Premier League teams relegated 2026: Which clubs are going down to EFL Championship for next season?

London — With six match-weeks remaining in the 2025-26 Premier League campaign, the trapdoor to the EFL Championship is creaking open for at least two clubs and possibly a third heavyweight name. Wolves and Burnley, despite recent upticks in form, have been left with too much to do and are “almost certainly going down,” according to Opta’s probability model released on Thursday, March 5, 2026. That leaves one relegation berth undecided and a cluster of anxious boardrooms monitoring every swing in the table.

Wolves’ fate appears sealed after a run that has left them adrift at the foot of the standings, while Burnley’s return to the top flight after last season’s promotion has again been undermined by a porous defence that has conceded the division’s second-highest number of goals. Both clubs were 12-plus points from safety at the start of March, a gap that history shows is bridged only in the rarest of circumstances.

The final drop place is where the intrigue lies. West Ham United held the unwanted third position when the month began, but Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and, remarkably, Tottenham Hotspur remain within striking distance. Spurs’ involvement in a relegation battle represents a seismic story: the north Londoners have not faced the drop since the 1970s, yet a sequence of one win in 11 league outings has dragged them into the mire.

Sunderland, one of the promoted trio alongside Leeds and Burnley, have given hope to freshly elevated sides by climbing into mid-table and opening a nine-point cushion over the bottom three. Their survival would end a two-season streak in which every promoted club — Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton in 2024/25 — went straight back down.

While the Premier League’s basement battle intensifies, the Championship promotion race offers a gauge of what awaits next season’s relegated clubs. Coventry City lead the second tier by five points after 35 games and are closing in on an immediate return to the top flight. Middlesbrough occupy second, with Ipswich Town and Millwall currently occupying the top two playoff spots. Hull City, Wrexham, Southampton, Derby County and Watford remain in the hunt for the remaining playoff berth.

For the sides staring at relegation, the financial and sporting ramifications are stark. Parachute payments soften the blow, but the loss of television revenue, sponsorship appeal and prestige can set a club back years. Wolves and Burnley now face the practical certainty of that challenge, while one more member of the current bottom six will join them in the Championship come late May.