Sporting Life

All the years of runners-up medals and near-chokes were no longer painful memories but part of a glorious path to the top.

The Emirates, once the great white elephant of the Arsene Wenger wilderness years, suddenly becomes the iconic backdrop where crowds had gathered under fireworks, a sheen that will now forever be imprinted on the façade. The stadium, the players, and Mikel Arteta are cast in a new light.

That’s what history does. It flattens events, makes stories seem like they were fated, and completely rewrites how they felt in the present. Which brings us onto the final day, no longer enjoying its title-race headline but nevertheless loaded with potential significance.

Every final-day fixture

Spurs vs Everton

West Ham vs Leeds

Many people will have you believe the year will be remembered for a revival of long throws and as one of the dullest campaigns in years. It won’t be.

For starters, that kind of football might have defined Arsenal for a portion of this campaign but even Arteta’s side won’t actually be remembered that way. Nobody recalls how champions won, just that they did. The images of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, and of those corner routines, will register, but it won’t gain prominence above the story of the five-year arc.

More importantly Arsenal are the only club who can really be accused of regressing towards safer defensive football. Man City have never had so many entertaining attackers under Pep Guardiola, Manchester United were anything but dull, Liverpool haven’t tried to be cautious, and Aston Villa, Bournemouth, and Brighton have been great to watch.

No, what this campaign will be remembered for is the flatness of the league and a playing field more level than at any other point this century.

Truly any team could beat any other, which led to a kind of madness; Man Utd and Liverpool collapsing, Bournemouth and Sunderland rising improbably, and, most importantly, the highest-profile relegation battle in history.

It is a direct consequence of the league’s strength that on Sunday the final relegation place will go to a club with a 60,000+ stadium and memories of a Europa League triumph in the last three years.

If it’s Tottenham Hotspur, then the retrospective view of 2025/26 is easy to see. When the nitty gritty of each matchweek fades away to leave the headlines, this will not be remembered as a dud. Far from it. This will be the year of north London, when Arsenal won their first title in 22 years and Spurs pulled off a reverse-Leicester City, a true miracle.

But this remains an unlikely outcome. West Ham have lost their last three matches and must somehow rouse themselves to beat Leeds United, a team on an eight-match unbeaten streak in the Premier League. And even if Nuno Espirito Santo’s side pull it off they need to hope Tottenham don’t scrape a draw against Everton.

Ever since Roberto De Zerbi’s appointment the narrative weight has been in Tottenham’s favour. But what could be more Spursy than a final-day twist, than David Moyes keeping West Ham up with a shock win in north London?

That’s the kind of moment that would really give the 2025/26 campaign its definitive meaning, turning a confused and confusing nine-month journey into one long set-up for the ultimate punchline.

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Forest boss Vitor Pereira was vindicated for ringing the changes at Stamford Bridge - ahead of a Europa League semi-final with Villa on Thursday - as his team romped to a 3-1 win and moved six points clear of the relegation zone with just three games to play.

They went into the match under pressure after Spurs took full advantage of Unai Emery's decision to field a weakened team ahead of that semi-final second leg by winning 2-1 in similarly impressive fashion.

Ahead of the weekend West Ham held a two-point advantage over Tottenham, but are now in the bottom three heading into a home game with leaders Arsenal, before rounding off their campaign away to Newcastle and at home to Leeds.

Roberto De Zerbi's side face the Whites at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend. They then face a London derby at Chelsea and a final-day home game against Everton.

Most bookmakers have now made it a two-horse race, removing Forest and Leeds from the market.

Premier League relegation (odds via Sky Bet)

West Ham - 1/7

Tottenham - 10/3

Correct at 17:20 BST (4/5/26)

While Spurs benefited hugely from Villa's team selection, this result had been coming.

The nature of their performances against Brighton, where they warranted three points but were forced to settle for a draw, and in battling to a win at Wolves to record a first league victory of 2026 had given their fans hope that under new boss De Zerbi they could avoid a first top-flight relegation since 1977.

But the price movement is quite a reaction from the bookies.

They have effectively consigned West Ham to the drop with three rounds of fixtures to play, a huge change in forecast when we consider Spurs were 8/13 and the Hammers 5/4 prior to the weekend - they have equally difficult run-ins, too.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side are one of the division's form teams, dragging themselves back into survival contention with a superb run of form (W6 D5 L4) triggered by excellent January business. While defeat at Brentford was a huge blow, they were on the wrong end of some key refereeing decisions, including a disallowed equalising goal.

But is it really over?

Are Leeds and Forest safe?

Forest (42) are now six points above the relegation zone, and five points above Tottenham, successfully navigating the extra challenge of a Europa League semi-final by thrashing Chelsea.

Pereira's side close out their top-flight campaign with home games against Newcastle and Bournemouth either side of an away match at Manchester United.

Leeds and Crystal Palace both have 43 points, meaning if they were to go down it would be the highest total in Premier League history to see a team relegated.

Has a club ever been relegated with 40 points?

In the 30 Premier League seasons that have had 38 games a season, on only three occasions has a club been relegated with 40 points.

In 1996/97 Sunderland went down with 40 points, and so did Bolton the following year.

West Ham hold the unenviable record of being relegated with the most points after their 42 in 2002/03 proved insufficient.

How many points are needed to stay up?

While 40 points is seen as the landmark for mathematical safety, of the 30 Premier League season's to have 38-games, 36 points has been enough for survival on 18 occasions.

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Spurs took full advantage of Unai Emery's decision to field a weakened team ahead of Villa's Europa League semi-final second leg against Nottingham Forest on Thursday by deservedly racing two goals ahead within 25 minutes thanks to strikes from Conor Gallagher and Richarlison.

West Ham went into the weekend with a two-point advantage over Tottenham, but now prop up the bottom three ahead of a home game with Arsenal, before rounding off their campaign away to Newcastle and at home to Leeds.

Roberto De Zerbi's side face the Whites at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next weekend.

They then face a London derby at Chelsea and a final-day home game against Everton.

Premier League relegation (odds via Sky Bet)

West Ham - 1/5

Tottenham - 7/2

Nottm Forest - 14/1

Correct at 21:50 BST (3/5/26)

While Spurs benefited hugely from Villa's team selection, this performance had been coming.

The nature of their performances against Brighton, where they warranted three points but were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw after conceding in stoppage time at the end of both halves, and in battling to a 1-0 win at Wolves to record a first league victory of 2026 had given their fans hope for the first time in months that under De Zerbi they could avoid a first top-flight relegation since 1977.

But the price movement is quite a reaction from the bookies, who have effectively consigned West Ham to the drop with three rounds of fixtures to play, especially when we consider Spurs were 8/13 and the Hammers 5/4 prior to the weekend and that they have equally difficult run-ins.

Nuno Espirito Santo's side are one of the division's form team, dragging themselves back into survival contention with a superb run of form (W6 D5 L4) triggered by excellent January business.

While defeat at Brentford was a huge blow, they were on the wrong end of some key refereeing decisions, including an equalising goal.

It really is far from over.

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No, this is not another article about Tottenham Hotspur, although you probably wish it was. We cannot get enough Spurs content at the moment. The schadenfreude is through the roof, the miracle-event so tantalisingly close a majority of Premier League fans appear to be as invested in the hubristic failures of a supposed Super League contender as their own team’s – by comparison – rather boring preoccupation with European qualification.

But we have been scrutinising Spurs a little too close, and if you can tear your eyes away for a second there is another story developing that any other season would have drawn the full tractor beam of our collective fascination.

West Ham United are far too big to go down. In fact, if it wasn’t for the flashbang of Tottenham’s Premier League title challenge a full decade ago under Mauricio Pochettino, and for the long afterglow that culminated in a Champions League final appearance in 2019, West Ham and Spurs would be considered more or less the same size.

Premier League relegation (odds via Sky Bet)

Tottenham - 4/6

West Ham - 5/4

Nottm Forest - 14/1

Leeds - 28/1

Correct at 17:40 BST (29/04/26)

Tottenham won the First Division in 1951 and 1961 while West Ham have never lifted the title, and Spurs’ eight FA Cups speaks to their historic superiority against West Ham’s three. But in the 21st century, and certainly since West Ham moved into the third-biggest football ground in England (OK, fourth-biggest now that Tottenham have a stadium with 350 more seats) nothing should separate them.

West Ham’s relegation is a disaster, an apocalyptic event not far off what could happen in north London. Three years ago they won the Europa Conference League. The year before that they reached the semi-finals of the Europa League, while as recently as April 2024 they were facing Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals of Europe’s second tier competition.

At the beginning of the summer just gone, West Ham’s squad contained Jarrod Bowen, Mohamed Kudus, and Lucas Paqueta. Two of those star players have left, but over the course of the campaign they have spent £178 million on new players, the majority signed by Graham Potter, the manager they hoped would lead them back into Europe this season.

This simply should not be happening, and might still not. Again, there are notable comparisons between Spurs and the present-tense West Ham, as well as their medium-term futures should disaster be averted. Like Roberto De Zerbi at Tottenham, the Hammers now have the right manager in charge to stabilise the ship and even push for Europe in 2026/27. The only question is whether they have left it too late.

Since January 16, West Ham are sixth in the form table with 22 points from 13 matches. That isn’t over-performance, it’s simply the natural level for a club of their stature, wealth, and experience.

The heat would very much be on West Ham this campaign if it wasn’t for the fact that the sun appears to be crashing directly into Tottenham. But as the race is whittled down to two it’s time we give West Ham the (dis)credit they deserve for years of shambolic mismanagement that has spiralled the club into an unprecedented situation. It is a fall from grace as stunning as Tottenham’s, characterised similarly by a boardroom consistently making choices that have upset supporters, from the move to a soulless athletics stadium to increasingly inept transfer business.

And yet, like Spurs, it is wrong to microscopically analyse West Ham’s historic failures or to claim, as so many have done, that this has been a slow-moving disaster. The recency of the club’s European adventures, and Nuno’s revival, tell us this really is a one-off; an inverse Leicester City, and as much a consequence of the Premier League’s unusual strength this season as the dreadful decision to hand a progressive coach like Potter an ageing squad sculpted in the image of David Moyes.

It is a miracle event, and, more miraculous still, there are two of them. In age where hate-watching has become as pleasurable as vicarious joy there is only good news for the neutral. Whichever team goes down next month we will witness the greatest failure in Premier League history.

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Chelsea are in freefall, Manchester United have been bandaged up but can’t quite be considered out of their catastrophe years, Liverpool are struggling, and Tottenham Hotspur are completely off the scales and into the realm of the miraculous; an inverse Leicester City.

The ‘Big Six’ are in meltdown, their demise so absolute that the term has fallen out of common usage, yet the widely-held belief the moniker should be scrapped misunderstands what the term means and why it is that the Premier League has been shaken out of its natural shape.

Last season Man Utd finished 16th and Spurs 17th, and so, with Chelsea’s four-game losing streak leaving them in danger of dropping as low as 12th this weekend, we might see two of the ‘Big Six’ finish in the bottom half of the table in consecutive seasons.

That does not mean the ‘Big Six’ is dead, for the simple reason that the term reflects the financial realities of modern Premier League regulations and the ballooning wealth of those clubs compared to the rest of the country.

The Deloitte Money League (DML) has all six in the top nine richest clubs in the world, and the drop from England’s sixth-wealthiest (Chelsea) to its seventh (Aston Villa) is 23%, from an annual turnover of £507 million to £390 million.

We should use the term ‘Big Six’ more, not less, to help keep in mind the absurdity of the failures emerging at Stamford Bridge, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and Old Trafford in particular, but also to help us understand why exactly this is happening.

For decades outsiders have assumed football’s financial bubble will burst and the industry will eventually devour itself, and although there is no sense of wide-scale impending collapse it does feel as though football has finally run out of growth; run out of resources to plunder.

In Chelsea and Man Utd we see the beginning of the private equity era: the deliberate hollowing out, or at least attempts by American billionaires to maximise profits with seemingly no interest whatsoever in the sport itself.

This is the inevitable endpoint to an industry that has goaded these kinds of interventions, swelling without regulation for more than 30 years. Here is a partial explanation for the demise of the ‘Big Six’ automatically finishing in the top six positions in the table – although it isn’t a complete picture.

A more interesting, and unexpected, consequence of the Premier League’s financial power (Wolves, the league’s bottom club, are the 29th richest club in the world according to the DML) is that the middle tier of clubs appears easier to run at an elite level than the ‘Big Six’.

For those in Brighton’s, Bournemouth’s, or even Aston Villa’s position, there is enough money swilling around to get a world-class recruiting team, one of the top coaches in Europe, and to motivate a squad of up-and-comers to become stronger than the sum of their parts.

Meanwhile there is something about extreme wealth that appears to attract bad owners, even worse executives, and an unavoidable situation of over-paying for supposedly ready-made stars.

In other words, Bournemouth are able to spend £20 million on three players and get a hit rate of one-star-player-in-three, whereas Man Utd have to get their £80 million signing right – and face an onslaught of agents, clubs, and media figures who fuzz up the picture with their recommendations and scrutiny.

Truthfully, nobody saw this coming.

Nobody thought that the line graph of wealth and competence was a horse-shoe shape; nobody predicted that clubs becoming multi-billion pound businesses would attract the worst kind of person: entitled, privileged men who simply don’t understand, or care to understand, football.

BlueCo are of course the elite example of this phenomenon although it was first done by the Glazers, who still majority-own Man Utd.

Liverpool supporters are beginning to remember how much they disliked their owners prior to Jurgen Klopp’s solo mission to defy the narrative, while Spurs’ commercial success and footballing failures under Daniel Levy are well documented.

Long-term, this might be a disaster for football, certainly if United’s and Chelsea’s owners emerge richer than when they arrived, setting a template for other vulture capitalists to swoop in.

But there is no doubt that in the short-term, at least, the Premier League’s colossal wealth has created a flatter competition than at any other point this century.

The pinnacle of which could be Tottenham getting relegated, billion-pound clubs finishing again in the bottom half, and two out of six Champions League places going to mid-tier clubs.

From here, it would only take a slight relaxing of the PSR/SCR rules for the rest of the league to fully catch up and put together title challenges.

Once a few more clubs like Villa and Newcastle get a taste of the big time – Brighton, by the looks of things, could sneak into the Champions League in sixth – the appetite will grow for a vote on rebalancing the regulations.

Then, and only then, would the idea of a ‘Big Six’ truly come under threat.

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But reports that Roberto de Zerbi is about to sweep in on a mega-contract to lurch the club in a whole new direction suggests that, this summer, Tudor’s failures will be pored over in gruesome detail as Tottenham Hotspur prepare for the Sky Bet Championship.

The news of Tudor’s departure has rightly been met with a muted solemnity having tragically intertwined with the death of his father last week, although Tottenham supporters’ anger was always going to be aimed more at the board than the man who found himself helplessly in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Tudor has mostly been spared the ignominy of gleefully-written details of every low point of his tenure. But that won’t last if Spurs go down, because if they do there will be no denying that Tudor’s six weeks in the job had a crucial impact – probably the biggest - on a catastrophic campaign.

In the end he lasted 44 days, long enough to squeeze beyond Ange Postecoglou at Nottingham Forest (40 days) and Les Reed (41 days) to avoid the ignominy of having the shortest unplanned stint in Premier League history.

The brutal reality is that Tudor would have taken that record, imprinting himself forever in Premier League history, if Spurs had not trod lightly over the last week, for which – amid all the dreadful failures – they deserve to be commended.

For now, nobody is dwelling for long on what has happened since February. There will be plenty of time for that over the summer. Instead focus is on how to lift an injury-stricken, confidence-stricken squad off the floor and use the final seven games to avoid Tottenham’s certain fate.

Enter De Zerbi: an idealist and tactical maverick, a manager with unique and uniquely complex ideas who demands extremely high fitness levels and who in his only previous mid-season arrival started very slowly.

The most rational response to which is rising panic.

De Zerbi was the perfect manager to take over from Ange Postecoglou last summer.

He is widely considered to be one of the smartest young minds in the game, arguably the father of a new anti-positional style of football that will become the next great wave in tactical history, moving aside Pep Guardiola and breaking open the dogged man-to-man defending that has the Premier League stuck in its current set-piece-laden predicament.

He has all the wild and wonderful ideas of Postecoglou, believing in attacking football and embodying Spurs’ ‘to dare is to do’ motto just as thoroughly, only with two solid years at Brighton under his belt to suggest he is a safer bet than Ange.

De Zerbi, if available, would have been the ideal evolution candidate.

Instead Spurs went for revolution under Thomas Frank, then revolution again under Tudor, and now revolution for a third time in eight months with De Zerbi.

Everybody knows that the pace of tactical change at Tottenham has contributed to their disorientation, to the dazed funk that has settled over the squad. De Zerbi can only add to the confusion.

Of course, there is a pathway to success: keep Spurs just about above the dotted line and a cultural reset this summer can lead to De Zerbi emerging, as so many have predicted, as the next Mauricio Pochettino.

But that is not the most likely outcome, because De Zerbi’s career so far has been about as erratic and unwieldy as you might expect from a coach with idiosyncratic ideas about how the game should be played.

De Zerbi’s genius has always been theoretical. His time at Sassuolo was successful and a good start at Shakhtar Donetsk was cut short by the war in Ukraine, but since then De Zerbi has had an explosively good debut year immediately followed by a poor one, first at Brighton and then at Marseille.

Noting too worrying there – until you remember how it started at the Amex.

Premier League relegation odds (via Sky Bet)

West Ham - 1/1

Tottenham - 13/8

Nottingham Forest - 13/2

Leeds - 15/2

Odds correct at 13:05 GMT (30/03/26)

A tactical mind like De Zerbi’s needs a full summer of preparatory work, which explains why his only previous mid-season appointment began very slowly.

Brighton had won four of their first six league games of the season before Graham Potter was poached by Chelsea in September 2022, yet despite the club’s strong position upon his arrival De Zerbi won precisely zero of his first five Premier League games in charge, winning two points.

Zero wins, three defeats, two draws. Replicated at Tottenham, that will end in relegation.

“I have my vision,” De Zerbi told reporters back in late October 2022 after a 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest. “If we want to speak about the quality of the game, I’m happy. I’m very happy. It’s difficult for you [the media] when a coach says he is happy with the game when I didn’t win, but it’s like this.”

It takes time and patience to implement new ideas and De Zerbi was confident that performances would eventually translate into results, which they did, to an extent (Brighton finished sixth, but eighth on form since De Zerbi’s appointment, having come 9th the year before).

That is not an option this time.

This time he needs to hit the ground running, he needs to get the confidence-stricken Spurs players to run through brick walls and to forget everything they were taught by Tudor, by Frank, by Postecoglou.

And all of this comes against the backdrop of statements from three Spurs fan groups – Women of the Lane, Proud Lilywhites, and Spurs Reach – urging the club not to hire a manager who has publically defended Mason Greenwood, whom he once referred to as a “good guy”.

“It saddens me what happened in his life,” De Zerbi has said, “because I know a totally different person than the one who was described in England.”

We cannot predict how the majority of Tottenham supporters, or the players, will feel about what De Zerbi has said, nor can we, for legal reasons, comment much upon his sentiments towards a player who denied all charges against him, charges which were subsequently dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service following “the withdrawal of key witnesses and new material that came to light”.

But what we can say is that friction like that at the outset could be explosive down the line. De Zerbi would be just as big a gamble as Tudor was. Their methods are completely different but the stakes are the same, only this time there are even fewer games to play and an even smaller margin for error.

Tottenham’s chances of relegation have gone up again.

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Liverpool vs Spurs – Premier League Preview

Date: Sunday 15th March

Kick-off: 16:30pm

Competition: Premier League

Offer: Sky Bet –

Anfield will host one of the Premier League's most intriguing fixtures on Sunday afternoon as Liverpool attempt to maintain their challenge at the top of the table against a Tottenham Hotspur side in complete disarray.

The Reds, currently sixth with 48 points, remain very much in contention for Champions League qualification and will look to capitalise on some faltering form above them. Conversely, Spurs find themselves in the midst of a catastrophic campaign, languishing just a point above the relegation zone following a succession of managerial upheaval and injuries that have left the club's season in tatters.

This promises to be a stark contrast between two sides heading in dramatically opposite directions.We'll explain why claiming this offer is a good decisions, as well as why Chelsea should be able to get past the Championship side.

Liverpool's Lacklustre Season

Liverpool won the season in Arne Slot's first year with the team and this season has been a complete contrast. While finishing in the European places is no small feat, it will still be a dissapointing season by their standards.

Wrexham have captured imaginations by:

Currently sit in 6th place with 48 points from 29 matches

Unbeaten in recent fixtures—strong form heading into this clash

Recently defeated Sunderland (1-0) West Ham (5-2), and Nottingham Forest (1-0)

Hugo Ekitiké has become a key attacking asset: 11 goals and 4 assists

Dominik Szoboszlai providing midfield stability and creativity

Arne Slot's side still very much in contention for top-four finish

Only two points behind fifth place—a win could significantly boost European hopes

Tottenham's Crisis

Spurs quickly forgot their struggles in the season last year because of their Europa League success. But once again they find themselves in danger of a shock relegation from the Premier League.

Languishing in 16th place with just 29 points from 29 matches

Only one point above the relegation zone—survival now the priority

Recent form catastrophic: lost 4-1 to Arsenal, 3-1 to Crystal Palace, 2-1 to Fulham

Interim manager Igor Tudor has won just one of his last five matches

Club in complete turmoil following sacking of Thomas Frank

Conceded 46 goals in 29 matches—defensive crisis evident

Head-to-Head Record

Chelsea have been big spenders in recent years and possess:

Recent encounters: Liverpool have won their last two meetings against Spurs

Key stat: Spurs' recent form suggests they are vulnerable to any team with attacking intent

Anfield factor: Liverpool's home record typically strong against struggling sides

Tactical Elements

Liverpool: Slot's system built on pressing intensity and quick transitions; Salah's pace on the right wing crucial

Tottenham: Tudor's side attempting to be compact defensively but lacking attacking creativity

Key battle: Liverpool's midfield dominance vs Spurs' depleted midfield options

Attacking focus: Liverpool's fluid attacking play vs Tottenham's rigid, defensive-minded approach

Possession likely: Liverpool expected to dominate possession and territory

The Betting Angle

Liverpool should have the run of things, but they have been known to slip up against weak opposition.

Liverpool represent strong value given Spurs' dire form and injury crisis

Tottenham's defensive vulnerabilities suggest Liverpool will score freely

Form differential: Liverpool trending upwards; Spurs in freefall

Anfield advantage significant—Spurs' morale clearly low

Goals highly likely given Spurs' defensive frailties

Liverpool's attacking prowess should exploit Tottenham's makeshift defence

Why This Offer Makes Sense

Dominic Solanke fired Spurs into the lead but a wild nine-minute spell in which Micky van de Ven was sent off and Palace scored three times condemned them to another loss.

The half-time break saw many opt to leave the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with the majority of those who remained not seeing out the full 90 minutes.

The result left Spurs 16th in the Premier League table but just a single point above the bottom three with nine games left to play.

Premier League relegation odds (via Sky Bet)

West Ham - 6/4

Tottenham - 13/8

Nottingham Forest - 11/4

Leeds - 6/1

Odds correct at 08:50 GMT (06/03/26)

Bookmakers have either stopped taking bets on Burnley and Wolves going down or are offering an incredibly short price, meaning that there's just the one spot available for a team to drop down to the Sky Bet Championship.

The current Europa League holders were 200/1 to go down back in September but recent results have been a mile away from their performances at the start of the season.

Spurs are without a league win in 2026 with each of their last five ending in defeat - that includes the first three with Igor Tudor at the helm.

Opta have Spurs as a 16.1% chance of going down - double what it was before their clash with Palace - with West Ham significantly higher at 49.5%.

But that solely focuses on the data metrics related to performance and won't account for other factors such as the atmosphere around the clubs.

What do Spurs' remaining fixtures look like?

A concern for Tottenham is the fact that only one of their remaining four games against top half teams comes at home, although that may be viewed as a positive given what we saw on Thursday.

Trips to Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool await before the conclusion of the campaign alongside a two-legged Champions League knockout tie with Atletico Madrid.

Alongside those is a visit to Sunderland who have enjoyed some good home results on their return to the Premier League.

They still have to host relegation rivals Nottingham Forest and Leeds, alongside Brighton and Everton, who come on final day.

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They lost at Manchester United in Saturday's early kick-off, a result in no small part due to captain Cristian Romero's reckless first-half red card.

It left them level on points with Leeds United, who impressively beat fellow relegation battlers Nottingham Forest 3-1 on Friday night.

Only three weeks ago West Ham had looked certain to join doomed duo Wolves and Burnley in being relegated to the Sky Bet Championship, but Nuno's side won away at the latter on Saturday afternoon to record their third victory in four matches.

To complete a miserable weekend for the Europa League holders, Crystal Palace ended a 12-match winless run in all competitions by winning at Brighton to move about Spurs and leave the north London club 15th in the table, six points above the drop zone.

Premier League relegation odds (via Sky Bet)

West Ham - 2/5

Nottm Forest - 10/3

Leeds - 8/1

Tottenham - 10/1

Crystal Palace - 22/1

Man City - 28/1

Brighton - 28/1

Bournemouth - 40/1

Sunderland - 40/1

These are worrying times for Tottenham, who have spent only one season (1977/78) outside the top flight since 1950.

They have won just one of 10 and two of their last 16 league matches, with their home form the biggest threat to survival.

Spurs have lost a staggering 15 of their last 26 home league games, taking only 19 points in that time.

Tottenham fixture list in full

They host Newcastle on Tuesday, with Arsenal, Palace, Forest, Brighton, Leeds and Everton making up the rest of their home fixture list.

Should they continue to perform at the rate they have at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium over the past 18 months (0.73 points per game) it will take Frank's side on to 34 points.

That would leave them requiring six points from trips to Fulham, Liverpool, Sunderland, Wolves, Aston Villa and Chelsea to reach the much-heralded 40-point mark.

Given the recent form of Leeds, West Ham and Forest, that may not be enough.

Has a club ever been relegated with 40 points?

In the 30 Premier League seasons that have had 38 games a season, on only three occasions has a club been relegated with 40 points.

In 1996/97 Sunderland went down with 40 points, and so did Bolton the following year.

West Ham hold the unenviable record of being relegated with the most points after their 42 in 2002/03 proved insufficient.

How many points are needed to stay up?

While 40 points is seen as the landmark for mathematical safety, in 18 of the 30 38-game Premier League seasons (60%) 36 points has been enough for survival.

Odds correct at 1030 GMT (9/2/26)

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Kick-off & Context

Fixture: Tottenham Hotspur vs Liverpool

Date: Saturday 20 December

Kick-off: 17:30 GMT

Competition: Premier League

Tottenham host Liverpool in one of the Premier League’s most reliable goal-producing fixtures. Even with both squads affected by injuries and international absences, this matchup still carries significant attacking quality on both sides — making Sky Bet’s 50/1 new-customer offer on Over 0.5 Goals (just one goal needed) a standout angle for the weekend.

Spurs come into the game needing a response after inconsistent results, while Liverpool arrive with renewed confidence and a strong recent run, particularly in terms of structure and balance.

Recent Form & Head-to-Head

Liverpool are unbeaten in their last five matches in all competitions, showing improved control and defensive discipline while still carrying threat in the final third. Tottenham, by contrast, have struggled for consistency and have conceded heavily in recent home matches — a trend that has left them vulnerable against top-six opposition.

Historically, Spurs vs Liverpool is a fixture that delivers goals. Recent meetings have produced high scorelines, fast starts, and little in the way of caution — all factors that strongly support the likelihood of at least one goal being scored.

Team News & Injuries

Tottenham Hotspur

Spurs are dealing with significant absences across midfield and attack:

James Maddison, Dominic Solanke, Dejan Kulusevski, and Destiny Udogie are unavailable.

Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma are absent due to AFCON duty.

These absences force Spurs into a reshaped midfield and place greater attacking responsibility on their remaining forwards and creative players.

Liverpool

Liverpool also travel without some key names:

Mohamed Salah is unavailable due to AFCON.

Cody Gakpo, Wataru Endo, Giovanni Leoni, and Joe Gomez remain sidelined.

Dominik Szoboszlai is a doubt following a recent knock.

Despite this, Liverpool still arrive with strong attacking depth and flexibility in forward areas.

Predicted Line-ups

Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1)

GK: Guglielmo Vicario

DEF: Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero (c), Micky van de Ven, Djed Spence

MID: Rodrigo Bentancur, Archie Gray

ATT: Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons, Randal Kolo Muani

ST: Richarlison

Liverpool (4-2-3-1 / 4-3-3 hybrid)

GK: Alisson Becker

DEF: Conor Bradley, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, Milos Kerkez

MID: Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones

FOR: Florian Wirtz, Alexis Mac Allister, Hugo Ekitike

ST: Aleksander Isak

Both sides retain pace, creativity, and goal threat — even with notable absentees.

Tactical Preview & Match Outlook

Tottenham are likely to focus on compactness through midfield while relying on transitions and individual quality in attacking areas. Players like Kudus, Simons, and Richarlison will be tasked with breaking quickly and making the most of limited opportunities.

Liverpool will aim to dominate possession, stretch the pitch, and apply sustained pressure. Their midfield balance and movement in wide areas should allow them to create chances against a Spurs defence that has struggled when pressed aggressively.

With both teams favouring forward play — and defensive stability not guaranteed — a goalless outcome looks unlikely.

Players to Watch

Richarlison (Tottenham)

Spurs’ main goal threat in the absence of other senior attackers. His movement and aerial presence make him dangerous in open play and set-piece situations.

Mohammed Kudus (Tottenham)

Capable of unlocking defences with direct dribbling and intelligent positioning between the lines.

Hugo Ekitike (Liverpool)

Leading the line confidently and consistently getting into scoring positions. A constant threat against unsettled defences.

Curtis Jones (Liverpool)

Growing into a key midfield role, offering energy, ball progression, and late runs into the box.

Prediction & Betting Angle

Match Verdict

Given the attacking profiles on both sides, recent defensive trends, and historical context of this fixture, at least one goal feels extremely likely.

Sky Bet 50/1 — Over 0.5 Goals

Sky Bet’s 50/1 new-customer offer on Over 0.5 Goals requires just one goal in the match — from either side. With the attacking talent on display and the stakes involved, this represents strong value relative to the likelihood of the outcome.

Claim Offer

Summary

Fixture: Tottenham vs Liverpool (Premier League)

Date & Time: Saturday 20 December, 17:30 GMT

Context: Goal-friendly fixture with attacking quality on both sides

Team News: Spurs hit by midfield injuries; Liverpool missing Salah but still dangerous

Prediction: At least one goal scored

Offer Highlight: Sky Bet 50/1 on Over 0.5 Goals — excellent high-reward opportunity for new customers

Sky Bet Offer: Terms and Conditions