The Premier League season is well past the halfway point, and reading the table from the top, there are few surprises. Pep Guardiola’s trademark style has once again seen his team finesse the league, with Manchester City nine points ahead of nearest rivals Liverpool. The presence of Chelsea in third is no surprise, while the ever-improving West Ham United sitting above the mis-firing Manchester United in fourth gets less surprising by the day. But the place for surprises resides a little further down the table. Without being unfair to Watford, their place in the relegation zone is expected. Few will be shocked by the sight of traditional yo-yo club Norwich City either. But for various reasons, Everton, Burnley and Newcastle United are all relatively hard to imagine actually dropping down, despite it being almost certain to happen to at least one of the three.
The bottom five are separated by five points, and are all under no illusions that they are fighting a relegation battle. How well equipped are they for the fight to survive? Here’s The Sportsman’s appraisal of the relegation dogfight.
Everton
The incongruity of Everton’s plight is perhaps best summed up by their January transfer business. Few would have envisaged Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli signing up for a relegation battle at the start of the window, but the pull of Goodison Park and new manager Frank Lampard proved strong enough to land the pair.
The Toffees going down is almost unthinkable, having last played a season in the second tier in 1953/54. But Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to fellow strugglers Newcastle underlined the Merseyside club are definitely part of the relegation battle. Lampard’s managerial nous will be tested like never before, though you would expect the quality he has brought in to be enough to avoid the drop.
Newcastle United
The January window came and went without the signing of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar or any of the other names the nouveau riche Geordies have been half-jokingly linked with since their takeover. But manager Eddie Howe got some quality through the gates of St James’ Park. Bruno Guimaraes looks an exciting acquisition with the long-term growth of the club in mind, while Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood and Dan Burn all have the stomach for this sort of fight.
The Magpies are starting to look like a team on the rise, going unbeaten in their last four games. Newcastle looked dead and buried when unpopular manager Steve Bruce made way for Eddie Howe, and the ex-Bournemouth coach made a slow start. But Newcastle seem to be taking to Howe’s ideas and, with just one point separating them and Everton, they are still very much in this fight.
Norwich City
“Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.” Thanos was talking about his plan to annihilate half of humankind when he spoke those infamous words in Avengers: Infinity War, but he might have been talking about Norwich City. The Canaries have spent five of the last ten seasons in the Premier League, with the other five coming in the Championship.
There are reasons to be cheerful in East Anglia though. Norwich have beaten relegation rivals Everton and Watford in their last two games, and an FA Cup upset win over Wolverhampton Wanderers bodes well for their momentum. The fixture list gets tricky from here, with Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea to come in their next seven matches. Ties with Crystal Palace, Brentford and Leeds United during that same run could define their season.
Watford
Three permanent managers have presided over Watford’s affairs this season, opening them up for the usual jokes and criticism. However, the hiring of Roy Hodgson feels like the Pozzo’s have got it right for the first time in a while. The vastly-experienced 74-year-old has been here before, and is a master at getting a team to do the basics well without overloading them with information. The ex-England manager looks ideally suited for the Hornets’ plight.
The results will have to come soon though. A 0-0 draw away at Burnley was costly, and Hodgson’s men don’t face another side in the bottom five until the 19th March. Watford’s talented frontline will need to be complemented by Roy’s trademark defensive improvements to give them any chance of staying up in the midst of some tricky fixtures.
Burnley
It is to Sean Dyche’s immense credit that a club the size of Burnley being rock-bottom of the table is actually a surprise. The Clarets have become a Premier League fixture, having spent the last five seasons in the top flight. Their sixth looks like being their last, having only managed one win all season.
Tuesday’s battling 1-1 draw with Manchester United showed promise, and new signing Wout Weghorst was superb up-front. It remains to be seen whether these green shoots will grow into anything over the course of the campaign. Five points adrift of safety, it might finally be time to say goodbye to a team who have brilliantly overachieved for so long.
