Based on a tweet that Brendy posted, I decided to waste 15 minutes by comparing the schedules of the top eight: West Ham Remaining league games: 16 Remaining home games: 8 Remaining away games: 8 Still in FA Cup? No. Average points of opponents at home: 44.4 Average points of opponents away: 42.9 Southampton Remaining league games: 15 Remaining home games: 7 Remaining away games: 8 Still in FA Cup? No. Average points of opponents at home: 36.1 Average points of opponents away: 42.8 Cardiff Remaining league games: 15 Remaining home games: 8 Remaining away games: 7 Still in FA Cup? Yes, home to Liverpool. Average points of opponents at home: 42.1 Average points of opponents away: 42.4 Blackpool Remaining league games: 15 Remaining home games: 8 Remaining away games: 7 Still in FA Cup? Yes, away at Everton. Average points of opponents at home: 48.1 Average points of opponents away: 36.3 Birmingham Remaining league games: 16 Remaining home games: 7 Remaining away games: 9 Still in FA Cup? Yes, away at Chelsea. Average points of opponents at home: 41.8 Average points of opponents away: 39.4 Reading Remaining league games: 16 Remaining home games: 7 Remaining away games: 9 Still in FA Cup? No. Average points of opponents at home: 40.9 Average points of opponents away: 43.4 Hull Remaining league games: 16 Remaining home games: 8 Remaining away games: 8 Still in FA Cup? No. Average points of opponents at home: 39.5 Average points of opponents away: 43.8 Middlesbrough Remaining league games: 16 Remaining home games: 7 Remaining away games: 9 Still in FA Cup? No. Average points of opponents at home: 42.8 Average points of opponents away: 43.6 We have by far the easiest home schedule, while Blackpool in particular has a tonne of easier games on the road, and a bunch of difficult ones at home. Like our chances?
We are in a great position now. Pick the strongest 11 on Saturday & take nothing for granted, then West Ham will have all the pressure at a very nice looking Blackpool. Good times peeps, good times.
It's gonna be exciting, especially if blackpool beat west ham saturday. Wouldn't be surprised if they were looking over the shoulder at the playoffs soon.
It's on Tuesday (Blackpool are in FA Cup action this weekend) - so hopefully they'll be kicking off in 2nd place, and looking over their shoulder as you say.
couple of points on those interesting stats: 1. All the three still in the cup will quite possibly be out after this weekend. 2. Cardiff have a cup final and remember how we dropped points back in 2003 on our run? Our away form will be the deciding factor in my opinion.
Good to see that Boro appear to have a difficult run-in. They're our penultimate game of the season, so a tough run of fixtures could see them out of the top 6 race come our fixture - and hence we'd be facing a Boro team with nothing to play for (in between games against Posh and Coventry, who both will quite probably have nothing to play for themselves).
Yes, but looking at the table, who would you rather drop points ... Hammers or Blackpool. Right now, I'd rather Blackpool drop points.
The pack are all doing well, we need to chase down WHU, looking to cement 2nd is too dangerous. Leicester will be useful, losing to the teams at the bottom & beating the teams at the top, glad we don't have to play them again. I really do think we can catch the Hammers. (okay okay a draw will do! )
Cardiff and West Ham have tough run ins, while Blackpools looks the easiest. I am happy with our situation, better to have points on the board than games in hand.
Reading keep winning too. If they win their game in hand then they will be just 2 points behind. This is ridiculously tight. Got some tough games out of the way, now we need to win, win and win again.
