Are you guys worried that your bubble may have burst?

You're probably getting sick to death of the plaudits that you have been paid these past few weeks, because behind them is a back-handed insult. "Toon is the surprise side of the season" is another way of saying "enjoy it while it lasts, because it won't last long."

That's how I always felt whenever the press expressed its surprise Spurs made the top 4 a couple of seasons ago. Far from cheering me up, such verbal effusions irritated me.

Having said all that, I know that most of you Toon lads probably cannot believe your luck, or how you've been playing, and that most of you know its probably not going to last the whole season.

The thing is this. Do you worry that your loss to City at the weekend will be the start of the decline? Sure, we lost to them, it was our first game of the season (after the Everton game was cancelled due to the rioting), but we were without several key players, including Modric, Parker, Adebayor and King. Same against United, our very next game. Since then, we haven't lost a game. You, on the other hand, have have a fantastic run of games, culminating in your loss to City, and with some very tough games ahead.

How worried are you that, come Christmas, you'll be down in 8th? And do you see that as a realistic possibility?

 

Not at all worried by this. I fully expect us to finish 7th or 8th anyway. Anyone thinking we can finish top 4 is daft

 

Why 8th?

Safe to assume that City and United will be in the top four. The other four clubs that can get there are Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool. Who's the other club?

I think that if Newcastle can stay inside the top four by the time the new year hits, they can be contenders.

 

8th would be a disaster, considering we have spent nothing and we were a newly promoted side last year and should have 'second season syndrome' anyway

 

Also, Newcastle can easily finish in front of the club that drops away from the pack, ie if it was 1 CITY 2 UNITED 3 ARSENAL 4 TOTTENHAM then I'm pretty sure Newcastle could finish ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea.

 

Why would our bubble have burst? We lost to the team that almost everyone in the league will lose to at their place.

 

Not concerned at this loss one bit.

I fully expected a loss away to Man City yet the way the team played defensively (apart from two penalties) and also managed to carve out some very good chances against the best team in the league bodes well for the future.

I still expect a loss against Man Utd and Chelsea.

It’s how we perform against Norwich, Swansea, West Brom and Bolton after these potential 3 defeats that will really define our season. To go into the New Year with near enough points to avoid relegation will be good and the squad can kick on to see how well we can finish.

 

I thought Man Utd was your first game?

Finishing around 8th is what most normal people would see as a great achievement. I don't see losing to City as some kind of catalyst for our decline seeing as had we put away some great chances and Ryan Taylor not had his mad five minutes it could have been a much closer game.


I take heart from the fact that we didn't get completely smashed by them, as that would have undoubtedly been bad for morale.

 

7th is my target.

I don't give a **** if fat ****s like Merson or Lawrenson talk **** about us not being tested, or saying that we lost against the only good side or what ever.

Spurs and Arsenal aren't easy teams to play against, we stopped Arsenal from scoring, which is something no other team has done so far this season. We also have been the only team apart from manure and city to take points from Spurs so far.

We aren't claiming to be a top 4 side, but so far, I think it would be fair to say that we are a team that will be finishing 7th at least.

Everton are a class side, but their late start will put them behind us IMO.

 

We (most) toon fans are realistic (we are not as deluded as some people think) and thus we would imagine top 8 is still the priority and anything else is a bonus. We have had enough knock backs over the last few years to get to excited with how well we have done and thus we know not to get carried away.

If we can achieve top 8 then we have improved and we can kick on from this next season. We hgave some decent players but we do have a small squad and injuries and suspensions will test us later in the season.

The bubble wont burst because we aint in a bubble (Jenas was in his head) so we will be fine. We will probably lose against Manchester United next game but I think we can get something out of the Cheslea match on 3rd December. This will mean we have played arguably our hardest two games of the season (both Mnachester clubs away) and if we are still in the top 6 then I will be delighted. If we had played these two clubs in the middle of our run of games and still be in top 6 then there would be no pressure.

Up with the toon. P.S Can we have Modric for 5 million.

GG

 

This, altough Chelsea do struggle at SJP and are out of form so I wouldn't count us out getting something from them!!

 

I'd say we should be going for a point at least. Spurs look a much better side than Chelsea at the moment and we took something from them.

I'd be disappointed if we didn't take a point from Chelsea.

They lost 3-5 at home to Arse, 1-2 at home to Liverpool, 1-0 away to QPR. Albeit they were unlucky not to beat Qpr, and they could have scored like 6-7 against Arse, but at the end of the day they're not playing very well.

We should be getting a point from them at home.

 

TBH I see our "tests" as beating the other mid table teams. Considering our current aim is to finish as one of the "best of the rest", we need to be winning against sides like Fulham, Sunderland, Everton etc and taking the odd point from the second tier of teams, sides like Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal.

You can forget the top teams like City, they don't matter. Lawrenson can stick the big four up his crack, we've passed all of our tests so far with flying colours.

 

This is what I think. If we can hold off sides like Arsenal and Spurs, we can do well in the league. Spurs really should be classed as the 2nd toughest opponent at the moment IMO after City.

 

The very worst we could have been after these three games (City, United and Chelsea) was 7th, and yesterdays results haven't changed that at all, we're still in 3rd. We got beat by the best team in the league by far, a team thats only dropped 2 points all season, and despite being dominated possession-wise but for a few missed chances (and unfortunately conceding a silly penalty while Steven Taylor was getting treatment for his stupid face...) we could've actually come away with a result. Obviously they could've finished one or two more, so the result was correct, but we didn't play badly by any means. We also had a weakened team, with Tiote out, Sammy Ameobi playing right wing, and Hatem Ben Arfa starting his first game in over a year.

Could heads drop? Its a possibility, but I've faith in the coaching and playing staff to ensure this doesn't happen. As I said, 7th is the worst we can be at the start of December, with a reasonable buffer above Villa in 8th (especially if you lot do the job tonight). After that we've got Norwich, Swansea, West Brom and Bolton, so as much as pundits like to say we've not played the top three yet, we've only played one of the promoted teams. I never thought I'd say this at the start of the season, but I'd be disappointed by 8th at Christmas.

 

For the record, I'd love the Toon to finish above both those sides

 

Agreed

 

I think the teams confidence might take a knock if the next two games end in defeats and they may not get some results like they have due to playing with the confidence from being unbeaten. What I don't expect is a Hull or Burnley style drop because we have better players than they did.

 

We lost our invincibility so what? We never expected to end the season unbeaten anyway with our present squad ... And if the scoreline had been any worse then yeah I think that it would affect our momentum ... but with the way we played and limited their chances and even created some ourselves even with the poorest ball possession we've ever had this season ... just shows you how much determination and quality we have ...

 

Norwich (A)
Swansea (H)
West Brom (H)
Bolton (A)

I think we should be taking at least 7-8 points from these games, and we definitely shouldn't be losing.

I'd expect Swansea to be a tough game, they're a very good team, and I expect them to have the majority of the possession also. We need to take our chances when they come.

Norwich will be a tough away trip.

I expect us to be beating West Brom quite comfortably, and Although I think we should be beating Bolton, I can't help but get a bad feeling about that place.

My target is 10pts, but at least 7-8 pts.