Not surprised. Chelsea are losing 1-3 at home against Southampton so at least we stay above the bottom 7 places.
Shame, it gives them a chance to repeat their Houdini act once again. Three seasons in a row they've failed to win any of their first 6 games, incredible.
Sunderland have done this once too often, the reality is that while the have been messing around with ill advised managers and terrible form, their squad just doesn't have a lot of talent.
The Bookies now see it as a five horse race Villa 4/9 Sunderland 1/2 Bournemouth 6/4 Norwich 8/5 Newcastle 13/8 I think those are generous odds for The Cherries who have shipped 11 goals in 2 games. Next favourites Watford 11/2 and Baggies 6/1
Thanks CT, fourth favourites sounds about right for us. We need to pick up points, as well as performances
According to my ongoing spreadsheet tracking our progress towards a 39 or 40 points target, before the 3 straight losses to Leicester, Newcastle and WBA, we were bang on track to reach either 39 or 40 points. Now though, we're about 5 points off the pace. I penciled in a target of 5 points for this month. I think we'll need to get a couple of surprise wins here or there, potentially in the next few weeks. Let's hope I'm wrong.
I think you have to write-off a couple of those as, for example, Leicester's form. WBA are also a tough team for us at home with our current trouble in breaking down teams that park the bus and anyone who thought away to Newcastle was a banker was having a laugh - I'd say we're more like 2-3 points worse off than I would have hoped for October given form. The more worrying thing is simply breaking the losing cycle. If we get a point against City, Chelsea or Arsenal that would be massive. Target should be 2-3 points by the end of November to break this spell IMO because December is not all that much easier than December by the looks of things.
I've earmarked a target of just 1 point for November, so if we can scrape a draw against Man City/Chelsea/Arsenal and beat Swansea at home, we'll have gone a fair way to rectifying our overall progress towards 39-40 points. EDIT: Basically these are my points targets for us for August to November: August = 5 (we got 4) September = 4 (we got 5) ... it was all looking good at this stage... October = 5 (we've got 0 so far, with Man City away to play) November = 1 (hopefully we can do better than just the 1 point, and offset our poor October performances)
Everything looks tough at the moment, especially November, but I think Watford away, Everton at home and Villa at home could be chances for points in December, so not as tough for me. As for relegation, I'd say that the teams below us are all struggling (Sunderland were gifted a dubious penalty and sending off against Newcastle). I'd still choose Villa, Sunderland and Bournemouth for the drop.
Yes, I was surprised that the Sunderland penalty was generally accepted as ok. He was clearly going down well before contact was made.
Given the international break this week, I thought it's time to revive this thread after the refreshing 3 points gained against Swansea. At the moment we're on a point a match again which would produce 38 points if it stayed that way all season. Our remaining games in this half of the season are: Chelsea(a), Arsenal(h), Watford(a), Everton(h), ManUtd(a), Spurs(a), Villa(h) We need to prise 7 points from that lot to reach 19 points from 19 games. Villa, Watford and Everton would seem to be the crucial games for points, but the last 3 games against Everton, ManCity and Swansea have shown that we now have effective tactical options when we take on the bigger teams home or away. Certainly, by the half-way point, having played every team once, we'll have a better idea about where we stand in the relegation battle.
Oh, I do like it when you get gung-ho, General! What has happened to December will as tough as November!
I want to stay at least four points clear of relegation spot, one way or another. If that's where we are come half way, I think we stand a good chance.
The bottom 3 have these games: Bournemouth: Swansea(a), Everton(h), Chelsea(a), ManUtd(h), WBA(a), Palace(h), Arsenal(a) Sunderland: Palace(a), Stoke(h), Arsenal(a), Watford(h), Chelsea(a), ManCity(a), Liverpool(h) Villa: Everton(a), Watford(h), Southampton(a), Arsenal(h), Newcastle(a), West Ham(h), Norwich(a) Against our: Chelsea(a), Arsenal(h), Watford(a), Everton(h), ManUtd(a), Spurs(a), Villa(h)
