Most teams near the bottom of the top flight only have four games remaining and it looks entirely possible that all three teams who got promoted last season will be coming straight back down but it’s not guaranteed that will be the case.
NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Everton in 16th are effectively safe now I feel, with a good set of fixtures left to play, five points above the drop and one game in hand it doesn’t seem that the Toffees are about to get relegated for the first time since 1951 this time around. Nottingham Forest on the other hand are outside the bottom three by one point only, if they hadn’t been deducted those four points they’d probably not be too concerned with relegation and the possibility remains they get some of them back so that complicates matters somewhat. They’ve got games at home to Manchester City and Chelsea but the really crucial ones are the away games against Sheffield United and Burnley where the six points they could get from these would most likely see them stay up. Their recent form isn’t a source of confidence though, with just one win in nine and of course they recently lost 2-0 away to Everton in controversial circumstances. In terms of being a Sunderland supporter, Forest coming down would actually be more interesting than Luton or Burnley getting relegated. We’ve only faced the Reds on seven occasions since the start of the 21st century and haven’t played them in seven years, we beat them 1-0 the last time we met. Contrast this to us playing all of the other teams on this list only last campaign.
LUTON TOWN
No one really gave the team who knocked us out of the playoffs any chance at all of finishing above 18th but Rob Edwards’ men have done well to keep their hopes alive up until this point. Yes they’ve been aided by points deductions to other teams but they’ve put up the most fight out of any of the newly promoted sides with access to far less resources than either of their counterparts. Based on their business in the summer and January transfer windows they seem to be building for a promotion push in next year’s Championship rather than putting all of their eggs into the Premier League survival route. That’s smart long term planning and it’s no surprise given how well they have been run in the last few years. In terms of their fixtures they do have Everton and Fulham at home remaining which they’ll need at least four points from I feel and then tough away games to Wolves and West Ham, although both of those teams are out of form so a win from either of those games isn’t out of the question. I think they’ll need seven points from their last four games to stay up based on Nottingham Forest’s run of games, which is a big ask but relegation wouldn’t be the end of the world for Luton. Their recent form is far from ideal and they have picked up just five points from a possible 39 since the start of February. They’ll need to see major improvements in a short time to remain in the top flight then.
BURNLEY
Perhaps assuming that Nottingham Forest will travel to the home of last year’s Championship title winners and come away with all three points is a bit harsh as Vincent Kompany has finally managed to get his team to more often than not avoid defeat. It may have come too late in the season though as despite being three points from safety their run of fixtures is far from easy. In their next three games they’ve got to face Manchester United away, Newcastle United at home and Tottenham Hotspur away, all of whom are aiming to qualify for a European competition in one form or another. Manchester United are out of form so maybe there’s a point there for them but the other two should be defeats really. By the time Nottingham Forest rolls around they’ll probably already be down and a Burnley side with nothing to play for versus a Nottingham Forest side with everything to play for only has one result I believe. Still (looking at some of the ways we stayed up in the past) stranger things have happened so they can’t be ruled out completely.
SHEFFIELD UNITED
They aren’t staying up and no one has disputed that for a while. They could be confirmed as relegated as soon as the end of their next fixture away to Manchester United but they could have an effect on what happens near the bottom of the table as they’ve still got to play Forest at home and taking points off of them could make things even more interesting. They look set to have an even worse season than the last time they went down to the second tier on 23 points in the 2020-21 campaign.
