Intense Battle for Long-Term Presence in the Premier League

LONDON (AP) — A good fight for tenure can keep things interesting at the bottom of the Premier League table. Although it does not usually involve nine teams.

Barely four points separate Southampton, last place in the standings, from 12th place Crystal Palace, heading into the final stretch of the season, where teams at risk and a few restless coaches will try to change their luck.

Palace manager Roy Hodgson describes her as “exceptional” and she has been manager since the mid-1970s.

“Usually you don’t have almost the entire bottom half of the table fighting to avoid relegation and you certainly don’t see that many teams that people would say, ‘They can’t get relegated, they’re too big teams to be relegated,'” he said. Hodgson, who at 75 is the oldest coach in league history.

The top 11 teams can still qualify for European competition, while with an 11-point gap between Aston Villa and Palace, any of the bottom nine clubs could lose the category.

Saturday’s home game against Leicester will be Hodgson’s first in the dugout as a replacement for the laid-off Patrick Vieira. The South London team has gone 12 games without a win and is still looking for its first win of the year.

Vieira’s supporters point out that the club’s problems were against some of the best teams in the tournament. During his losing streak, teams like Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool were measured.

“We are in a dogfight. We have a slight advantage, but it’s not very big,” said Hodgson, who was Palace manager from 2017 to 2021.

According to statistics company Opta, Palace have a huge advantage with the most accessible remaining schedule. The team faces only two rivals in the top 10 of the table, Tottenham and Fulham, in the remainder of the tournament.

Everton are in 15th place, but that could change by the time their match against Tottenham comes around on Monday night. The club has not been relegated since 1954 and with a new stadium due to open soon, it cannot afford to be relegated.

The fight is so close that bottom-tier Southampton could move up four places if they beat West Ham on Sunday.

Rubén Sellés is Southampton’s third manager this season. Six of the last nine teams have changed managers as the owners look desperate to stay in the world’s richest league. The exceptions are West Ham, Leicester and Nottingham Forest.

“We understand that at this point in the season, the situation may become more tense,” said Forest manager Steve Cooper, who was awarded a new contract by the team in October, when many thought he would be sacked with his team at the end of the season. last place.