Keeping it real.

I think the last two games have given us all a good reality check. Yes, all the talk and hope of pushing for a Europa place felt great - but we're not ready for that yet. Maybe next season with a fully fit squad and 3/4 decent signings then we could aim for that but not this season. Lets not forget that for most of the season we've played with virtually the same team that played in the championship last year. Ben Arfa / Gosling only had a few outings and other that Tiote, we are playing with the same side. The step up is huge.

Our only aim this season which has been lost sight of is to stay in the league. Fact of the matter is that if we beat Wolves and Birmingham at home then we should almost certainly be safe regardless of what happens in the rest of our games. When we get to 42 point I'll be happy. Points from WBA (h), Stoke (a), Villa (a) and Blackpool (a) will hopefully give us a respectable finish. If we finish around 10th -13th I'll be delighted.

I've been as happy as anyone to see us up around 8th place, but survival has been my one and only aim this season, two more wins and we're there and that will make it a good season, regardless of what others say may have been.

 

This

 

Totally agree - but can it really be assumed that getting the magic 42 points is guaranteed safety in the
league considering just how damned close it is from 8 > 20! I get the feeling it's going to be a hard
fought battle all the way to the last game and there will never be a finish quite like this impending one.

 

17th has alway's been my aim and I have never given Europe a thought.

40 points would I think see us safe but we are making hard work of it.

Squad is lightweight and it is showing, especially when we have a couple of injuries.

We have two week's off so hopefully some injuries might clear up.

We need Barton back or someone with creativity.

 

The two week break will give us time to get Barton back fit and Enrique to shake off his knock which is great.

I think we will get the points needed to stay up, but we're going to pick them up slowly. If you look at the way our fixtures fall it isn't really a case of having 3 games on the spin that we could get 6/7 points. Wolves isn't until the staty of April, Birmingham isn't until the start of May and West Brom at the end of May. I think we'll get the points but it may be a little frustrating at having to wait a while, and that will test the nerve of the players. Especially with the likes of West Ham and Everton improving.

Having a bit of a play on the BBC predictor, 42 should see us safe barring a freak set of results. If we get 9 more points this season we should finish 11th or 12th.

 

I definitely agree that the aim is survival and we'd all be happy with that, hopefully if we can have a strong finish in the last 9 games we can finish i bit higher than 17th like we deserve.

 

The good thing is our last game is West Brom so if it does go down to the last game of the season it could be all down to us and not relying on other teams