Two terrible teams will survive relegation from the Premier League. Will that really be worth celebrating? Perhaps if it's Forest but Leeds or Everton?
With an axe swinging precariously above both teams, it was an accident-prone evening of football which reflected the growing panic around the bottom of the table, from James Maddison’s abysmal penalty-kick to, it was all terrific entertainment for the rubber-neckers amongst us with nothing at stake, but doubtless nerve-shredding for anyone actually emotionally involved.
But that bottom five all seemed to be locked into a run of wretched form from which there seems to be little escape. They’ve won just two of their last 25 matches between them, and the clash between Leicester and Everton felt like an encapsulation of this. Everton came out of the traps with what felt like a real feeling of intent, but every time they lost possession of the ball in anything like an attacking position Leicester were able to break at will and create chances of their own.
Mental fortitude will come heavily into play. When we talk about professional football, we tend to talk about the abstract and the theoretical, but while the reams of statistics that are now available for every player and every squad tell a story of sorts, to focus entirely on the facts and figures disregards the peculiar tensions that come to the forefront at this time of the season.
Club owners have become too dependent on the ‘new manager bounce’ theory, to the point that they’re relying heavily on it to pick up any points whatsoever. Depending on three teams being worse than you over the course of 38 games may not be the winning strategy that those involved had hoped. This season the bottom of the Premier League has been governed by strategising on the fly, with long-term planning long ago replaced by a constant need to fire-fight.
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