This seems a good time to contemplate the drop zone. Relegation baby, and this year's candidate pool is impressive. We're basically halfway through the season, and 8 clubs sit within 5 points of DFL.
Leading the pack with 15 points, we've got the tiresome trio of Southampton, Everton and West Ham. Bournemouth sits one skinny point ahead of them in 17th, and then we find another trio at 17 points ... Wolves, Leeds and Leicester.
West Ham, of course, are the real odd man out here. They had designs on Europe after finishing 7th last season, but injuries, unsettled key players and David Moyes seemingly running out of steam in his redemption arc have left them down in the muck. 4 wins out of 19 is bad enough, but they aren't getting draws either. 12 losses with a goal diff of only -10 ... woof, that's efficient. The D is OK, but like a lot of Moyes' clubs they just can't score. 15 goals scored ties them for next to last in the Prem. Wolves and Leicester are also visiting the basement unexpectedly. Both had top 10 finishes last season and both should have been in relatively healthy shape ... but Wolves already sacked their manager while Leicester looks likely to follow suit sooner or later. And you're looking at mirror images with these two ... Wolves are DFL in goals scored while Foxes are just bleeding goals against. You have to figure at least two out of these three figure out their mess and start clicking off points. All of these clubs have budgets in line with European aspirations and the drop would be a disaster.
Speaking of disasters, we also can look at Everton, although theirs is more of the expected, slow motion variety. Barely surviving last season, they're still looking at a must stick scenario with that huge new stadium close to completion. Not only have the wheels remained off, the fans are now beyond agitated, having shifted gears into open revolt as of last weekend. It's ugly on both sides of Stanley Park, but much, much uglier on the blue side. Like the Hammers, Everton also just can't score and lose a lot of close matches. That's even more frustrating that just straight up being bad.
The rest were pretty much expected to be here or hereabouts. Leeds are the most consistent of the bunch but need to grab points from the lower half of the table to survive. It takes a lot out of a team to grind they way Leeds do. Can they find the legs to work that hard through the winter? I personally think both Bournemouth and Southampton are fairly dreadful, and likely to find their way to the bottom for good. Keep in mind that Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest are barely out of the danger zone and only a rough patch away from joining the fun. Both are quite capable of it, I think ... especially Forest. The relegation battle could be an absolute donnybrook. Fingers crossed.