Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, and West Ham United are embroiled in a generational Premier League relegation battle, with the question now being who survives.
For once, the Premier League’s relegation battle is carrying the weight of big names and raw nerves rather than just familiar strugglers, because Tottenham Hotspur are 16th on the Premier League table 29 points after a damaging 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest are 17th on 28 after fighting back twice for a 2-2 draw at Manchester City, and West Ham United are 18th on the same total after Crysencio Summerville’s goal earned a huge 1-0 win at Fulham, leaving only a single point between Spurs and the bottom three as March begins to squeeze the life out of every mistake.
What makes this race so compelling is that each side is arriving here with a different kind of pressure: Tottenham have not won a domestic match in 2026, and Igor Tudor has overseen three defeats from his first three league games, with a Champions League round of 16 tie against Atletico Madrid now crammed around a league trip to Liverpool and a home meeting with Forest.
Nottingham Forest, by contrast, have just taken a point at the Etihad and now head into a run that includes Fulham at home, Tottenham away and Aston Villa at home; and West Ham, under Nuno Espirito Santo, have quietly won four of their last eight Premier League matches after winning only three of their first 21, which is why this suddenly feels less like a fixed bottom three and more like a straight, messy sprint to see who blinks first.
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham’s survival chances still exist because they are technically outside the bottom three, but the trend line is brutal: they are only one point clear of the drop zone after the Crystal Palace collapse, they have yet to win domestically in 2026, and the next stretch asks them to balance Atletico Madrid in Europe with Liverpool away in the Premier League before a high-pressure home game against Nottingham Forest.
That schedule matters because Spurs do not look like a side capable of compartmentalising competitions right now; they look emotionally frayed, tactically loose and far too easy to drag into chaos, which is exactly what Palace did when the game turned after Micky van de Ven’s red card.
The hardest part for Tottenham may be the part no fixture list measures: this club is not used to playing survival football, and when a team spends most of the season expecting quality to solve everything, it can struggle badly once the season becomes a test of composure, clear heads and ugly points rather than style.
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest should come out of the midweek round of Premier League fixtures feeling more encouraged than either of their rivals, because rescuing a 2-2 draw at Manchester City after twice coming from behind was not just a useful point but also a reminder that they can stay alive in games even when the balance of play is against them.
Their next Premier League dates also offer a genuine route to safety, with Fulham at home followed by Tottenham away and Aston Villa at home, while later fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester United mean there is still danger ahead but also enough direct, winnable moments to shape their own run-in.
Nottingham Forest’s edge over Spurs is that they look more comfortable living inside this kind of scrap: the numbers from the Etihad showed them with only 30.1% possession and nine shot attempts, yet they still left with a point, and that sort of practicality often matters more than polish when the table tightens.
West Ham United
West Ham United’s win at Fulham may end up being the result that truly blows this fight open, because it moved them to 28 points, level with Nottingham Forest and just one behind Tottenham, while also giving them a second successive feeling that momentum is finally starting to shift in their favour.
The strongest case for the Hammers is form: they have won four of their last eight Premier League games, drawing two and losing two, after managing only three wins in their first 21 matches of the campaign, which suggests Nuno Espirito Santo is at least giving them structure and belief at the right moment.
That does not make the road comfortable, especially with Manchester City and Aston Villa next in the league after an FA Cup tie against Brentford, but West Ham currently look more settled in their mission than Tottenham do, and the fact that the club turned to Nuno in September tells you they wanted a coach built for pressure rather than one chasing ideal conditions.
Verdict: Who will get relegated from the Premier League?
Right now, Tottenham Hotspur look like the slight favourites to go down from the Premier League, not because the gap is already large but because it is so small and yet everything around them feels heavy.
Spurs are only a point above the relegation zone, they have no domestic win in 2026, Tudor has lost his first three league games, and the Champions League tie with Atletico Madrid only adds more physical and emotional strain before two enormous league matches against Liverpool and Forest.
Behind Spurs, West Ham would be the next most vulnerable simply because their margin for error remains tiny despite the upturn, while Forest look the best placed of the three to survive after that City draw and a fixture list containing enough direct opportunities to collect points, so the order today feels like Tottenham first, West Ham next and Nottingham Forest just behind them in the race to beat the drop.
