With Southampton becoming the first team in history to be relegated from the English Premier League with seven matches to go, the spotlight has shifted to promoted teams’ struggle to survive in the elite league.

Fellow promoted sides Liecester and Ipswich look set to follow suit, with a quick return to the Championship.

Leicester’s Foxes set an unwanted record of their own with Monday night’s loss to Newcastle. They have gone eight home league games in a row without scoring a goal.

Ipswich are closest to survival of the bottom three, but are a whopping 12 points adrift of Wolves with seven games to go in the season.

The promoted trio’s relegation struggles are a worrying repeat of last season, when Luton Town, Burnley, and Sheffield United also lasted just one campaign in the top flight.

It would mark the first time in history that every newly promoted side is relegated in consecutive seasons.

Does it spell a widening of the chasm between the elite league and the level below?

Outmuscled

Sacked Southampton manager Ivan Juric pointed to a gap in physicality between the Premier League and the second tier.

“What I notice the most in these three or four months I am here is a completely different physicality between us and the other teams in the Premier League,” Juric told Reuters.

"I think the same thing happened to Leicester and Ipswich Town. The difference between physicality of Championship and Premier League. Physically when it’s a moment of transition, when it’s a moment like a basketball game, you cannot do it because they are physically stronger, faster and this is the huge difference.”

Juric had replaced Russell Martin in December with the Saints nine points from survival, but could only manage to win two of his 16 matches.

The weekend's 3-1 loss against Spurs confirmed the Saints’ relegation with 10 points, and Juric’s exit.