Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today declared the Premier League survival race is now between seven teams.

McCarthy takes his side to third bottom Bolton on Saturday with Wolves a point clear of the drop zone with 12 games left.

Just three points separate six of the bottom seven teams above Portsmouth, and the Molineux chief says West Ham – beaten 3-0 by Manchester United last night – and Blackburn are clear of danger.

“I think the three points separating the six teams are the six teams who will be involved, along with Portsmouth,” said the boss.

“I don’t think West Ham will be involved because they’ve got too much quality, while Stoke and Blackburn are out of it as well.

“So I think it’s from Sunderland, Burnley, Wolves, Bolton, Portsmouth, Hull and Wigan – those seven.

“If that proves to be the case, I fancy us to finish above three of them.”

To emphasise McCarthy’s point, all the bottom seven teams lost at the weekend.

And the Wolves chief sees it being nip and tuck to the wire, especially with so many teams still having to face each other.

Wolves have to visit all bottom three clubs and West Ham, as well as hosting Blackburn, Stoke and Sunderland.

“I think it’s going to be like this until the end of the season unless any of us can pull a couple of wins from somewhere, which is always difficult,” he said.

“And we’ve all got to play each other.

“I don’t think I need to overstress the importance of the Bolton game – for both parties.

“We’ve got most of them to play – Bolton, Burnley, Portsmouth, West Ham and Blackburn, although I don’t think the last two will be involved.

“Burnley play Portsmouth at the weekend, so whatever happens – somebody is going to get something there.

“It’s bizarre that we might be supporting Portsmouth on Saturday.”

McCarthy has no fear of having to travel away in seven of the remaining games however.

“I fancy us away from home anyway,” he said.

“Maybe there have been games here against teams where we haven’t punched our weight such as Portsmouth and Hull.

“Now we’ve got to visit a lot of them but that doesn’t bother me because the pressure is very much on them as the home team.”