Prem relegation race: A panicked battle of who won’t blink first

The race to avoid relegation from the Premier League is desperate and unusual, because any of those involved could yet pull away from it.

At times of late, it has felt as though some of clubs near the bottom of the Premier League table want to get relegated. Everton were thoroughly rancid in losing 5-0 at Tottenham Hotspur, while Norwich’s resistance against Chelsea lasted precisely three minutes. Watford were three down at Wolves by the midway point in the first half. And then there were Leeds, whose new manager bounce seems to have amounted to no more than not looking completely dreadful against Leicester before getting absolutely humped by Aston Villa.

Three clubs have to fall come the end of the season, and the gap between them and the rest means it remains difficult to see past Norwich City and Watford occupying those bottom two places. Either team could go on a sudden lurch of two or three straight wins to pull themselves out of the relegations places quite quickly, such has been the unusual look of the bottom of the Premier League table. But if three have to go, it’s difficult to see past these being two of them.

The third relegation place is currently occupied by Burnley, who are rapidly become the Jekyll and Hyde of the bottom half. Their last two matches, at home against Leicester City and Chelsea, were not exactly encouraging, but these came off the back of impressive wins at Brighton and at home against Spurs, and a draw at Crystal Palace. If Burnley continue in the vein of their last two matches, they are unlikely to survive the cut. But Sean Dyche has already proved they are capable of summoning up points from out of nowhere, even if they have still only picked up three league wins all season. One of those