If the relegation battles of recent years have taught us anything, it’s that you can rarely if ever write anyone off, until their last mathematical chance is gone.
West Ham looked to be in a hopeless place in 2007, until a fortunate win at Blackburn turned their season round. They finished with seven wins in their last nine matches, culminating in a final day win at Old Trafford which kept them up.
Even that was bettered by Wigan two years ago. After 29 matches they had only three wins to their name, and had been handed a brutal finish by the fixture list. Remarkably they won at both Liverpool and Arsenal, beat Manchester United, and also won seven of their last nine to survive.
So even Fulham, without a league win since New Year’s Day and leaking goals at an alarming rate, can’t be written off. They still have to visit both Manchester City and Tottenham, but with the likes of Norwich, Hull and Crystal Palace all still to come to Craven Cottage, the wins are there to be had.
Sunderland are only one place off the bottom, but crucially they have three games in hand, and although most of their away matches are against top clubs, their home games look mostly winnable.
The other club in the relegation zone, Cardiff, showed their resolve by beating Fulham, and as they still have to play all the remaining teams in the bottom five, they can inflict direct damage on their rivals.
West Brom, above the relegation zone on goal difference only, play both Manchester City and Arsenal in their final four matches, so could do with getting the points on the board before then.
Crystal Palace are only two points above the relegation zone, and given their dismal away record, it looks like they’ll need plenty of good results on their own ground. However, they only have four home games left, and three of those are against Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool.
In terms of tough finishes though, it’s hard to top what lies in store for Chris Hughton's Norwich. They’re only four points clear of the bottom three, and as their final four will be against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal, they really need to get the points they’re looking for in the next five games.
