Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020/21 English Premier League season went ahead and was completed successfully, with Manchester City emerging as Champions. Three teams, Sheffield United, West Brom, and Fulham were relegated from the Premier League, while Norwich City, Watford FC, and Brentford FC got promoted.
Here, TOP SOCCER BLOG looks at the newly promoted Premier League sides for the 2021/2022 season.
1. NORWICH CITY
Premier League fans are now getting used to seeing Norwich’s to-and-fro movement between the Premier League and the Championship in recent seasons. The team seems to be too strong for the 2nd division while being too weak to compete in the top flight!
Norwich secured automatic promotion back to the Premier League —at the first time of asking — after emerging as champions of the 2020/21 EFL Championship on the 1st of May 2021.
Based in Norfolk, they are nicknamed the Canaries and play their home matches at Carrow road.
The Canaries have competed in the Premier League 9 times before and were one of the sides that participated in the inaugural 1992/93 Premier league season, in which they achieved the highest ever position in their history — finishing third, behind Manchester United and Aston Villa.
After getting relegated in 2016, Norwich appointed German manager Daniel Farke in 2017 (Farke is the first foreign manager in the club’s history)
He led them back to Premier League in 2018/19, after emerging as EFL Championship champions, but couldn’t prevent them from getting relegated immediately.
Norwich will be hopeful of finally getting their feet in the EPL as they have definitely outgrown the EFL Championship.
Their fiercest rivals are Ipswich Town.
Norwich’s best players are:
- Teemu Pukki (scored 26 goals in the Championship)
- Grant Hanley (made the Championship Team to the Season)
- Tim Krul
- Todd Cantwell
- Max Aarons.
Norwich are the most relegated team in Premier League history (since it was reformed in 1992) having been relegated 5 times!
2. WATFORD FC
Watford, like Norwich, are also returning back to the EPL after just a single season absence. They secured automatic promotion after ending the season in 2nd place in the EFL Championship.
Watford was founded in 1881 and is based in Hertfordshire. Their nickname is the Hornets and their home ground is the Vicarage Stadium (22,200 capacity).
Watford are owned by Gino Pozzo while Xisco Munoz is their manager. The club will be competing in the Premier League for the 7th season.
Their highest finish in the top flight is 2nd when they ended the 1982/83 season as runners-up behind Liverpool. (the league had not been named as Premier league then).
The were runners-up in the 2019 FA Cup final which they lost 6-nil to Manchester City.
Their fiercest rivals are Luton Town.
Watford’s best players are:
- Ismaila Sarr (scored 13 goals and provided 4 assists in the Championship last season),
- Adam Masina (made the Championship Team of the Season)
- Troy Deeney
- Etienne Capoue
- Tom Cleverley
- Nath Chalobah.
Watford have three Nigerians in their squad, William Troost-Ekong, Tom Dele-Bashiru, and Isaac Success.
3. BRENTFORD FC
Brentford secured promotion to the EPL by winning the Championship Playoffs, where they defeated Swansea 2-0 in the final.
Brentford is a West London club founded in 1889. The club are nicknamed the Bees and play their home matches at the 17,250 capacity Brentford Community Stadium, which they moved to in 2020.
They are owned by Matthew Brenham and coached by Thomas Frank.
The club’s highest finish in the top flight is 5th (1935/36).
The Bees reached the League Cup semi-finals last season, where they got defeated by Tottenham.
Their rivals are fellow West London sides; Chelsea, Fulham, and QPR.
Brentford’s best players are:
- Ivan Toney (who was the top scorer in the Championship last season, with 33 goals and also provided 10 assists!)
- Ethan Pinock
- Sergio Canos
- Bryan Mbuemo
- Josh Dasilva.
Brentford are back in the English football top flight after a 74-year absence ( last played in the 1946/47 season).
Why are they three (3)? I thought as four were relegated, so also will 4 be promoted from the Championship. I need an answer please.
Ok. Can see – only three teams were relegated from the Premiership! Therefore, correspondingly, 3 are supposed to be promoted from the Championship. Thanks.