Chris Sutton believes Brentford and Leeds will join Newcastle United in suffering relegation back to the Championship.
The BBC and BT Sport pundit insists that we are not in ‘must win’ territory just yet, but feels there’s a host of factors that will stop us from pulling off Premier League survival.
He reckons we have a Championship defence and also fears we’ll struggle to attract anything other than mercenaries in January, feeling no big-name players will want to join a side bottom of the table – no matter how much money they’ll be offered.
As for Brentford and Leeds, I’d be shocked if either went down. The Bees are already on 16 points and look capable of picking up plenty of results, while Bielsa’s Leeds seem likely to pick up wins once they get key players fit again.
Here’s Sutton’s predicted Premier League table in full (via his latest piece for The Mail), followed by his comments on the relegation scrap:
1) Chelsea
2) Man City
3) Liverpool
4) Man United
5) Arsenal
6) West Ham
7) Tottenham
8) Leicester
9) Aston Villa
10) Wolves
11) Brighton
12) Crystal Palace
13) Southampton
14) Watford
15) Everton
16) Burnley
17) Norwich
18) Leeds
19) Brentford
20) Newcastle
‘I don’t think it’s too soon to say Newcastle are entering ‘must win’ territory. They can try to hang on until the January window opens but even that will present its own problems.
They will get the mercenary mob in, because which big-name talents are going to agree to join the club marooned at the bottom of the Premier League?
Right now, Newcastle have a Championship back line with a couple of talented forwards in Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin.
It’s nice having all the money in the world but if the XI you name on a Saturday can’t put in a performance then you’re up a certain creek without a paddle.
Eddie Howe’s players have to be looking at tonight’s game against Norwich as a must win, and the same goes for Burnley on Saturday.
They can’t get away from the fact that most fans across the country would be laughing if Newcastle go down. That adds to the pressure on Howe.
The three clubs who I’ll say are going to drop down to the Championship, with apologies, are Leeds, Newcastle and Brentford.’
IF WE DON’T HAVE 6pts come Sunday we can forget about ALL the BIG NAME’S…
…and we have to get Amanda to hold her hands up and admit she simply went for the wrong manager and also made a huge mistake in keeping Jones – this season to date has been his master plan!
Yes of course Numpty Bruce had to go as he was taking up a desk but he had nothing to do with the shambles we’ve seen all season!
AND I also hear you all saying CRAZY we’ve just got Howe – but if you look at the player’s IT’S ONLY his old mate’s that are getting played…
..and his plan is simply to get his old defence in January (!!!??) Yes the players that took Bournemouth down
Look – if we went down Howe isn’t the Manager to get us back up and Bournemouth knew he’s OK with plodding but not fighting!
Tough yes BUT I’M ALSO PRAYING FOR 6pts and not having to hit the red button…
..even with 6pts JONES is just making life hard for Howe and the Player’s that haven’t got a chance under the new manager!
KK(Quote)
Sutton has a job under false pretences how can he say for example that Brighton will finish above Everton.
Thomas Hobson(Quote)
Very surprised at Chris’s final prediction,being a footballer, so does have some sort of knowledge in the way of the game etc.i challenge him to a 1k bet he’s wrong .I’ll hand him 1k if he’s right and ask he hands me 4k If he’s wrong,a bet in the balance of what he earns and what I earn,I’ll even soften it for him ,as in I say nufc will scrape through and if I’m wrong we’ll call it even,well Chris?
Kevin Bain(Quote)