Its a bit weird this year with Christmas Eve/Day falling on a weekend, and I've noticed that for the Boxing Day and NY Day 3pm games, we've been pushed out till the following day in the evening. After Sunderland, 4 of the next 5 PL games are evening games... 22nd Dec - Oddball game on its own v Chelsea next Thursday. 8pm 27th Dec - Norwich away. 7.30 pm 31st Dec - Swansea away. 3.00 pm 3rd Jan - W.Brom home. 7.45 pm While others play on the 2nd at 3 on a B.Hol. 11th Jan - Everton home. 7.45 pm The game in hand! Our rivals have a more sensible schedule, so will this be a hindrance for Spurs, a bonus, or make no difference?
I really like the schedule, and if we beat Sunderland I might sufficiently cheer myself up to think it could help us in a title challenge or at least a top 4 spot
If we win against chelsea ill be bouncing off the walls. If we are serious contenders for top 4 we should pick up a good number of points from these fixtures
The Norwich-Swansea-West Brom run will test our squad, as I'm sure we might rest a couple of players for the Swansea game (the obvious one being if King is fit for Norwich, he'll sit out Swansea), so I'd expect to see Sandro and Defoe getting more than a short cameo.
It does seem a little odd, but I guess everyone wants to watch Spurs, so we've been targeted for the TV schedules.
It's annoying we don't play with everyone else but the team should perform regardless of what time they play. Bonus for me as I can watch most of them now
It's going to be even colder but apart from that, it's a good thing to have a slightly more spread out schedule. Looking at the games individually I think 13 points is a target, if we get 10 or more, I'd be very happy though.
I guess the fixture knobs don't mind us playing in snow,ice and freezing tempretures.Must be some logic in it! Who cares about the travelling fans anyway.......?
I prefer the more spread out schedule, which is partly due to West Brom, not us, being on TV just prior to us playing them. Though I hadn't thought about the fact that it's colder at night and that might adversely affect us, and certainly nights will affect the fans. So in that sense it's a shame, but I'd rather it was spread out than squashed together. I guess a lot depends on what the players and management think, whatever they'd prefer I'd basically prefer. Do feel sorry for the travelling fans though, but I'm going to the WBA game, and I'm quite happy to go at night if it helps the team. There's only one evening away game out of the 5, and that's at relatively near Norwich (for London/SE based fans), so that's not too terrible I guess.
Having had another study after all your comments I can reveal a small plus. As has been pointed out, our schedule is spread evenly...or eveningly...even!, we have a minimum of 2 full days rest between all games. Chelsea and Arsenal have tricky away games with only one full days rest on Jan 2nd, having played at home on the Dec 31st.
I can remember watching 3 games in a day,one Easter! Spurs in the morning,reserves in the afternoon and Orient at night. I was very young and foolish then.....no time to chase horrible girls. Now I'm old and foolish and think.....what a prick I was.........!
I've just had a bit of an assessment of the league table and I feel that although the schedule is busy and somewhat not ideal in terms of the evening fixtures; I've only just noticed that we've only played 6 home games this season. (sorry if I'm stating the obvious here) I know we've got a game in hand, but every team (including Everton who have also played 14) has played at least 7 at home. Even more interesting is that even though we've only played 14 games, we've still played 8 games away! some sides have played 15 games and only played 7 away! The schedule might be busy, but 4 home games out of 6 (including the game against Sunderland) might actually work nicely in our favour. No disrespect to Swansea or Norwich, but those are the two games I'd prefer to be away, and they are. Both sides like to play football, which could work in our favour away from home also. In addition, the rest of the top 6 have all played 8 home games, other than Man City. Thinking about it, we've done exceptionally well to have picked up 31 points, especially when we've played every side in the top 7 apart from Chelsea! As long as we don't suffer a hangover from the Stoke game, this could be a very good Christmas for us!
2 of the most important times of the season are at xmas and around easter when you typically get a few games in quick succession. If you hit a purple patch over those periods it can set you right up. For me, the fixtures have been kind to us this year (for xmas anyway, not seen easter). Including sunderland we have 4 home games and 2 away. Only 1 of those games is against a top side (Everton not Chelsea, hahaha). If we can win the 4 home games then we will be in a great position. Its possible to win the aways too of course. 14 points from 18 would do me, as long as 3 of them come against Chelsea. I think we want to be maintaining something like 2pts a game over a 5-7 game period as doing that over a season will give us 76pts (2nd last year)
Easter fixtures Saturday, 7 April 2012 Sunderland v Tottenham, 15:00 Monday, 9 April 2012 Tottenham v Norwich, 15:00 Saturday, 14 April 2012 Bolton v Tottenham, 15:00
12 points from those five fixtures would definitely keep us in the title challenge, and odds-on for a top 4 slot.
48 points from those five fixtures would win us the title. What? Surely the FA owe us for Chris Foy's ineptitude...
