With five sides facing a survival showdown next Sunday, here are five reasons why each might have cause to cover their eyes before looking down.
With Manchester United having wrapped up a record breaking 19th League Title at the weekend, the focus for the last round of Premier League games will be firmly on the battle to avoid the drop. Following Sunday’s gripping climax at the DW Stadium we know that West Ham have been the first to bite the dust, leaving two remaining places for five teams. What makes it even tenser is the fact that these five sides are separated by a mere point. Not since the conclusion of the 2003/04 season when nothing was decided until the final day and four teams were in the battle against the drop have the stakes been so high.
With that in mind, next Sunday’s season ending finale will be a day of fraught nerves and heavily chewed finger nails, as one suspects the situation will end up changing several times during the day. Take it from one who knows, last day survival battles are not all they’re cracked up to be...they’re worse.
So, five teams facing the drop meaning five reasons for each of them to be nervously looking downwards...
1. Blackburn Rovers
Sitting erm...’pretty’ in 15th place and with the best goal difference, Blackburn might be considered the favourites to stay up...if it wasn’t for the fact that they will be playing obe of their direct rivals in Wolves. Not only was Wayne Rooney’s penalty crucial in securing the title, it deprived Rovers of two valuable points. Their match against Wolves could prove to be detrimental to both. In a game neither can avoid to lose, a draw could see both teams going down if the teams around them pick up victories. Circumstances suggest victories all round is unlikely but the match could see both opponents go down.
In assessing the job Steve Kean has done so far, it’s very difficult to say. If they survive on Sunday then I guess its job done, however is it too much of a stretch to think that if Sam Allardyce were still in charge that they would perhaps already be safe by now? Kean’s on the job training he’s received these last few months is going to be sorely tested against the wily experience of Mick McCarthy. The Indian investors must be praying that their first foray into the world of football is not too end in relegation, after all, Ronaldinho is not going to want to go to play in the Championship is he?
2. Wolverhampton Wanderers
Given they are facing Blackburn I guess you could effectively copy and paste a lot of what I said above, however you’ll all be pleased to know I’m not the lazy. Wolves have hit form just when they looked to be dead and buried with victories over Sunderland and West Brom taking them out of a relegation zone that they had basically taken up squatter rights over. But as Alan Hansen suggested on MOTD, could they not have shot their bolt? As funny as it sounds, there is always a side that seems to emerge from the relegation zone on the last day, dropping in one that has had their heads above the water.
Out of all of the teams, Wolves have arguably the best balance to their team and have secured some impressive wins, however it’s the defeats to teams around them that leave them where they are. They have home advantage, but sometimes this can count against you. A filled stadium of nervous and tense people can’t have put the pressure on.
3. Birmingham City
A question being floated at the moment; if you’d have guaranteed Birmingham fans the League Cup trophy but at the price of relegation would they have taken it? I think most might, but for the majority of the season this trade off didn’t look like an issue. Safely ensconced in mid table a couple of months ago, a run of two wins in eleven games has dropped them like a stone. The heroics of their cup win and their impressive performances last year seem a long forgotten memory. It’s not hard to see why, the issue is goals, as in, they don’t score any.
Birmingham have scored just 36 times, that’s the lowest tally in the division. With much of their strike force currently injured (not really saying much I know) it doesn’t look like that stat will be changing any time soon. Success last season was based on a rock solid defence and securing 1-0 wins however that solidity has now deserted them at the crucial time. Scott Dann’s injury seems to have upset his partner Roger Johnson, and what was a previously water tight backline is now shipping goals. Their performance against a Fulham side with little to play for was pitiful and if you’re a team that doesn’t score very often, forgetting to defend isn’t really going to help.
4. Blackpool
This isn’t meant to sound patronising (even though I’m sure it will come across so) but the very fact that Blackpool are in this position, still well in the mix to survive in the Premier League come the last day of the season speaks wonders of the amazing job that Ian Holloway and his players have done. Taking the league by storm with a ‘no fear’ brand of attacking football, they were in the upper reaches of the table at one point before a slide which was always likely when their squad began to get stretched. That is why Holloway was so adamant that he would use all the resources available to him the reason he was in hot water for fielding a so called ‘weakened team’. It was perhaps inevitable then that the situation they face on the final day could bring the issue of ‘playing your strongest team’ back to the fore.
Blackpool’s trip to Old Trafford comes when their opponents have already secured the title and with a Champions League final around the corner. Inevitably it is likely that some of the reserves might be drafted in. The consolation for Blackpool’s rivals, thinking they may be getting a helping hand is that the men in tangerine are still playing the Champions, on a ground where they have only dropped two points all season. Manchester United players will also be playing for potential Champions League final places. Still, you just get the feeling that unless Obertan, Bebe and Darron Gibson et al. turn on the style then we might not have heard the last of ‘weakened teams’ and the ‘integrity of the competition’...
5. Wigan Athletic
Looking at the scenes that greeted the final whistle against West Ham, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Wigan had already survived, however they are still perilously at risk. The dramatic outpouring of emotion was understandable but if Wigan have proven anything this season (and the last for that matter) then it’s that they are spectacularly unpredictable. Their roller coaster victory against the Hammers summed them up. At times, when the progressive passing style of Roberto Martinez comes off it’s a joy to behold but too many times, as it did in the first half the team are ridiculously slapstick in defence. Too many of their defensive players seem to lack that little bit of nous.
The most striking part was their inability to deal with high balls, crosses into the boxes. Switching off at set pieces, they lack organisation and are heavily prone to teams that dominate them in the air. When you factor all of that it doesn’t really bode too well that their survival rests on a trip to...Stoke.
No comments:
Post a Comment