CREDIT: "SUAREZ 1" BY AGMCAT ON FLICKR. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) / DESATURATED
Luis Suarez's departure from Liverpool was initially a blow to the team, but it has since become unbeatable.

Ten matches remain in the Premier League. Ten games for clubs at either end of the table to either meet their goals or to fall short and head back to the drawing board, leaving the 2014/15 season to pass into mediocrity.

As the season enters the home stretch, there is drama to be had at both ends of the table as clubs fight to avoid relegation, reach European competition or take home the ultimate prize.

At the wrong end of the table, the three newly promoted sides, Queens Park Rangers, Leicester City and Burnley find themselves occupying the relegation spots. But should one of the clubs manage to bring home a couple of wins, the entire complexion will change, as only four points separate the relegation zone and Everton in 14th place.

The six clubs in that zone are all facing a real threat to their Premier League status. Not a single one of them has been playing consistently enough to warrant any vote of confidence that they could reach safety. In the relegation mix is perennial mid-tablers Everton, who easily possess the strongest squad – on paper – but with only six victories this season, the team seems a shadow of the side that stormed to a fifth place finish last year.

Unusually for most recent Premier League seasons, there has been little manager turnover, with only Aston Villa firing their manager Paul lambert and replacing him with the younger and inexperienced Tim Sherwood. The team hopes that his gruffer style will help to turn around the fortunes of the club.

Looking toward the top, Chelsea is still maintaining its lead at the top, although Manchester City has managed to close the gap to a far more manageable five points. Both clubs are still competing in the Champion’s League, and the longer the club competes on multiple fronts, the more collective fatigue could set in among the players, leaving a possibility for an entertaining stumble at the top.

While the team is the league favourite and defending champions who are occupying the top two spots, there is a far tighter race happening just below in an effort to secure the final two spots in the top four. A five-point buffer separates Arsenal in third, confidant in its consistent qualification over the last decade, and the overachieving Southampton in seventh, which had been written off after losing so many players in the off-season. Between them, and split by just three points, lie Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. All clubs that are aching to prove themselves.

Manchester United is seeking a return to the Europe after its shocking plummet into seventh last year. After changing managers for the first time in 20 years and despite a series of inconsistent performances, new manager Louis Van Gaal has managed to scrape a series of unlikely victories to keep his team in the race. Tottenham Hotspur, on the other hand, is still aiming to prove that their one-time qualification was not a fluke, despite the Gareth Bale era having been long passed.

Between them lie Liverpool, which after a second place finish last season, began the year performing woefully, and the loss of Luis Suarez looked to be a crippling blow to the club’s progress. Since the turn of the year, however, the team is unbeaten in the league and one of the top form teams in Europe, having recently scored massive wins over Manchester City and Southampton.

With teams at the top and bottom still to play each other and with the middle pack of clubs still seeking their own results, the final third of the Premier League is shaping up to be full of the drama and excitement that makes it so special.