From what i saw in the Villa - Reading game, we have absolutely nothing to fear this season. We are a much better team and playing proper football right now. We may well not make the top half this season, but we certainly wont be near the relegation battle come the end of it
we just need to go on a nice run of games picking up points and more teams will get dragged in. sunderland and villa wont end this season with lambert and o'neill in charge i dont think.
Disagree with this. Reading dont have a chance of staying up this season. Villa are touch and go like yourselves and you want them picking up as few points as possible.
11 days ago we were what, one point clear of QPR? In 24 hours time we could be nine points clear of them. On the assumption that Wigan will lose to City (not absolutely certain, I grant you), a win tomorrow will shoot us up to 15th. We'd potentially be going to Anfield with a chance of overtaking Liverpool! (Every chance they will lose away to Spurs tomorrow).
So if we win tomorrow we can go up to 15th, providing City beat Wigan? And if we win by four goals we will be 14th. Cool.
Don't get ahead of yourself sunshine. You could easily crash and burn. Your next 6 games are Utd (A) , Chelsea (H), Liverpool (H) , West Brom (A), Everton (H) , Arsenal (A).
I wouldn't count anyone out all the way up to West Ham in 8th, a bad second half of the season will drop any team in it quickly. Two years ago Blackpool went into the new year in 8th with at least 2/3 games in hand, thinking about Europe. They won 3 more games and went down. Four years ago Hull were 6th at Christmas, they stayed up on the last day thanks to Newcastle's inability to beat Aston Villa (or anyone really). The point: no one can relax yet, and I am sure at least one team will find themselves in a surprise battle.
To be honest I wouldn't be overly surprised if they picked up 4 or more points against the Merseyside clubs.
I don't reckon. I think the results tonight were the best that could happen for us. - We want Reading to come to us in a few games' time low on confidence - We want a gap opening up below us (5 points if we win tomorrow) - We were going back into the bottom three no matter what the result of that game tonight - Villa are going nowhere, and got three away game in the next four (though not the hardest, they're tough, and a couple of semi-six pointers in there, if you count the bottom third of the table as six pointers - and I hope Norwich will be bottom third by this time tomorrow, though that's by no means guaranteed) - The team have a visible objective tomorrow night - get out of the bottom three; something extra-tangible, and a potential three team leapfrog - hopefully we win and Wigan get battered
I agree. Reading have got United and then us, we want them low on confidence going into the United game, then even lower coming out of it. A confidence boost for them could have helped them get a result against United which would be horrible for us. Villa are playing QPR next, we want QPR taking no more than a point, as it's getting to the point of the season where being bottom on 5/6 points goes from being in trouble to being in serious trouble. If Villa get something from that game in the long-run it is great for us as it will send QPR even further down into the depths, whilst Villa's fixtures will be: Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Wigan, Swansea, Us, West Brom, Newcastle, Everton, West Ham, Arsenal, City. If we beat them, and Newcastle and Swansea get their acts together, they could come out of those games with very few points. Then if we and United beat Reading, they would have lost four on the bounce going into Sunderland, Arsenal and City. That could easily end up with them losing seven in a row or only having a draw or two. I think on paper, for us tonight went almost perfectly.
5th choice what? We don't have cover for Cork or Schneiderlin at the moment. It isn't natural for Steven Davis to play their roles. Hammond would be 1st choice back up for Cork or Schneiderlin for me Didn't mention Ward-Prowse as IMO he's far far too lightweight to be trying to play a Cork or Schneiderlin role.
