OK - I know that I will probably regret this but I have to ask - everyone is saying how tough the coming games are but does that take account of where we are now? The 8 games coming up are Sunderland away: Yes it is a shame they have Allardyce who has already improved them. But we won at Villa and Newcastle and drew at Bournemouth so should look for another 3 points even if we settle for 1. A loss would be disappointing. Liverpool home - shame Brenda left - would have been nice to thrash a side of his here. They are the form team and after the home defeats by Arsenal and Manchester United we will do well to get anything from a rampant 'pool Chelsea away - one word: Bournemouth. (probably means they will thrash us) A point would be nice Spurs home - unbeaten in 14 now but they do draw a lot of games. West Brom got a draw. Man City home - not as awesome as a team costing 6 billion should be. Not won any of their last four away and only drew at Villa. We have to aim for a point and hope for 3 Southampton away - a good side but always unpredictable - points possible Swansea away - will Monk still be there. A game where points are for the taking Newcastle home - if we lost only one of all these games you can be it would be this one. We should look to win. So how many points - is 10 to 12 unreasonable as an aim? If so we would be getting close to the survival target. To get less than 8 points would be really disappointing. Shows how far our (my) expectations have come.
In my always glass is full (half air half beer) mode 3 points from Sunderland this will be tough though, the fat man Sam has got a way of making them difficult, Liverpool 3 points they're due a crash and can't keep this high level up forever, Chelsea 3 points if Muff can beat them then even L*t*n could as well so...., Spurs 3 points local derby and we owe them, Man City, 3 points we owe them a defeat after our cup exits at their hands and good 1st half earlier, Southampton 3 points not what they were, Swansea we started their slide so will finish it with another 3 points and Newcastle the pygmy loves slaying giants so another 3 points so that's 24 points more for us and joint top with Leicester.... On the other hand........
The funny thing is that we could win any one of these games. I am not going to do an accumulator on 8 wins. It shows how different we are to our previous Prem outings. You look at the table and both Norwich and Bournemouth still resemble a Championship outfit - yesterday was like a cup match for Bournemouth - reminds me all those years ago of our win at Anfield. Yet would you bet against them losing both at home to Man U next week and in their next away game at West Brom? On the other hand we seem to be far more like Stoke, West Brom or Crystal Palace. A side that knows each game has to be fought for but no longer "expects" relegation as a matter of course
I watched Bournemouth yesterday and thought they had changed tactics from their normal attacking game. They almost parked the bus, then tried successfully to get a goal on the break. This suggests they are learning and maybe the 'little club' fighting against the odds will work for them. I also see just how far we have moved on from last season when we thought how well we had done to earn promotion, yet on yesterday's display I did not see any improvement from Norwich. They seem to be struggling to adapt. As my predictions show every week the PL is getting more like the Championship with unexpected results. The 'big' clubs are finding that if they expect to win and fail to turn up, then they are there now for the taking.
Agreed on all counts above... Given we have the Xmas reality test... we should know mid Jan if we are to end mid-table 10-14th or lower. I cannot see us going down the only big unless is if TD or OI are injured etc and we dont score goals... and we may then suffer.
Isn't it remarkable that with less than half the season gone we can write as above "I cannot see us going down". That says it all in terms of how far the club has progressed. When we win we do not feel that we have sneaked an unexpected win from nowhere and I confess that is how I felt in both our two previous seasons in the top flight. There again we have already got as many wins as in 2000 and one more than in 2007. With pundits saying that each club in the Prem next year will earn about £80m there is no way the Pozzos will sell anyone or fail to buy a striker unless they are comfortable - selling will not be forced by the need for money. Again looking at those 8 games - we are only behind 3 of the teams and at the start of hte season the Christmas / New Year looked an awesome challenge. It would be stupid to be complacent or have expectations too high but there again I believe QSF is grounded as are our owners and team
Great Owners.... Great Headcoach and his squad Reminiscent of the SEJ/GT era..... but can never be directly compared with of course
Certainly playing these top teams doesn't have the same fear it might have had! Some might expect us to get a point or more at Chelsea for example!
Watched the first half of Newcastle v Liverpool. Not a single shot on target from either side. Very poor standard from both sides.
I wonder what odds you would get on Man.City, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea all failing to score in the same weekend. No doubt Dan can tell us.
Newcastle doing what they have done for years. Be hopeless generally but when there is pressure on pull out a result.
