The battle at the bottom of the English Premier League

Who will survive the drop?

The Premier League’s bottom three take on three of the division’s current top five.

In most other leagues, these would be mismatches, but this is English football and you can never guarantee anything.

A point for any of the sides in trouble would take them out of the bottom three and above QPR, who do not play until Monday. But is that likely?

Burnley v Southampton Are the Clarets doing better than expected?

Burnley have won only two out of 15 and have been in the bottom three after every single game so far this season. But you won’t find anyone criticising manager Sean Dyche or berating the players, and that is just as it should be. With all the clubs they were competing against in the Championship, it was a minor miracle that Dyche guided them to promotion last season. He then brought in eight players in the summer, with the most expensive being joint club-record signing George Boyd, a £3 million purchase from Hull. With that sort of business, no one was expecting more miracles this year.

Without a win in their opening ten games, there was ludicrous talk about Burnley not winning a game all season just as ludicrous as the chat about Chelsea going all season unbeaten. Thankfully, successive wins over Hull and Stoke silenced that argument. Now it is only one defeat in five, and there has only been one game the 4-0 hammering at West Brom in September where they have been uncompetitive. The return of Danny Ings from injury has given them more cutting edge in attack and they could nick a few more wins. They might even get one against Southampton tomorrow, who have lost their last three.

What is refreshing is that Burnley and Dyche have never moaned about their lack of resources. They are giving their best and chiselling out some useful results along the way. It probably won’t be enough to ensure a place in the Premier League next year, but the club and its supporters should be proud of how they are mixing it with the big boys.

Chelsea v Hull what is going wrong for the Tigers?

BY rights, Hull City should be struggling. Remember, this is only the club’s fourth season in the top flight of English football and they cannot yet claim to be established at that level.

But the anomaly comes when you look at some of the players signed by Steve Bruce since they won promotion in 2013 Curtis Davies, Tom Huddlestone, Nikica Jelavic, Michael Dawson, Hatem Ben Arfa.

These are all good footballers and not ones you associate with a team battling relegation. But after one win in their last 14 games, Hull lie in 18th place.

But the malaise goes back further. When Hull beat Fulham 6-0 on 28th December 2013, they were 10th. Since that day, they have taken 27 points from 34 games, which is certainly relegation form. They had a safety net last season following a good start, while focus towards the end understandably switched to the FA Cup final. But perhaps the current run is a reflection of a side who have got used to not winning, and that is despite the arrival of some very good players. Has Bruce changed too much too quickly? There was a tipping point at Birmingham when Bruce was manager, where they moved away from the scrappers who had been so successful and were eventually relegated in 2006.

Hull will probably lose at Chelsea and remain in the bottom three this weekend. But they still won’t be one of the three favourites to go down, yet they know they are very much in the mire.

Leicester v Manchester City – Has Pearson been too loyal?

That is a fair question to ask about the manager of Leicester. The side currently props up the Premier League and have not won for ten matches.

In that period, they have collected just two points and from the high of beating Manchester United 5-3 in September, there was the low of manager Nigel Pearson insulting a supporter during the recent home defeat by Liverpool.

In that game against Liverpool, Pearson’s team contained nine players that helped win the Championship title for the Foxes last season. Only Argentine pair Esteban Cambiasso and Leonardo Ulloa were new faces, and Ulloa had also played in the Championship for Brighton. That would suggest that some of those players are finding the demands of the Premier League too much, especially after the initial buzz of promotion has worn off. Jamie Vardy had the game of his life against United, but has not scored since, and the energy of home draws against Everton and Arsenal has not been seen in other games.

Maybe with the pressure off against the Champions, Leicester could summon the cup-tie spirit that has been missing for three months. One good result, and they may find the belief to boost their survival prospects.