do you think we will be relegated? i think if we are still in the bottom three after 19 games then we could be having that discussion, but not after ten lopsided games where we've played 5 of the top 6. it does seem rather harsh. its a bit like saying we're only allowed to play the bottom half teams once this season - we have to play all the top teams twice, but we're the only team who has to play the season that way. you'd see us struggle because we've had harder games than everyone else
would we ever see the ball? tough balancing act - i'd be tempted to go with your suggestion though and play more direct, although again, that could play into west ham's hands. i saw west ham at swansea and in all honesty, they were much the better side, should have won that. it'll be really difficult.
It is fair to say, based on what I have seen so far, I am concerned that it could well happen. What else, other than a hunch or hope, can I base it on? Our pretty play has not worked thus far, of course, it could change, but if it doesn't....... We are all agreed that the team is not creating many chances, and even fewer 'clear cut' chances, while at the other end, we seem to be slightly more vulnerable than we have been since arriving in the PL.
If City do go with 2 strikers, I hope it will be RvW and Elmander, who has considerable experience of the second striker/ACM role. Nothing against Hooper, but this game is vitally important. Even better if City go with Fer and Howson in CM, IMO.
That is what I would like to see on saturday. I don't mind if it is Hooper or RvW, I actually think this one might be more suited to Hooper. But we should have Fer and Howson in CM with Elmander supporting the striker.
The script is written. Becchio comes on after 80 minutes and scores his hat trick goal deep into stoppage time.... Ar, hold on a mo, wrong thread
agree, it is always going to be a hunch, but i can still see us finishing in the top half at this stage (although i think 12th-14th would be more likely). the division, below the usual suspects and saints are all very similar and it won't take a huge amount of turnaround to see us lift out of the bottom three and move up the table. our fixtures were unquestionably difficult, more so than any other team in the bottom half. how can we make a sound judgement of where we are likely to finish based on such a lopsided feel to our opening ten games? of course, we should not ignore poor performances or poor results or thrashings, but does anyone think we'd have lost 7-0 to newcastle, for example? no, because we are more evenly matched to them. we might still lose, in which case that's not good, but equally we have far more chance of a victory. i still maintain we need bit of luck to go our way - a lucky penalty call or offside goal or whatever. maybe a 30 yard screamer. just a little spark that can bring back a bit of confidence. when this side plays with confidence, as we did against the likes of stoke and saints, we look a match for most teams.
1 Arsenal - Played - L 1-4 2 Chelsea - Played - L 1-3 3 Liverpool 4 Tottenham - Played - L 0-2 5 Man City - Played - L 0-7 6 Southampton - Played - W 1-0 7 Everton - Played - D 2-2 8 Man Utd 9 Newcastle 10 Hull - Played - L 0-1 11 West Brom 12 Cardiff - Played - D 0-0 13 Swansea 14 Aston Villa - Played - L 0-1 15 West Ham 16 Fulham 17 Stoke - Played - W 1-0 18 Norwich - N/a 19 Sunderland 20 Crystal Palace Thats 16 of our 20 goals conceded against 4 of the top 5
By that token you could also say you have only scored 1 goal against teams in the bottom half of the table.
four of which came in the final five minutes of games too. that is frustrating in itself. players haven't been able to respond to the disappointment of conceding against arsenal and chelsea. we lost to hull - who have won 4 out of 5 so far at the circle, we lost to villa who are very good away from home. we should have stuffed cardiff. we beat stoke, we beat saints. realistically, before the season began, those were the five games i expected us to get points from - maybe a draw against everton - which we got. so from those six games we've won 2, drawn 2, lost 2. that would suggest a mid-to-lower half finish. not relegation though. losing 7-0 suggests relegation, but man city on their day could do that to anyone!
this, as stated somewhere earlier, is because we still struggle to negotiate teams who park the bus against us. its not good enough, certainly, and a formula has to be found to correct this, but we don't really concede to these teams either. hull's goal was a dodgy penalty. villa's was slack marking and should have been avoided - the villa game, for me, was the most disappointing result because they really were there for the taking and we missed a penalty. but they really do seem to be a bogey team since lambert went there. we've only lost six home games under hughton and lambert has won three of them!!
Not to create an argument, just a comparison to last season... Man City scored more in one game this season than they managed in two Arsenal equaled their goal tally in one game this season, against us. Everton equaled their goal tally in one game this season, against us. Tottenham equaled their goal tally in one game this season, against us. You could argue that the gap between Norwich and those teams has grown a fraction, but have they got better, or Norwich a little worse?
Also, in the cardiff game when you had 30 odd shots, who the hell was having them? that could suggest that they were mostly from distance so it wasn't a real true reflection on the game. stats are stats, can be turned however you want them.
fair point. when i checked back, i couldn't believe this stat. since promotion back to the premier league, norwich city have played manchester city on five occasions, conceding 24 goals. amazingly, norwich won one of those five games!! we really do struggle against citeh, no matter who is in charge. even lambert conceded eleven of those 24 goals in just two games.
An often quoted saying,but wrong.true they may be used selectively to mis-represent the situation,politicians do that all the while.If you look at that list of who we have have played surely something must strike you? Does it look like a balanced chart? Well that's because it isn't.If we fail to take ten points from those bottom half six sides then that may be the time to panic.
jedi - sorry, but when Wes has been given an opportunity - he has been very poor IMO. He isn't the player he has been in the past I'm sorry to say!!!!
