The Relegation Bound?

The Premier League this season has been full of surprises, goals, and excitement. But for some teams, the spiral towards failure and the drop to the Championship has become hugely close, due to some teams being so bad. The start of the season saw Sunderland picked as the favourites to go down, but with some decent results, and having only one good player it seems in Jermaine Defoe has helped them actually stand a chance in staying up. There have been inevitable sackings as well, as Hull, Swansea, and Crystal Palace have ditched their managers in the hope of a revival. Apart from Swansea who decided to do it twice due to the absolute shambles that is Bob Bradley, although I don't know who was worse, him or the board for actually thinking it was a good idea. Anyway, with so many teams looking mildly average at its best, we take a look at the teams that could be in real trouble come May. We will only be looking at the bottom six but any above could easily get dragged in if they're not careful, I'm looking at Watford and Bournemouth with the results they have had recently.

Swansea City

Where else can you start, other than the foot of the table? Last season was actually the only season that I feared for the Swans since they have come into the Premier League after fairly successful periods in the hands of Brendan Rodgers, Michael Laudrup and Garry Monk. The sacking of Monk was controversial, but the appointments and sackings after him have been baffling. The worst decision from the club this season was to sell Ashley Williams. I understand he may have wanted to leave and he was getting on a bit and they still got a sizeable fee for him considering his age, but he is the club captain, the best defender at the club, and they didn't replace him well enough. In fact they thought it was a good idea to sign Borja Baston with that money. I think we all know how that has panned out. To be fair Fernando Llorente is not a bad player, but the rest of their signings are not of a high enough calibre to be a similar team to Stoke. They sign Alfie Mawson, a young centre-back, and Leroy Fer, a serial relegation sufferer. They were destined for disappointment from day one. I just don't know who thought it was a good idea to appoint Bob Bradley. They need stability at the club. The last manager to stay there for two years was Roberto Martinez and that was before the club had even got into the Premier League. Now with Paul Clement in charge, a man without much experience as a manager, things look awful hard for him. It's hard to see them staying up this season, but they're lucky that there are some bad teams in the league.

Relegated? - Yes

Middlesbrough

Boro are a really difficult team to understand because they concede such a little amount of goals but also don't score enough. They seem to be adding Patrick Bamford to their side and they have already signed Rudy Gestede so their options up front are good with Negredo there as well. The future of Jordan Rhodes is unclear as he has been linked to a few Championship clubs including Aston Villa but still they have some good options. It is hard to see why they can't score a lot, maybe they need to add a couple of creative players to try and start getting into better areas. The signing of Negredo at the start of the season seemed unbelievable and he started well but they seriously need to find the net more. The fact some players have nearly scored as many as their whole squad is almost embarrassing. Defensively they are very good but that is not enough to stay up. Once they score some more i think they'll be fine and those times might not be too far away.

Relegation? - No

Hull City

Favourites for everyone to go down at the start of the season, Hull are struggling, however they still have a chance of staying up. Mike Phelan lost his permanent job after just one win in it, but he actually got more wins in the caretaker role. In truth it was probably harsh to sack him because their squad is that bad, they don't really have a chance of staying up. They decided to bring in this Marco Silva, and fair enough he won his first game in the Premier League but can they really keep it up with the squad they have. Probably the worst squad in the League and Silva has inherited a Championship side with the players there. They need a few new players if they're going to have any chance of staying up because the defence is weak, the midfield is just average, and up front they don't have much other than Abel Hernandez, who isn't great. Just like Sunderland, they have one player who is saving them this season and that's Snodgrass. He's just come out of nowhere and they have to hold on to him if they're going to have any chance of staying up this season. But Silva would have to work miracles to attract good enough players and to stay up so I can't see anything but them going down.

Relegation? - Yes

Crystal Palace

They may have appointed Sam Allardyce in the wake of Pardew's departure, but it hasn't gone to plan for them so far. Everyone expected them to stay up when he was announced as the new manager but he is still looking for a first win in the league. A master of staying up usually, he may be suffering from losing the England job still. They have a decent squad there though, they have Benteke who can score goals, along with Zaha and Townsend, then they have Cabaye in midfield. Scott Dann is not a bad defender but they need a couple of new players to fill the gaps in the team such as full backs and possibly a new centre half. They have some talent going forward and they just need to balance it out with the rest of the squad to stop there games being so full of goals. They need to try and get points from nothing and just grind games out. The odd point will get them higher up the table but they need to get wins against the teams around them such as when they lost 5-4 to Swansea that was a real turning point in the position of Pardew as they went from 3 points to 0 in the last 5 minutes. Allardyce just needs to prove he's the man for the job again.

Relegation? - No

Sunderland

I think it's fair to say, if Jermaine Defoe was not at Sunderland this season,they would already be relegated, Moyes would be out of a job again, and who knows how they'd end up after that? The club have been in this position constantly over the last few years and it looks likely to drag the whole way through the season. It is so hard to understand how they get it wrong at the start of the season every single year. The signings are never good enough apart from Defoe. You look at the record signing being N'Dong, and I had no idea who he was, who he played for, and now he is here, why they spent so much money on him. One other praise I have praise for is Jordan Pickford. For such a young keeper to have to face as many shots as he has to and the way he performs with such maturity, he deserves some credit for them not losing games by even more. They haven't got much talent in that squad, they have Januzaj who is probably overrated, Borini who can create something but not enough, and how John O'Shea still plays in the Premier League is beyond me. They always go in for players who are rejects at the bigger clubs, like Borini, Wes Brown, O'Shea, Van Aanholt, Mannone and the United trio of Love, McNair, and Januzaj. They need to start taking control and improving their scouting system and finally get some players that will make them a mid-table club rather than constant fighters down the bottom. Who knows when they have Defoe but it will be hard.

Relegation? - Yes

Leicester

It would be a massive shame to see them go down this season and I don't think they will. They have quality in there but they have probably realised they massively over-achieved last season. The loss of Kante was huge and if they had him I think they would be fine but with Mahrez and Slimani leaving for the AFCON it seems harder to stay up then they think. They are 5 points above the drop still but that could easily go down by the time those two come back. Mahrez and Vardy have both been disappointing this season and it shows how reliant they were on them last season. I don't think Ranieri can possibly be sacked so it is up to him to sort it out. They have a fantastic occasion coming up with the Champions League knock-out stages to look forward to but they cannot just focus on that. I don't think they have to spend a lot of money this window but if you look at the Chelsea game last week, it is just hard to think how they have changed so much over the last year. They will stay up though in my opinion, they have a decent side and will get to that 40 point mark with a few games to spare, it would just be awful to see them go down after such a fairy-tale last campaign.

Relegation? - No