Premiership Relegation Permutation
Sheffield United,West Ham and Wigan fight to avoid the drop
Three clubs, Sheffield United, West Ham United and Wigan face crucial games in their battle to avoid relegation from the Premiership and dropping into the Championship.
Sheffield United, West Ham United and Wigan Athletic will be scrapping it out on Sunday in their efforts to avoid dropping out of the million pound venture that is modern day football in the Premiership.
Watford have known their fate for some time returning to the Championship twelve months after promotion from it following their play-off win over Leeds United at Cardiff. Charlton Athletic lost their fight for survival when they failed to defeat Tottenham Hotspur in their last game and drop out of the Premiership after seven seasons in the top league. Three managers in a season proved too much for the club and Alan Pardew was unable to complete the rescue mission that seemed a possibility a few weeks ago.
Fulham reached safety last weekend with the three points gained from a home win over a weakened Liverpool side whose only focus of attention is their Champions League Final against AC Milan in Athens in twelve days time. Fulham’s decision to remove manager Chris Coleman with five games to go and replace him with Lawrie Sanchez, the Northern Ireland international manager, as caretaker has been justified. Having avoided relegation Sanchez has now resigned from the Northern Ireland post to take up the full-time position at Craven Cottage.
Two down, only one place remains and Sheffield United, West Ham and Wigan will all want to avoid that unwanted place. Sheffield United are the highest placed of the three teams fighting to avoid the drop. They are sixteenth, three points ahead of Wigan and level on points with West Ham but with a superior goal difference. At one point having recovered from a difficult start to their first season after promotion, Sheffield United looked to be safe from any relegation worries. However, a loss of form has seen them slip into danger and they go into the final game against fellow strugglers, Wigan Athletic knowing that a point will make them safe and that even in defeat they could still survive as long as West Ham also lose.
At one point West Ham United were everyone’s favourite for relegation, so precarious was their position. However a late surge masterminded by manager Alan Curbishley and orchestrated on the pitch by their Argentine star, Carlos Tevez has seen them move out of the relegation spot, ahead of Wigan. With all the controversy surrounding the signing of Tevez and Javier Mascherano last summer, it was widely expected that West Ham would receive a punishment that would include a points deduction. However, leniency prevailed and West Ham gratefully accepted their £5.5 million fine which increased their chances of survival. West Ham visit Old Trafford, the home of the new Premiership champions and need a win to be certain of survival but if Wigan don’t win their game, they will be safe.
Wigan Athletic are the club who have slipped from a position of relative safety over the past few months to find themselves occupying the last relegation place at the start of the final day of the season. Facing a trip to Bramall Lane to play fellow strugglers, Wigan know that they only result that will be acceptable to them is a win. Any other result will see them relegated after two seasons in the Premiership. It will take some doing by Wigan as their form in recent weeks has been very discouraging.
As it stands Wigan look favourites to go down with West Ham and Sheffield United surviving for another year. However, on previous occasions unexpected results have turned such predictions upside down and a Wigan win at Sheffield would mean that West Ham would need to take points from the Champions, no easy task.
