We now have Arsenal Away, Palace at Home, Norwich away and West Ham at home. Anything is a bonus at Arsenal but the three after that we should be looking for a minimum of 7 points! I just hope the players can do it. We had, 2 weeks ago, Away games and Man City, Then Arsenal, then Liverpool in the league but now we've only got the Arsenal one. OK so they others have to be re-arranged but looking at the upcoming fixtures, I sincerely hope we can get the points we need on the board - 31 points with 8 games to play isn;t bad going from where we were and will stand us in good stead for survival IMO
Problem is the others are playing and getting points while we're playing cup games or in the man city case twiddling our thumbs. Think it was a good time to play City so that one wasn't good for us. Liverpool are on fire though so that's probably a good one to postpone.
The way we have played this season we will probably beat Arsenal and lose to the others getting men sent off along the way.
Aye and probably for winning the ball!! Hope not - I hope we can do what we should be doing - the Palace game is the one after wembley and it's massive - you have to think that it could be one of a number of things: Win at wembley - "hungover" for Palace Lose at Wembley - down in the dumps against Palace Win at Wembley - Confident against Palace Lose at Wembley - Put it right against Palace I hope it's number 3 obviously. Unless we have a hangover but still scrape a win with a crap performance against Palace - I'd take that
Steve Bruce is complaining that they have to play their replay with Brighton on Monday night because they are not allowed to play the same night as champions league is on. I totally agree with him on this - why should clubs which have no interest in the European comps be limited by this stupid rule. This affected Wigan last year and they ended up being relegated (possibly fatigue being a factor) and that could well be our downfall. We could end up having to play our rearranged games on Monday nights after we have played on the Saturday, if they are not moved for TV of course. If we were to win the QF and get to the semi that would mean we have 4 games to fit in and not a lot of "suitable" nights to fit them in.
Our home form in the league is a real worry for me. I can see us picking up points away, but at home? Not so sure.
I'd like us to pick up a point at Arsenal at least. Our away form is strong, so why not? Crystal palace on one of the in form teams at the moment, and West Ham could be an interesting one. Norwich should be 3 points gained. 6 point return from those games then 3 points against cardiff, 3 points from West Brom (which needs to be rearranged as well) = 40 point mark. Get a few unexpected points from the other remaining games and we should be finishing on 42 points
I'm not entirely sure but I think the ruling only applies to televised matches - the replay against Brighton is scheduled to be shown on ITV4 so has had to be moved to avoid the European games. I think the same would apply to your fixtures if Sky or BT have plans to show them live but if not, you might still be allowed to play on Tuesdays/Wednesdays.
True, but the situation isn't quite as bleak as it could be. In the last couple of weeks Fulham, Norwich, Cardiff, West Brom, Villa have all lost. This weekend Cardiff play Hull, Stoke are at Man City, Palace play Man Utd, West Brom play Fulham so someone will be dropping points. The clubs at the bottom are there for a reason. We've caught a fair few from a worse position already and we can do it again.
For me this rescheduling balances out the fixture list meaning with 8 games to go we will have 4 at home and 4 away instead of 5 at home and 3 away. Given the teams we have to play away this balancing must be of benefit to the players and their confidence. Imagine if we had played City and lost then lose to Arsenal City in the cup final and then Liverpool our confidence could well have been shattered. Instead we will have winnable home games in alternate weeks. If we can fit in WBA between Liverpool and City that would also be beneficial. We should now with the next four league games be looking to pick up 9-10 points a tall order but not impossible. That would give us 33/34 points and with 8 games to go and having taken points off our closest rivals a more relaxed run in and a better opportunity of staying up. If this all comes to fruition and we have managed to get through to the semi finals of the FA cup then maybe the dream of winning 2 cup finals and staying up might become more of a reality
Bookies are rarely wrong and they have us as 4th favourites to go down,just!!So,I think that we will escape by the skin of our teeth!!
