Those who continually harp on about our run in should bear in mind weekends like the one coming up.Villa are right down there in the current form table along with Cardiff and Fulham.Unlike those clubs however most of Villa's grief has come at home,so in the scheme of things this one represents an opportunity,especially after Sunday's result. When we go out at Villa Park Fulham will have played Chelsea,Stoke played Arsenal and Palace will be away at Swansea and Cardiff at WHL.I think that if we were to win then we would effectively be safe.
We do all bear in mind weekends like the one approaching, its just that until sunday we couldn't buy a win or a goal, Lambert has a canny knacke of beating his former employers and we are somewhere between, diobolical and woeful away from home. Add to that, that we generally struggle to get more than one decent result on the trott and the omens look slightly less good. On the other hand we are a healthy bunch at the moment and showing our best run of form performance wise, if not points wise all season. As for the others, they have all at stages shown an ability to upset the odds and could again. Something that we finally in the last 3 matches have shown for the first time since last season. Whilst I want to believe and beating spuds helped. Lets just see if we can get away from Villa park without our shorts round our ankles! That said I agree with the last bit, it's a big if, but if we beat Villa then it would take a monumental whoopsie daisy to not stay up. Bah!
I disagree that we are between "diabolical and woeful" away from home, I think that's a massive exaggeration. We've won three times on the road this season, we were comfortably the better team and should have won recent games against both Cardiff and West Ham and even when losing 4-1 against a bang on form Arsenal side we played well for large chunks and looked at one point in the second half to be pushing for a draw. Ok, we've not got an amazing away record, but we have played better then it suggests and can definitely win at Villa this weekend if we play like we did on Sunday
This. I'd say our home form against lower half teams, at a guess, must be better than either of the last two seasons. It's just we've had a few truly atrocious performances that take the gloss off it too
Villa will be more nervous than us.Only WBA,Cardiff and Fulham are below them on curent form and their last six home record is 1:1:4.There is no doubt that defeat on Sunday would pitch them right back in it while putting us within touching distance of safety.All this puts pressure on them to win the game.I think we can go a goal up then they might well crack.
it's too close to call, both teams have several reasons to want to win. it will be a dog fight and given our performances in Feb, we have a good chance of winning. I hope the team keep the same frame of mind as they have had recently.
Every time I write a team off this season they seem to go on a great run (West Ham and Palace particularly) so my latest candidates - Cardiff and Fulham will now rise up the table in remarkable fashion winning everything no doubt. I just hope that the confidence of the performance and win will relieve some pressure on Sunday so that we relax, play well and win at Villa Park. That is the theory!
The Spurs win will already take a lot of pressure off and results going well on Saturday would also help. Yes, scoring has been difficult, but City have also had 4 clean sheets in the last 6 games, and 3 of those were against Newcastle, ManCity and Spurs. Yobo and Tettey have brought solidity to the defence in the absence of Bennett and Turner, and this allowed more freedom up front against Spurs. Snodgrass, Fer and Redmond showed much more movement and creativity, which could well reap rewards in future games.
Here's (half) hoping they do start to pick up some points (but fewer than us) because that means they'll be taking them from our rivals - we've played them both twice!
Is it just me or has Yobo been astonishingly good? I thought he was a decent enough signing as cover, but so far he's massively impressed me and will thoroughly deserve his World Cup call up if he continues in this vein
IMO he hasn't just filled in well in the absence of Bennett and Turner. His experience is invaluable and in our current situation I would play him ahead of the other two.
Pretty harsh for him not to have made Garth Crooks team of the week, imo. Much as I dislike Crooks, but JY gave a solid, understated performance on Sunday that deserved more plaudits than it actually got
I didn't mean to imply that Yobo was just a 'fill-in' for the other two because I too think he's been excellent. He's also City's highest ranked defender in the Whoscored stats. His distribution is also excellent and his experience shows time and time again. Yet another spot-on signing for CH.
It could well be a "Must win" for Fulham by the time we go there.I can't honestly seeing them having the 28 points that we have on the board at the moment by then.
I think it'll be a cagey game against Villa, as their strength is on the break. Stay solid at the back, frustrate them, then work a goal and then sit on it. It would be a great win to follow that against Spurs.
