Guns up, wolves down: what’s left to claim in the Premier League? 

With Matchweek 30 on the horizon, fans of the English Premier League continue to shift their focus from the usually exciting top of the table to where the action really lies; the bottom. What is typically a tumultuous point in the season for title contenders seems much more docile this time around, with league leaders Arsenal and Manchester City the only real teams in contention for the cup.  

What is much more interesting than the boring but effective brand of footy that Arsenal is producing is the pile of clubs at the far end of the board fighting to stick around for next year. Two of these clubs are too far out of the race for redemption. Downright terrible Wolverhampton Wolves and hopeless Burnley are almost sure to be playing EFL Championship ball in a couple months’ time, with the latter a healthy nine points behind West Ham who currently sit seventeenth. Although West Ham are in jeopardy as it stands, it’s very hard to see the table remaining this way in the weeks to come.  

Remarkably, Nottingham Forest shares a point tally of twenty-eight with West Ham and lies only a single point shy of an atrocious Tottenham Hotspur. The illustrious history of both Forest and Spurs defies their less than acceptable standings in the table right now. Tottenham, a nearly one-hundred-fifty-year-old club who has won seventeen domestic trophies and two league titles, was most recently relegated in the 1976-77 season. Despite their impressive roster, they are hurt by a combination of poor squad depth, inconsistent managerial stints and unwillingness to spend large money in the transfer market. The fact that they are winless in their last eleven Premier League games is enough to tell you that at least one cog in the machine is faulty.  

Nottingham Forest on the other hand, who boast a trophy cabinet similar in size to Spurs, have never faced the prospect of relegation from England’s topflight division. The downfall of this side on the surface shares a lot of resemblance to what Tottenham is currently struggling with. However, one thing that Forest does have is players on hand, and this could be of vital importance in the remaining eight weeks of the season. A successful season for either team at this stage would simply look like staying up, and with fresh Forest legs looking for playing time at a point where surrounding teams struggle with injury, each player has a chance at being a major contributor to survival.  

Another interesting notch of the Premier League table is the dogfight to claim European qualification. The first two Champions League spots will almost undoubtedly be allotted to Arsenal and Manchester City, but that still leaves two more golden tickets for next season. Manchester United and Aston Villa currently sit in those spots with a shared fifty-one points; United sitting a place higher as a result of having scored six more goals in all league matches than Villa.  

Any sense of security however is an illusion as Chelsea and Liverpool follow closely behind with forty-eight points apiece, and Liverpool’s final four matches come against United, Chelsea, Villa and Brentford, all of whom immediately surround each other in the top half of the table. It looks like a lot is still yet to be determined in the final few weeks of the campaign. While neutral fans of the Premier League may not get the dramatic title race they hope for this season, they can be sure to get their fix of chaos as the campaign barrels towards finality on May 24.