I'm going to stick my neck out here,but I reckon that if we beat the Pie Eaters we are safe, not matematically of course 'arry could win his last 22 games and qualify for Europe,but statistically it's like this. Reading and QPR are unlikely to gain more than 30 points a piece,that would be a fantastic haul of a point and a half a game that in the current table would see them sixth.One of the four teams above them will only average a point a game,about what they have now,so I reckon 37-8 points is enough,probably less. If we were to win saturday we would only need three more wins and three draws from twenty one games to reach 37.Job done.
if we could get to 25, even 26 points by the time we face chelsea on boxing day, i think we'd have to say we are very close to survival assured. even teams who have gone down like hull and blackpool who have made a great start had no more than 27 points by new years day, and despite going on a very poor run from then until the end of the season, still ALMOST stayed up. we have more quality than both those teams and in both cases, high point totals were required. that may still be the case but it is unusual for a team to be relegated if they surpass 25 points by boxing day. the two at the bottom are irrelevant at the moment - its third from bottom we need to be aware of - and you can say that from about 7th down to 18th are all much of a muchness. another thing in our favour is that we face many of the other relegation contenders at carrow road in the 2nd half of the season.
Yes that really was the thrust of my argument,it's a fight to avoid 18th place and there are many candidates apart from us,some of whom look distinctly dodgy.The bookies agree BTW you can now get 17/2 against us for the drop.
i like your confidence boys for me avoiding defeat is very important this weekend, especially after confidence has taken a slight knock last night. hopefully we can get some of our minor-injured players back as well
If we can take points from the teams below us as we did so well last season, then we would be looking much safer. To beat Wigan and maybe pinch a point off WBA then losing to Chelsea and Mankini wouldn't hurt too much. We can't expect to go to OT and the Etihad and expect to pick up points but Saints, Reading, Fulham at home could well be 9 points and 35 points already seems within our grasp. Lets face it, most other clubs won't be seeing us as relegation fodder anymore.
adding to Redruth's list, we've also got Newcastle,WBA, Villa and Swansea to play at home, all very winable games. That's 7 in total.
More hope than arrogance. All that World Class Talent must click sooner and not bloody later Norwich (although it pains me to say it) are safe now, I can't see you doing a Blackpool or Hull. Hughton is far too steady
we are doing ok chaps but need to keep the system that works, would have liked to see the same system with Fox in for Tettey last night and push Howson into Wesleys role, the long ball stuff was ineffective we need to play it on the deck and we will continue to pick up points.
how is it arrogance? i can't see anybody suggesting we can't go down... (unless you are talking to our qpr chum)
world class talent???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
It's ok longsight, Wubba is one of the few good guys from the loft, his statement was made with his tongue planted very firmly in his cheek! Happy Christmas Wubba!
Two personal positives from last night were that I didn't get a chance to stick a wedge of cash on Bent to score in the game as I was planning to, and the other is that I've got a fiver on Villa to win the cup at 16/1 that I stuck on a couple of months back. That's about all I can think of right now
Like everyone, I wanted a win last night but there are at least some positives. One is avoiding a fixture pile-up, especially if injuries continue to come in. Second is the good chance of a solid mid-table position by Boxing Day (the teams below us have harder schedules over that time). Third, should QPR and Reading improve, they will most likely take points off the teams just above them, thus helping us. Like others, I am feeling more and more confident of survival now. A win over Wigan would help that further, and looking at the fixtures there seems to be a good chance of West Ham, Stoke and Swansea dropping points this week-end, so City could move even higher. Finally, starting with Wigan, 3 out of the next 4 matches are at home.
