I've put a new blog together at http://www.wearepremierleague.com looking at the table so far this season with after 11 games in the Premier League last year. Ultimately I've largely written off Wigan and Blackburn already (as much wishful thinking as anything else) and look at the likely candidates for that final relegation place. From an optimistic point of view there's a whole host of teams between us and the drop a few of which I think we're at least the equal of. The pessimist though would point out that Blackpool had 1 point more than we do at this point in the season and ended up going down.
The only definate thing is that the league is more stretched than it was last season. The top 7 clubs this season all have more points than the corresponding club last season, and that means less points for teams in the bottom half.
So Wigan have half the points that they had at this stage last season, they will be extremely lucky to stay up , and I have got to say the same for Blackburn. I do have Fulham to go down as well as wolves as Wigan, so far one out of three. To put it into perspective though, if we lose against Utd and the teams below us win we could drop 5 or 6 in one day, so we are not exactly in a false position but there is only a few points between 9th and 17th.
I am given great confidence if I analyse Blackpool's journey of ups and downs last year. They started unbelievably, surfed a great wave of confidence (helped no end by their charismatic manager), but ultimately lacked the actual quality to sustain their over-acheiving performances for the entire season. Compare that to us, and there is, in my opinion, simply no comparison. Yes, our confidence is growing, but it is not fuelled by an adrenaline powered, high flying start to the season. On the whole, we have played exactly as we have played for the past five years, and we are simply seeing that we have the ability and quality to be able to transfer our style of play into the Premiere league. Yes, we had pre-season doubts, but then how many of us had pre-season doubts in our first year in the championship? I know that I harboured a few. The quietly satisfying thing for me is that we don't appear to have hit top form yet. Scotty Sinclair and Dyer have both looked equally as dangerous in this league as they did last year, and whilst, yes, the keepers in the Prem are better, it can only be a matter of time before Sinclair starts finding the back fo the net from open play. Couple his goals to Graham's, and Dyer's growing confidence in and around the box, and I can only see us starting to improve as the season progresses; quite the opposite to most promoted teams of years gone by.
