Manchester United's worst Premier League start revives questions about its relegation history

Manchester United finished the tenth round of the Premier League in 18th place with eight points, the club's worst start to a Premier League season, according to the Brazilian outlet Trivela. The report said the threat of the Championship has hung over Old Trafford amid a crisis on and off the pitch, and it used that backdrop to revisit a question the club's supporters rarely have to confront: whether United has ever been relegated. Trivela's answer is yes, though never from the Premier League itself.

The Premier League began in 1992, and United has not dropped out of it. The club came close to the relegation zone in 2024/25, when it finished 15th with 42 points, its worst campaign in the current format of the competition, according to the report. Trivela counts five relegations from the First Division, the name of England's top flight before the switch to the Premier League, and notes that United is the most successful English champion with 20 league titles.

The report traces those five demotions across the club's history. The first came in 1893/94, when the club was still known by its founding name of Newton Heath LYR F.C., and it spent 12 seasons outside the top flight before winning promotion in 1906, four years after the club had been renamed Manchester United. A second relegation followed in 1921/22, the third edition of the championship after football resumed at the end of the First World War, and promotion took another three seasons, in 1924/25. In the early 1930s, a period Trivela describes as the club's most unstable, financial problems accompanied relegation in 1930/31 and a five-season stay in the Second Division. United narrowly avoided falling to the third tier, won promotion in 1935/36, but went straight back down in 1936/37 before returning to the top flight in 1937/38. The fifth and most recent relegation came in 1973/74, when United finished 21st in the First Division with 20 defeats and 32 points.

According to the report, United has never fallen to the third tier, but in 1934 it reached the final round of the Second Division needing a win over Millwall to guarantee survival, and a 2-0 victory avoided relegation. The last time the club played in the Second Division was 1974/75, when it won promotion as champions, meaning it has been in the English top flight continuously since 1975/76.

Trivela also looked at how far back one must go to find United ending a round inside the top-flight relegation zone after at least nine matches: November 1986, when the club sat second from bottom in 21st place after 15 rounds. That month Ron Atkinson left his position as manager and was replaced by a young Alex Ferguson. By the end of the 1986/87 season, the Scot had led a recovery that took United to 11th, and he stayed in charge until 2012/13, winning 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions League titles and two Intercontinental Cups, the report said. The piece was published by Trivela and is a media account rather than an official club confirmation.