Based on a very simplistic start of season target of 48 points (targeting zero points home and away against expected top seven of Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd, Spurs, Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, and then for all other teams 3 points for home, and 1 point away): I consider we are 7 points below where we should be with 4 games to go. Season so far; Gained 7 extra points away at: West Brom (2), Palace (2), Fulham (2), Arsenal (1) Gained 1 extra point at home Vs: Liverpool (1) Lost 4 targeted points away at: Southampton (1), West Ham (1), Hull (1), Cardiff (1) Lost 11 targeted points at home Vs: West Ham (2), Stoke (2), Hull (2), Palace (2), West Brom (3) So our bogey team this season where we have done worse HOME and AWAY against target have been West Ham and Hull, with only Southampton the only possible other team that could be added to this list. As the target was 48 Points, based on my simplistic targeting system we could potentially get to 41 with two away draws and two home wins. But as mentioned above Southampton at home is the most vulnerable (based on this system), so I predict a finish of 38/39 points for season end. Is that enough? I actually think 1 win and one draw from last four matches will be OK (37 points) Final point: strangely, even though most will view December and January as our worst results wise , based on this targeting plan, during these two months even though we played more games than other months (10 in total) ,we did not drop any points at all (apart from Hull at home). Our worst months this season so far were October (only three games played but dropped points in two of them :Southampton, West Ham) and March (dropped 5 points from two home games Vs Palace and West Brom)
7 points from our remaining games for me. A point at NU, three points against Villa and Sunderland and nothing against Southampton. That would give us 40 points.
I reckon we could muster 3 points - people seem very sure that we will beat Villa. I reckon a draw to Villa, NU and Sunderland will be our 3pts
I think 4 might be enough and we should get it. The only thing that will put the cat among the pigeons is if two or three teams really start to put a run together. If that happens we're down because I don't see us getting more than 37 with all the infighting that's going on. This "spirit" that Monk talks about is now obviously drivel after reading today's headlines. As always I hope I'm wrong.
I'm concerned and am with musty on this one. I do think we only need 3 to survive. May even come down to our superior goal difference. I hope I'm proved wrong on Saturday
Ye as you say Musty 4 pts would be good as long as we play like we did vrs Chelsea, a win on sat would be great.
They 'battled' (no pun) well on Sunday for me. So not too concerned with this training ground story. They were certainly 'fighting' for the cause!! If there's any issues with any Spaniards too, Pablo, Amat & Rangel weren't affected by it... Then again & there's Chico!! Less said I suppose....
Depends on how much festering there is versus moving on. But, we need to be all hands on deck and I don't think we are.
The way we are playing at the moment, I think we will end up with either - 33 or 34 points. We need to have a decent goalie for our remaining games, and a better defence, drop Chico for the rest of the games. Oh yes, we also need to be more agressive up front. Need to get more attempts on target and be a bit quicker in the final third. Then we will probably get another 4 - 6 points, providing the refs play fair.
Nottage 1 win will be enough this season to put us safe in my view, but Monk is rightly targeting 2 wins, though 1 win a 2 draws will probably be the likely outcome, and regardless of all the headlines regarding Training ground bust ups, our boys fought well against Chelsea, considering we played with 10 men, we will be ok!............... I think we could well get 3 points from Newcastle though I'd settle for a draw, I wouldn't like to leave it until the last game of the season, so the Newcastle game has to be targeted as a definite 3 pointer.
Nothing wrong with the way we played against Chelsea except for Chico's red card in the early stages of the game, we were all over them until the idiot Chico blew it, at least he's out for two games, though if I was manager he wouldn't get another game!..............
MUST get points out of the Newcastle and Villa games. I think Southampton will get a result against us, and god forbid us having to go to Sunderland needing points to stay up.
