Danny Drinkwater and Leicester City are bottom of the Premier League table, with 10 points from two wins, four draws and 10 losses. Clive Mason / Getty Images
Danny Drinkwater and Leicester City are bottom of the Premier League table, with 10 points from two wins, four draws and 10 losses. Clive Mason / Getty Images

Relegation battle to remember: Six EPL clubs duking it out to stay above the drop zone



While the Premier League title race appears, at best, to be a three-horse race, at the bottom of the table there are six teams who already appear locked in a battle to avoid the drop.

With nearly half the season gone, none of Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Burnley, QPR, Hull City and Leicester City are on course to reach the often-quoted 40-point benchmark for survival. Analysts at these clubs are likely to spend the festive period number crunching to find a way out of their current predicament, but who currently has the biggest task ahead of them?

With the January transfer window comes the annual hunt for a goalscorer to fire clubs clear of the drop zone and this year will be no different. Only two of the bottom six teams have managed to register more than a goal per game, and Queens Park Rangers alone can boast representation in the division’s top 10 goalscorers’ chart.

The main reason that Charlie Austin has been able to keep pace with the division’s bigger names is the quantity of chances he is being provided with; only three players have taken more shots than the 47 he’s mustered so far, and overall only five top-flight sides have fired in more than QPR’s average of 14.1 per match. However, as Everton ably demonstrated on Monday night, this focus on attack by Harry Redknapp is leaving his defence exposed. QPR have conceded a league high of 30 goals so far, and tightening up at the back must therefore be Redknapp’s primary focus.

Beneath them, things are looking bleak for Hull. The club have spent much of the season on the back foot, creating the fewest chances and allowing the second most in the division, with opponents being allowed five shots more per match than Steve Bruce’s men are creating themselves. Their only saving grace has been the resilience of the defence, which has soaked up 11.2 shots for each goal conceded – the sixth highest in the Premier League – and allows Bruce to focus on the problems higher up the pitch.

Attacking should also be the main concern for the two other new arrivals, Burnley and Leicester, both of whom have already gone five consecutive games without scoring this season. Burnley have been the division’s most wasteful side so far, with the average of 16.2 attempts they have needed to score each goal more than double that of the 7.2 needed by the most clinical side, Chelsea.

The remaining two sides, Sunderland and Crystal Palace, have both struggled to finish what they have started. Despite leading in six of their matches so far, Sunderland won only twice and racked up an incredible 10 draws from just 16 matches so far, dropping fully half of possible points from winning positions. Palace meanwhile have only taken six points from a possible 15 in games where they have scored the opener: a lower proportion than anyone except bottom side Leicester.

It will be fascinating to see how these troubled clubs respond when the transfer window re-opens in January. In one of the more competitive seasons in recent memory, the relegation battle looks set to provide plenty of intrigue.

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Hotel Silence
Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir
Pushkin Press

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

MATCH INFO

Group B

Bayern Munich v Tottenham, midnight (Thursday)

In numbers: China in Dubai

The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000

Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000

Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000

Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent

The biog

Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi

Age: 23

How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them

Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need

Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman

Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs 

Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing