SAM Allardyce will be stunned if Leeds or Aston Villa get sucked into the relegation dogfight.

Leeds were this week tipped as an outside bet for the drop as Terry Venables' tenure as manager ended following a dismal run of one victory in the last eight.

But neither they, who are seven points clear of the drop zone, nor Villa, who are one point better off than Leeds, have much to fear, according to the Reebok boss.

The trio playing in the First Division next season will come from bottom four Sunderland, West Brom, West Ham and Wanderers and, possibly, Birmingham.

Blues are three points above Wanderers going into today's games but, with only eight games to play, Allardyce believes it amounts to a sizeable gap for three teams below them to make up.

While not discounting the chance that a team current out of serious peril could drop like a stone, the Reebok manager is looking no further than the four who seem to have been fighting for their lives all season.

"There is a possibility that other teams could be dragged into it," he said.

"But it is unlikely. Two, three, four and five points does not look too big a gap to make up but it is when there are only eight games left.

"It means we are going to have to win four and they are going to have to lose five or six of the last eight for us to get near or above the teams who are above us.

"When the number of games remaining gets into single figures it becomes so much harder to catch them.

"Fourth from bottom now is good enough for us and if that is how it stays it will have been a great season for us."