This weekend, the Premier League relegation battle reaches critical mass. The bottom five teams all play on Saturday, with one or even two relegations possibly being confirmed.
My team, Huddersfield Town, are at home to Everton knowing that three points would all but guarantee a second season of top flight football, something most pundits wouldn’t have thought possible at the start of the campaign. Mind you, some pundits (looking at you Ian Holloway!) predicted we would be relegated from The Championship last season! Even one point could prove eventually to be enough, as that would put us on thirty six points, a total that is unlikely to be beaten by Swansea City, Southampton and Stoke City.
West Brom can’t catch us; they can only get to thirty four points, and in fact will almost certainly be relegated this weekend. The Baggies have a really tough trip to in form Newcastle United, and defeat to Rafa’s boys will condemn them to the drop. Even a win wouldn’t be enough if Swansea were to beat Chelsea in the Saturday evening match at the Liberty Stadium.
Stoke City kick off the weekend’s action in the lunchtime kickoff, but they travel to Anfield to face a buoyant Liverpool. However, if Jurgen Klopp were to rest the likes of Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane, Stoke may fancy their chances of getting a point. Although a point is rather, well, pointless at this stage of proceedings. In fact, Stoke would be relegated too on Saturday if they lose, Swansea win and Town get a point. The fact that both Stoke and West Brom have played a game more than everyone else does not help.
Southampton have four games remaining, and have a huge clash at St Mary’s against Bournemouth. I’d say they will take the three points here, and may well end up swapping places with Swansea City by the season’s end.
Anyway, back to Huddersfield Town’s run in. Everton at home is definitely the easiest game left for David Wagner’s miracle men. After that, they travel to Manchester City (who will be presented with the Premier League trophy after the game) and Chelsea, before hosting Arsenal in Arsene Wenger’s last match as manager. Three very tough fixtures, although all three could have nothing to play for when we meet, so we could maybe snatch some bonus points. I’d rather not have to hope for that though, and we can secure our Premier League status against Sam Allardyce’s bores.
Our manager has done an incredible job. David Wagner chose to strike out on his own when we appointed him in November 2015, when he was widely expected to join Klopp at Anfield as his assistant, and it’s proven to be a phenomenal decision. Almost immediately, the entire town were caught up in his charm, wit and enthusiasm, and the atmosphere at matches is second to none in the Premier League. It has been an incredible ride, and one which will hopefully continue for years to come.
However, Herr Wagner has been continuously linked to bigger jobs almost since the day he took charge at the John Smith’s Stadium. Aston Villa, VfL Wolfsburg, and Southampton have all been reportedly looking to take our man, and now even Chelsea are reported to be eyeing him up to replace Antonio Conte. Now, while I think Chelsea would be too big a step up for him, I am terrified he will leave us in the summer. I don’t think he will, but there will always be that period of panic whenever a big job in England or Germany becomes vacant.
Next season will be the clichéd difficult second season, but I am confident that the squad will be improved over the summer and we will be in a great position to survive again next time around.
Assuming we survive this season of course!
GamerJamesFM 