Sunderland , Newcastle , Stoke and Leicester. We could be in 2nd place or preparing for a relegation battle after these defining games Starting to fall on the side of 2nd place , if we do well we will be ready for the " Big Boys " , if we dont do well , it could be trouble . I think its glory time !!!
These are crucial games roof because you'd expect us to get some points on the board from them (no disrespects to those teams). With toughies coming up it's important we keep up the momentum because we will have a poor spell at some stage. The way the team is playing I'm starting to be quietly confident witout getting carried away. Still think around 9th or 10th for us and that'll be fine by me. Anything higher is dreamland.
I'm alsway glass half empty .. and I'd agree that they are four very winnable games if we get our act together. We threw away 3 points on Saturday against a poor Southampton so I will be biting my finger nails until we get this 40 points.
We'll lose games we 'expect' to win and pick up points when we least expect it as well. That's the nature of the game. 7/8/9 points from the next 4 games would be a decent return. From what I've seen so far I think somewhere from 8th - 12th is our level, so that's no different from the last 3 seasons. I would like to get past the 50 points barrier though.
Im confident with the squad this season to get 40 points quicker than all the other seasons we have played. Relegation is not on the agenda for this season for me.....top10 is more likely...
40 points with 10 games left is what Monk would have to do dai to do it quicker than anyone, kinda thinking not .
disagree there Bob, playing 55 minutes with 10 men. Monk made the wrong move when he brought Emnes on rather than a defender
I don't think it's as bad as "We'll be in a relegation battle", but this season has thrown the form book out the window. With teams that would be expected to be at the bottom picking up big points at Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, etc. we have no idea who and when will fall away when the cream rises to the top. At the moment, we look good for 7-9 point from those 4 games. Even if we got all 12, it would only be half the needed points for the season. I think any sort of predictions are on very rocky ground this season (and I love it!).
I always say the target for any group of games should be a 1.5 points per game average.....this would give us 50+ points come the end of the season (not saying we will get it, we haven't done so yet...just that we should have that as our target). Usually we come up just short of that and finish in the mid 40 points bracket. So for the first 10 games, usually, we should be aiming for 15 points....we usually end up getting 11/12 and that seems to have worked out alright so far. ....but this season the fixtures in the first 10 games have fallen so that we don't have so many of the big boys in this batch and have some very winnable games at home. This is why I always thought it was important to make a good start and worried about us if we didn't do so. Therefore I would say we should be targeting 17/18 points. If we come up just short and get 14/15 points we'd be looking good (on par with what we have previously done) going into the 2nd quarter of the season. We've played 5 and have 9 points already (which is great and takes pressure off a little)....over the next 5 I think we should be targeting; Sunderland (a) - 1 point Newcastle (H) - 3 points Stoke (a) - 1 point Leicester (H) - 3 points Everton (A) - 1 point ...which would give us 18 points after 10 games. If we achieve that I feel we will be on course for a great season (50+ points and 8th/9th place). In reality things rarely go to plan. So I reckon it is more realistic that we win 2, lose 2 and draw 1. Giving us 7 points over 5 games and putting us on 16 points after 10 games. (To answer Roof's question in the OP) 16 points after 10 games would be a good return and give us that little buffer for the inevitable downturn in our points average over the next 9 games in which we have Arsenal, Man City Spurs and Liverpool plus some tough fixtures away at West Ham and Hull. The 3 games we will be targeting as the most winnable in that batch will be the home games against Palace, QPR and the Villa.
In this league you are always "Four games to trouble or glory" regardless of who you are playing. I am looking for 7/8 points from these games and keeping us on track
My biggest fear is a a bad showing during these 4 games could lead us into the big teams with less than a confident group , considering ( I think) we never beat a " big team" our entire season last year . A good showing during these 4 games could be a catalyst to breaking the trend .Id settle for 7 points from the 4 games , any more points than that would be gravy..
