So, after deadline day, who goes down?

Bookies at least are agreeing with you. Us Everton and Bournemouth are all odds on to go down, next favourite is Wolves at 9/4 so a huge difference

 

Lose on Saturday and it'll be time to place my insurance bet.

 

As here, I often see Notts Forest written. Notts is Nottinghamshire - or am I missing something, maybe an in-joke?

 

County are officially named 'Notts' but Forest are definitely 'Nottingham'. No idea on why the difference really but think people are just shortening for convenience.

 

Forest are always abbreviated to Nottm, and they get really annoyed if they’re called Notts, which I suppose is a good reason to keep doing it.

 

I'm sad so I actually looked it up. It's as simple as Forest being named after the city and County after the county.

Which is actually the wrong way round as the City ground isn't actually in Nottingham apparently.

That was 10 minutes I won't get back.

As an aside it'd be good for County to get promoted again this year. Weird them not being a league club.

 

Quite surprised Wolverhampton haven't got more votes. They will always struggle for goals (they'll be overpaying massively for Cunha) and aren't half as defensively sound as past seasons. Plus they're boring and diving ****s, I'd love 'em to get rell'ed.

 

We are obviously slightly biased in our views - some of us positively so (believing we could stay up and therefore preferring to find 3 other teams from the list) and some of us negatively so (either because we prefer to plan for the worst so as not to be too disappointed, or in some cases out of a stubbornness in wanting to prove ourselves right about our opinions on SR, Jones, etc etc. ). Some will be completely objective whilst others will claim to be without realising they aren't



So I thought I'd ask this to a few neutrals I know (majority are supporters of the 'big 6')


Almost all went for Bournemouth, Everton, Saints, but gave us the best chance of the 3 of surviving. In general while they thought we might stay up, they struggled to pick another team they thought was in a bad enough state to go down.

Many did concede that they didn't realise we had signed so many new players, nor had they heard of many/an of them, so would happily change their opinion once they'd seen them in action

 

That's not true though is it.

Just looking at our fixtures played and we have played Everton and Villa twice and not played Brentford at all yet.

I'm sure other teams(Brentford for sure) will have similar situations.

For a start most teams near us have played 20 games so have played at least 1 team twice. More if they too have a cancelled fixture like our Brentford game.

 

And the schedule differentiation will get pretty stark in a hurry. As of March 4th, we'll have played H/A against four of our seven fellow travelers in the Octagonal of Awful, which means that only 3 of our final 12 matches will be against teams currently 13th or below. Everton's is even more skewed: after facing Leeds on the 18th of this month, they only have one remaining home match against an Octagonal member, and that's the final day of the year. Both of us really need points on the board now, because we're going to struggle to get them toward the end of the year without some serious upsets.

Have a feeling I'm going to need to do a Run In thread this year...

 

I have run a predictor just on gut instinct and being optimistic where possible. I had us finishing in 15th on 37 points. Home wins and a couple of lucky draws is the key.

https://www.worldfootball.net/table_calculator/eng-premier-league/

I was pretty pessimistic for Everton Forest and Bournemouth. All 3 have a tougher list than we do in the 2nd half.

 

A win and a draw out of Brentford and Wolves and things look a lot less scary. Nothing aaaaand we're squeaky bum but not over and done by any means.

 

Not Saints, Not Saints and Not Saints.

 

Blimey 2pgs in & even we’re predicting Armageddon. I’d never say we’re gone until we actually are but it’s definitely looking seriously dodgy. If we don’t get moving soon, quick sand will prevail.

 

I voted for the Mini-Skates, Wolves and Dirty Leeds but the last one is more of a hope as I hate them.

 

I'm probably looking forward to end of the season more this time as the matches will have more importance to them and each win will be celebrated with passion.
One of the best atmospheres at SMS I can recall is from this match near the end of the 2004/05 season...

 

I put down Saints, Bmouth and Forest. Online I simulated what I thought the results would be. Very surprised by my results!! More points will gravitate south than my predictions no doubt

1

please log in to view this image

Manchester City 38 29 6 3 97:36 61 93
2

please log in to view this image

Arsenal FC 38 29 5 4 80:32 48 92
3

please log in to view this image

Manchester United 38 25 6 7 71:40 31 81
4

please log in to view this image

Newcastle United 38 19 16 3 64:27 37 73
5

please log in to view this image

Tottenham Hotspur 38 22 6 10 73:48 25 72
6

please log in to view this image

Liverpool FC 38 19 12 7 71:42 29 69
7

please log in to view this image

Chelsea FC 38 19 10 9 55:35 20 67
8

please log in to view this image

Brighton & Hove Albion 38 17 8 13 67:53 14 59
9

please log in to view this image

Brentford FC 38 13 12 13 51:54 -3 51
10

please log in to view this image

Aston Villa 38 13 11 14 42:47 -5 50
11

please log in to view this image

Fulham FC 38 13 8 17 50:56 -6 47
12

please log in to view this image

Leicester City 38 10 8 20 47:62 -15 38
13

please log in to view this image

Leeds United 38 9 11 18 50:66 -16 38
14

please log in to view this image

Crystal Palace 38 9 9 20 34:56 -22 36
15

please log in to view this image

Southampton FC 38 9 6 23 38:69 -31 33
16

please log in to view this image

Nottingham Forest 38 8 9 21 29:73 -44 33
17

please log in to view this image

West Ham United 38 7 10 21 34:50 -16 31
18

please log in to view this image

Everton FC 38 7 10 21 30:59 -29 31
19

please log in to view this image

Wolverhampton Wanderers 38 8 7 23 28:61 -33 31
20

please log in to view this image

AFC Bournemouth 38 7 6 25 32:77 -45 27

 

I think that Dyche will turn Everton around as they will scrape through to survival. For me, the three certs are Saints, Bournemouth and Leeds. The manager at Eland Road seems to be coming out with equally stupid statements as Jones regarding performances and I think it goes to show that experience at managng at Premiership level counts for a lot. I would stick my head out and argue that if Saints don't pick up some points in the next few games, the board will part company with Jones and get someone with more experience / ability in on big wages for the last three months. The experiment with Jones does not seem to be working and the appointment of the managers at Bournemouth and Leeds looks no less risky. For my money, these three teams will get relegated. not convinced we are good enough to get to 30 points this season.

 

I will wait and see how the new signings perform first…….very much looking forward to the 2 we signed at the last knockings.

 

I'm a little surprised, but my simulation has Leeds and Everton going down, with Bmouth joining them on GD after a four-way tie with us, Forest and Palace on 34 points. However, it does involve Bmouth losing on the last day to an already relegated Everton.

Wolves are the only team in my bottom nine to finish more than three points clear of 18th. Each week is total madness for the ups and downs.