Premier League relegation battle takes centre stage

TENSION is mounting at the bottom of the Premier League as the fight to avoid relegation heads towards a dramatic conclusion.

Thrashed 5-2 at Manchester United on Saturday, Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth are in free-fall after an eight-game winless run featuring five successive defeats.

The second bottom Cherries, one point from safety, face Tottenham, Leicester and Manchester City in their next three games.

That sequence will surely determine whether Bournemouth can extend their fiveseason stay in the top-flight for another year.

“Games are running out. If we’re going to stay in the division, we’re going to have to start picking up points,” Bournemouth winger Junior Stanislas said.

“We’ll have no excuses. We can’t keep talking. It’s time for action.

“There’s no reason why from now until the end of the season we can’t pick points up.”

Aston Villa’s wretched run of nine matches without a win has left the Villans third from bottom, just one point from safety.

Dubious pre-season investment in several underwhelming signings have left Villa relying on captain Jack Grealish to inspire their survival bid.

Dean Smith’s side have lost three of their five games since the restart and still have to face Manchester United and Arsenal before a potential final-day shootout with West Ham.

They could count themselves unfortunate not to have secured what would have been a point at Anfield in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat against champions Liverpool.

That obdurate display offered hope that Villa could still avoid an immediate return to the Championship, but Smith knows they will have to be more ruthless to achieve that aim.

“I don’t want to be a valiant loser, we’re scrapping for points,” Smith said.

“To out-shoot Liverpool at home at

Anfield, in terms of efforts on goal, it’s excellent, but we need to take our opportunities. We never found the quality in the final third they did.”

Watford’s 3-0 drubbing at Chelsea condemned them to a third consecutive loss and one point above the bottom three.

After five years in the top-flight, the Hornets face Manchester City and Arsenal in their last two games.

“The important thing is we understand our situation, that we don’t fear it,” said Nigel Pearson. “We need to show fighting spirit, and we also need to have the ability to still make good decisions.”

West Ham, sitting four clear of the relegation zone in 16th place, are in the best position to stay up thanks to their surprise 32 win over Chelsea last week.

Twice blowing the lead in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Newcastle was a setback in their survival bid, but David Moyes’ side have control of their own destiny.

The Hammers have now lost 24 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, more than any other side.

But with games against

Norwich, Watford and Aston

Villa to come, their forward

Michail Antonio is confident of beating the drop.

“The mindset for our next few games is that we want three points from each of them, and that’s what we believe we can get,” said Antonio, whose club have not been in the

Championship since 2012.

“Now we’ve managed to show our attacking form and we are scoring goals, we need to shore up our back as well.” –

AFP