The Betfair Contrarian: Why QPR won't get relegated

 

They are seven points from saftey with less than a third of the season remaining, but the Contrarian believes QPR will still be a Premier League club next season...

 

As the Premier League season heads into the final bend, bottom-placed QPR seem to be having no luck getting rid of the anvil around their ankle. However, before you write off the Hoops as Championship-bound chumps, just see what the Contrarian has to say and you may just find yourself laying Harry Redknapp's hopefuls for the drop at 1.19.

 

Harry Houdini

 

Much like Harvey Keitel's character in Pulp Fiction, Harry Redknapp is the footballing equivalent of The Wolf - the crisis handler par excellence. Most recently, he transformed Tottenham from bottom-placed flounderers into Champions League quarter-finalists. Crucially though, Harry has kept less glamorous teams afloat in the top-flight when threatened with the trapdoor. He kept Portsmouth in the Premier League on a limited budget in the 2003/04 season. Then on his return to Pompey in December 2005, with the club neck-deep in relegation, he managed to inflate the lifeboat again, securing six wins and two draws from the last 10 games to keep them up.

 

 

Hugely favourable fixture list

 

Of great encouragement to layers of QPR is a run-in which looks like it was hand-picked by Tony Fernandes himself. Out of the 11 games left (a potential haul of 33 points), QPR face eight teams in the bottom-half and not one member of the current top four. Better still, they have the chance to steal points off the five teams situated directly above them at present. Starting with 16th-placed Southampton at St Mary's on Saturday, QPR will play four of the bottom five sides over the course of their next five games, including Wigan and Aston Villa. This run of fixtures presents a gold-plated opportunity to claw back some of the seven-point deficit, whilst simultaneously applying pressure to those above them.

 

 

Fit again Loic Remy

 

It was a massive coup when QPR managed to snare Marseille's departing striker from right under Newcastle noses. Remy notched 28 league goals from just 53 appearances in the French top-flight for Marseille and was understandably being courted by the Magpies as well (understandable given they'll buy anything with a French passport). The £8 million French international showed exactly what he is capable of by racing away to score at West Ham on a fine debut in English football. Now he's fit again the pacy frontman should have plenty to trouble the upcoming opposition. Bobby Zamora's return to the squad also bodes well.

 

 

Last season's escape

 

Believe it or not, given the churn, there are still some players on the QPR's books who were part of the great escapists from last season. The likes of Adel Taarabt, Jamie Mackie, Clint Hill and Bobby Zamora all helped Rangers to five successive home wins during the run-in and can therefore impart some belief on the newer members of the squad, that this task is achievable. Despite losing to Manchester United at the weekend and Swansea previously, the R's have not been as far away from winning games as the table suggests; drawing four of the last six previously against the likes of Tottenham and Man City.

 

 

Other team's implosion credentials

 

We've seen all season-long how the teams around QPR are more than capable of putting together three or four losses on the bounce. Aston Villa have won only once in their last 10 league games, losing on six occasions, while Wigan went on a horrendous run earlier in the season, losing seven out of nine leading up to Christmas. Even Norwich, in 12th, have the potential for free-fall, highlighted by four straight defeats over Christmas for the Canaries.

 

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