Premier League relegation battle: who'll stay up and who'll go down?

09 February 2015 09:40

This season with only four month of Premier League left, the relegation battle has started within the lower clubs. Only 5 points separates the bottom 5 clubs. Aston Villa are at 16th place with 22 points while last place Leicester City have only 17 points. Now 14 matches left this season, as the season progresses, the bottom three from these five clubs will be in real danger from being relegated to championship. Let’s have a look on these five clubs.

Leicester City:

They got difficult fixtures in the starting of Premier League but coped well and drew against teams like Everton and Arsenal and had beaten Stoke and Manchester United. But since putting 5 goals past United, their form dipped very much. They had won only 2 games since then. They are at the bottom of table with only 17 points in 24 games. In last 14 games, they will play against 5 teams who would battling for survival like them. They still have to face teams like Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea, Southampton and Everton. They will also play against mid table teams Newcastle United, West Ham United and Swansea. So if Leicester City wants to survive in Premier League, they have to beat all teams that are in the second half of the table.

Key players: Jamie Vardy, Leonardo Ulloa, Andrej Kramaric.

Queens Park Rangers:

With 19 points, the London club is second from bottom with two points above last place Leicester City. They have many good players with them but they cannot perform together as a team. This season, they gave a scare to some big teams. Liverpool could win against them due to two own goals from QPR while Manchester City have to come from behind twice to earn a draw against them. Now with Redknapp gone, it would be much more difficult for them to survive in Premier League. In remaining 14 games, they will play only two mid table sides while the remaining teams would be either chasing for title/champions league or would be battling for survival.

Key Players: Charlie Austin, Joey Barton, Bobby Zamora

Hull City:

Steve Bruce’s team reached the finals of FA Cup last year and they had nearly won it against Arsenal by scoring two goals within first 9 minutes. But as of now, they are at 18thplace and have 20 points. If Hull City wants to survive in premier league, they will have to work hard in last two months. They have capability to survive as they have drawn games at Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Manchester City but at the moment they cannot find a winning formula. They have not won since beating Everton on New Year’s Day. In April and May they will face five top teams in their last 8 matches. And if it comes to last day, then they will have to beat Manchester United, which would be difficult as Manchester United will be chasing for top 4 spot.

Key players: Nikica Jelavic, Ahmed Elmohamady, Abel Hernandez

Burnley:

After four seasons, Burnley returned to Premier League as they finished 2nd in Championship, 8 points ahead 3rdplace Derby County. Having 21 points from 24 games, The Clarets are at 17th place, one point and one place above relegation. For 10 consecutive league games, they have started the unchanged team. After going 2-0 down at Etihad, they came from behind to earn a draw against Manchester City. From 11th Feb till 18th April, they have difficult fixtures. They will face Manchester United(A), Chelsea(A), Swansea(H), Liverpool(A), Manchester City(H), Southampton(A), Tottenham(H), Arsenal(H) and Everton(A) in consecutive matches. They should look for at-least two draws and one victory from these games and should concentrate more in last few games.

Key players: Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes, George Boyd

Aston Villa:

After going goal-less for nearly eleven hours, Jores Okore scored for Villa in a 2-1 loss against league leaders Chelsea. The goal was Aston Villa’s first goal in 659 minutes. If one sees the front three of this team, no one will believe that they had not scored for 11 hours. They have a great pace up in front with the likes of Benteke, Agbonlahor and Weimann who can run past any defense but all three of them have been flop this season. Aston Villa have scored least number of goals season, 12 goals. After them, Hull and Leicester have scored least number of goals but have 9 goals more than Aston Villa. Despite of having scored least number of goals, they are still at 16th position and have 22 points. They have the worst goal difference of -20. They will have a difficult April when they will travel to Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City but with this kind of form, all the remaining fixtures would be a difficult one for them.

Key players: Gabby Agbonlahor, Ashley Westwood, Fabian Delph

Source: DSG