May the Worst Teams Lose...

I was at Villa Park yesterday to witness Burnley collapse to an unprecedented 13th defeat in their first 14 away games of the season, their porous defence leaking five goals along the way. However, impressive home form has kept them in contention and with less than 3 months of the season to play, it seems like it could be any two from seven clubs that will end up in eighteenth and nineteenth places come the end of the season.

Twentieth place is surely accounted for. The 2-1 defeat at home to ten-man Stoke City yesterday sees Portsmouth eight points adrift from safety with twelve games to play, and while mathematically speaking there remains hope, off field affairs seem to be taking their toll on the club. Unpaid wages, the threat of going out of business altogether and the fact their manager was recently caught in a tabloid scandal visiting a brothel doesn't help a team shawn of their FA Cup winning stars of 2008. Only 4 players remain less than 2 years on from that monumentous occasion and this season the club seem to have had more owners than victories to their name. With Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool and in-form Birmingham all coming up in their next six fixtures, even wins over rivals Burnley and Hull City would probably not be enough.

Pompey aside, the relegation battle looks to be as exciting as ever with only 4 points separating Brian Laws' 19th placed outfit and Gianfranco Zola's Hammers in 13th. Stoke City and Blackburn have strung a series of results together to pull away from the pack, but early high-flyers Sunderland have nose-dived spectacularly and talk on Weirside has gone from European qualification to avoiding the drop over the last couple of months. Wigan Athletic, so unpredictable earlier in the season have become almost dead certs to lose, with only two wins in fifteen games in all competitions. With a dismal ten goals at Molineux all season, Big Mick's Wolves may be lacking the bite required to stay up.

Phil Brown's Hull have been written off by many but the Tigers are still level with the pack, the recent win over Manchester City and draw with Chelsea restoring some hope for the KC crowd. As for Bolton Wandererers, Owen Coyle has a real challenge on his hands to keep his team ahead of his former employers over the road at Turf Moor.

The basement battle seems certain to go on to the last day of the season as it has so often in recent seasons, and for some clubs it could be a long way back if they go down. For every Newcastle United, surely ready to bounce straight back up, there's a Bradford City, doomed to lower league obscurity. With Portsmouth's financial disaster, they could well go the way of Bradford, but as for the other teams, they will all fancy their chances of maintaining their place in the elite. Perhaps not because of their own abilities, but because of the fallability of others...