Is this Season the Weakest Premier League at the Bottom?

Ten games gone and the bottom three teams in the Premier League have a paltry 13 points between them.
The fact that Aston Villa, currently one place above the relegation zone, enjoy a four-point cushion over Reading and are five points clear of QPR and rock-bottom Southampton speaks volumes about how poor the bottom three have been so far.
The excuses for why this has happened are plentiful.
At QPR, manager Mark Hughes has had injuries to contend with. The Saints have played eight of the top nine teams in the Premier League. And Reading are seemingly unable to hold on to a lead.
All these factors and more have combined to leave neutral fans decidedly unimpressed by the events at the bottom of the table, namely because these three teams appear woefully out of their depth in the Premier League.
While Saints have played some decent football in patches and have a likeable manager in the luckless Nigel Adkins, the south-coast club are conceding goals for fun. A huge amount of credit must go, of course, to Adkins for mastering back-to-back promotions to the top flight. In the here and now, though, Saints could be dead and buried before Christmas if they fail to address their slump in fortunes.
There’s simply not enough Premier League quality in the ranks at St Mary’s. There are plenty of promising youngsters, but the Premier League is an unforgiving environment and mistakes get punished.Upcoming home games against Swansea, Newcastle and Norwich at least offer the chance to gain some momentum, but the Saints have a gruelling slog ahead.
As for winless QPR, a major squad overhaul in the summer was supposed to signal the start of an exciting era for Hughes after the club avoided the drop last season. Hughes, though, has been forced to chop and change and his new-look team is yet to gel.

The Hoops have plenty of experienced Premier League campaigners, like Ryan Nelson, Bobby Zamora and Anton Ferdinand. And somebody like Djibril Cisse is a decent goal poacher if he can steer clear of disciplinary problems. Maybe the Hughes project, however, is doomed to failure. Players like Shaun Wright-Phillips, who presumably must be earning a fortune, have lost their way. And so it seems have QPR.
Like QPR, Reading are also waiting for their first Premier League win this term. It’s painfully obvious that the Royals lack an out-and-out goalscorer.
A 12-goal return from nine games is by no means disastrous – Liverpool have mustered 13 – but Brian McDermott’s men need the likes of Jason Roberts, Noel Hunt and Adam Le Fondre to hit the goal trail – and fast!
December has the potential to be a nightmare month for the Royals with games against Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United scheduled to take place before Christmas.
It could be a long, hard winter for Reading, QPR and Southampton.
About the Author: Mark Bowering blogs about football at Ladbrokes and is also a keen rugby league and NFL fan.