Premier League Relegation Battle: Power Ranking the Teams in the Dogfight
Mathematically, no team sitting below Liverpool in the EPL table is safe.
You might think, there’s no way that Bolton or Everton is going down, but you might be wrong. However, we’ve limited our list of teams to those with 40 or fewer points—12 teams in all.
While Fulham and Newcastle might be surprising names in the EPL relegation dogfight power rankings, they aren’t safe yet.
For Wigan, West Ham, Wolves, Blackpool, Blackburn and the other teams hovering around the bottom, every match is a life or death matter.
Here are our predictions for who will go down and how it will all pan out.
12. Wigan
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Apologies to all fans of the Latics, but Wigan has been just plain awful this year.
For a while, Wigan was the second-worst team in the league, bar none. Then West Ham United acquired Demba Ba and Thomas Hitzlsperger returned from injury, and the Hammers cobbled together a run of respectable form.
Wigan, on the other hand, just got worse. The team’s defense is in shambles and, other than the admirable efforts of the very talented Hugo Rodallega, the side has absolutely nothing going forward.
In the coming weeks, Wigan faces Blackpool, Sunderland, Aston Villa, West Ham and Stoke City, all teams fighting relegation and better than Wigan. Add Everton to that list and prospects are dim for the Latics.
Wigan Finishes the Season With: 31-35 points
11. Blackpool
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Blackpool was a side we were all rooting for not long ago.
The Tangerines came up from the Championship and hustled their way into the top 10 in the fall of 2010. Charlie Adam, the team’s captain, is an irascible rouge everyone loves.
But alas, things were not to be. The team has had a terrible run of late and, other than the continuing brilliance of Adam, can’t seem to get anything right.
In their remaining fixtures, Blackpool faces Newcastle, Stoke, Tottenham, Bolton and Manchester United, with the lone reprieve coming compliments of Wigan. The team currently sits one point clear of relegation, and with that fixtures list and their current poor form, it’s hard to see the Tangerines staying up.
Blackpool Finishes the Season With: 33-37 points
10. Wolves
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For the casual fan, Wolves are strange. For diehard Wolverhampton supporters, they’re the most frustrating thing in the world.
Wolves ended Manchester United’s unbeaten run and trumped Manchester City 2-1 at the beginning of the season. They also beat Chelsea and Liverpool and pounded Blackpool 4-0.
But then, Wolves allowed seven goals in two games in April of 2011, scoring only one in that same period. They lost every single one of their league fixtures in September and November and only won a single game in October.
Despite their intermittent brilliance, Wolves haven’t been able to coble together a good run of form all season. With relegation looming and striker Kevin Doyle out for the rest of the season, Mick McCarthy and his men don’t have what it takes to stay up.
Wolves Finishes the Season With: 35-39 Points
9. Birmingham
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Birmingham have a serious problem, and that serious problem is firepower.
Only five players on the team have more than two goals during the 2010-11 season, and only two of them have five or more. No single player has scored more than six goals.
In the coming weeks, Birmingham faces Sunderland, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle, Fulham and Tottenham. None of these fixtures will be easy, especially considering how much firepower all of these teams have. The only reprieve is a bout against Wolves.
Is Birmingham as worse team than West Ham United? No. They’ve shown as much this season. But Birmingham faces fixtures that will be a lot tougher to win that West Ham’s will and as such will finish below the Hammers in the table.
Birmingham Finishes the Season With: 37-40 points
8. Blackburn Rovers
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Blackburn is a reliable squad.
For the past 10 years, the team has performed consistently well. In four of its past five seasons, Blackburn has finished in the top half of the table.
The October 2010 takeover of the club by Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group seems to have put a damper on the Rovers’ spark. Since sacking Sam Allardyce, Blackburn has gone into something of a tailspin.
Thankfully, for Rovers supporters and the club’s new owners, the team has enough winnable fixtures in the coming weeks to finish above the relegation zone and stay in the top flight for another season, though their upcoming battles with Manchester United, Manchester City, Everton and Bolton won’t do the Rovers any favors.
Blackburn Finishes the Season With: 40-43 points
7. West Ham United
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The primary problem West Ham United has suffered this season is inconsistency.
Not inconsistency in the sense that Wolverhampton is inconsistent, but inconsistency from the various parts of the team.
One week the defense is letting in three goals against West Bromhich Albion while the offense is scoring three goals against them. A few weeks later, the defense shuts down Tottenham, but the strikers create nothing.
Luckily, for West Ham, the side’s last handful of fixtures, after climbing successive mountains known as Chelsea and Manchester City in the coming weeks, is relatively easy. It is for this reason that we predict the Hammers will fight their way to safety.
Hammers Finishes the Season With: 40-45 Points
6. Stoke City
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Other than diehard Potters supporters, nobody expected much from Stoke City in the 2010-11 season.
The intermittently brilliant form of midfield talisman Matthew Etherington and the diligent defending of players like Robert Huth, AKA the Berlin Wall, put the Potters in surprisingly good table position for a sizable swath of the 2010-11 EPL season.
Despite this, the Potters have suffered a very poor run of form in recent weeks. Stoke City has won two of its last 12 league matches. To exacerbate the situation, the Potters face Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa at Villa Park in the coming weeks.
Luckily, for Potters supporters, the side has enough points that wins in upcoming matches against Wigan and Wolves will be enough for the side to stay in the top flight for another season.
Stoke Finishes the Season With: 45-47 points
5. Fulham
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Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey play together on the US national team. It’s not totally ludicrous, then, to suspect that they colluded to have Dempsey’s Fulham steam the mantle for "Kings of the Draw" from Howard’s Everton for the 2010-11 EPL season.
Thus far in the season, Fulham has 14 draws, 10 losses and eight wins. The team just can’t figure out how to win consistently.
Though Fulham’s remaining fixtures won’t be easy—they face Bolton, Liverpool and Arsenal—the side will easily take enough points to stay adrift in the middle of the table come the end of the 2010-11 season.
Fulham Finishes the Season With: 42-48 points
4. Sunderland
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Oh boy, the Black Cats.
Not long ago, Steve Bruce had Sunderland right smack in the middle for the European slots on the table. It looked as though the Black Cats were poised for a brilliant day in the sun during Europa League 2011-12.
Then Darren Bent got overly familiar with Steve Bruce’s daughter, put in for a transfer, ended up at Villa and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since Bent’s departure, Sunderland has won a single match and drawn one more. The Black Cats haven’t won since Jan. 22; they have lost seven of their last eight matches.
Sunderland has enough easy fixtures coming up—Wigan, Wolves, West Ham—to survive the drop, though don’t be at all surprised with the side finishes below Villa in the table.
Sunderland Finishes the Season With: 44-49 points
3. West Brom
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West Bromwich Albion 2010-11, the Shakespearean drama of the season.
Last September, coach Roberto Di Matteo and striker Peter Odemwingie earned the Barclay’s Manager of the Month and Player of the Month respectively.
Then team then experienced a horrible run of form, falling all the way down to the relegation zone. Di Matteo was fired, and former Liverpool gaffer Roy Hodgson was brought in to replace him.
Since Hodgson’s appointment, the Baggies haven’t lost a league game. Odemwingie has recovered his form, scoring two goals and notching four assists in WBA’s last two matches. Things are going swimmingly.
Add to that a few winnable games coming up, and WBA has no fear of being relegated. Well played, Hodgson. Well played.
WBA Finishes the Season With: 43-48 points
2. Aston Villa
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If you've turned on the television to an Aston Villa game during the 2010-11 season, you've heard it: this team is too good to be where it is in the table and far too good to be relegated.
Ultimately, that’s spot on. Darren Bent, Ashley Young, Stewart Downing, all great players. And in the past few weeks, Villa has played with coherence and precision, as if the team is finally gelling.
Villa’s real problem this campaign is transition. The team is currently being restructured as players young and old alike come and go from Villa Park. New manager Gerard Houllier is doing his best to integrate these players into the squad while creating a coherent plant for himself as gaffer.
The Villains Achilles heel has been its abject away form during the 2010-11 campaign, though the side faces a string of easy fixtures against the likes of Wigan, Wolves, West Ham and Stoke City in the coming weeks, many of them at home.
In their battles against both Newcastle and Everton, teams with far better table positions, Villa showed resilience, aggression, creativity and perseverance. The Villains won’t be relegated, and they’ll carry their resurgent form into the 2011-12 EPL season while integrating
Villa Finishes the Season With: 43-51 Points
1. Newcastle
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To the casual observer, it seemed as though Andy Carroll carried the Magpies through the fall of 2010.
Then Carroll suffered a prolonged injury, nipped off to Liverpool and left the Toon side in a lurch.
Or so we thought. Enter unsung heroes Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan, and new favorite Leon Best and you have side that won’t go down without a fight—or down at all, in the relegation sense.
Newcastle is in fine table position as of this writing and has enough simple fixtures in the coming weeks that the side, and its devout supporters need not worry even a teensy weensy that the Magpies will face relegation.
They’re a fine side with a clear-headed manager and enough talent to stay another season in the top flight.
Newcastle Finishes the Season With: 46-50 points
