The Tractor Boys have moved between the top two divisions across the last three seasons, but this time they appear to have the tools needed to stay in the Premier League.

When the phrase ‘yo-yo club’ comes up, the side you think of first probably depends on which era you began watching football.

For me, that team is West Bromwich Albion, who went up from the Championship four times and were relegated from the Premier League on three occasions between 2002 and 2010.

Ipswich Town are the latest side to fall into that yo-yo pattern, looking too strong for one division yet apparently short of the level required in the league above, with Gary O’Neil’s team widely backed to suffer an immediate relegation after going up last season.

This is the fifth season in a row in which the Tractor Boys have competed in a different division, after successive promotions to the Premier League in 2022/23 and 2023/24, then relegation in 2025 followed by promotion.

When they were last in the top flight, they had to wait until November 10 for their first win, but they got that box ticked immediately this season by defeating Sunderland 2-1 in Saturday’s opener.

You might assume that clubs who bounce straight back into the Premier League would stand a better chance of staying there, but history shows that is seldom true. In fact, 10 of the last 13 teams to make an immediate return to the top flight were relegated straight away.

Burnley are a clear example, with it happening twice in the last four seasons: after dropping out of the Premier League in 2022, they were promoted in 2023 and 2025, only to be relegated again in 2024 and 2026 respectively.

But the Clarets are also one of only three clubs since 2013 to defy that trend, having gone down in 2014/15, won the Championship the next season and then stayed up in 2016/17.

The other two are Newcastle United in 2017/18 and Fulham, who finally stayed clear of relegation in 2022/23 after one-season Premier League spells in 2018/19 and 2020/21.

So what did those clubs do correctly, and how can Ipswich copy that model? Here are three reasons why the Tractor Boys look better equipped to survive this time.

For Burnley in 2016/17 and Newcastle the following season, survival was founded on a strong defensive record. The Clarets finished 16th but owned the 11th-best defence in the Premier League, while only six teams conceded fewer than the Magpies in 2017/18, when they finished 10th.

If Ipswich are going to stay up, they need a major improvement on the 82 goals they let in during their relegation campaign in 2024/25 — and there are signs that they can manage it.

After a shaky defensive start in the Championship last season, the Tractor Boys kept 11 clean sheets from Boxing Day onwards and finished the campaign with the joint second-best defensive record in the division.

The back four against Sunderland included three players from last season’s squad: captain Dara O’Shea, centre-back Jacob Greaves and left-back Leif Davis, all of whom were also involved in the relegation season. The defence was completed by summer recruit Issa Diop, who has spent the last eight years in the Premier League with West Ham United and Fulham.

Burnley’s defence in 2016/17 had a similar degree of continuity, with three first-choice players — goalkeeper Tom Heaton, Ben Mee and Michael Keane — all having been relegated with the club two seasons earlier.

Players such as O’Shea, Greaves and Davis will have learned from what happened two seasons ago, and that experience should help Ipswich become more solid at the back.

Ipswich’s longest-serving players could be even more significant given how many signings the club have made this summer.

The Tractor Boys have spent around £150m on 12 first-team players and could surpass Sunderland’s record spending by a newly-promoted club, £161m, which was set last season.

It is true that Ipswich spent more than £100m two summers ago and were still relegated, but they can look to Fulham’s 2022/23 model.

The Cottagers made several outstanding signings on their way to a 10th-place finish, including Bernd Leno, Joao Palhinha and Willian, but the side was built around an existing core featuring Tim Ream, Antonee Robinson, Harrison Reed and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Ipswich’s starting XI against Sunderland contained seven summer signings, with Julio Enciso and opening scorer Emersonn catching the eye, but it also included four players retained from last season’s squad, while another survivor, Jack Clarke, came off the bench to score the winner.

Although Sunderland showed last season that a complete rebuild of the starting XI can deliver success, O’Neil would be wise to keep that balance between familiar faces and new arrivals.

For Ipswich, the biggest uncertainty is on the touchline.

Kieran McKenna took the club from 12th in League One to the Premier League, so it felt like a major setback when the Northern Irish manager stepped down in June after securing a third promotion in four seasons.

However, O’Neil has already guided teams to Premier League survival twice — Bournemouth in 2022/23 and Wolverhampton Wanderers the following season — and the manner in which he achieved it could work in Ipswich’s favour.

Both of those teams were quite streaky in form, with the Cherries taking six points from 13 matches in the middle of the season before collecting 18 from nine games in March and April. At Wolves it was the opposite, with a run of 22 points from 11 fixtures followed by five points from 10.

There are echoes of Newcastle in 2017/18 and Fulham in 2022/23. The Magpies picked up one point from nine matches late in 2017, while in the spring a run of four straight wins was followed by four consecutive defeats.

Fulham also put together spells of four victories and four losses, and at one stage they went three months without drawing a single match.

In a relegation battle, being streaky can be better than collecting the odd win here and there, because one poor run can be offset by a burst of points that takes you much nearer to safety.

Ipswich drew 10 matches in 2024/25 but won only four, so if O’Neil still has that streaky quality in his management, the Tractor Boys should collect more wins and stand a better chance of shaking off the yo-yo label.