Burnley’s defeat at home to Manchester City on Wednesday sent Pep Guardiola’s side top of the Premier League, but it also sealed the home side’s fate as they were relegated to the Championship.
Scott Parker’s side join Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had their demotion confirmed at the weekend, which leaves one relegation spot remaining.
It looks like a shootout between four clubs, with Tottenham Hotspur 18th on 31 points, West Ham United a place and two points above, Nottingham Forest on 36 points in 16th and Leeds United on 39 points in 15th.
We asked some of The Athletic’s writers who they feel will end up completing the relegation places (and their views were almost universal…)
Let us know who you think will go down.
Team to go down: Tottenham
Spurs’ decline feels terminal. It might have been averted at various points, had a better replacement for Thomas Frank been sourced, for example, but the eventual arrival of Roberto De Zerbi could be too late given West Ham’s upturn.
Four of the five teams they face in their run-in have something to play for, and moments like Brighton’s late equaliser on Saturday will further erode already paper-thin belief. Dreams of a superstar saviour like Xavi Simons springing late to salvage the cause linger, and they have the best squad of all the strugglers, but upward momentum remains out of reach.
Greg O’Keeffe
Team to go down: West Ham
Tottenham could get away with this disastrous season without relegation. If they beat Wolves this Saturday and West Ham don’t beat Everton, they will escape the relegation zone on goal difference. Then it’s four games to go. In their away games, Tottenham have Aston Villa, sandwiched between Villa’s Europa League semi-final ties, and Chelsea, who are in the worst form in the league.
Leeds and Everton aren’t easy home games, but the Brighton match showed hope. They were boosted by the returns of Rodrigo Bentancur to the starting XI and James Maddison to the bench. Spurs haven’t won a league game in 2026, and escape may seem to go against logic, but all they can rely on is hope.
Eduardo Tansley
Team to go down: Tottenham
All season long, I’ve thought Tottenham would turn it around, but at some point, you have to pick up some results, and they simply haven’t been able to. No matter the manager, no matter the starting line-up, Spurs just can’t get any positive momentum going.
A combination of an open defence and an attack that lacks potency is never a good recipe for success. It also feels like both West Ham and Nottingham Forest have turned the corner over the last four or five weeks, while Leeds United have been on the up for a while now.
Aaron Catterson-Reid
Team to go down: Tottenham
Spurs have the worst points tally and, by a considerable margin, the worst form of any of the teams battling for survival. They must now deal only in victories, an achievement which has eluded them for four months and 16 domestic games.
Even two wins from their final five is unlikely to be enough should West Ham and Forest, as expected, continue gathering points. Players look emotionally exhausted and detached from their current status, with Brighton’s last-gasp goal on Saturday another untimely blow. Anything other than beating Wolves — followed by four tricky fixtures — is unthinkable if they are to escape.
Colin Millar
Team to go down: Tottenham
Even if Spurs do put a few good results together, it feels like the teams above them will still manage to put more points on the board in the final few weeks. That might sound basic, but things really are that simple when teams are fighting for survival.
Leeds have a favourable fixture list coming up, so they feel safe — leaving Forest and West Ham. Forest are unbeaten in five league games, and West Ham have only lost once in that same period. Spurs have given themselves so much to do that they are relying on help from elsewhere — and it does not look like they will get it.
Mark Carey
Team to go down: Tottenham
I’ve continued to convince myself that Tottenham will stay up until I watched them against Brighton & Hove Albion. They did everything right and then conceded an equaliser in added time. Simply, they’ve forgotten how to win.
They’ve got some winnable games, even with their flaws, but their issue is that Forest and West Ham do too — and they’re in better form.
Their relegation rivals’ recent results suggest they have players capable of dealing with the pressure a relegation battle provides and their managers have the experience of navigating their teams to safety in this league. Tottenham, well, do they have either?
Andy Jones