There is just over one month left of the Premier League
season, and the relegation battle continues to heat up and take all sorts of
twists and turns. 3 teams will suffer relegation to the Championship and if
that wasn’t bad enough, now thanks to Sky and BT, they will also miss out on
the millions of pounds that will come from the Premier Leagues new TV deal that
kicks in this summer.
Already it is looking highly likely that 2 of those 3 teams
will be Reading and Queens Park Rangers. The two southern based sides are not
completely dead and buried, but continue to struggle in keeping up with the
points totals of the teams above them. At the moment the final relegation spot
is held by Wigan Athletic who have a game in hand on most of the sides above
them and are also still going strong in the FA Cup. What makes this battle to
stay up even more interesting is that sides such as Stoke City and Sunderland
who were looking a lot more comfortable one month ago are now in real danger of
being dragged into the drop zone. Some people might disagree with me on this,
but having looked at the remaining fixtures of all the teams in the Premier
League, I would not rule out any of the teams in the lower half of the table
being dragged further into relegation trouble before the season reaches its
climax in May.
Having watched the Premier League for many years, I know as
well as the next person how unpredictable and exciting this league can get. Given
that the gap between 11th placed Southampton and 18th placed Wigan is just 6
points, to rule anyone in between and including those sides out of trouble
would be absurd. For a team currently outside the bottom 3, all it takes is a
loss in their next match, a win for the teams around and below them, an injury
or suspension to a key player and they are in even deeper trouble than before.
It makes for excellent entertainment for the neutrals such as myself, but does
no favours to the nervous systems of the supporters whose clubs league future
is in jeopardy.
I don’t doubt that every team will give their all for every
remaining game to ensure a happy finish to the season. The toughest games will
be against those chasing a top 4 finish and fellow relegation candidates. There
is a chance that the best way for teams to pick up points could come from
facing the teams in the top half of the table that will most likely just be
playing for pride. As we’ve seen in the past, teams can often go into summer
holiday mode early when a European place is unachievable and there is no threat
of relegation. But at the same time as this is one of the best leagues in the
world, the standard will not be allowed to drop too much and the teams in
trouble will still have to work their socks off to get the points needed to
guarantee safe passage into next seasons Premier League.
This time last season things at the bottom were completely
different, the gap between 18th and 11th was a whopping 14 points, and while
the battle to stay up lasted all the way until the final day of the season last
year, it was overshadowed mainly by the dramatic way Manchester City won the
Premier League title that day as well. This time with the trophy looking most
likely to go to Manchester United before the final day given the 12 point gap
between them and City at the moment, more attention should then go to the
bottom half of the table on the final day of the season, and if come that all
important day on May 19th the majority of the teams in the bottom half are
still fighting to stay up, it is going to make for another incredible end to
the Premier League season.
Andrew.
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