The 1989/90 season of 20 teams had Luton Town and Sheffield Wednesday split on 43 points by goal difference. The bottom two were well adrift. I think that is the highest points total for an 18th placed team of 20.
What a strange season.It was a point a game at 30 and then the lower teams put on a spurt.Of course such a thing cannot be ruled out but it must have been very much an outlier.
Palace move in slightly now 3/8 on favourites.Despite being five points adrift Sunderland are at a much longer 4/6.Fulham now 6/5 against,cardiff 5/2 and Hull 11/4.Finally West Ham shorten dramatically pulling in to 7/2 while Norwich move the other way out to 4/1.Stoke are 6/1 and WBA 10/1
I watched the game and Swansea looked a bit jaded to me. Hull scored a good goal on the break 13 minutes from the start and Swansea struggled for the rest of the half. They started better in the second half and got a fortunate goal by Chico Flores that the commentators thought was a hand ball. They also committed a definite handball in their own area that should have given Hull a penalty. They have to play St Gellen in Switzerland on Thursday and then us on Sunday. Chico Flores picked up his 5th yellow card, so he'll be suspended on Sunday. Very good result for us I'd say.
Strange to think that, if we beat them on Sunday, we go above Swansea with almost half of the season played. This season has felt like a constant crisis, and yet we must have been doing something right.
====== ROFL I hope everyone thinks like you....... Will be even better when we stay up . More chance of Norwich going down then Hull City
You're definitely doing a lot better than most people predicted. The teams coming up are often under-estimated. They have momentum, and that is worth a hell of a lot (as we know ourselves from the season when we came up).
Talk about selective quoting Tony wrote that just after you'd lost at home to Palace. And you conveniently ignored his more recent post saying Hull were actually a tough nut to crack it seemed. And yet still you are just five points clear of the relegation three. I don't really see you getting more than five or six points to the end of January, so I can well imagine Hull being in the bottom three. Even being generous I can only get you to 41 points overall so it would only take a brief run of bad form, which you haven't had. That being said, Davies and Huddlestone look good and Sagbo is starting to look at home in the Prem so I agree you're the least likely of the promoted teams to go down.
================= 18...Cardiff 19...Palace 20. .Sunderland To go down..... ( Fingers crossed ) Though anything can happen in Footy.. Norwich to finish 16th or 15th Hull City to finish 15th or 16th
Actually in the summer I said I thought Hull were the best equipped of the promoted teams and would have the best chance of staying up based on some of the early signings you made - Curtis Davies and Tom Huddlestone in particular, both of whom have been absolute quality so far. I both like and rate Steve Bruce, I think he's an under-rated manager with a decent record and I said a number of times in the summer that I thought you'd surprise a few people this year You've made a fantastic start, probably better than anyone of us could have predicted so I'm not entirely sure why I have changed my mind about you, it's quite odd really but I do think for some reason that you will go down. Ok, bottom three by Christmas look way off the mark, your fabulous win against an otherwise rampant Liverpool put paid to that - don't think anyone saw that coming did they? Good point for you tonight as well, but it's a long old season and we're not even half way through it yet so it's far, far too early for any one of the bottom dozen or so to even begin to think they're safe yet - and yes, of course that does include us. My worries for you are if Huddlestone spends much time on the treatment table, he's not got a great history with injuries and if he does miss a chunk of your games then I think you would miss him. Don't think you've got enough goals in you either, not sure if you've got money to spend in January but I think you need something extra up front. I hope I'm wrong as I'd love you to stay up, I honestly would, I just got the feeling that over the course of the full 38 games you're not quite going to have enough to be able to. I think you'll finish above Cardiff though. I didn't mean any offence to Hull City at all, just called it as I see it like I always do. Three teams have to go down, and despite your great start in my personal opinion I think there's a strong chance you could be one of them. Sorry about that
If we beat two out of Swansea, Sunderland and Fulham, I think his position is probably safe for the rest of the season. And even as a Hughton-doubter, I'd be glad about that because at least it would provide a bit of stability and mean the club isn't going to tear itself to bits. Also, I don't want to be grudging about this. If we got those two wins it would mean we were on either 23 or 24 points from 18 games (depending on whether we draw or lose the other) and surely with that kind of return he would deserve the chance to take us to the end of the season. Long-term, I'm still not sure he's the man to take us to 'the next level', though. And the light starts in the east, remember.
I think we have to make some allowances due to injuries to key players - eg Tettey. I remember in the early games Tettey, Howson and Fer were impervious until Campbell crocked Tettey!!
Blimey, you must have been feeling pretty optimistic when you did your predictions, 20 points already from the 15 games we've would be mighty impressive and would surely see us on course for 50+ points! I think that up to now we've had the toughest set of 15 games of anyone, my reasoning behind this is that the four games we've yet to play before the halfway mark must be amongst the easiest anyone has left - none of the current top eight, two against clubs in the bottom three and the only big club we've not played are ManUre, and it's looking a great time to play them. Also when you factor in that we've been away to Arsenal, Citeh, Spurs, Newcastle and Liverpool already, the next set of games before our run-in is our big chance to rattle up some points and get our asses mid table Not enough people look at who we have have played and where we played them and just seem concerned with how many games we've had if you ask me. I don't think you can really start to make proper judgements until we've played at least everyone once, and with the four games coming up before then I have to say we must be well on course this season.
In terms of both points and position we are about where I expected us to be.I still think that the remaining four games are better than the average being versus teams in 9th,10th,18th and 20th.As i have been saying on here this is the main reason that we have not picked up so many points.We gained only eight points from our first ten games,then nine from our last five.Who saw that coming? West Ham v Sunderland is going to be massive THAT is a six pointer.
Maybe I was Munky, but just for info here's what I thought in terms of points target for each game: Everton (H)----0 Hull (A)---------3 Saints (H)-------3 Spurs (A)-------0 Villa (H)--------3 Stoke (A)-------1 Chelsea (H)-----0 Arsenal (A)-----0 Cardiff (H)-----3 Man City (A)---0 West Ham (H)--3 Newcastle (A)--0 Palace (H)-----3 Liverpool (A)---0 West Brom (A)-1 I don't think that was a particularly unrealistic target.
There's a couple that you could argue with I suppose, but I like to think it's relatively fair in terms of a simplistic target. However, having 17 points at this stage and being in 14th spot is certainly no reason to panic!
