At the bottom of the table though sights are set on just getting enough points to stay in the Premiership for another season. It seems likely that Aston Villa will be one of the teams to go down, but which two will follow them? Newcastle have just changed their manager but will Rafa Benitez be the man to keep them up or will the Spanish waiter just have to be contented with keeping up Mike Ashleys current girth? Sunderland changed their manager two games before they faced Newcastle in previous seasons to secure their Premiership safety. Newcastle have done the same with their head coach and will hope for a similar result.
At the moment the table looks like this:
PLD W D L PTS
Palace 29 9 6 14 33
Swansea 29 8 9 12 33
Sunderland 29 6 7 16 25
Norwich 29 6 6 17 24
Newcastle 28 6 6 16 24
Aston V 29 3 7 19 16
March 12th weekend:
Palace and Sunderland games are postponed due to the FA Cup and so it gives the bottom three the chance to catch up, and Swansea to try to get as much distance as they can.
The early game sees Norwich City face Manchester City at Carrow Road. Although the Blues are off the Premiership title pace and may have one eye on the upcoming Champions League game I think the Canaries will do well to even get a point from this.
Swansea play Bournemouth, who themselves could potentially get dragged into a relegation battle. I think points shared for this is good and both will be happy with the result. On Monday Newcastle, and their new boss, travel to Leicester with Rafa Benitez desperate to start well, and I think they will, with a point. That result will see them go level with their rivals Sunderland with 29 games played.
The weekend of March 19th is going to be a great weekend for the bottom clubs with two six pointers being played. The biggest of these is, of course, the Tyne-wear derby played at St James Park, and a Newcastle victory.
The other six pointer is sees Villa travel to Wales where they face, and tie, against Swansea. The run of defeats stop but a point is not good enough for Villa. In the other two games Leicester travel to Palace, who have been given extra belief from their FA Cup exploits as Alan Pardews side finally get a League win. For Norwich however, things go from bad to worse. Traveling to West Brom they will head back to East Anglia empty handed. We leave March with Newcastle temporarily out of the relegation zone and the table looking like this:
PLD W D L PTS
Palace 30 10 6 14 36
Swansea 31 8 11 12 35
Newcastle 30 7 7 16 28
Sunderland 30 6 7 17 25
Norwich 31 6 6 19 24
Aston V 31 3 8 20 17
April starts with another six pointer for Newcastle as they travel to Norwich. The pressure is on Norwich now as the gap between them and safety has increased but the Canaries do enough in this game to put a bump in the Benitez road and get the three points.
Defeats for Villa at Chelsea and Swansea at Stoke will see the Crystal Palace draw against West Ham give Pardew’s side that much closer to safety. Sunderland host, and tie with Stoke in the weekends other game.
The rest of April will see Palace mathematically secure their Premiership status in April, most likely at home to Everton. A win at home to Norwich meant the point gained away against Arsenal means the Everton result is enough and they can relax with three games left to go.
Swansea, Sunderland, Norwich and Villa all get just the two points from the remaining four games of April while Newcastle manage to get seven, including a point when Benitez returns to a Europa League distracted Liverpool.
As April ends, everything at this end of the table is pretty much figured out. Aston Villa get their conformation of relegation, most likely with the away trip to United in mid April. A week later Swansea secure their Premiership safety, the same weekend as Palace.
PLD W D L PTS
Palace 35 11 9 14 42
Swansea 36 8 13 15 37
Newcastle 35 9 8 18 35
Norwich 36 7 8 21 29
Sunderland 35 6 10 19 28
Aston V 36 3 10 23 19
Before we get to this point the re-arranged fixtures may have also taken place. Palace’s game away to United and Sunderland hosting Everton were postponed due to the FA Cup while Newcastle still have to face Manchester City. I think Sunderland will be the only side to get a point from those, meaning only a point is needed for the Toon to survive.
May:
As we enter May, Newcastle will get their point, but in the end it was not needed as the chasing two, Norwich and Sunderland both lose to United and Chelsea respectively. As Newcastle go into the final game it is they who are comfortable and can relax, a situation they were not sure of when Benitez initially took over.
When the League concludes at the final whistle on May 15th the table will look like this:
PLD W D L PTS
Palace 38 11 10 16 43
Swansea 38 9 13 16 40
Newcastle 38 9 10 19 37
Sunderland 38 6 12 20 30
Norwich 38 7 8 23 29
Aston V 38 3 11 24 20
Let me know what you think.
Jason is a Freelance Soccer Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy and www.facebook.com/jasonbardwell1979
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