Newcastle, Watford, Burnley, and Norwich are embroiled in a mighty scrap to stay in the Premier League relegation survival hopes. The battle for the drop: Newcastle, Watford, Burnley, and Norwich. Watford will play against Newcastle, Burnley against Norwich in the next seven days at the bottom as the battle intensifies.
Looking at Watford’s next three fixtures: Newcastle (A), Burnley (A), and Norwich (H), all within a week as they start with their trip to St James’ Park on Saturday. Claudio Ranieri’s squad currently sits outside the relegation zone on 13 points but that could be a different story at the end of the week.
Norwich, regardless of suffering six defeats on the spin without a goal are still in touching distance of Watford on 10 points, with Newcastle and Burnley with 11 points, although Sean Dyche’s squad has two matches ahead.
Based on how their fixture lists to assess who has the easiest run-in, gauges the stats to find reasons for hopes and fear about survival hopes. Emmanuel Dennis has contributed 13 scores and assists combined to Watford’s future bid.
One player that has more goals this season, Liverpool’s star Mohamed Salah who is way on 2021 AFCON ahead on 25. Dennis has made his presence felt in his debut Premier League campaign, also accepting the most fouls (38) and picking up six yellow cards. Watford has as many leagues win compared to the three clubs below them combined.
According to the Premier League history, only five teams managed to avoid the drop with fewer than eight wins with most recently Southampton in 2017-18, with seven. With more than half of their season remaining, eight wins feel more achievable for Watford than for any of their bottom-four teams.
Watford is the only team among the top four divisions without a clean sheet this season, but having made it to the 96th minute of their last league match. West Brom has an all-time Premier League of 34 record matches with no clean sheet, set in the 2010-2011 season. They stand the only team of the bottom four to still have to play Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea away from home still. For Watford’s survival, all they need is to tighten up at the back, their 57 shots on target faced at home also being the highest of any club this season.
Burnley Players celebrating in a past match. Photo courtesy: Getty Images
Burnley has been avoiding defeat in more games (nine) than they have lost (eight) this season, something none of the other bottom four can claim. They have the best defensive record in the bottom half, conceding the same number of goals (27) as West Ham and Manchester United who both have their eyes set on potential Champions League qualification. Once Max power returns from the ongoing 2021 AFCON, Maxwell Cornet will be crucial in making Burnley survive.
With age concerns, Burnley’s most recent Premier League match against Leeds had an average age of 30 years players. With Chris Wood gone, Burnley has lost a prolific player who has scored 28 times of their Premier League since his arrival in 2017. Only one of his teammates, Ashley Barnes, has even attained double figures among the last five seasons combined.
Newcastle’s Chris Wood at a past match at Burnley. Photo courtesy: Getty Images
Moving forward Newcastle scored opening goals in nine matches. Eddie Howe has had a successful record of coaching a Premier League attack with his Bournemouth side named seventh, ninth, and seventh for the goals scored in their second, third, and fourth seasons in the top division.
Newcastle is the only team to have three different goalkeepers starting three or more Premier League matches this season. If survival currently seems like a big ask, Norwich might take more comfort from needing only two more points to avoid being bracketed alongside Derby in 2007-08, whose 11 points remains the fewest by any team in a full Premier League season.
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