Just out of interest I thought I might keep an eye on the prime candidates.We seem to be following a similar pattern with two teams Burnley and QPR in danger of becoming cut adrift from the pack.The bottom third of the table is starting to look like the usual suspects.Sunderland's thrashing has put them right in there.
I thought last night WBA looked a pretty decent side and can see them being safe this year quite easily, As you say QPR and Burnley need to improve dramatically already to even look prem standard. I reckon, just a hunch mind you, Palace (even with Colin) could be team number 3 going down.
I think you could be right Munky, Even with the great start they made it was a miracle against logic when you considered how few chances they were actually making. I think the 3 will be: Villa Sunderland Burnley Though I would love QPR to take the place of Burnley in that three. Pistorius has been sent down for 5 years. At least the poor devil won't have to worry about being skint and having a roof over his head! Bah!
He'll probably be out in 2 years though All strong cases Melchett, though I just get the feeling Sunderland are the repeated survivors. For Villa, it will all boil down to whether Benteke can regain form IMO. If he doesn't, I can't see how they can survive, if he does he could probably single-handedly get them comfortably top half. EDIT - apparently he will only have to serve 10 months in prison before being eligible for house arrest...
Good idea CT My tips for relegation (as of today)....... From day one I thought Burnley were on a hiding to nothing this season, and see no reason to change that opinion. I expected a bit better from QPR, but their world seems to be falling apart once again, although in fairness, HR did screw up in the transfer window by not replacing Remy up front, and left his strike-force a bit thin. The Baggies are doing better than I expected and were perhaps robbed last night, so for my 3rd team, as of now, would probably be Leicester. Depsite their early season promise I am still none too sure if they can keep it going in the long-term (although I would like to see them survive)
I reckon Leicester has just that bit too much quality all over the pitch to go down thai, probably their defence is their weaklink but they have goals from midfield and unfront to cover that. Villa are an interesting one, I personally reckon Lambert is too good a manager to let them go down but a few injuries to the wrong people could happen and would hit them hard. If you look at sunderland players on paper they should never be near the bottom, but collectively they just can't gel on a consistent basis.
Yeah but that depends on good behavior, he'll probably shank a screw who was trying to break into his cell! As for Benteke, he'd have to be given chances first! Some stats on chance creation and possession from Villa (I forget where I saw it!) were truely shocking, and its difficult to see how they can get the goals if they don't make any chances. Lambert has hardly pulled up tree's for Villa so far and as Cruyff points out, with Keane there it could all go very wrong! Bah!
All good points. Maybe I am overrating Benteke, but I really think that when he is on form he is unplayable. I often think that a lot about creating chances is to do with getting the defence to make a mistake - a terrifying striker can often do that without even touching the ball. I look back at last season and our principal problem, to my mind, was that we didn't have a striker who worried CBs. It doesn't have to be pace, or necessarily height, but just someone who drags them out of position. This was Holt's best attribute - he's not quick, his finishing is ok (he can't shoot from range though) and he's decent in the air, but not actually that tall, BUT what he did was make defenders inexplicably panic and make mistakes. That created space behind, time to create clear cut chances. Benteke is an even better version. Jerome in the second half on Saturday did this, linking up well with Hooper in particular. Unfortunately Grabban missed the penalty, but Jerome created it by making an otherwise very impressive CB panic in his own area.
It is unusual for all three promoted clubs to go back down but I have to say that this year there is a chance of that happening.Interesting that nobody has mentioned Newcastle.Another side that I think just have too much quality to be in real trouble.I will go for 18 Slumberland 19 Burnley 20 WCT Rangers
The problem remains that, as with last season, there look to be about 4/5 PL teams other than the promoted trio that could do with a spell in the Championship to reinject some life into them
It wouldn't surprise me to see Swansea maybe involved in the mix as well. I don't think they'll go down as there are worse teams, but I'd be very, very surprised if they finished in the top half even with the good start they've made. Monk is starting to show naivety already and I don't think they have massive squad depth if they lost some key players to injury - Bony will be off to the ANC for a month at least.
I think he is good but has set his team out to play only one way and in the Premier League you are asking for trouble as we found out! Playing on the counter away from home is fine which is why last season their away form was really good. However, at home when you have to take the game to the team visiting it's a different story as teams that come to you mostly will be happy for a draw. As soon as Villa go one goal down they find it hard to recover as they are setup to play on the counter. Benteke is a big miss though so he may help. Interesting!
Yeah, But were crap last season. The game CR was the worst for us though, I don't think I've seen such an impotent strike force in the Premier League before. Villa's defensive record was awful as well. We were terrible, we really were.
