We must get this monkey (now actually a large gorilla) off our backs if we are to have any chance of staying up this season. The fact we are not adrift already is, rather obviously, entirely down to our home form. We played 12 games at home, won five, drawn four and lost three. Of the three that we've lost, the most costly was the Hull game since the other two were against Liverpool (bloody lucky) and United (deserved). Our points per game is currently 0.81 having played 22 games and won 19 points. Assuming 38 points for survival, we need to up the rate of points per game to 1.12 for the remaining 16 games. An improvement of about 68%. The remaining six home games are against Southampton, Spurs, Arsenal, Everton, Chelsea, West Ham and Newcastle. Given that we are not likely to win many of those games, there must be a huge focus on away form to sort this out immediately. The away games against Hull, Palace, WBA, Villa and Leicester are all 'must win' games with the hope of a draw or unexpected win against the likes of Everton at home. I really hope the players are experiencing a sense of urgency now! I'm afraid I'm experiencing a sense of 'Championship, here we come' - until 3pm on Saturday at least.
You paint a grim picture by numbers there RTID. I might choose to ignore the actual facts, and keep hold of my blind hope that has served me so well as a QPR fan over the years.
Good topic RTID. When you see the fixtures laid out like that it does indeed ale grim reading, like how I feel when I meet my accountant once a year and get a reality check. The one thing I feel that we can draw upon is that all our fellow strugglers will be looking at their fixtures and not fancying them either. I do think that we will win an away game sooner rather than later and that would be such a relief for everyone and would give the players a huge boost of confidence. We can do it, but if I'm honest I would have to say that I'm not confident we will do it.
Yup, no longer can we hope forlornly for a few away draws......we HAVE to WIN some away matches, probably 3 at a minimum. Praying we can do it, starting with 3 points this weekend.......but considering our away record/approach I'm not holding my breath.
Agreed. The purpose of the article is not actually to be defeatist (though that might be a hard criticism to defend!) but to stress the urgency that this needs fixing NOW and not relying on some imaginary run that might happen in teh future even though we did have such a run first time out in the PL.
Which may of course mean a target of 36 or less points for safety. There is no room for confidence but with Jan additions, hard graft and just a bit of luck once in a while, it's still possible!
Once upon a time we beat Swansea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Stoke at home in successive matches. And stayed up. But we did win 3 away games that year too. Under two different managers as I recall....
Just been looking at last years PL table at this stage of the season, and of the 3 who ultimately went down only Cardiff were in the bottom 3 at that time. Fulham were in 17th and Norwich incredibly were in 12th place. So there is a lot still that can happen before the trapdoor drops.
I still think Newcastle could be the surprise contenders, especially if Ashley cashes in his best players...
