Stats you say. Lets have a look at another stat, based on the last 8 games, like you have done. 1 Stoke City (14) 63 2 Crystal Palace (16) 74 3 Southampton (9) 76 4 Chelsea (3) 77 5 Fulham (17) 79 6 Newcastle United (8) 80 7 Manchester United (7) 82 8 Liverpool (4) 83 9 Arsenal (1) 84 10 Hull City (11) 85 11 Cardiff City (20) 87 12 Aston Villa (10) 88 13 West Bromwich Albion (13) 89 14 West Ham United (18) 89 15 Manchester City (2) 90 16 Tottenham Hotspur (5) 97 17 Sunderland (19) 97 18 Everton (6) 100 19 Norwich City (12) 104 Care to guess what we had in those same 8 games? 56. That's right 56. 5 - Spurs 7 - Man Utd 2 - Man City 10 - Villa 3 - Chelsea 6 - Everton 12 - Norwich 11 - Hull City 1 Swansea City (15) 56 The hardest run of all teams in the premier league. No wonder we were bottom of the form pile. And that doesn't even take into account, our injury crisis, or any other "excuse". That above is pure FACT.
If your bottom of the form table, then your bottom regardless, so cut the crap excuses and face the reality like Laudrup and our players are, and stop being such babies with spitting your little dummies out!..........
Very good point. But we need to be taking more than an average of 1 point from teams like Villa, Norwich and Hull. If we average a point a game from now on, we'll end up with 38 points. Might keep us up, but might not.
New you'd understand my little terrier! Some Jacks have got more excuses than a drowning Tory party, after winter flooding.....
I'm not one for making unnecessary excuses, but we have had a tough couple of games (from a perspective of teams positions at the top of the table) and now we need to prove that the reason for those poor results was that and that alone. The next four games are all ultimately games we can win or take some points from. If we get 6 points from the next two games, the derby will be a very different prospect, I suspect.
Just to add to 'swansealona's' post and also as a response to Dai's insistence on the last 8 match form; Using a form table (especially when it is just last 8 games), that do not take into account the relative level of difficulty of the matches in question (i.e. some teams last 8 matches may only have 1 game against top 7 teams, and some may have had SIX out of 8 against the top 7); is like comparing apples and oranges. A league table can only truly give a guide on where a team will finish if it is based upon a reasonable length of time: enough so that comparisons are a bit fairer. In reality the only real league table is the one where all teams have played 38 games each, and everyone has played the same teams. I will go on record again and state we will be well above 40 points...hopefully around 46 or 47 by the end of the season. This is not a case of ignoring facts or burying my head in the sand; it is more to do with correct analysis of the situation and not one of 'hasty generisation' based on 'inadequate sampling of data'.
So, suppose you're right and we end up with 46 points, that's a real step up in form. In last 22 matches we won 5. But to get to 46 points we need an extra 25. With 16 matches left, that's a choice of one of these... win 8, draw 1 lose 7 win 7, draw 4, lose 5 win 6 draw 7, lose 3 win 5, draw 10, lose 1 So which is the most likely one? As much as I wish you to be right, I just can't see such an upturn in form. We've got less than a point a game so far, but now you think we're going to get 1.5625 a game. That's a big jump We only won 5 out of 22, so why should we suddenly win more in only 16 matches?
Plastic your spot on, but most Jacks on here have their head firmly placed where no sunshine goes!...............
Plastic Realise you were asking Nottage but I'll have a go. Because we are playing more home games against weaker opposition with injured key players coming back. Around the Christmas period the games we played against weaker opposition we managed to draw (often when we were on top)...but we were missing; Vorm, Rangel, Leon, Hernandez and Michu. (also were without Ash and Bony in November weren't we? Might be wrong) This half of the season we will be playing Fulham at home, West Brom at home, Norwich at home, Cardiff at home etc. hopefully with some if not all of our key players back. Of course it could all go wrong and we could go down (we could get yet more injuries or players coming back from injury could take a lot longer to get up to top speed than expected) but in the 1st half of the season the only team in the bottom half that we lost to was Cardiff....so there is no reason not to be confident of getting a decent points haul from these games. The fans should be supporting instead of increasing any pressure.
Terror, what you're forgetting is that at this stage of the season, the teams near the bottom are also fighting for relegation, so this makes these matches tougher than playing higher up teams that don't have much to play for. These are the worst teams to be playing at this stage. While we'll also have some players back, you seem to be assuming that we won't have any injuries for the next 19+ matches this season. Some could come back, but others could get injured. You are making too many assumptions. I hope your assumptions are right, but I think they won't be.
I don't believe I am making assumptions (I acknowledged that things could go wrong and we could go down didn't I?...same as any season.... and acknowledged we could get more injuries did I not?). I am forecasting a positive outcome based on our previous form. Against these sides we have only lost 1. This was in the first half of the season when Michu was out for a chunk of it and playing with an injury for the other chunk and Bony was being slowly introduced to the side. We have dominated possession and chances created against all these sides and now have an in form Bony starting every game up front and Michu's return around the corner. We've just beat Man U away and got more possession there than any side in something like 10 years....it is these teams who are wary of us (which is why most of our peers put 10 men behind the ball when they come to the Liberty). It is the doom mongers who are making assumptions. If you look back through their posting history you'll find most of them always do make these assumptions whenever we have half a dozen games where the points return isn't great...ignoring the factors involved. The only thing I'm worried about in these upcoming games is whether our defence can concentrate and not give goals away. If they can hold firm we will win most of these games against bottom half clubs IMO. P.s. this is called debate Phillip, you should try it sometime.
So according to you, Dragon, we're as good as down. Is that what you are saying? In fact, plasticfan is more or less saying the same thing. Would you both like to definitively say that now? No fence sitting, mind. We all know we are in a tough position for the many reasons Terror so eloquently stated but many, if not most of us, feel we are good enough to survive. So, a simple question to you both: are you saying we will be relegated? An equally simple YES or NO will suffice.
I don't think we're definitely down, but it's starting to look like we will be. But I'm hoping we'll pick up some points in next 4 matches. If we get 9, I think we'll stay up. If we only get 3, we're down. Anything in between and it could go either way. But it's certainly looking grim. 3 points from the bottom does not look good.
Why so derogatory , you've been hanging around with Dai too long ,some may not agree with the press or look into the statistics with an open mind but that doesn't mean they don't have a 'clue'
Yes, it's my opinion, obviously. Just based on the fact that if we win 3 out of 4, form will have picked up significantly and so we should be ok. Seems kind of obvious to me that the teams that start winning have a better chance of staying up. If we get 9 points we'll have 30 points from 26 matches. So we should get 10 from the next 12, as that's worse form than the rest of the season. So i just think it's pretty doable. I think any of bottom 11 that gets 3 wins out of next 4 will stay up. Not certain, but don't see how all the rest would catch them.
If, it's obvious and should , thats a pretty bold statement , still too many variables . Our next games rare against "weaker opposition " and not against the bigger clubs , the theme lately is we should have gained more points than we have and it's all doom and gloom .Think about it " I don't think we're definitely down, but it's starting to look like we will be."your words not mine
Phil I think you're missing KJ too much as you appear to want a bickering war with Terror now! Reign it in man. Also, certain posters have started repeating themselves way too much... I got your point the first time you made it, I don't need to re-read it multiple times
