champions Leicester City on the opening day of the season, however as expected, Hull struggled throughout the season and were relegated, not helped by discontent amongst fans over the club's ownership, along with the lack of investment with regards to player transfers and effective preparation while the club was up for sale, and poor performances on the pitch. Marco Silva replaced Phelan in January and rejuvenated the team, getting some good results, in particular in a 2–0 home win over Liverpool and a point away at Old Trafford, however the damage had been done in the first half of the season, and Hull finished 18th. The following summer saw a large number of player departures and a new manager joined Hull, Leonid Slutsky. Stoke City returned to the top flight at the same time as Hull's promotion, having been in exile for 23 years and returned in reasonable style with a 12th-place finish. Stoke have since established themselves as a consistent mid-table Premier League club, under the management of Tony Pulis and more recently Mark Hughes, finishing 9th in the league for three consecutive seasons between 2013–14 to 2015–16, before eventually relegated in 2017–18. Birmingham City, who had two spells in the Premier League between 2002 and 2008, returned to the elite for the 2009–10 campaign one season after relegation and secured a ninth-place finish, the club's best in decades and one of their highest ever. 2010s Norwich City returned to the top flight for the first time in seven years, a season when the team had to win against Fulham at Craven Cottage in order to survive but were relegated straight back to The Championship after a 6–0 defeat. After the 2008–09 season, the club were relegated to League One, only to win the league at the first time of asking despite an opening day 7–1 record league loss to Colchester United. The season after in 2010–11, Norwich earned their place back amongst the elite by gaining the second automatic promotion spot in the a Championship, with many pundits tipping the team for immediate relegation. However, they were consistent for most of the season, never being in any real danger of relegation, before finishing the season in 12th position. Norwich remained a Premier League club for two more seasons under the management of Chris Hughton but were relegated in the 2013–14 season, with the club sacking Hughton towards the