In what has been one of the most bizarre relegation battles in the Premier League, outside of Wolves and Burnley’s form, many supporters and pundits are now jokingly asking the question: Are Spurs, Forest, Leeds and West Ham in a title race with Arsenal now?
Because if you only watched the last few weeks, you’d swear these four were chasing top Premier League slots, not avoiding the drop zone. It should also not go unnoticed that Leeds found themselves in the FA Cup Semi Finals and Forest are leading Aston Villa in the UEFA Europa League Semi final after the first leg!
Bottom four have hit title-chasing form in recent weeks!
Tottenham have spent most of the season looking like a live‑action warning about bad decision‑making. And yet, recently, under their third manager of the season, Roberto De Zerbi they’ve started doing something radical, winning football matches!
After a 1-1 draw away at Liverpool (which was better than West Ham’s 5-2 loss at Anfield!) they fell apart at home to Forest which cost interim manager Igor Tudor his job. Since then they managed a point against Brighton, beat Wolves at Molineux and dominated Aston Villa.
Incredible form from lower sides makes this relegation battle epic – if you happen to be a ‘neutral’: For fans it is exhausting.
That’s 8 points from their last 5. For a team in 17th, that’s not “clinging on” form. Nottingham Forest apparently didn’t get the memo about going down either. They’re turning up at big grounds and wrecking people’s weeks.
Lest we forget:
Manchester City 2–2 Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest 0–0 Fulham
Tottenham 0-3 Nottingham Forest
Aston Villa 1-1 Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest 4–1 Burnley
Sunderland 0–5 Nottingham Forest
Chelsea 1–3 Nottingham Forest
That’s 15 points and unbeaten from their last 7 games.
Leeds United have been pure volatility all season, yet recent league results have been effective:
Crystal Palace 0-0 Leeds
Leeds 0–0 Brentford
Manchester United 1–2 Leeds
Leeds 3–0 Wolves
Bournemouth 2–2 Leeds
Leeds 3–1 Burnley
Across that run, Leeds have stacked up 12 points from their last 6 unbeaten, including winning at Manchester United and then backing it up with convincing home wins.
In fairness to West Ham they have only lost four of their past 14 Premier League games, yet this hasn’t been enough so far. Eleven points in their last seven games.
On paper:
Spurs are 17th
Forest are 16th
Leeds are 14th
West Ham are 18th
All we can do now is hope that the Hammers conjure some rabbits out of their own magician’s hat by rattling off three straight wins, starting with Arsenal on Sunday. COYI!