The new boys - How the newest members of the Premier League are coping.

As the 2015/2016 Premier League season pushes towards the busy Christmas period, now seems like an appropriate time to see how the newly promoted sides are competing in the top flight of English football. Many newly promoted teams over the past decade have struggled in their first season, and have in some cases suffered relegation back down to the championship at the first time of asking. With the bottom of the Premier League famously being very tight, with many sides struggling to push into the top half, teams coming up from the championship now have as good a shot as any side to stay in the division. The tight competition, along side the apparent decline in quality from many lower Premier League outfits means that newly promoted sides are no longer the targets for the big guns as they used to be. With Watford, Bournemouth and Norwich City the newest sides to join the top tier of English football, I will compare each of their starts to the season, and give my prediction on whether or not they will stay up.

Many followers of English football describe the Championship as the hardest league to get out of in Europe. And with the title race, more often then not, going to the final day, and the battle for the play offs captivating the nation season after season, this claim is one which holds particular merit. So to win the championship is an incredibly difficult task, and one which requires a side to stand above the rest. AFC Bournemouth's performances throughout the season drew many compliments as they where being noted as the best footballing side in the league, and this led to them winning the title. When you consider that Bournemouth where the smallest side in the division and have a capacity of only just 12,000 in their home ground of Dean Court, winning the championship becomes even more impressive. For a side of this size, you have to wonder whether they could handle the Premier League, against some of the biggest and richest sides in the world and prior to the kick off of the 2015-2016 season, this factor had many people picking Bournemouth as their faviourites for relegation.

However, the performances from the cherries caught a lot of fans by surprise, despite defeats in their opening two games, the bravery shown in the performances, particularly away at Anfield showed the fans that they could fight to stay up! The following week AFC recorded their first win, a 4-3 victory over West Ham, with Callum Wilson firing in a hat-trick and instantly pushing him into stardom in the league. A steady run of results following the win looked to be showing signs of improvement for Bournemouth, however an ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury has ruled out top goalscorer Wilson for the remainder of the season, which will have many fans of the side worried. In the last two game weeks the winners of the 2014/2015 Championship title where reminded of the quality of the Premier League elite, losing two back to back games 5-1 to Manchester City and Spurs respectively. After 10 games the Cherries sit just outside of the relegation places, a position anyone involved with the club would surely accept right now. The question is, without their star man Callum Wilson can Bournemouth survive in the Premier League?

The play offs are always entertaining to watch and perhaps throw up the best action in the championship season. The winners of this mini-tournament earn promotion to the premier league, and the teams placed 3rd-6th get the chance to fight for a place in the final at Wembley, with the winner being the third and final side to join England's elite that season. Norwich City are the side who claimed this sort after spot in the 2014/2015 season and earned their place in the top tier of English football. Out of the three promoted sides, Norwich are the team with the most recent premier league experience, after only being relegated to the championship at the end of the 2013/2014 season. This could possibly give an advantage to the canaries ahead of this season as they know what it is like in the premier league, unlike the other to promoted sides who boast very little experience between them.

Norwich where perhaps the faviourites out of the newly promoted sides to stay up at the start of the season, with a combination of top flight experience and having perhaps the strongest squad out of the three, Norwich looked in a good position to survive. In their first four games, Norwich managed only one victory, but the performances where there and improving, as it looked like the players where getting used to the standard of the Premier League. City then went unbeaten through September, with two wins and two draws in the league, as the team appeared to be jelling and picking up very important early points. However, the key to survival in the Premier League is consistency, and despite a very good September, Norwich have failed to pick up a single point in the month of October this season and with their last fixture of the month away at Manchester City, it appears like that trend will continue. Norwich are currently sat in 16th position, and will almost certainly have to improve their consistency if they will to survive in the top flight.

The final sides out of the newly promoted that I will take a look at is Watford. Quique Flores's side finished just one point behind Bournemouth in the championship and earned the second automatic promotion spot in the Championship. Watford spent a single season in the Premier League in the 2006/2007 season and despite playing entertaining football where relegated straight back to the Championship. Since then the Hornets have flirted with the possibility of promotion, with many play-off appearances, but they have always fell just short. Having finally secured promotion last term, Quique Flores has brought in a few big names to help strengthen his team and to increase the chance of survival. Perhaps the biggest being former Spurs midfielder Etienne Capoue, the Frenchman had produced solid performances for Spurs, which earned his much acclaim throughout England. This addition, a long side a few others, had left Watford in a strong state to start the season.

Despite taking longer then any other promoted side to register their first win, Watford where also the only promoted side not to lose their opening league game, not being defeated until 29th August away at Man City. After that result, the Hornets went on the collect back to back victories, and the points started to come in on a consistent basis. One win, One draw and One defeat in the month of October is a steady run of form for a newly promoted team, which sees them currently sat in 13th position, the highest of any newly promoted team. This early position will impress anyone involved with the club, and it is a sign of content for the side early in the season.

10 games into the season, the new boys in the Premier League have all shown relatively good accounts of themselves. With all three sides turning in some strong performances, they all have a chance to stay up if they can get a consistent run of results together between not and May. My Prediction: Bournemouth - Relegated (sadly) Norwich - Safe (but only just!) Watford - Safe (The top performers of the new sides in the league).