Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan believes Leeds United and Burnley have one “luxury” in their hunt for Premier League survival this season.
Burnley claimed a crucial win over Leeds to climb out of the bottom three at the weekend, moving within one point of their fellow newly-promoted side.
The defeat meant the Opta Supercomputer is now predicting Leeds to finish in the bottom three at the end of the season, after falling to back-to-back defeats.
Leeds face another side near the bottom of the table in their next game, as winger Noah Okafor faces a race to be fit for the crunch clash with West Ham.
Now, former Premier League chairman Simon Jordan has explained why there is one silver lining for Leeds and Burnley, as they look to defy the odds and stay in the top flight this season.
Hannibal confronted by Leeds players.
Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images
Simon Jordan assesses Leeds United and Burnley’s survival hopes
Speaking on TalkSport’s White & Jordan show on the 20th October, Jordan explained why Leeds and Burnley have a better chance of surviving than the previously newly-promoted sides.
According to Jordan, the struggles of established teams such as Wolves and West Ham are a luxury that was not afforded to the newly promoted sides in recent seasons.
Jordan said: “We’re still seeing Leeds and Burnley right in the middle of it. Burnley are fourth from bottom, Leeds are not much further above it. The big thing has not just been about the three teams getting relegated that have come up; it’s the amount of points that they’ve accumulated.
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He added: “[Sunderland] have given themselves a great opportunity to be able to get another 19 points or however many they need to stay in the division over the next 30 games. But Leeds and Burnley are amongst it.
“At this moment in time, they have the luxury of two or three Premier League sides not performing at a very high level.
“So the Wolves’ of the world, the West Hams of the world are not performing at very high levels. So they are allowing potentially the other sides from the Championship that have come up to look better, perhaps than necessarily they might do.”
Anton Stach and Ethan Ampadu of Leeds United battle with Lesley Ugochukwu.
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How does the Premier League bottom three compare to the last two seasons?
Although all three newly-promoted sides have been relegated in the last two seasons, Jordan’s assessment does not quite reflect the reality of the Premier League table after eight games in the last two seasons.
In the 2024/25 season, two of the newly-promoted sides were outside of the bottom three, with Wolves sitting bottom again on one point and Crystal Palace in 18th on three points.
Position 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26
18th Burnley Crystal Palace Nottingham Forest
19th Bournemouth Southampton West Ham
20th Sheffield United Wolves Wolves
Premier League table after 8 games
The year before, Bournemouth sat 19th after eight games on three points, sandwiched between Sheffield United and Burnley, with Luton in 17th.
This is unwelcome for both Daniel Farke and Scott Parker, as all of these established top flight sides managed to pull themselves away from trouble in the end.