The 2025–26 season broke Ruud Gullit. The Ballon d'Or-winning former Chelsea manager lamented on Ziggo Sport earlier this year: "Lately, I haven't been enjoying watching soccer much at all. The soccer is terrible to watch... it seems as if it is all controlled by a computer. I miss the fun."
While the Premier League hasn't always served up the kind of "sexy football" which Gullit called for during his first appearances as a pundit on English television, some teams found cause for celebration this season.
The end of long trophy droughts, returns to Europe, and seasons spared from relegation danger have been scattered across the division. Every club's judgment is based upon their own financial landscape.
2025-26 Season Review
West Ham United – Relegated
"West Ham has to be in the Premier League," Nuno Espírito Santo lament ed after relegation was confirmed. "We are a big club that has to be in the Premier League." The club are one of the 20 richest clubs on the planet, making relegation all the more damning.
Fun fact: The 2026–27 Premier League season will be the first in the history of England's top flight without a single club whose name begins with 'W'.
Wolverhampton Wanderers – Relegated (20th)
More than half the campaign had elapsed before Wolves collected their first win of a truly pitiful season. Club chairman Jeff Shi offered a diagnosis: "Maybe we sold too many players in one window." Within a week, he had been forced to step down.
Fun fact: Wolves won eight points against the Premier League's top five, the same tally as champions Arsenal.
Tottenham Hotspur – 17th (Same as Last Season)
"The bottle is always either half-empty or half-full," Igor Tudor declared during his Tottenham tenure. That about sums it up.
Fun fact: Tottenham's tally of 10 league wins is their lowest since just about scraping double digits when they were relegated in 1934–35.
Chelsea – 10th
A campaign that saw Chelsea's self-styled market disruptors trip themselves up with a strategy which drove the only successful manager of the BlueCo era, Enzo Maresca, out of the door.