da wazamba： With Aston Villa’s unconvincing but nevertheless crucial home win over Newcastle this weekend, and Blackpool’s home defeat to Arsenal, the relegation fight looks set to be between six sides at the bottom of the division.
da dobrowin： Of those six, two, Blackburn and Blackpool have yet to spend any time in the drop zone, yet are in severe danger of playing in the Football League next season.
For all the talk of Blackpool being unfortunate, the biggest losers in this year’s relegation battle have been the Premier League’s established sides involved in the scrap. Blackburn and Aston Villa have seen their poor run of form coincide with arguably the best-prepared collection of promoted clubs since the Premier League began.
Newcastle and West Brom returned to the top flight with painful memories of previous campaigns and, crucially, a number of their playing staff that went down in 2008-2009 returned this time around.
As a result, as many as ten sides could fall through the trap door into the Football League. Contrary to Sky’s constant championing of their product, the Premier League is going through a lull in quality since the halcyon days of European achievement at the end of the last decade. The gap between the top and bottom of the division has not been smaller in my lifetime and as such the battle for survival is set to fluctuate up until the final round of fixtures.
Whereas last season Hull City and Portsmouth bowed out of the division broken by attempting to remain the in the top flight, this season’s relegated sides would not be spent forces at this level.
Only Roberto Di Matteo of West Brom has received his P45 as a result of performances this season, as several clubs try to work out whether to stick or twist.
The Italian’s dismissal came after an incredible start to the season for the Baggies fell flat, but for sides residing outside of the top half this year, a couple of results have been enough to gain five or six places.
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Midlands giants, Villa have found themselves freefalling in 2011. A difficult season became all the more problematic when slipping at home to local and relegation rivals Wolves, although four points from their last two matches looks to have pushed the ship away from ‘Championship rock’.
Another side to find 2011 heavy going is everyone’s second team, Blackpool. A cataclysmic run of results means that for the first time since the opening day of the campaign, the Seasiders are amongst the favourites for relegation. Ian Holloway’s attacking philosophy that has won so many plaudits, could well cost the club their top-flight status.
Pundits and neutrals have extolled the virtues of this close campaign at both ends of the table. For the quality of the division, however, seasons like this cannot be sustained. The more established Premier League clubs may well find themselves throwing financial caution to the wind this summer – teams like Villa, Fulham and Everton who have floundered at times this season, will appreciate the age of relying on every promoted club to struggle at the highest level may well have passed.
All 20 teams have already surpassed the points total that would have been enough to survive the drop last season, and with that statistic many will feel a sense of injustice if they lose out in the lottery of the final six games of the campaign.
Unfortunate and capable as the dispatched clubs may well be, however, the cost of relegation remains the same. There are no guarantees at any level of the game – you only need to look down at the Championship table for 20 stories of former Premier League clubs unable to return to the big time after seemingly being well equipped to bounce straight back up.
For years, journalists could not see an end to the “Big Four” epidemic at the top of the division. In the season that that myth has apparently been shattered, the way we read the relegation battle, may have also changed forever.
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