The way I see it is we need another 27 points for survival in the Premier League. Where can we get the 27 points from. Below are the fixtures until May and my predictions. I think the Palace game at the end could be squeeky bum time. Hopefully it won't get to that point and Fulham are in the dizzy heights of mid table mediocrity! 21 games to play, 27 points. Definitely do-able I think! Norwich away - 1 Hull away - 0 West Ham home - 3 Sunderland home - 3 Arsenal away - 0 Swansea away - 0 Southampton home - 3 Man U away - 0 Liverpool home - 0 West Brom away - 1 Chelsea home - 1 Cardiff away - 1 Newcastle home - 3 Man City away - 0 Everton home - 1 Aston Villa away - 1 Norwich home - 3 Spurs away - 0 Hull home - 3 Stoke away - 1 Palace home - 3 28 points. Nerves could be lessened if we can get 4 points from Norwich and Hull. We need the win against Palace, who could be in dire straights too and need the win. My predictions are very much geared towards good home form, slightly contradictory I know but I think we will do it, plus Brede will be back in the new year too. COYW! In the Mule We Trust!
If we can do the business in the games we should be doing it in, and pick up a shock result here and there, we'll be fine. The January transfer window may make things even easier on us.
Lets hope you are correct,we survive, and the summer we build, allowing us fans to get off the constant white knuckle ride.
If we picked up 12 points from the last 5 games we would be safe - in fact 10 would probably do it. The teams that win their last few games always get away. It's the teams whose form falls away over the last 6 - 8 weeks who end up in trouble and slide from mid table to third bottom and through the trap door.
Mystic Craving, I see your predictions are semi-reliant upon us recapturing our 'home-fortress' record. I hope you're correct, but have a feeling we might draw a couple at home that we should win, but pick up a few unexpected points away. That would be rather fulhamish!
I feel that we will perform well over Xmas and get the results. 4 wins would put us on 25 points and maybe mid table. Might be dreaming but they are all games we can win and there is a definite drive and determination that could get us those results.
The run of games from Norwich through to Sunderland are going to be key. If we do well in those, we move out of the bottom three and give ourselves momentum to build on; if we lose more than we win we're giving ourselves a mountain to climb and handing points to the teams around us in the table. Thank goodness that we seem to be producing decent performances now, but these four games are where we have to turn those performances into results, like against Villa.
There are twists and turns and we can get points even against the top 6 teams if we get the right performance on the day... It is positive that we have made the change before Christmas. And with most players having a rest till 2-3 weeks ago they should be in top form for Christmas.
Fortunately I didn't predict any points at Hull but only 1 from Norwich. So we are 2 ahead of schedule. 3 points on Wednesday if you please lads.
I note the good news that we are 2 points ahead of “InCravingWeTrust” after 2 matches. Agreed - We will have to improve at The Cottage - Calendar Year was awful: 7 Wins, 2 Draws and a whopping 10 Defeats (including Reading, Cardiff and Swansea (Oops, not Newport). So focus on West Ham and Sunderland, muddle through thereafter picking up a few points (maybe still in the drop-zone) then get there ought to be 10+ points to be had in our final run-in. C O Y W !
?? Swansea ?? I'm very much in the optimistic group. Not least because of the oft forgotten fact that the other teams around us (or should that be 'above us') have to play each other. My biggest worry is that, in every year when we've had a "great escape" - and this goes back to the 196os - our one consistent plus was goal difference. Alas that won't be in our favour this year.
6 home and 5 away. With predictions from December with a total of 17 points gained. I'd like to go for the win at Cardiff if the boys can do it, it would be massive. A win against Chelsea would be amazing. Chelsea home - 1 Cardiff away - 1 Newcastle home - 3 Man City away - 0 Everton home - 1 Aston Villa away - 1 Norwich home - 3* Spurs away - 0 Hull home - 3 Stoke away - 1 Palace home - 3 COYW
I'm not sure what to expect from the team now that we're on our third manager of the year. But, in short, we need to stabilize our performances and become hard to beat again, and we need for the other bottom feeders to start losing. On one hand, it's good that we're just a couple wins from being out of the bottom three. It's also good that we've got plenty of company hovering down at the bottom of the table. But those facts won't mean a thing if we don't grab these opportunities by throat and get some points. For example, Newcastle aren't playing well and I think it's reasonable to expect 3 points from that game, but I haven't seen much in our performances in the last two months that give me confidence. But I'm hopeful.
A win against West Brom would have made things feel much, much better. That said, let's keep a sense of perspective before the Chelsea game. It would be entirely Fulhamish for us to pull something out of the bag against them and I hope the team goes for it. That said, this isn't a game we were ever counting on winning, so if we lose it's a missed chance of bonus points rather than a bad defeat. We need six wins - maybe even five, given the draws we've picked up since this thread was started - and it doesn't matter which games they come from. I'm still optimistic, but we do need to start ticking off those wins very soon!
My scientific and not in any way biased look at how the league will finish for the 6 clubs around us. Stoke 40 Palace 38 Fulham 37 Norwich 36 Sunderland 35 West Brom 34 Cardiff 25 Comparing the great escape of 07/08 we were on 19 points going into the first game of March. We subsequently went on the following run of games 2007/08 last 11 games l, d, w, l, d, l, w, l , w, w, w = 17 points. The same points that i predict this season. Still believing. COYW
I like the above. I clearly hope this happens. We did however stay up on goal difference. The -32 goal diff really worries me.
Quite. And this time we won't be able to use goal difference. We will simply need more points. And if Saturday's draw is that 1 extra point, then great. I think you have to see Norwich not gathering too many more points from 4 games out so they need to make up points now. We are what they would view as their last winnable match prior to their horrendous 4 match run in and they also have to face WBA, Swansea & Sunderland so the possibility exists for these guys to nick points off one another. Palace have to play Chelsea, Liverpool & Man City and have us on the final day, of course. They also have to play Sunderland. Cardiff have a relatively easy run in with just Liverpool and Chelsea, on the last day of the season, of the big boys to play. Sunderland feature in their fixtures, too along with WBA. WBA have to play Man Utd, Man City & Arsenal along with Spurs, so they don't have a very easy fixture list coming up Sunderland have Liverpool, Man Utd and Chelsea along with Spurs to play, so their games aren't push overs either. If we can stay within touching distance of these guys then we could scramble over them in the last few weeks. Bearing in mind Palace is our last game and may very well be do or die for either team by then it promises to be interesting whatever happens.
