West Ham aren't safe nor are Newcastle. Think Sunderland have the worst run in though. Their next three are United at home then Chelsea and Newcastle away!
Plus we've got a 2-week international break again when we could do with a quick turnaround to follow up the win
Newcastles injury problems just keep on coming, add to that their European commitments and they could be cutting it a little close for comfort. Still think they will stay up though.
I saw Robbie Savage's tweets earlier and was interested to read that he predicts 18th place to be fought between Sunderland and Wigan (with Reading coming bottom and QPR 19th). Sunderland, especially after today where they failed to take advantage of Norwich's 10 men, look quite weak and Sunderland's upcoming fixtures may justify Robbie's prediction.
Yes, I can't see Newcastle going down. They seem to be on a roll at home, and if they can continue that in their next two home games (Fulham and Sunderland) then they're basically home and dry. At most, they'd need one other win. But West Ham though, yes I'm suddenly not ruling them out. Though I'm not exactly ruling them in either! Big game for them at home to WBA next. Win that, and they can be dimissed again. But lose that, and I will be counting them back in. Given that they player Utd, City and Liverpool in April, their games against us and Wigan that month could suddenly become six pointers. (Norwich have simply got far too many winnable games for me to think of them as still being in trouble, whilst Stoke have a very nice looking April, Utd at home aside).
The key thing to remember is that over the course of our "dip", the gap has remained basically the same.
And likewise, the reverse applies to QPR. They've won two out of their last three games. The gap between them and 17th remains as it was.
Had we lost yesterday, we would be one place above the drop zone and one point ahead of Wigan with their game in hand. Just shows how important it was.
Just saw Wigan game. Martinez excuses were utterly pathetic. Everybody can see it. Just admit your player commited a terrible crime you weaselly ****.
A terrible crime? Perspective, please. It was a terrible tackle, but he was making his full debut, the manager's hardly going to hang him out to dry is he?
Exactly. If that's how you think, Nigel should have hung Jay out to dry over going down without contact, as many argued. You always defend your man. Roberto defended Callum, and Nigel defended Jay.
No he wasn't, it was his first start in the PL. He has played plenty of times in the cups as well. There is no excuse for that kind of challenge. 6 match ban please FA.
Yes exactly, it was his full debut in the premier league, if I really have to be that specific. Makes absolutely no difference to the point I made either.
First off, the two situations are hardly comparable. How many knees did Rodriguez smash? "Defending your man" in a situation lile this is plain wrong.
Come off it. Even serial killers are entitled to have someone defend them. Any manager would have done the same thing.
I don't he was excusing anything. He was just explaining that there wouldn't have been any malice in the tackle and that his player was inexperienced. There was no backing off from any admission of responsibility, as far as I could see.
He said: "It is a contact sport and these things happen but there was never any intent. "What you need to look at in those incidents is if there is intention, a nastiness about the tackle. We are not a nasty team. "He [McManaman] has not a nasty bone and is not bad-intentioned. "When you get the ball and then there is a follow-up it is very difficult for a panel to punish that." The challenge sparked a half-time fracas with Magpies assistant John Carver trying to get to the Latics forward. Carver was sent off along with Wigan coach Graham Barrow. "If the opposing player had a bad injury, as a club we will contact the player," added Martinez. "I can guarantee that it is part of his enthusiasm and trying to fight for every ball. Maybe it's just a striker's tackle. "I believe it is a bad challenge but it's not malicious." There's no admission of anything in there. At the very least, the absolute minimum Martinez or better yet, Mcamanaman should be doing is coming out and publicly apologising, accident or not.
