England legend Gary Lineker has given a promising verdict on Burnley’s Premier League relegation fight.

Former Leicester City and Barcelona striker Gary Lineker believes it would be “great” for the league if all of the newly promoted sides survive this season.

Burnley, alongside Leeds United and Sunderland, were promoted from the Championship last season and the trio have made a strong start to their Premier League campaigns.

It has been a surprise to many that these three are performing so well and regularly picking up points after the disappointment of newly promoted sides of the last few years.

In the last three years, every side that has come up from the Championship has immediately gone back down to make many wonder if the gap in quality between sides achieving promotion was too big when compared to the quality on show for clubs that have been mainstays in the top-flight for many seasons now.

‘Great if all newly promoted sides stay up’

Lineker, speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Football, said: “I think it’s good for the league this year, and it might change.

“The three teams promoted, none of them are in the bottom three. In fact, they’re all pretty comfortably away from the gap. Burnley five points clear, Leeds are six and Sunderland are flying high. That’s great.”

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Over the course of the 38-game Premier League season last year, Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leicester City picked up just 59 points combined. Comparing this season’s promoted sides after the nine-game mark, they have already accumulated 38 points between them - meaning they are on course to win a combined 160 points if results were extrapolated how they have been so far this year.

Another statistic which shows that Burnley and co have given themselves the best possibility of surviving their first seasons back in the top-flight of English football is that after 10 games, any side with 11 or more points has survived. Currently, after nine games, Burnley have 10 points, and Leeds and Sunderland have surpassed that milestone already with 11 and 17 points, respectively.

It will be difficult for the Clarets to join the other two as their 10th game of the season is against league leaders Arsenal, but they have already put themselves in a promising position to avoid the drop so far.

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