irritating player, and it will be fascinating to see how he embeds into Ipswich's culture. If he can ramp up quickly to Premier League life, he'll be a real threat ... but he won't have much time to make it happen. 

Prediction: 18th (relegated)

Hull City

Promotion from the second division can occur through two pathways: direct ascension or a playoff victory. The top two teams in the championship at the end of the season (in 2025-26's case, Coventry City and Ipswich Town) move directly into the Premier League; the final slot is determined via a playoff pitting the third, fourth, fifth and sixth-placed teams against one another. 

That's how Hull made it to this grand new stage. It only finished sixth in the second division last season, but it won the playoffs against the odds to secure its spot in the Premier League.

It's great to have Hull back in the Premier League — it's been nearly 10 years since it's been in the top flight — but it's hard to see it sticking around for long. 

Its championship season was marked by silly goal concessions (it leaked more goals than all but three teams in the division) and lucky last-second breaks. This team has real grit, but it simply doesn't have the stats to back it up. 

Prediction: 20th (relegated)