we've done amazingly well 1st half of the season, but need to push on quickly in the new year. After all Blackpool had 28 points at this point, and then promptly took 1 point from the next 6 games, starting with a loss to west brom. With that in mind, what do we need and what do you expect from these league fixtures? West Brom(A) Chelsea(H) Sunderland (A) Bolton (H) Swansea (A) Man United (H) i'd hope for 7-9 points, although i'd have said 5 before the season began. Oh and despite the brief comparison with Blackpool i think our situation is a lot more hopeful than theirs was. The bottom 3 were all on 20/21 points at this point last year, yet this time there are 5 teams on 17 or less.As such, i predict a total of 37 will be enough to survive this year!
West Brom(A) - 1 point at best, would be very happy if we did. Chelsea(H) - 1 point possibly depending on which Chelsea turn up but not expecting anything. Sunderland (A) - (0) points. MON has turned it around Bolton (H) - Will be disappointed if we get less than 3 points from this. Swansea (A) - I expect a loss here tbh Man United (H) - Maybe a draw but again not expecting anything but you just don't know. Utd have been 'iffy' in recent weeks For me, I think we can get 4-6 points with really only Bolton at home being the only real chance of a win.
i think we might get a win from west brom, and then lose to them in the cup. if we can 2 wins from the next six it'd be a massive step. but yeah, to be honest i felt compelled to remove the words 'conservatively' from before my optimistic prediction after thinking about it....
West Brom(A) 1 Chelsea(H) 0 Sunderland (A) 1 (actually think this will be a good tactical match up) Bolton (H) 3 Swansea (A) 1 Man United (H) 0 The one I hovered on longest was Swansea. That really could go either way now. 6 points from next 6 games doesn't sound much but will keep us out of the immediate poo.
if i'm being honest its hard to see where more than 4 points are coming from from these immenent fixtures!
I think Swansea and Bolton would be games we can win. WBA and Sunderland i feel will be harder there managers are turning things around. I feel we can get a draw in both games. Man u and chelsea, any thing we get is a bonus. I feel we could have drew at the bridge if ruddy had stayed on the pitch. They not the team they were!! I would be happy with around 6-8 points!
i think 5 points is minimum realistically but i'd be pleased with 7+ from those games. only 5 points would give us 30 from 26 games and leave us 8-10 points to secure from the final 12 games so hardly disastrous
When you say it like that I started to think how close the end of the season is! That time will be here soon enough. You are spot on, even if we only get 3 or 4 points it will not be the end of the world. Hopefully our home record (which is pretty reasonable) will see us safe. Still have enough of the 'not big teams' to visit CR to find points
--- Wins vs. Swansea and Bolton (bloody hope so, seeing as I have tickets for this!) Draws vs. Sunderland and West Brom (hopefully) Losses vs. Chelsea and Man Utd (lets be realistic here!) So, 8 points would have us on 33 pts. --- Bolton: Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Norwich, Wigan, Chelsea, Man City (LITERALLY OH MY GOD! Realistic chance of points at home against Wigan, expect 3pts out of 21 possible) Wigan: Man City, QPR, Tottenham, Everton, Bolton, Villa (Difficult fixtures, 1 point) Blackburn: Fulham, Everton, Newcastle, Arsenal, QPR, Man City (Might snatch win at QPR, all others look doubful, expect a big fat 0 points, but this will no doubt be 2 or so due to fighting for their very lives at Fulham and Everton) QPR: Newcastle, Wigan, Villa, Wolves, Blackburn, Fulham (Should beat both Wigan and Blackburn, Draw against Fulham, expect 7pts) Wolves: Tottenham, Villa, Liverpool, QPR, West Brom, Newcastle (Should beat QPR, all others doubtful, 3 points) - My Predictions then for the bottom of the table (current 5 sides) QPR P26 (17) 24 PT Wolves P26 (17) 20 PT Bolton P26 (16) 19 PT Wigan P26 (15) 16 PT Blackburn P26 (14) 16 PT
That's a fair assessment Goldeneye, our fixtures look tough, a lot of those for the teams below us look impossible!
i'd go with Thai's prediction. Swans and sunderland away i think we will lose by the odd goal. With Man U and Chelsea i would hope that we get at least 1 point from those two. a tough set of games for sure.
Looking at our next 6 games, it does remind you how difficult this league is. I expect that fans of the six teams we are due to play will be thinking we should beat, or at least have a very good chance of beating Norwich. The one exception is Bolton who are probably thinking away at Norwich, good chance for a point and maybe we might get lucky and sneak a win. What it all adds up to for me is that every game still feels massive, therefore a draw or a win against any team feel bloody great.
I think we will win at west brom and beat Bolton, maybe a draw with Swansea too, if so will be well on our way to safety and another year in the prem. OTC
bolton's away record is very good! by no means a guaranteed three points for us. i do think even if we lose the next 6 games five nil we still won't be in the bottom three as the teams below us won't pick up enough points but we do need to keep the point tally ticking over. some games we should win we'll drop points in, i expect us to nick a result against one team we expect nothing from, but as long as the points keep going up every couple of games, we'll be fine
Genuinely think that from those fixtures we will get the following results: West brom 1-2 Chelsea 1-1 Sunderland 2-2 Bolton 1-1 Swansea 2-1 Man United 1-2 thats 6 points from 6 games. if the results came in a different way then fair enough. But we should be good for 6 points.
West brom 1 point Chelsea 0 points Sunderland 0 points Bolton 3 points Swansea 0 points Man United 0 points 10-12 points then needed from last 12.
I think we could nick a draw against Sunderland/West Brom, could beat Swansea (Even away from home) and Man United and Chelsea we should expect to lose. We shouldn't expect a win against Bolton at all though, it will be tough as is every game in the Premier League, consider Blackburn didn't roll over for us, in fact we where lucky to draw.
I know all the game are important, but I think the most interesting game will be against Sunderland. PL againsy his old boss? Be interesting to see how the tactics compare.
