Premier League Races Go Down to the Wire - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Somehow, it all comes back to Wigan Athletic.

Wigan is a small club that's been in the top flight of English football for only the last three years, and it's spent most of that time fighting for its spot in the Premier League. Last season, Wigan only avoided relegation on the last day of season with a win at Sheffield United. This season, they didn't stave off relegation until last week, when they upset Aston Villa, 2-0.

What's more, Wigan plays on the worst pitch in the Premier League. They share JJB Stadium with a rugby league club, which results in a torn up pitch that often still has yard-line markers on it during soccer games. It's the Premier League equivalent to playing in Salt Lake City.

Yet here is little Wigan having a huge say in the Premier League title race. Emile Heskey's last-minute goal against Chelsea cost the Blues two points in the standings -- two points which could have put Team Turmoil in the driver's seat for the league title. Now Wigan plays Manchester United -- who might be missing the injured Wayne Rooney -- at the JJB on Sunday, and Wigan manager Steve Bruce, a former United captain, is promising that his team will leave it all on the pitch on Sunday.

Wigan Athletic. Who would have thought they'd be in the middle of all this?

Of course, the title race isn't the only race in the Premier League right now. There's also the race for fifth place and a UEFA Cup bid -- another race Wigan impacted last week when they beat Aston Villa. Now Everton needs only a draw at home against Newcastle to clinch a spot in Europe next season.

However, it seems that's not the only UEFA Cup spot up for grabs now. UEFA revealed today that the Premier League will be awarded an additional UEFA Cup spot after England topped the Fair Play table in Europe -- and that spot could go to none other than Manchester City, who are fifth overall on the Premier League's fair play table behind four clubs who have already qualified for Europe. As long as Man City avoids a ton of bookings on Sunday at Middlesbrough, they could get UEFA Cup bid.

How dumb does Man City owner Thaksin Shinawatra look now? He's been eager to cut Sven-Goran Eriksson loose after City's recent slump took them out of European contention, and yet City might get into Europe anyway. Perhaps Shinawatra should have just left well enough alone. Then again, if he were capable of that, he would still be Prime Minister of Thailand, wouldn't he?

Meanwhile, down at the bottom of the table, the relegation battle goes down to the wire. Here's how it shakes out:

• Fulham need a win at Portsmouth to stay. If they manage only a draw, they can still stay up if Reading and Birmingham City both lose or draw.
  
• Reading needs a win at Derby County and a Fulham loss or draw to stay up. A draw at Derby all but dooms the Royals to relegation.
  
  
• Birmingham City needs a win at home against Blackburn AND a Fulham loss or draw AND a Reading loss or draw to stay up.

There's also still a chance that Bolton Wanders could go down, but that would require A.) Fulham to win, B.) Reading to win by 6 goals and C.) Bolton to lose to Chelsea by six goals. Somehow, I don't see the margins of victory for either the Blues or the Royals to be quite that big.

So there it is. All of Sunday's games kick off at 3:00 PM in England, or 10:00 AM Eastern Time in the U.S. It should be a fantastic day.