I know we ultimately lost, but as survival is our main target, any weekend where we either maintain or increase the gap between us and 18th position is in my eyes a good day. It is not the number of points that keeps you up it is where you finish in the league. By that I mean that we could finnish on the number of points we have now and survive if three below us end on less. (very unlikely, I know, but possible.) It is distance from 18th that is important and nothing else. all we need to is maintain that gap and increase it where possible. Yesterday we managed to maintain it at 7pts despite losing. On that basis, not a bad day for us. Today Bolton and Wigan have the chance to close the gap a bit but I am confident neither will achieve more than a draw.
Agreed. I, for one, was getting carried away with our good start (i may have mentioned Europe...) but you're spot on in saying we need to maintain that gap. Survival is the magic word, then next season we can do it all over again!
On the other side of that though, A win yesterday could have seen us with a 10pt gap. Ho hum..... All in all, if before our first game, a 7pt cushion had been offered after 11 I would have taken it.
Based on what I have seen defensively in the last three games, the next three games will yield few points. I fear both Arsenal and Man City will score a hatful against us and if QPR play as well as they did against Man City we will be lucky to get a point. I know this sounds a pessimistic but i feel it is true. We have been riding our luck at the back and now it has run out . We are very strong going forward and I think Holt and Morison combined well against Villa but the defending is woeful, in fact a shambles. I don't really understand, we have put in some excellent displays against Chelsea and Man Utd and now this. Is this because we have been found out? Naughton had a terrible day, felt sorry for him actually, but it can't go on. On the bright side I still think we are playing some wonderful football going forward, a match for most in the league. I really hope PL and the team sort out the back four so that we can continue our impressive start to the season.
