So our next set of 6 sees very winnable home matches against WBA and Stoke and three away matches at Sunderland, Hull and Fulham. Also the current leaders Arsenal at home. So what should we be looking for points wise? I'm going for 10. Two home wins an away win and a draw. Just two defeats. I hope that's realsitic? WBA H -win Sunderland A -win Arsenal H -lose Fulham A draw Stoke H -win Hull A -lose That would give us 38 points after 26 games. What do you all think?
I think you're being almost too realistic! Would like to think we could get a point from Hull away and maybe Arsenal at home, and Fulham look very vulnerable right now. A lot depends on who is fit of course. We really need to get results against the weaker teams though, more performances like the Villa or Newcastle game would be very concerning.
Fulham are shocking; we'd better beat them. Losing to Hull would be a major disappointment as well, regardless of how well they've been doing.
It's an exciting run, hopefully boosted by Wanyama and Boruc returning. WBA H -win Sunderland A -win Arsenal H -Loss Fulham A Draw Stoke H -win Hull A -Draw 11 points from 18 should see us close the gap on 8th
Stoke were awful last time we played and it was only that freak goal that got them a point. Realistically I am looking forward to us winning all of them apart from Arsenal. Hull look to be the hardest game other than that so we might only bag a draw there.
It's a pretty tasty looking run of games, we have to start expecting to win again if we want to get closer to the top 8 instead of the bottom 10. West Brom aren't that great and Sunderland have the cup to worry about. I'll go for 10 points.
I now have perspective. WBA (H) win Sunderland (A) draw Arsenal (H) lose Fulham (A) draw Stoke (H) win Hull (A) draw Gives 9, making 37 points. We may lose at Fulham making 36 points.
WBA - win. Sunderland - lose (bogey team). Arsenal - draw. Fulham - win. Stoke - win. Hull - draw. 11 points.
Boruc will hopefully be back soon. No idea how much longer Wanyama is going to be out for. Hopefully he's back soon. But give Schneiderlin and Cork a few games together and they are a very good partnership as shown last season. If Osvaldo is missing due to illness, an injury and just failed a fitness test, then he should be back in the squad which at the very least improves our bench. It was bad timing to pick up a lot of injuries over not only the busiest time of the football calender but also our toughest run of fixtures. But we've got to be looking to pick ourselves back up now. We need to be winning our fair share of games through this period and I think we will.
Who knows if we start strongly...need a couple of wins to get going. I know we've been playing strong sides, but we need confidence restored.
I would not be upset with 10, but honestly the team should be looking at more if they really believe they can finish top four. 12 or more points should definitely be considered doable from that schedule. 10 is pretty much the minimum, anything less is disappointing.
While these fixtures are certainly far easier than our December schedule I am surprised people are taking the attitude of we should win most of these. Could win yes but expected to win no, this is only our second season in the top flight remember. I would hope for two wins at home and a couple of draws and a win away, so 10-11 points.
We'll beat arsenal. Which might mean my son won't talk to me for a couple of days, but everything has a price.
