Having looked at all the contenders for the final Champions League spot, it’s now time to look at those fighting for survival at the foot of the table, with two out of a possible six destined to join Portsmouth in the Championship next season.

Bolton are currently looking best placed to survive, having secured 35 points from 35 games, meaning they currently sit seven points clear of Hull in 18^th. Bolton are set to face both Portsmouth and Birmingham at the Reebok Stadium before the season ends, with their toughest game coming at Tottenham in their penultimate game.

Next up are Wolves, with 34 points from 35 games. They host two teams who look to be already safe in the form of Blackburn and Sunderland. They’ll be hoping Portsmouth will stricken of players for an easy three points when they visit Fratton Park on the May the 1^st.

Wigan are currently sitting three points behind Bolton with a game in hand, and four clear of Hull in 18^th. Arguably they have the toughest run in, and are set to host injury stricken Arsenal tomorrow followed by a testing fixture away at fellow strugglers West Ham, before hosting Hull City. Things don’t get any easier as they round the season off with a trip to Stamford Bridge to face a Chelsea side battling it out for the title.

West Ham are currently hovering just above the drop zone, three points clear of Hull. They face Liverpool, still fighting for fourth, on Monday at Anfield before travelling to the DW Stadium in what could be a relegation six pointer. They then travel to Fulham and will be hoping Roy Hodgson’s side will be suffering a little from their Europa League endeavours. They round off the season with the unenviable task of hosting a Manchester City side fighting for the last Champions League spot.

Hull are currently occupying 18^th place and will be hoping to pick up the necessary points to carry them out of the relegation zone. That will not be an easy task, especially as they have to host top four hopefuls Liverpool and Aston Villa before the season is out. They also host Sunderland before travelling to Wigan in another tasty relegation scrap.

Burnley are the last side fighting for their Premier League status and currently sit on 27 points, four points behind West Ham in 17^th, despite having played a game more. Things will not get easier for Brian Laws side with their next fixture at home to Liverpool. A trip to Birmingham, who have lost one game at home all season, will not be any easier, before they host another of the top four hopefuls on the last day of the season, in the form of Tottenham.

Overall, I feel you’d have to be a very brave man to bet on Burnley surviving. They’ve been absolutely useless under Brian Laws, with the exception of last weeks result against Hull, and I just cannot see them picking up enough points from their remaining fixtures to take them out of the relegation zone. My next tip to be playing Championship football next season would have to be Hull. They face a couple of difficult fixtures, and even a win over Wigan will not be enough to keep them up due to their awful goal difference (the worst in the league), and they’ll have to take points off Sunderland too. I just can’t see the other four teams failing to pick up any points or Hull taking enough points off Liverpool, Aston Villa and Sunderland to make them safe.

So, who are your favourites? Will Burnley and Hull surprise us all or have they both left it far too late to secure the necessary points to survive in the Premier League?

With only a handful of games to go, the battle for fourth is tighter than ever before, with four teams still in the hunt for the final Champions League spot, and the prize money that comes with it.

Currently leading the way are Manchester City, sitting on 62 points having played 33, who still have to play rivals Manchester United (home), title outsiders Arsenal (away) as well as top four hopefuls Aston Villa and Tottenham (both at home) before finishing the season off with a trip to struggling West Ham.

In fifth, on 58 points from 32 games, and having just been knocked out of the FA Cup by a beleaguered Portsmouth side short on players and money, are Tottenham, who face North London rivals Arsenal tonight, at White Hart Lane, before hosting league leaders Chelsea on Sunday. Their run in doesn’t get any easier as the travel to Old Trafford to face a United team intent on keeping the pressure up on Chelsea, before hosting Bolton. They then play their last two games of the season away, facing top four rivals Manchester City before ending the season with a trip to Burnley, who it can only be presumed will already be relegated.

Currently occupying sixth place are Liverpool, with 56 points from 34 games. Next to visit Anfield are West Ham, who are battling it out for Premier League survival at the foot of the table, followed by a trip to Turf Moor to face Brian Laws’ pretty useless Burnley team. Liverpool’s toughest game of the run is their penultimate game, when they play host to Chelsea, before finishing off away at Hull.

Aston Villa are the last real challengers for the final Champions League spot, who sit 2 points behind Liverpool with 2 games in hand. Next up are Everton, who retain a slim hope of finishing ahead of their Scouse rivals, before visits to all ready relegated Portsmouth and Ian “management consultant” Dowie’s Hull team. A home tie against their Brummie rivals follows, before traveling to the Middle Eastlands for what could potentially be the fourth place decider. O’Neill’s side will finish off the season by hosting long ball merchants Blackburn.

Personally, my tip for fourth would have to be Citeh. Having already beaten Chelsea home and away, they’ve shown they have what it takes to win the big games, and they shouldn’t need any firing up for the game against United, and the same can be said for Adebayor’s return to the Emirates. I feel they have the beating of both Spurs and Villa at their place too. So it could turn into a battle for fifth, and that spot could go to any of the chasing pack should City run away with fourth.

So, who are your favourites? Will Citeh maintain their goal scoring form? Will Spurs fall off the pace? Does Rafa have any chance of keeping his promise of Champions League football next year? And will Villa get over their FA Cup exit in time to mount a late charge?

Technology – Do officials need technological help?

The Scutler Files, named after the former Old Man of the board and Wiggleville legend, Scutler, are going to be a series of articles posing questions from the ever changing and ever diverse world of football to several of the sites users to gain a broad range of opinion and to spark interesting debate amongst our forums.

So without further ado the first of this series of articles poses a question about a seemingly controversial subject within the game, Video Technology and its place in modern day football. I’m sure all of us can point to some incident over the past 12 to 18 months where the referee has got a decisive and game changing decision wrong.

Recently there seems to have been more and more support from the top clubs, managers and even referees for advancements in football, whether this be a video judge like in rugby or just simple goal line technology, to be implemented in the game to cut out these mistakes. However the official word from FIFA is that goal line technology will NOT be implemented into the game due to costs and maintaining that all levels of the game are the same.

Therefore for this first article myself, Bishy and Badderman have all answered the following question; should technology be brought into the game to aid the officials?

Read the rest of this entry →

First of all let me welcome you all to the new and improved FMSB, a site that aims to create a friendly welcoming community for new and old users alike.

I think its important for me to apologise to all the old members on behalf of the mod team for the recent downtime, Bish will be able to explain more fully but the cause was to do with the old hosts who were unresponsive and silent with any support. However we came to the decision that we would come back and come back all guns blazing.

So with that over with let me give you a quick introduction to some of the new features and such of the new site, the first thing you’ll notice is that we have a site now as opposed to just a forum, this is mainly to help complement the articles we are planning on. Through the articles you’ll notice that we have slightly changed our emphasis, from being Football Manager orientated to more of  a Football focus with a dash of FM considering thats where we started!

So new features! Theres going to a few new series of articles, I won’t reveal too much but I’m sure they will all be of interest to the community. However one of the main series of articles that we are starting will pose a question from the football world to members of the site for them to answer, hopefully creating interesting debate on the forums! Hopefully the articles will also give everyone a chance to express their views on whatever they feel is relevant!

As well as the new features there is the return of some old favourites, hopefully we will see the return of the prediction league for the upcoming World Cup, we should also see Superleague get underway this time around.

And any features you would like to see or think would work well, leave a comment or a post in the forums!

So all in all exciting times ahead for FMSB, hope you can all be part of it!

Falc