Jonathan Woodgate believes it will boil down to Leeds United or Burnley in a two-team battle to avoid relegation from the Premier League. The former Elland Road favourite reckons that Everton might now be out of the equation, despite only being a point above Jesse Marsch's men and the Clarets.
But the Toffees have played one fixture fewer than both of their rivals and, while Leeds entertain third-placed Chelsea tomorrow night, Frank Lampard's team will travel to an already-relegated Watford outfit following impressive back-to-back triumphs over Chelsea and Leicester. When asked whether he felt the club he played for more than 100 times in the Premier League would beat the drop, Woodgate told BritishGambler.co.uk: "I hope they do!
"It’s hard to judge. Everton have been brilliant the last few games, beating Chelsea at home and beating Leicester away and the victory against Man United as well – I was looking at their away form and thinking they hadn’t won since Brighton on August 28 – six points away from home since before Leicester, and I think they’ll be OK now as they’ve got a couple of home games and I think they’ll pick up six points from their two home games.
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"It’s gonna be down to Burnley and Leeds. I watched Jesse Marsch’s first game against Leicester, and I know they got beat in that game, but you could see what they were trying to do and they were very good.
"They’ve been playing very well, and I thought they were clear of the danger, but have been dragged back in by the form of Burnley and Everton. But it’s out of Burnley and Leeds!"
Chelsea are a point clear of Arsenal going into tomorrow night's contest with the Gunners entertaining Tottenham on Thursday night in a game that will carry huge significance in the race for Champions League places. Spurs are five points adrift of Thomas Tuchel's team with three games left to play, but the latter will also travel to Elland Road with Saturday's FA Cup final against Liverpool in their minds before concluding the campaign at home to both Leicester and Watford.
With all that to consider, Woodgate admits it is difficult to forecast how the reigning Champions League winners will approach their meeting with Leeds and he also reasoned: "Chelsea aren’t in great form. They’ve got five points from their last five games and look like they’ve taken their foot off the gas a bit, and have the Cup final coming up so will they maybe rest a few players for that?
"I know third isn’t in the bag yet with Arsenal and Spurs putting the pressure on, so it will be interesting to see what team Tuchel puts out."
Woodgate went on to stop short of saying tomorrow's fixture is a "must win" for Leeds but did add that, should Tuchel rotate his squad a little, then the Whites must be ready to try and take full advantage, ahead of their final two matches at home to Brighton and away at Brentford.
"You wanna try and win every game but a point wouldn’t be a bad result against Chelsea," the 42-year-old former England international said. "But if they rest a few players, Leeds could capitalise on it and as I said, Chelsea are not in great form at the minute."
