IMO about 5 teams deserve relegation. There looks like some good teams in the Championship who play better football than some teams in the PL.
Credit to them because I have been stubbornly sticking to them for the drop all season but they have got some big results at the right times. Apart from Utd away their run in is hand picked so you have to fancy them to get a couple of wins from somewhere.
Though knowing them, they'll battle United to the death, and then fluff their lines against lesser competition. But yeah...at the moment you have to favour Wigan/Villa, who swing from good to bad and back, to the consistent dreariness of Sunderland and Stoke.
I suspect that both Sunderland and Wigan will win tomorrow to keep up our habit or whatever the result staying 4 points away from the drop zone.
Stoke used to just rely on having a good defence and scoring the odd goal. Now their defence is in poor form they look a very bad team.
And the candidate for that 18th spot becomes ever more involved. Great day for us and Villa, horror day for Stoke, poor day for Norwich. A lot still hinges on how Di Canio gets on at Sunderland, but if he can reverse their slide, then we could easily be going into the last day of the season with at least three sides all trying to survive. A little bit of pressure on Wigan to get a result tomorrow now.
This season's relegation battle is fascinating. It is a shame that QPR and Reading now appear to be unlikely to be saved. I think Wigan will beat QPR tomorrow although I have my fingers crossed for a Ranger's win as that will help Saints stay up. I read somewhere on this board that someone went down with 42 points a few seasons back. The way we are playing at the moment makes we feel confident we are more likely to ascend the table but I feel the battle for the third spot will prove compelling. I think Sunderland have an almost impossible task with their fixtures but Di Canio may prove to be the inspiration they need. Wigan always seem to escape and the speed at which Stoke have imploded makes you fear for their safety. I thought at the beginning of the season that they would go down and almost saw they holding up the table the way QPR have done for much of 2012/13. Curiously I could see Saints sending Stoke down on the last day just as we did with Wimbledon back at the Dell many years ago. I could see 40 points being insufficient for survival this season. (I think we will be on about 48-49.)
