Wigan boss Roberto Martinez expects the battle for Barclays Premier League survival to go down to the final day of the season.
It had looked inevitable for much of the campaign that the three relegated clubs would come from a bottom five of Wolves, Wigan, Bolton, QPR and Blackburn, but the latter four have all begun to pick up important results.
QPR have now beaten Liverpool and Arsenal in successive home games, while Wigan and Bolton also won on Friday to leave the four teams covered by just one point and only Wolves starting to look like they may be cut adrift.
Aston Villa, who now sit only five points above the bottom three, could also be dragged into it, but it all comes with the territory as far as Martinez is concerned.
The Spaniard, who guided his team to a first home win in seven months on Friday when they saw off Stoke 2-0, said: “The other results are going to be like this until the end of the season.
“We’ve been in this situation before and we know the last seven or eight games of the season the bottom five are going to pick up a lot of points and there’s going to be many twists and turns.
“You can only control your own fate. We need to have as many points as we can when May 13 arrives.
“I don’t think there is a bad team in this league and I don’t think there was a bad team last season. Everyone will be fighting until the end.
“Our last two fixtures are against Blackburn and Wolves, and it’s very difficult not to think it’s going to go down to the last day of the season, but we’re pleased with that because we’ve been through a difficult season.
“We had eight defeats on the trot and we’re very happy to be able to perform in the manner we do being in the bottom three positions.”
The Stoke win, courtesy of second-half goals from Antolin Alcaraz and Victor Moses, made it only one defeat in eight for Wigan.
It also earned them back-to-back wins for the first time since the end of last season, when victories over West Ham and Stoke secured their Premier League future.
With matches against Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal to come in their next three games, getting out of trouble remains very much an uphill struggle but Martinez hopes last season’s experience will give them the edge.
He said: “To go into the unknown in football, and in life, is very dangerous. We’ve got players who are 21 or 22 but they’ve got that experience from last season, they’re starting to accumulate between 50 and 60 starts in the league and those things help.
“You don’t want to be in the position we’re in but now that we’re there we need to make sure we get out in the best possible way, and that’s performing in the way we have the last two weeks.”
It was Stoke’s 49th game of a gruelling season but goalkeeper Asmir Begovic insisted there was no lack of motivation for their final seven matches.
He said: “We deserved to lose and it’s disappointing. We were a bit iffy, we didn’t click. I’m sure there is some fatigue, it’s difficult playing so many games but we can’t use that as an excuse.
“Every game has its importance; we’re a proud group of guys and we don’t like performing badly and losing games. We’ll bounce back, I’m sure.
“We’ve got another seven big games left, so we want to push on and finish as high as we can. There’s a lot to play for and we need to put in a big performance at home to Wolves on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, winger Jermaine Pennant vented his frustration on Twitter about the position he was asked to play, which is unlikely to please boss Tony Pulis.
Pennant wrote: “I can’t score a free kick if there isn’t 1 around the box and I played bloody wing back today I’ve never ever been a full back in my life.”
