Posts Tagged ‘Hull City’
Substance not style the key to Premier League survival
It has become Premier League convention for promoted teams to aim for no more than survival in their first season in the top flight. With West Bromwich Albion seemingly doomed and Stoke City just as safe, it is down to Hull City to determine whether 2008/09 has been a good season for last year’s promoted clubs.
The Tigers were football favourites for the drop from the season’s outset, even during their stunning start, and the clubs who come up from the Championship this time around will also be expected to make a swift return to the second tier.
Champions Wolverhampton Wanderers have been the division’s best team all year but will be alarmed by the manner in which West Brom have struggled – the Baggies were by far the best Championship team in 2007/08 and looked better-suited for survival than both Stoke and Hull.
Wolves have looked like being joined by Birmingham City for some time, but the Blues are stuttering at the wrong time and could miss out on the last day – they travel to Reading, who can also still clinch an automatic
promotion spot, whilst Sheffield United, whose result Birmingham need to at least match, visit mid-table Crystal Palace.
If Alex McLeish’s outfit do return to the top flight at the first time of asking, they will perhaps be the team most likely to survive next term. They might be wracked by manager-boardroom disputes and supporter dissatisfaction with the style of football – City have scored 27 fewer goals than Wolves this campaign – but their squad has the greatest look of Premier League quality about it.
Their no-nonsense approach will stand them in good stead, as West Brom are proof that free-flowing football that works in the Championship is hard to reproduce at the top level.
The other three teams in the play-off picture are Cardiff City, Burnley and Preston North End, all of whom would be making their Premier League debut. Whether fellow first-timers Hull act as inspiration or warning will soon become apparent.
Tags: Alex Mcleish, Automatic Promotion, Baggies, Birmingham City, Boardroom, Burnley, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Hull City, League Debut, League Quality, League Survival, Mid Table, Nonsense Approach, Preston North End, Sheffield United, Swift Return, Top Flight, West Bromwich Albion, Wolverhampton Wanderers