Well, imo the honeymoon period in 4th place is over. None of us really expected to stay around there, but we've eventually slid down the table slightly, yet still remain in a very respectable 7th place. I've always had us down for a 7th place finish, or if we buy in January and do superbly, maybe even 6th. Now this is where the battle starts, because we're in the position we want to aim for by the end of the season, so now is the time to start counting points and ensuring that we stay ahead of the pack. We're currently 5 points ahead of Stoke with a much better goal difference, and 7 points ahead of Aston Villa and the rest. Stoke have a Europa game on Wednesday before playing Wolves away on Saturday, and considering their away form, there's a chance we can increase the gap if we get a result against Swansea. As for Villa, they have Liverpool and Arsenal coming up, both home games in which they may struggle to pick up points, so we can increase the gap there.
Lets hope we can, this is where the test comes and if we don't get Europe this year we won't for a long time.
if we get the cover and players we need in jan (LB etc.) we'll be ok whether we do is another matter these last few weeks have shown our squad is weak so i'm hoping it also gets improved in the summer with some getting shipped out (perch,smith,lover and a few more) and replaced with better quality but i also realise we have the fat man in control so i won't hold my breath.
