Nuno Espirito Santo’s third-placed Nottingham Forest have been one of the stories of the season so far, massively exceeding expectations after finishing 17th last season to emerge as potential title challengers in 2024/25.
Here, football writer Adrian Kajumba looks at other underdog teams who earned their place in folklore by defying the odds in memorable campaigns during the Premier League era.
Norwich City - 1992/93
Norwich City only just retained their top-flight status in 1991/92, finishing only three points above the relegation zone to secure a place in the first Premier League campaign.
From those depths they rose and scaled unexpected heights the following year when they were widely tipped to go down.
After the springboard of a confidence-boosting 4-2 opening day win at Arsenal, one of the title favourites, Norwich ended up setting the pace in the Premier League until December and remained firmly in the title mix until April, when a defining 3-1 home defeat to eventual champions Manchester United ended their hopes.
They eventually claimed a club-best third-place finish, the highest position achieved by a team with a negative goal difference (Norwich finished on -4) and first ever European place in the UEFA Cup, famously knocking out Bayern Munich.
Newcastle United - 1993/94
After winning the 1992/93 Division Two title to end their four-year absence from the top division, Newcastle’s momentum continued into the Premier League.
Led by their newly-formed 55 league goal strike partnership of golden boot winner Andrew Cole (34 goals) and Peter Beardsley (21), Kevin Keegan’s team took the Premier League by storm and finished third to bring European football back to St James’s Park for the first time since 1977/78.
Newcastle’s Premier League campaign remains the best from a newly-promoted side, ahead of Nottingham Forest’s due to a superior goal difference of +41 to +29.
Nottingham Forest - 1994/95
A year after Newcastle, Nottingham Forest did the same by rising from the second tier, in their case being promoted as runners up, to finish third in the Premier League.
A brilliant start left Frank Clark’s side second before a mid-season dip saw them fall to fifth. But a brilliant 13-match unbeaten end to the season, featuring nine wins, and 22 goals from star man Stan Collymore helped them secure third spot and a UEFA Cup place.
Ipswich Town - 2000/01
Following three successive semi-final defeats, Ipswich finally won the second tier play-offs in 2000 to end their five-season exile from the Premier League though they were expected to go straight back down.
Instead they established themselves in the top six, boasted one of the division’s best strikers in 19-goal, Golden Boot runner-up Marcus Stewart and, for a long time, were on course to finish in the top three and claim a UEFA Champions League place.
A 2-1 defeat at Charlton in their third to last match proved costly in that pursuit and Ipswich finished fifth, three points off third.
But there was still significant reward for their exploits - UEFA Cup football for the first time since 1982, with their run the following season featuring a famous 1-0 win over Italian giants Inter Milan, while manager George Burley deservedly won the Manager of the Season award.
Everton - 2004/05
In the early 2000s there was a fairly established order at the top of the Premier League. Then along came Everton to upset it.
Remarkably, they enjoyed their best Premier League season after losing brilliant young talent Wayne Rooney to Man United and avoiding relegation by just six points the previous season.
In 2004/05, David Moyes’ men managed to hold their own alongside eventual champions Chelsea and runners-up Arsenal for the first half of the season, before ending the campaign fourth to qualify for the Champions League.
Reading - 2006/07
Reading proved they were a good team by winning the 2006 Championship title with a record 106 points to earn a top-flight place for the first time in their history. But nobody expected them to continue enjoying success in the Premier League.
Another side expected to suffer an instant relegation following promotion, Reading instead went on to secure a club-record eighth-placed finish, missing out on European football by just one point.
Fulham - 2008/09
In 2007/08, Fulham only stayed in the Premier League by the narrowest of margins on goal difference. Ensuring they remained in the top flight more comfortably was the target the following season, but they ended up doing far more than that.
Firstly Fulham secured their highest-ever finish of seventh and a place in the UEFA Europa League following a remarkable turnaround under Roy Hodgson in 2008/09, beating the likes of Man United and Arsenal at home along the way.
They then capped a famous period in their history with an incredible run to reach the following season’s Europa League final where they were just edged out 2-1 by Atletico Madrid.
Southampton - 2014/15 & 2015/16
Southampton were more renowned for some of their dramatic relegation battles in their first Premier League spell but developed into one of English football’s model clubs after returning to the top flight in 2012.
Impressive recruitment of players and managers, in particular, helped them overachieve with four successive top eight finishes.
Two of those - in 2015 when they were as high as second before finishing seventh and 2016 when a strong second half of the season led to a Premier League best finish of sixth - brought Europa League football to St Mary’s for consecutive seasons.
Like Ipswich, their second run also included an unforgettable home win against Inter Milan.
Leicester City - 2015/16
This is one of football’s greatest underdog stories. In 2014/15 Leicester, under Nigel Pearson, were bottom for over four months of the season before surviving, relatively comfortably in the end, following a late run of seven wins from their final nine matches.
Despite that finish, nobody would have predicted what came next. Starting the 2015/16 season as huge 5000-1 outsiders to win the title, Leicester took advantage of the usual suspects all underperforming to defy the odds and win an incredible first top flight title.
They did so with a brilliant, well-drilled team of largely unheralded players that excelled on the counter-attack, was led by Claudio Ranieri and spearheaded by 24-goal Jamie Vardy who set a Premier League record along the way by scoring in 11 successive matches.
Leicester flew out the traps and once they gained momentum they could not be stopped, remaining in the top six the entire campaign and staying top from January to the season’s historic conclusion.
Burnley - 2017/18
Burnley’s first two Premier League campaigns ended in instant relegation but their third saw them survive for the first time by finishing 16th, laying the foundations for their best season in 44 years.
Though Burnley had bigger ambitions than just staying up, there were no thoughts of a top-half finish.
Yet that is exactly where they ended the season, in seventh, after a five-match winning run followed an 11-match winless sequence, to qualify for Europe for the first time in 51 years.
Other Premier League underdogs
Blackburn - 1994/95
Just three years after promotion, Blackburn disrupted Man United’s early dominance of the Premier League, winning their first top-flight title since 1914 fulfilling the dream of owner Jack Walker and completing their rise from second division strugglers to champions of England.
Middlesbrough - 2004/05 & 2005/06
After winning the 2004 EFL Cup, Middlesbrough went onto reach the UEFA Cup last-16 and finish seventh to qualify for Europe via the league for the first time the next season, before then going on a dramatic run to the UEFA Cup final in 2005/06 where they were outclassed by Sevilla 4-0.
Portsmouth - 2007/08
Two seasons after they just survived in the Premier League having finished 17th, Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth finished eighth and won the FA Cup for the first time since 1939, securing a UEFA Cup place and the club’s first foray into European football.
Swansea City - 2012/13
Swansea became the Premier League’s first Welsh side in 2011 and ended their second season in the top flight ninth and by winning the EFL Cup to claim their first-ever trophy, inspired by cult hero and Spanish striker Michu.
