Why QPR, Norwich City and Reading Will See Relegation This Season

Regardless of how sad it may seem to some, the Premier League’s battle for relegation is a struggle watched with as much—and sometimes even more—vigour than the fight for the top places.

It’s admittedly the early days of the English campaign, but that doesn’t mean that one can’t mark out the early contenders to see the drop when May rolls around.

This season, QPR, Norwich City and Reading have all started off in miserable fashion and currently occupy the relegation spots.

In the next eight months or so, the bottom half of the table will fluctuate as it always does, but ultimately, it will be the three aforementioned clubs that return to the Championship, from which none have been away from for that long.

Queens Park Rangers

Despite the massive rise in transfer expenditure over the last two seasons, the talent amongst the QPR squad simply won’t be enough to salvage the club’s Premier League status in the near future.

Since being taken over by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes last summer, the west London outfit have invested highly in their roster, bringing in the likes of Stephane Mbia, Esteban Granero, Julio Cesar, Bobby Zamora, Joey Barton and others.

While some of the transfer fees to sign these players were vast for a side of QPR’s stature, it’s the wages being paid to these stars that also make the deals so uneconomical.

It’s all well and good signing a raft of talented stars, but there’s still very much a place for growing native talent in the English top flight, something the Rs seem to have little time for at the moment.

One can only speculate as to how much loyalty these stars actually have to Queens Park Rangers, but it may be fair to say that not many of them grew up dreaming of playing their trade at Loftus Road despite claims that might say otherwise.

According to the Daily Mail, Mark Hughes could be heading for the Loftus Road exit, and if the club were to bring in a new boss, it would only flick the reset button on any manager attempting to mesh together this wildly assembled squad.

Yet to claim a win in the Premier League campaign, QPR currently have one of the worst defences in the division, conceding an average of 2.29 goals per game and keeping clean sheets in just 14 percent of their games.

To make matters worse, for all the signings that have been made of late, the side’s attack is suffering also and is actually faring far worse on home ground than when playing away.

For most teams, home territory is seen as a haven on which one can rely on to get results, but this record of disappointment as Loftus Road may affirm that theory of a lack of loyalty.

As money begins to influence the world of football more and more, there are examples of how cash injection affects a club for the better, and how it works to a side’s detriment.

Looking at their chances of survival success this season, QPR are certainly looking like one of the latter.

Norwich City

Compared to the aforementioned QPR, Norwich City have quite the opposite problem and are simply a classic example of a side falling subject to second season syndrome.

It’s the well-known formula of a side overachieving in its first campaign amongst a nation’s elite, but then either failing to improve in the playing ranks or just achieving as many would have expected in their second attempt.

With Chris Hughton flailing somewhat at the club’s helm, it seems that Paul Lambert may have been the key that was keeping this particular ship afloat and is a sorely missed figure at Carrow Road.

Although the club made several acquisitions over the summer, the Canaries’ squad is mainly made up of players that perhaps excelled in the Championship but aren’t quite cutting it at the elite level.

For the Norfolk side to survive, captain Grant Holt’s form will be vital, and so far at least, the English journeyman hasn’t quite reached the standards set by last season.

Hughton’s men currently have the second-worst defence in the Premier League, conceding an average of 2.43 goals per game, and they aren’t balancing that ratio out with their attack, failing to net in 43 percent of their games so far.

With the worst offence in the league, the Canaries also have a really tough run-in at a time that is generally seen as a vital period to turn seasons around.

Between mid-December and the end of January, Norwich will take on West Brom (A), Chelsea (H), Manchester City (H), West Ham (A), Newcastle United (H), Liverpool (A) and Tottenham (H).

Needless to say, the New Year's period will make it difficult to pick up points, and it wouldn’t be a shock to see the side suffer a setback that is simply too big to recover from. 

Reading

The riskiest pick of the three to see relegation this season, Reading have actually shown themselves to be a stern outfit for periods over the last two months.

That being said, a poor start leaves the club stranded in the bottom three as things stand, and Brian McDermott’s side have let results slip from their grasp that could be vital come season’s end.

Matches against Newcastle United and Swansea City both saw the Royals go in front, only to capitulate later on, perhaps exposing most of the players’ inexperience on the Premier League stage.

The January transfer window will be a telling period for the Berkshire side and will show just how new owner Anton Zingarevich plans to go about things with his new business venture.

The Daily Mail has reported the Russian businessman as saying that he is not the “new Roman Abramovich," which is exactly the way a promoted side needs to go about things.

However, as the squad stands, it doesn’t look like a side worthy of survival in England’s top tier, which is mainly due to poor defence.

Reading have actually looked impressive going forward at times but are yet to keep a clean sheet in the 2012-13 campaign.

Scoring an average of 1.33 goals per game puts Reading on a par with mid-table sides in the Premier League. But if you’re conceding an average of 2.17 goals per game, the amount you’re netting means nothing.

McDermott’s outfit will be the most likely of the three mentioned sides to be closely battling for their Premier League survival this season, and unless a miraculous winter transfer window comes soon, the Royals are bound for a dethroning.