Five EPL predictions for 2020: Sheffield to finish in the top 10 & West Ham get relegated
By Durim Halimi
4. West Ham will be relegated…
West Ham have struggled in the first half of the season and they will continue to drop far too many points between January and May. The Hammers are currently 17th in the table and are only one point above the relegation zone. West Ham have quite a few problems to resolve. Manuel Pellegrini has been sacked and their star players in midfield have failed to perform at elite levels.
Looking at their schedule over the next few months, West Ham still have road games to play against Sheffield United, Leicester City, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United. Not only is that a difficult stretch of games, but the timing of each game will send West Ham into major crisis mode. For example, over the two month period between January 22nd and March 21st, West Ham will go up against Leicester City (1/22), Liverpool (1/29), Manchester City (2/9), Liverpool (2/24), Arsenal (3/7) and Tottenham (3/21). I am no psychic, but it is very likely that West Ham will fail to grab a single point in those games.
Moving on to the last five weeks of the season, West Ham will have an opportunity to claim some victories over Newcastle United and Burnley, but three of their last four games, one of which will be at Old Trafford, are against three teams currently in the bottom three: Norwich City, Watford and Aston Villa. Those three games will be the most intense games of the season for West Ham and their fate could be decided on the last day of the season against Aston Villa. In my opinion, West Ham will not have enough gas in the tank survive.
3. Arsenal will miss out on the top six
The good news for Arsenal is that they will finish the season in the top half of the table. The bad news is that Mikel Arteta‘s side will just miss out on the top six. Despite his inexperience as a manager, the football acumen Arteta gained under the wing of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City will help Arsenal correct some of the mistakes they have been making in the first half of the season.
Arsenal’s schedule over the next five months is balanced. In other words, Arsenal have a favorable list of fixtures that does not see them hit multiple rough patches against elite teams in back-to-back games. The Gunners’ most difficult string of games will occur between April 18th and May 2nd when they play Leicester City, Tottenham and Liverpool.
Push those games aside and Arsenal will be climbing the table, but they will not finish higher than seventh. Adapting to a new manager and balancing the Premier League and Europa League simultaneously will complicate things for Arsenal, but they have the talent to fight through most of that adversity.