Leeds United relegation is inevitable as PL joint-best Sunderland expose Farke’s side amid three damaging factors

Leeds United are heading straight back into the Championship thanks to three key factors as Sunderland exposed their side promoting fellow…

One of the highlights of these opening weeks of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign has been the performances of all three promoted sides.

After Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town were linked with a whisper last season, this season looks like a real battle to avoid the drop among various teams, such as Sunderland, Leeds United And Burnley have looked for a fight.

Each side has been more pragmatic than previous promoted teams and made the necessary changes in their approach to make themselves more competitive. Sunderland Comfortably has been the best.

Over the weekend, the black cats overcame the downed wolves Moving up to seventh in the Premier League table With four wins, two draws and two losses from their first eight matches.

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Unsurprisingly, Sunderland’s excellent start to their promotion has been built on their form at the Stadium of Light, topping Regis LeBrace’s home Premier League table (alongside Arsenal and AFC Bournemouth) with ten points from four matches.

This contrasts with Leeds United, who have not been as dominant as they need to be at Elland Road if they have any hope of staying up.

There were pre-season concerns over their lack of transfer activity at Leeds as they looked far less than the Premier League level finishers at the top of the pitch.

Head coach Daniel Farke has tried to remedy that by making his team tougher at the back, although they have still conceded the fifth-most goals in the Premier League this season.

And while Sunderland are flying high as one of the best teams in the Premier League this term, Leeds United are 16th in the home table as they have five fewer points from their four games than the Black Cats.

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Leeds are actually slightly higher in the away Premier League table as they are 15th after four games, but they have three losses with nine goals and only one defeat with three goals scored.

So, it is quite clear that Leeds United’s home form needs to improve if they are to survive after dropping points on the table against Newcastle United, Bournemouth and Tottenham Hotspur.

Along with Leeds United’s home form, another worrying factor against them is their placement in the current Premier League XG table.

Leeds currently sit seventh in the standings, having massively underperformed on XG and XGA, with Farke’s side five points and eight places worse than they should be based on that metric alone.

You can look at it positively in that it shows that there is an element of unluckiness to Leeds United’s results, but it also confirms pre-season fears that their attack would lack ruthlessness and that they were conceding needless goals.

This, plus their inability to rely on their home form, is a recipe for disaster in a relegation battle…

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