Bottom at Christmas

Today’s headline isn’t a reference to Dale Winton’s letter to Santa but to the curse that generally means relegation for whichever club is at the foot of the Premiership table come 25th December.

Only West Brom’s heroics in the 2004/05 season have broken the trend in this frightening statistic since the league’s formation in 1992.

With two games to go and six points to play for before the big day, at least three or four clubs will be praying they can yank themselves away from the bottom.

The contenders for this kiss of death are West Brom, Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and Newcastle.

All four teams have different reasons behind their struggle and are all finding it difficult to pick up points in what has become an incredibly difficult league.

Starting at the bottom we have West Brom, a team promoted from the Championship last season who were renowned for their neat passing football.

The Baggies seem to have kept their philosophy of getting the ball down on floor which may be behind their accumulation of just twelve points.

The Premiership possesses many teams that play excellent football which makes it difficult for them to compete.

The millions of pounds it takes to accumulate a top flight strike force possibly isn’t worth the gamble for a team good enough to come straight back up if they find themselves in the bottom three come May.

Although if they show some of their “Great Escape” spirit of 2005 it could make their final fixture against Blackburn a very interesting one.

And so we come to Ewood Park.

A difficult one to evaluate not only because of the intense hatred and loathing any Burnley fan has for Rovers but also because working for a radio station local to Blackburn I spend some of my time covering them.

During this run, I have joyfully made my way to the Brockhall training ground to hear countless excuses for their inability to win.

It takes some restraint not to laugh, shout “your shit” or break into a chorus of “No Nay Never”, the Burnley version of course.

It’s not that I want Ince to fail, a boyhood hero of mine as a player and a genuinely honest and decent bloke but that rivalry means if he is to become the fall guy in Rover’s descent then so be it.

I’m sure he’ll become a great English manager one day but I do feel he stepped into the lion’s den when he took the job on in the summer.

Ince’s philosophy is to play football, something he is trying to do with a squad inherited from a manager that didn’t.

Mark Hughes’ success at Rovers was built around a solid defensive backbone with a belief of winning at any cost.

He was heavily criticised for his style but no one can deny that it worked. Much like Sam Allardyce’s Bolton, the rough and tumble, workmanlike performances paid dividends in keeping them away from the drop zone.

I think Ince may have tried to have implement his views on the way the team should play too soon, resulting in players who had not been assembled to play flowing, attractive football struggling.

Instead a gradual transition may have been better, giving Ince time to build his own team who are more suited to his style of football.

Instead, average personnel is left playing some very good footballing teams at their own game.

No disrespect to the likes of Aaron Mokoena and Keith Andrews who have been playing regularly in the centre of the park but there are much stronger midfield partnerships in most of other teams in the league.

They may be aided by the return of David Dunn, but with his unfortunate injury record I’d rather gamble on Roy Chubby Brown keeping fit.

Although the way “fat bastard” keeps running off stage at the moment he’ll soon be able to do a job sitting in front of the back four.

The loss of Brad Friedel and Bentley has also been key, match winners at both ends of the pitch, their absence will see Rovers lose vital points they would have taken last season.

The other two teams in touch of being bottom at Christmas both hail from the North East.

Newcastle and Sunderland have also suffered from their managers walking out on them this season.

Kevin Keegan left St James’ Park in September after what he perceived as interference from boardroom level.

Since then the club has been put up for sale leaving Joe Kinnear to try and turn them around.

Having got themselves out of the bottom three they seem to have found the resolve to combine with the player’s undoubted ability to pull themselves out of trouble.

Sunderland on the other hand have seen Roy Keane massively overspend, signing players for fun using Niall Quinn’s consortium's gold card.

The bearded WAG has brought many a spangly accessory to the Stadium of Light who have proved to be about as watchable as an episode of Celeb Air.

Around seventy million pounds has been flashed on assembling a team with little cohesion.

Some of Keano’s choices have also been quite bizarre; many of his signings have certainly been a contrast in character to the man himself.

It’s been like finding Elizabeth Taylor raiding the January sales at Elizabeth Duke.

But having walked out after a few defeats maybe he has lost some of the desire he had for the game as a player.

Without Keane, Sunderland's new manager must firstly evaluate which of the hefty playing squad are up for the fight.

The lazy and lacklustre defending shown against Bolton cannot be repeated in that sort of crunch fixture if they are to avoid the drop.

Relegation for any of the teams with the exception of West Brom would prove to be an unmitigated financial disaster.

At a time when players, managers, directors and fans all start looking for signs, the traditional bottom at Christmas tag will be one that they will want to avoid like bumping into a half cut Kerry Katona.