Where Leeds United’s points total after seven games ranks among last 15 relegated Premier League teams

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Leeds United’s promising start to the Premier League has lost some of its momentum entering the international break, following the defeat against Tottenham.

Daniel Farke and his Leeds side had a perfectly symmetrical Premier League record heading into the game, with two wins, two draws and two defeats before the loss, which left Leeds on eight points from their opening seven games.

The Leeds boss will be ruing his side’s missed opportunities in recent weeks, as Dominic Calvert-Lewin had another off-day in front of goal. Leeds will rightly feel this was another missed opportunity to pick up points, having pushed Tottenham close.

With two weeks before Leeds’ next game, and a large chunk of Farke’s squad heading off on international duty, the Whites’ boss has plenty of time to plan the next phase of his attempt to keep Leeds in the top flight.

He can take some comfort from his side’s relatively strong position compared to the other recently relegated sides, with only one bad omen from Leeds’ past providing cause for concern.

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How Leeds United’s points tally after seven games compares to recently relegated sides

With seven games played, Leeds currently have more points than all but one of the teams that were relegated from the Premier League in the last five seasons.

Since the 2020/21 season, only four teams have been relegated after picking up more than five points in their opening seven games.

One of those came last season, as Leicester took six points from their opening seven games before limping to a final tally of 25 points.

Southampton managed to snatch seven points from the opening seven games of the 2022/23 season but were ultimately also relegated with 25 points. Watford matched their achievement in the previous season but went down on 23 points after 38 games.

However, in a potentially ominous sign, Leeds are the only side to break double figures and still be relegated. The Whites started the 22/23 season strongly under Jesse Marsch, winning 11 points, before slumping to relegation with 31 points.

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Nigel Martyn pinpoints improvement required

Leeds face two crucial games when the Premier League season resumes, as they face relegation candidates Burnley and West Ham in consecutive weeks.

Speaking to LUTV after the loss against Tottenham, former Leeds goalkeeper Nigel Martyn identified the improvement Leeds need to make to avoid the fate that Marsch and his successors, Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce, suffered in 2023.

Martyn said: “It sort of says how well you’ve done out on the pitch. The results are not what we’d want or what they’d want as a group, but the performance is there, and that’s the thing that you can guarantee every week is your performance.

“The performance was good today. Like you said, they created a lot of chances, but they’ve got to learn to start putting them away at some point; otherwise, the season will get long.”