In the beginning there was football.

The 2010/2011 Premiership season has been a truly unique one without a side of true quality or even one with great style. There has however been a sign that the gap between the elite of the game and the sides that usually languish around the foot of the table is closing. Wolves and West Brom, two perennial basement dwellers have collectively beaten the established top four this season whilst both playing a more modern passing game rather than the archaic long ball game that smaller sides have attempted to use in years past. Yet despite this Wolves stay firmly established within the relegation zone and will have to fight tooth and nail to retain their Premiership status. This in my eyes at least says a lot about the overall quality of the Premiership this year, despite the lack of a truly great team each team has been able to hold their own.

The Premiership table as of the 25th of April 2011.

If we take a look at the table above there is a quagmire of teams  between 15th and 9th that I believe can consider themselves reasonably safe from the worries of relegation. Each of these teams have reasons to be proud of the seasons they have had with remarkable results and achievements pulled off by each of them. We have Stoke becoming the last founding member of the Football League to reach an FA Cup final and who would put it past them beating Roberto Mancini's millionaire's boys club.

The achievements of Birmingham City must also not be overlooked, with a team devoid of any great natural goalscorers the club has punched above its weight by lifting its first major trophy since 1963 and in the eyes of some single handedly destroying Arsenal's once promising season. The superb Ben Foster has been in top firm for them and is pushing Joe Hart closely for the title of England's number one after some shaky moments from the incumbent for both Man City and England.

The achievements of the two aforementioned clubs in the cup competitions along with a strong showing from English clubs in the Champions League is indicative of a strong Premiership getting even stronger. The away form of Manchester United this season has been a superb example that the smaller teams in the league have gotten better and it is not the failings of the bigger clubs that have led to a tighter league. United have drawn 9 home games and lost three with defeats coming at Stamford Bridge, Anfield and Molineux. This is the opposite of their away form in Europe where United have been dominant, not conceding a goal away from Old Trafford all season against Europe's elite.

With four games to go for each team in the league the true battles left to be decided appear to be the fight for fourth and fifth between Man City, Tottenham and Liverpool and the battle to beat the drop. The prizes of Champions League football and Premiership survival are the two richest in football, yet with relegation condemning three sides to the perils of The Championship costing clubs the vast television money at stake it is arguably this fight that is the most important. With Tottenham, Liverpool and City all firmly established in the Top 6 it is arguable that Champions League football whilst nice the failure to get it would not be a devastating blow to any of them in the long term. The drop to the Championship however has started a rapid decline for clubs once firmly entrenched in the top tier of English football. Prime examples currently languish in the third tier of the English game with teams such as Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday and Swindon living examples of what relegation from the Premiership can lead to. Braford City are the living example of a team in the Premiership just ten years ago now entrenched in the lower half of the bottom tier of the Football League.  Whilst they are the extreme example of when things go bad teams relegated in recent years have struggled to bounce back, with the exception of Birmingham, West Brom and Newcastle relegated teams have struggled mightily in getting back in the big time.

With all that said its time for some predictions for the end of the season.
Champions: Manchester United
Top four: Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City
Europa League: Liverpool, Birmingham City (LC), Stoke City (FAC)
Relegation:Blackpool (20th) Blackburn (19th), West Ham (18th)