Here’s Tali with his article on which teams are the favourite teams to get relegated this season
Who are the favourite teams to get relegated this season?
Here we look at the teams that are likely to go down this season and assess why this is the case.
Fulham
As I write this Fulham are in 17th position outside the relegation spots but in reality are everyones favourites to go down after their disastrous 18/19 campaign when they finished 19th with 26 points, 11 points from safety.
That season was disastrous in that they conceded 81 goals at 2.13 per game and scored 34 at 0.89 per game which resulted in a mammoth goal difference of negative 47 or 1.24 goals per game. Things to date have improved with them conceding 1.91 goals per game and scoring a goal per game with a negative goal difference of 0.9 per game. Are these improvements enough is the question?
Fulham generally rank as favourites on betting sites. You’ll see this with the bets available on the coral sign up offer, however the 2-1 win at Leicester has maybe caused a rethink though. What has happened is decisive action in the transfer market and in player change.
The disastrous 0-3 home defeat to Arsenal in GW1 caused a realisation that a continuation with that group of players would see another disastrous relegation. One that may even push Derbys record low points if 12 points in 2007 and 2008.
Only 2 players survived that Arsenal defeat in the opening day of the season to play in the 2-1 win at Leicester in gameweek 10. Those 2 players were Harrison Reed and Ivan Caveleiro.
The new transfers that played in that Leicester win were Olna Aina, Antonee Robinson, Ademola Lookman, Tosin Adarabioyo, Joachim Andersen, Alphonse Areola and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. André Zambo Anguissa was recalled from his loan spell and Bobby Reid returned to the team.
Is this transformation of the team enough for them to stay up or just desperation from Scott Parker with the Leicester result just being a one off. We will see.
West Bromwich Albion
If you look up the word yo yo in the dictionary you will see a picture of WBA such is their prevalence for bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship. At the moment they are in 19th spot in the Premier League as I write this. No side has conceded more goals and only Burnley and Sheffield United have scored less. They are 20th in expected goals against though with only goalkeeping masterclasses from Sam Johnstone keeping scores down. No goalkeeper has made more saves. If, as expected they do go down, then at least they will have the consolation of a decent transfer fee for Johnstone should he continue with this form.
Sheffield United
It’s hard to imagine that a team that finished 9th in the Premier League last season and that conceded on 39 goals (only the top 3 finishing teams in Liverpool, Man City and Man Utd conceded less) could now be in serious relegation trouble, bottom of the league and without a win in 11 games having only scored 5 goals. Wilder’s constant chopping and changing of his strikers can’t help either
Last season their inability to score goals (only 4 teams scored less and 2 of those teams were relegated) was masked by their defensive strength as I mentioned below. Now they are failing miserably at both ends. Only 3 teams have conceded more goals than Sheffield United and only 3 teams have more expected goals.
This failing at both end of the pitch is a recipe for disaster and possible relegation
