Nearly a quarter of the way through the season: We have played three of the other six teams in the top seven - all away from home - and beaten two of them. So this "we haven't played any of the top teams" nonsense is rubbish. We are 8 points ahead of spurs (what a shame we didn't have our A game when we played them - had we managed to win that they would be 1 point above the relegation zone) We are 6 points ahead of manure. Poyet's team are in the relegation zone We have the best defence in the league Besides being 2nd, have I missed anything?
We are ahead of Liverpool (and we took them to the cleaners for our 'dead wood' as it was called in the Telegraph ).
Have you missed anything..? Not much. 2nd highest scorers in the PL behind Chelsea. Not only do we have the meanest defence in the PL [as you pointed out], we have the meanest defence throughout all elite leagues in Europe. That's not even bothering with players stats.
We have only played one of the promoted teams? We have 7 different goalscorers already (11 for all of last season) We have played the whole season so far without our top goal scorer from last season (only Liverpool and Newcastle can say the same)
This may not be quite in the right thread, but some witless pundit on TV said that Saints hadn't had the hardest of starts, just a couple of weeks ago. He said that explained our lofty position [lower than now, I should add]. Then another pundit asked how one explained ManU then..? [they'd had an easier start up until then] That ended that conversation.
Even once we've played these next three games, which will see the end of the "nice" run of fixtures to start the season with, we will still have four games against Burnley and Palace to come. You could easily make a case for those four games being within the ten easiest games of the season. So yes the fixture list generator has been nice to us in terms of our first 12 games, but it could have been nicer. Even more so when you consider that none of our four away games to date have been easy.
It was a fantastic time to go to West Ham. Fans still unsure about Allardyce as their manager and a fair few injuries, and Sakho and Valencia not an established partnership.
When I saw the fixture list before the season I was cursing as I thought that it may take us a while to bed in. Wins at West Ham and Swansea away are pleasing and although I still think we will lose most of our games against the big six we are not dropping points against the average or poor teams like we used to.
So did I. It would be hard, but they do look beatable. Everyone else [excluding Saints] looks a lot more vulnerable. Saints stack up pretty well in the list of who might and who might not succeed.
Just one more thought. If [and it's a fairly big IF from this viewpoint] Saints end the season in the top 4, there is going to be a fair bit of money being spent during the next close season. The youngsters aren't going to be ready for this, although they can train and learn from the squad. Almost can't believe I'm typing this stuff.
If we get 2/4 points from Nov 30 to Dec (purely because we'd be facing top teams and holding our own) I'll start believing firmly a European place of some type is reachable (whether Europa, CL or a FA Cup place). Right now I do but I still think it's dreamland and we'll settle down to 8/9th in the end. I know Koeman's team is breaking all sort of records but just a glance at the christmas fixtures show that it could really put a wrench in the works as injurys are bound to hit.
I watched MOTD2 last night. Saints mentioned briefly (in tandem with West Ham who are also doing brilliantly) and of course (according to Lawro) neither will finish top 4, though Saints may finish top 6-7. I don't disagree with him (in my heart of hearts) but I wish he wouldn't make statements like he has come from the future and knows. Then Shearer made some comment that Koeman would find Xmas and the schedule a shock...I agree that we may find that patch difficult, but he made it sound like Ron is a kid and won't know what to do. He is an experienced manager and it won't come as a shock to him. Koeman has already mentioned (in his over-honest way ) that staying near the top will become more difficult as the season progresses because we don't have the players that the big clubs have. He isn't living in fairy land, that's where the fans live.
