Just looking at our next 3 fixtures. Villa (H), Fulham (A) and Blackburn (H). Interesting fixtures!!! IMO i think we need to have 20Pts in the bag by Christmas Day. I know our results have improved recently but at the moment I am only concentrating on the magical 40Pts and us staying up. Anything after that is a bonus. Whats the feeling amongst you guys? Whats a realistic target by Christmas day and what is a realistic target for our next 3 matches.
Play as you did on Saturday and I reckon 6 or 7 points is not out of the question. I would fancy both your home games for 3 points, then it depends on Fulham.
Villa have not lost this year and tough to beat, fulham just drew with City and blackburn just beat Arsenal. When they say no easy games in this league they are not joking. 5 points or more would be good from these. keeping at the level of more points than games played is key for me.
Agree about no easy games, but we've got to do better than 1 pt per game at this stage of the season, what with the supposedly "easy" fixtures and not to be depending on getting anything from our last 4 games. I think we will be looking back in anger if we don't get 6-7 pts from these 3 games.
Why not? They're not invincible anymore and Torres has proved it doesn't matter how big the cow's arse is he couldn't hit it with a banjo!...
Thats why i said 5 or more would be good and keeps us above the 1 point per game. Lets not forget ourselves and start thinkin that 6-7 points are a must from these games. If we get them then great. If we get 4/5 that will put us on 11/12 from 8 games . A decent return and a decent start . I know we will get limited points from top sides but lets not start getting above our station just yet, we will have slip ups and will loose games we expect to win. 40points by mid april would do nicely .
I think draw against Villa, win aganst Blackburn (would lovbe to see JM on bench for that) and Fulham...a draw. If we can keep a couple of clean sheets as well, and pick up on 1 or 2 bookings I would be happy.
Agree with you, 40 pts by mid April would be heaven. I suppose I'm just a bit nervous about injuries/suspensions to our top players and would feel better if we took points off teams at this stage when all hands are on deck. But it's a phenomenal feeling around our club at the moment, it's great to have those two away wins under our belt!
Totally agree mate , most encouraging thing for me is 3 clean sheets. i think its key we get to January and are in a decent position , then maybe with a couple of additions we will not be so reliant. I agree if one or two injuries come up at the moment we could be in trouble.
My system is keeping it simple, that is we get 12 points from every 10 games played should see us alright i.e. 36 points after 30 would leave us 8 games to play and get 4 points! Anything extra will act as a buffer for when we fall below the target.
Was thinking that 5Pts would be a decent return, purely because it would mean another 3 games unbeaten. I think if we get to 20Pts ny Christmas then we are well on our way. Anything more than that will be a massive brucey bonus.Villa will be really tough and i think that we can use that as a really good indicator of where we stand.
A lot has changed for us of course but these 3 games still represent the tail end of the streak of 'winnable' games at the start of our fixture list. 7 points from the first 5 games is encouraging of course but I would say we need to double that in the next 3 to stay on target for a total that keeps us up. The Scum, Spurs and City await us afterwards.
To be honest I don't think 40 points would be enough for survival this year, 45 more realistic. We all need to stay positive, but not get carried away and be realistic. We are going to lose games, more than we'd like, but we can see that we are moving in the right direction. The aim should still be 17th place and anyone who moans if that is all we have achieved should maybe think about supporting someone else, as survival is all we should expect in our first season back. The problem is, having just seen the way we've played in the last 2 games is that some will get carried away and it's hard not to. But the reality is, as well as Warnock and the board have done so far, bringing in the quality that they have, we are only an injury away from being a weak team again because so far we only have a team and not a squad, which is what we will need to survive. So between now and January will be a very difficult time and we have to play our part and stay positive, even when we lose. We just have to get to January and then the next phase of strengthening will happen and hopefully this will see us through. After that it will just be a case of adding 1 or 2 players each transfer window and we should slowly move up in stature and become a tour de force again.
Would love that first home win also. Would be a real statement of intent. Good side though Villa , going to be a tough game.
yep agree lone i'd be more than happy to finish 17th although most of our asperations after last to games is a top ten finish, villa on good run & fulahm & blackburn just had good results so i'd be happy with 5/6 points as next 3 after come the bigger fish, but hey one game at a time.
5 points would be a fantastic return against Villa, Fulham and Blackburn. Despite our recent form with the new boys I still think we are going to have our backsides handed to us by Chelski, will be an immense task to get anything from Spurs and Man City could be bingo numbers. We also have Man Utd and Liverpool before Christmas so any points are welcome. On our recent form I'd hope for wins rather than draws but our defence still remain un-tested. Neither Wolves or the Toon gave us much in the way of scares but the big guns are just around the corner and the old onion bag may take a bit of a beating!
I was hoping one or two clubs would have a complete Derbyesque mare and get seperated at the bottom, I thought initially that could be Blackburn / Norwich / Swansea / Wigan but its all so close. Arsenal look the worst form team and I can't see them going down! Fulham and West Brom still can pick up points. I agree with Lone, its all too tight and 40 points might be a minimum requirement. Thats why I was so cheesed off about the Wigan and Bolton games, 2 chances to take points out of 38 games. I hope we dont rue those two matches at the end of the season
