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Tough start awaits for promoted trio, with Premier League matches against last season’s top three and European qualifiersCoventry signed off their previous Premier League campaign with a match against Bradford City, the one team to finish below them in 2000-01. They pick up again in the top flight away to Arsenal; last season’s champions, favourites to retain the crown and the No 1 ranked side in the world according to Opta.At least they will have played what should be the hardest fixture of their 38 first. Except that their next away trip takes them to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City.Coventry’s home game with fellow promoted side Hull, which falls between these daunting trips, will feel very welcome, even if both meetings last season ended in goalless draws. It will be just as vital to the visitors. Hull begin the season by hosting Manchester United, then welcome Aston Villa to the MKM Stadium in week three.Those sides are a step below Arsenal and City but they will be competing in the Champions League this season. While Hull’s opponents in weeks four and five are not in Europe, they are Chelsea and Newcastle. It makes for a tough opening five games before the first international break of the season.In light of them facing big clubs who underachieved in 2025-26, a look at wage bills may be a fairer way to assess the difficulty of opponents. It does not make the opening five fixtures appear any easier for the promoted sides, who all feature in the seven hardest sets by this measure.Opta’s average opponent rating gives Ipswich the easiest first five matches of the promoted sides. Yet unlike Coventry or Hull, their first three are all against clubs that finished in the top seven of the 2025-26 Premier League: Sunderland, Manchester United and Liverpool. However you choose to assess opposition strength, the start of the season looks ominous.Such matches are often portrayed as unimportant to top-flight new boys. That they are a free hit, an opportunity to collect unlikely points. If you lose, so what? It’s what everyone expected anyway. Beating your direct relegation rivals is what matters. Recent history suggests the harder games are more important than cliche dictates, even if we cannot be certain at this point which clubs will be in the European qualification places next May.Leeds took a very creditable 10 points from matches against the top seven last season. That was five fewer than Arsenal, albeit from two extra games. Seventh-placed Sunderland also did well, taking nine points from the sides that finished above them. Even Burnley, who were unable to retain their Premier League status, earned eight points in 14 clashes with the top seven.The six promoted sides from the preceding two seasons, all of whom were relegated, did not perform as well. Ipswich won six points from the leading seven sides in 2024-25, though Leicester and Southampton took one apiece. It was a similar story the season before, as Luton claimed five points while Sheffield United (two) and Burnley (one) took very little of note from the top teams. If you are keeping count, you will have noticed each trio collectively earned eight points, fewer than Leeds or Sunderland alone last season.Maybe this is irrelevant. Burnley’s eight points from the top seven counted for little when they took 14 from their other 24 matches. Wolves, while not promoted, had a nine-11 points split between the facing the top septet and the teams eighth or lower too. But starting badly increases pressure on a manager, no matter the level of expectation. The fixture computer has not treated Coventry, Hull or Ipswich kindly.

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Ipswich Town captain Dara O'Shea during the pre season friendly against Le Havre at Portman Road. Photograph: Keeran Marquis/SPP/ShutterstockThey have a new manager and a higher net spend than Manchester City, but will that be enough for Ipswich to avoid another yo-yoing relegation?Guardian writers’ predicted position: 19th (NB: this is not necessarily Will Unwin’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)Last season’s position: 2nd (Championship)Back for another crack at the Premier League, the Tractor Boys are taking things very seriously. More than £100m has been spent on 10 new arrivals in an attempt to make the team fit for purpose, something that could not be said two years ago when they were relegated without being competitive after focusing on signing the Championship’s finest. Being the league’s fourth-biggest net spenders has created quiet optimism in Suffolk that things will go better this time. Lessons were learned, even if their galling relegation benefited the careers of Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson, as the harsh reality of what happens when potential meets proven quality.Ensuring there is a core of players with Premier League experience has been fundamental. Issa Diop and Sasa Lukic joined from Fulham, while Florentino Luís was snapped up after his baptism at Burnley to give a strong spine. The search for new players has stretched further and wider than in recent seasons, too, in a bid to find better valued talent than is available in England. Luís and Lukic are required to provide physicality and a desire to win the ball back in the centre of the park, although another addition in there would be advantageous.The new manager, Gary O’Neil, has the right battling qualities and intelligence to keep a side up, explaining why he was the man quickly targeted to replace the outgoing Kieran McKenna, who resigned after securing promotion. The constant cheque-signing may explain the slow start to pre-season, losing to Osasuna, as everyone learned about O’Neil’s methods and demands, but they looked effective against Rayo Vallecano and the return of Julio Enciso will add some much-needed creativity and ingenuity.If all else fails, Ipswich will at least make history after signing goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen, who at 6ft9 is set to become the Premier League’s tallest ever player.Work on a £30m training ground upgrade is close to completion. The regeneration will include a new first-team building, in addition to improved facilities for the academy and women’s team. The construction was seen as necessary to bring the club in line with their rivals and help convince potential signings Suffolk is the place to be. In a rarity, the club’s main shirt sponsor is a local business, the software company Halo. Ed Sheeran, meanwhile, is still represented on the kit with his ‘Play’ featuring on the sleeves.Being successful is always good for morale, and members of the Gamechanger 20 ownership group could be found celebrating promotion with fans in the town centre. They have made a number of promises since taking over the club in 2021 and have delivered on them all. The one blot was the decision to invite the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, to Portman Road, which was a PR disaster, creating a needless – and embarrassing – circus around the club, as Ipswich struggled to create a cohesive story about the situation, which was only forgotten thanks to them reaching the Premier League.It was a surprise when the universally popular McKenna decided to leave after securing another promotion, forcing some quick thinking to find a replacement. O’Neil has plenty of experience from his time managing Bournemouth and Wolves, added to with a spell at Strasbourg, but has a tough act to follow. Always open and honest, his coaching career has been spent trying to keep teams above the red line. His time at Wolves ended poorly but circumstances dictated much of that as the club failed to invest, something he can’t say in his new role.Emersonn is the record signing, costing £24m from Toulouse, and he has the difficult task of providing the goals that could bring safety, although he is yet to prove himself as a consistent scorer. The 22-year-old is the first Brazilian to play for the Tractor Boys but had to work hard in pre-season to catch up with his colleagues, having arrived lacking the necessary fitness levels. Eager to run in behind, he will be dangerous against teams who leave space. He has all the attributes to excel but it is down to him and the coaches aligning to ensure that this expensive gamble pays off.Last season, Ipswich were masters of exploiting high turnovers. They generated shots from 22.2% of them, more than double the Championship’s average rate of 10.4%. If O’Neil can maintain this efficiency, it could be Ipswich’s most effective method of creating chances.The £17.5m fee for a then 19-year-old showed what Ipswich thought of Sindre Walle Egeli, the son of a former Norwegian lower league footballer. The record goalscorer for Norway at youth level has naturally drawn comparisons to a certain Erling Haaland, who has given advice to his compatriot and may have the chance to offer more in person when Ipswich come up against Manchester City. A boyhood Liverpool fan, his first year in England brought four Championships goals in 18 starts, laying the groundwork as he and his teammates look to step up. Walle Egeli returned after the break in fine shape and has looked promising in the No 10 position under O’Neil, having previously played out wide.After suffering a rather pathetic relegation to League One with Leicester, Abdul Fatawu joined up with the Ghana squad for the World Cup. He came on in each of his country’s four matches but playing as a winger for Carlos Queiroz was not particularly fun. The Black Stars were ultra-defensive, scoring only twice as they limped out of the tournament as one of the most forgettable teams involved. Fatawu will be hoping for more creative freedom under O’Neil as he desperately seeks to avoid a third straight relegation.

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Sunderland and Leeds defied the odds and stayed up last season. Will Coventry, Hull and Ipswich continue the trend?A quarter of a century after their last appearance in the Premier League – following financial ruin, ground-sharing in Northampton and Birmingham and even a spell in League Two – Coventry have finally completed their comeback story. But the bunting has been packed away and they now face the daunting task of proving they belong in the top flight.Frank Lampard is not starting from scratch. Coventry’s success last season was a collective effort and a product of smart recruitment over the past few years. The result was a side that overwhelmed the Championship with a fearless front-footed approach without relying on a single scorer. Seven Coventry players scored seven or more league goals.They led the division for shots on target; they ranked second for big chances created, touches in the opposition’s final third and touches in the penalty area; and they produced direct attacking speed and passes-per-sequence numbers comparable to some of the Premier League’s most direct sides, including Brentford and Bournemouth.The title was wrapped up with three games to spare; they conceded the fewest goals in the division (45 in 46 games), and their 97-goal haul was the fourth highest in a 46-game Championship season, behind only Fulham in 2021–22, Bournemouth in 2014–15 and Reading in 2005–06. Given the success Fulham and Bournemouth have enjoyed in recent years, Coventry will hope that proves a good omen.Continuity is going to be central to their hopes of survival. They are not following in the footsteps of Sunderland, who spent around £155m last summer. Coventry’s net spend was around £3.5m last summer and just 17% of minutes on the pitch last season went to newcomers. Their best business in the transfer window was holding on to players such as Jack Rudoni and Milan van Ewijk, who were attracting interest from top-flight clubs.They have not gone wild this summer but they have invested. Coventry have signed centre-back Aurèle Amenda from Eintracht Frankfurt, winger Loum Tchaouna from Burnley, and midfielder Caleb Yirenkyi from Nordsjaelland while also securing permanent deals for Frank Onyeka and Carl Rushworth, who were both at the club last season. They have also brought back former favourite Gustavo Hamer after his spell at Sheffield United.Lampard’s biggest challenge will be adapting a style built to dominate in the Championship into one capable of surviving the Premier League. Their direct, attacking approach will be riskier against opponents who possess the pace, quality and tactical sophistication to punish a rushed pass or a risky vertical ball.Coventry will not have the same territorial control or volume of chances they enjoyed last season either – they need players who can get them up the pitch. Haji Wright’s pace and ability to attack space should be valuable, but Ellis Simms, who tends to thrive attacking the penalty box, will need service.The fact that Hull City are playing in the Premier League this season borders on miraculous. This is a side that survived relegation to League One on goal difference the season before last, entered last season under a transfer embargo, scraped into the playoffs by beating Norwich on the final day of the season, and scored a stoppage time winner in the playoff final. No one backed them in their pre-season predictions, and yet, under the guidance of the relatively unknown Sergej Jakirovic in his first season in charge, they defied the statistics.If matches in the Championship last season had been decided by expected goals, Hull would have finished second from bottom. The glaringly obvious problem was at the back. They conceded 66 goals, giving them the fourth worst defensive record in the Championship. Looking back at the last 15 teams to be promoted to the Premier League, only Southampton (who conceded 63 goals when they were promoted to the 2023-24 season) have come close to that tally and they went on to concede 86 goals in the top flight, finishing rock bottom with just 12 points.If that wasn’t bad enough, Hull were lucky to not concede more: opponents failed to convert 10 opportunities where they had at least a 50% chance of scoring according to xG – the most of any side in the league. Hull simply have to improve as fortune does not tend to stick around long when you’re in the Premier League.There are some reasons for optimism though. Their form against the top teams in away matches was impressive. They conceded just eight goals in their matches at the teams in the top 10; they did not concede in either of their games against Coventry; and they didn’t concede in any of their playoff matches.Jakirovic showed an impressive knack of switching tactics depending on who his side faced or how a game was evolving. His switch from their usual 4-2-3-1 formation to a back three with wing-backs in the second leg of their playoff tie against Millwall was perhaps the most telling example of this succeeding as they caught Millwall by surprise, winning 2-0 at the Den. If continuity is the key word in Coventry’s fight for survival then chaos seems to be Hull’s. You don’t really know what to expect from them. Striker Oli McBurnie pointed this out last season: “It’s probably hard to gameplan against us, because we play so many different ways against different teams.”As well as their unpredictability, this team has heart. They defied all expectations to reach the top, overcoming a relegation battle, a transfer embargo and statistical odds. Jakirovic put their success down to the bond they have forged. “It was like a puzzle,” he said. “Maybe it was the best that it happened like this. This group of players became even closer. They had to stick together and help each other.” As Robert Earnshaw, who played for Derby in their disastrous 2007-08 campaign, has warned: “You can relegate yourself based on how you think. It was almost as if everyone gave up. It was 20 games to go and it was like: ‘We’re never going to do it.’” This Hull side has fight and that should count for something.Two years ago Ipswich entered the Premier League as one of football’s feelgood stories. After 22 years away from the top flight, Kieran McKenna took them back to the top through back-to-back promotions, turning a squad largely built for League One into top-flight contenders. The 2023-24 campaign was fuelled by fearless, attacking football, late goals and a sense of togetherness, with Ipswich finishing second behind Leicester and becoming the first side in 12 years to climb from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons.McKenna’s side had an established core who had grown together and exceeded expectations but they were small fish in a very big pond, and the Premier League quickly exposed the gulf in quality. Ipswich won just four games, conceded 82 times and finished 19th with 22 points. Their immediate return to the top flight, fuelled by Premier League experience and parachute payments, means this is a very different promotion story – less about underdogs defying expectations and more about a club that is aiming to belong in this league.Their recruitment in 2024 suggested they had one eye on a return to the Championship. They brought in top Championship players who had potential but were not proven at the top: Omari Hutchinson, Jack Clarke, Liam Delap, Dara O’Shea and Jacob Greaves. The club’s CEO, Mark Ashton, says they have to be “a bit braver” this time around. Rather than focusing on potential, they want to sign battle-ready, established top-flight performers.Florentino Luís and Sasa Lukic bring the physicality and ball-winning presence the midfield lacked in 2024-25, while Issa Diop adds Premier League experience at the back. At the other end, with no Ipswich player scoring more than 10 non-penalty goals last season, Emersonn gives them a physically imposing striker, while Daizen Maeda and Abdul Fatawu add running power and intensity. Crucially, a lot of these players have Premier League experience and, with O’Shea, Clarke, Greaves and Jaden Philogene remaining from the season they went down, this is a side that looks more ambitious and ready to compete.Their defence also looks far more equipped for the top flight. They had the second best defensive record in the Championship last season, keeping 17 clean sheets and conceding just 47 goals (10 fewer goals than when they were promoted in 2023-24). This is not the chaotic and entertaining side that got them to the Premier League two years ago, but a more patient team that knows how to be pragmatic and aggressive.The biggest negative is the departure of the man who guided them back to the Premier League, with Kieran McKenna stepping away from football to take a break. Gary O’Neil, his replacement, has experienced Premier League relegation battles with Bournemouth and Wolves but it will be difficult to replace the identity, relationships and collective belief McKenna spent five years building through three promotions in four years, and 105 wins in 222 games. O’Neil is inheriting a more expensive and talented side than Ipswich had two years ago, but he will have to hit the ground running and help a host of new players to adapt quickly.