Neither Sunderland or Newcastle are doing particularly well at the moment and it is by no means certain that Midlesborough will be promoted so will all those soccer fans in the NE be crying into their Newcastle Brown Ale?
Based on what? they've lost 5 out of their last 6 premier league games. And the teams they were playing weren't the hardest, Fulham, Stoke, Southampton, Swansea and West ham. There upcoming games are Man City, QPR, Man Utd. Arsenal and Everton. Going by how they have played recently I can't see them picking up too many points in those ties and if they don't they will be in the relegation scrap for sure.
Based on QPR and Reading definitely being worse, and Villa, Wigan, Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich and us probably being worse. They're in some really bad form, and it'll probably continue through the next few weeks, but I'll be very surprised if it lasts all season. I think they'll have turned it around come February and will finish mid-table.
I agree Newcastle will be fine when they get their big players back. Sunderland on the other hand............
They do have MON though. Based on their performances against us, it will be QPR, Reading and Newcastle... But let's wait to see if Sunderland play as bad, hopefully they do!
Think Newcastle will get the points they need. There are teams that are worse than them...they've hit a blip.
Newcastle may not be winning games just now but their general play is pretty good and with a full strength team they will surely end up more than safe in this league.
I can see parallels between Martin O'Neill's time at Sunderland and Lawrie McMenemy's! Looked to be a perfect match made in "heaven" only for the reality to be rather different. Results suggest that they have not improved one iota since Steve Bruce was dismissed twelve months ago. It begs the question, is it the manager or a deeper malaise that is afflicting the club?
Sunderland have won something like 3 games from their last 25 and all 3 of those wins were against 10 men. I think Sunderland will be in the relegation fight all season along with us, Wigan, Villa, Reading, QPR (and possibly Norwich although they are doing well at the moment). Newcastle however should still finish relatively comfortably above the relegation candidates but you never know, once you get stuck in a rut it can be hard to get going again.
Newcastle are in that awful position of playing pretty well and losing. They could well be in a scrap, especially after their next games! And Tiote will be a huge miss for them. Along with Ba's low buy out clause and Cisse being a tenth the player he was last year, i think they will struggle to finish above 14th.
I see QPR as certainties for relegation and Reading not far from it. I can actually see Aston Villa going down with them as Bent will be off in January and I can't see them bringing anyone decent in to replace him. I could be proven wrong on the Villa shout but that still only leaves one relegation spot so at very least one North-East club will be in the Prem next year.
All I know is the relegation battle is looking a lot more exciting than the battle for the title! I for one can't wait to see how it pans out!