Who will be relegated from the English Premier League?

Who do we think will get relegated from the English Premier League?

It is tradition for at least one, often two and sometimes all three of the promoted clubs from the Championship to struggle against relegation from the Premier League and for at least one of them to ultimately fail.

Comfortably

Last season saw West Brom go straight back down, Hull had a great start but only survived by the skin of their teeth in the end, and Stoke bucked the trend somewhat by surviving relatively comfortably.

Sunderland, Blackburn, Portsmouth and Bolton all struggled to safety and may face a similar battle this time around.

Difficult

The promoted sides will find life very difficult indeed. Wolves and Birmingham have been there before and have rarely stayed for long in recent years, whilst Burnley are the real outsiders after their play-off victory took them into the top flight for the first time in their history.

So what chance do these teams have of avoiding the drop? You have to say that Hull look to be in real trouble. Just one win in twenty-two games at the back end of last season almost saw them go down, but they managed to survive. In the summer, manager Phil Brown has targeted many players but so far, none of them seem to want to go there. In fact, five players have left and only one has arrived. It will be a tough season for The Tigers.

Business

Sunderland have a new manager in Steve Bruce and they look as though they mean business this season. The arrivals of Fraizer Campbell, Paulo Da Silva, Lorik Cana and probably Darren Bent, together with departure of many of the old guard should see Sunderland with enough to stay up. I don’t see them doing much more than surviving, but survive they will.

Portsmouth are having a tough time. They seem to have a new owner who doesn’t have any money. They do appear to be selling some of their better players, Peter Crouch, Glen Johnson and bringing in the likes of Steve Finnan, released by Espanyol. All in all, with manager Paul Hart already saying that survival is their only target this season, it looks like being a pretty bleak one down there on the South coast.

Shrewd

Bolton have a shrewd manager in Gary Megson. It seems that many of Bolton’s fans don’t like him and he is a very dour character, but he is certainly a canny manager. The signings of Zat Knight, Sam Ricketts, Paul Robinson and Sean Davis all improve the strength of Bolton’s team and squad and I have little doubt that they will be fine this season.

Birmingham will struggle. They don’t score too many goals and the signings of veteran players like Barry Ferguson and Lee Bowyer may give them some experience but they seem to give them little else. Bringing in goalkeeper Joe Hart from Manchester City is a good move but I fear he will be tested to the full as the season progresses.

Character

Wolves will struggle as well. Mick McCarthy is certainly a character and his team will never play with anything less than 100% commitment, but that won’t be enough. Kevin Doyle might be a decent signing from Reading but I foresee their main problem being keeping teams out at the other end rather than scoring themselves.

Unfortunately I have to pick one side as my tip for the drop. I really don’t want to say Burnley because I admire Owen Coyle and all that the club has achieved. I also admired the style of football they played to get promotion and progress so far in the cup competitions.

Enough

The Premier League is very unforgiving and the slightest mistakes are punished. I just don’t see Burnley having quite enough over the course of the season. I hope I’m wrong.

What do you think?