Relegation battle heads into final week
Race to stay in top league down to six teams with three spots up for grabs
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND— And then there were six.
It wasn’t so long ago that the fight to avoid relegation from the world’s richest division went as high as ninth or 10th place in the 20-team English Premier League.
Now, there’s little more than a week left of the season and, unless something truly remarkable happens, three of West Bromwich Albion, Stoke, Southampton, Swansea, Huddersfield and West Ham will soon be preparing for life in the second-tier League Championship.
West Brom, in the Premier League since 2010, is unbeaten in its last four matches under caretaker manager Darren Moore, but still looks doomed in last place, five points from safety with two games left.
As for the rest, five points separates 15th-place West Ham and next-to-last Stoke.
Here’s a look at the task facing them:
Stoke (19th place, 30 points): The team most in trouble, after a decade in the Premier League. Stoke has two games remaining, at home to Crystal Palace and away to fourth-to-last Swansea, and probably needs to win both.
Southampton (18th place, 32 points): A victory over Bournemouth last weekend was its first in nearly three months. Not only did it give Southampton renewed hope by trimming the gap to safety to one point, it dragged more teams into the relegation scrap.
Swansea (17th place, 33 points): The Welsh club has a kind run of remaining games, starting away to Bournemouth before home matches against relegation rivals Southampton and Stoke. Beating Southampton could be enough to secure an eighth straight season in the Premier League.
Huddersfield (16th place, 35 points): One point may yet be enough for David Wagner’s side. But where will that come from?
West Ham (15th place, 35 points): The most high-profile team in the relegation battle.
That won’t happen if West Ham wins maybe one of its remaining three games, starting away on Saturday to Leicester. Then come home games against Manchester United and Everton.