With 17 games remaining the race for promotion to the promised land of the Premier league is hotting up. So who are our biggest rivals for those three hard fought places?
The Hammers sit four points clear of second place Southampton and will look to push on over the next 7 days where they face Southampton at Upton Park on Tuesday night. But they must focus ahead of that clash as they face a potential banana skin clash away at Peterborough. As the chasing pack are starting to hit form and are looking real threats.
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Birmingham City are the team to watch out for in my opinion with Chris Hughton doing a sterling job in the Midlands. Hughton saw his team ripped to shreds in the summer, but some shrewd signings and keeping hold of Nikola Zigic is looking vital. Birmingham are on an unbeaten run that stretches back to the 19th of December in all competitions, and under the guidance of Hughton who guided Newcastle back up as champions after one season look a solid outfit. The game at Upton Park against the Blues is looking like a game which could decide the title.
Southampton despite a run a results that will disappoint manager Nigel Adkins where they haven’t picked up three points since the 14th of January where they saw off Nottingham Forest are still well in the hunt in 2nd place. Southampton who seem to be the draw specialists of late have arguably got the best strike force in the league in Billy Sharp and Rickie Lambert but have found scoring goals tough of late, scoring just 5 times in 8 games. But in Adam Lallana they have a player who can create a chance out of nothing and he is going to have to find the form he had in early season if they are going to be real contenders come the end of April. A result at Upton Park on Tuesday night could help lift their spirits and help to put a run back together.
In the form of two players called Phillips, Blackpool have quietly snuck onto the radar, Kevin and Matty have been in inspired form of late pushing Blackpool right up to 4th place. Blackpool produced the result of the weekend last week, producing a comeback of the highest quality against Cardiff, and they look a shadow of the team who got thumped 4-0 by West Ham at Upton Park earlier in the season. The 3-1 win over Cardiff forced onlookers to take them seriously, a comeback which made them in West Ham fans eyes on KUMB who place them in their three to go up. If the two Phillips continue their great form, they are sure to be up their come late April.
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Cardiff face the difficulty of keeping their players focused on the league; following their teams Carling cup heroics which will now see them face Liverpool in the final. Their defeat to Blackpool pushed them down to 5th place just weeks after they found themselves joint top of the league with West Ham. There are no doubts about the quality of Cardiff’s squad who have a born goal scorer in Kenny Miller and a winger who has bags of potential in Peter Whittingham and if they can keep them fit they still have a chance of sneaking into automatic contention. However Cardiff are known for blowing it, they have been in the play offs the past 3 seasons not getting to the top flight on any occasion.
In my view the 3 to go up will come down to experience, in these situations and the strength of the squad I think with the way in which the Hammers strengthened we should have enough to secure one of the automatic places. But where will the other two teams come from? My opinion Birmingham will make up the other automatic place as their players are in the form of their life and confidence is booming and with a manager like Hughton who has been there and done they are in good stead. As for the play offs it is a bit of a lottery, but I think Blackpool could sneak it, as they have experience in winning it before.
Who do you think the 3 promoted teams will be? Comment in.
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I reckon we are up already (famous last words) but that second place goes to Brums in my opinion.