Top 5 contenders for relegation from EPL

By Jayson Panganiban January 23, 2025 10:56

The second round of the English Premier League has already begun. During this time it has become clear which teams will fight for the championship and who will fight for survival. Since the championship is very competitive, some positions of the teams may change. Therefore, not all experts are ready to make their football tips predictions.

But already now we can see the five likely fighters for survival. Specialists xGscore.io also highlight these teams. Let's try to understand in more detail, why exactly these 5 FC may end up in the Championships.

Southampton

A classic elevator team that can play in the elite division for a couple of years, then drop down to the Championship for a year, but then struggle for survival. In the current season, the team has only 1 win over Everton in 20 matches. At the same time, if you need both teams to score betting tips, you should consider Southampton matches. The team scores much less than they concede, but in most matches, they still distinguished themselves by scoring goals.

At the moment, the team:

has scored only 6 points in 20 rounds;
has conceded 32 more goals than it has scored;
has only 2 points in the last 10 matches.

Of course, there is still time to improve the situation. It is necessary to get 11 points to save 17th place, and it is realistic to do it in half a season. But only if the team manages to shake things up. After all, for now, they are the most behind and there are few chances for survival compared to their rivals.

Leicester

The situation is similar with Southampton. The team also goes up and down in the division every year. Unfortunately, the success of the 2015-2016 season was like a fairy tale and never became the birth of a new top club. The team produced only 3 wins over:

Southampton;
Bournemouth;
West Ham.

The total managed to get 14 points. The gap from the 17th place is only one win, so it is difficult to say that the team will drop out. Still, Jamie Vardy and other leaders can give a good second round for the team to stay in the elite. But the team concedes a lot and something needs to be done about it.

Ipswich

This team does not always play even in the Championship. Therefore, the determination of them in the list of outsiders of the league was expected. However, they still have a good chance to stay in the elite division.

So far, the team has an equal number of points with Wolverhampton and only a point behind Everton. It is unpleasant that the team concedes 2 times more than they score. But they still have a whole second round to correct this point. And the fact that they managed to beat Chelsea and draw with Fulham in the last 2 matches gives the fans and experts hope.

Wolverhampton

The stable mid-table side of the championship is still showing a game below its real possibilities. The team is ahead of the relegation zone only because they conceded 1 goal less than Ipswich. However, besides Everton, the other teams above in the table already have an advantage over Wolves at least 4 points.

Therefore, the team needs to gain points if they want to stay in the elite and not fall into the Championship. But the fact that the team in the last 4 matches twice won and once played in a draw allows us to think that relegation may not touch them.

Everton

“Toffees” stably balance in the survival zone, not for the first year. But they regularly manage to save themselves. The team can both play decently against a strong opponent and fail with Southampton or Bournemouth (up to 87 minutes they won 2-0 and eventually lost the match).

The team is very unstable, but:

regularly picks up points;
have a match in reserve compared to their rivals (although the rival is Liverpool);
play more defensive soccer and do not concede as much as their rivals.

At least for these reasons, Everton are the least of our top five contenders for relegation. But the team needs to change things globally. The club has good players, but they lack a leader in attack, as Anthony Gordon was.

Conclusion

Of course, all of the above teams can still improve the situation and stay in the elite. But the current season has shown that these clubs have the biggest problems and they need to be solved. Most of them have a problem with defense, but some of them need to improve their attacking performance and then they will be able to stay in EPL next season.