So, it seems we had a decent month. A dropped point against Fulham and a loss against City aside, we qualified for the champions league as group winners and got some good points at Norwich and West Brom. Here's December: Wigan (Away) Everton (Home) Olympiacos (Away) Man City (Away) Aston Villa (Away) Wolves (Home) Q.P.R. (Home) Now, we MUST get at least 12 points Wigan, Everton, Wolves, Villa and QPR. We need to start gaining ground on the top four. I think that Chelsea and Liverpool will struggle in December but Tottenham and the two Manchester Clubs will do quite well. Ideally, I'd like us to be top four by the new year. Olympiacos we can field a reserve side. Let's try a radical formation since we can, like 5-4-1 or something just to see how it would work. As for Man City, I have a funny feeling we will end their unbeaten run... I don't see why we can't do it.
November has traditionally been a difficult month for us, so the fact that we've done pretty well this time around gives me confidence. In the past we've started well and finished poorly, let's hope the opposite is true this season. I think taking 12 points from the games you mention is a reasonable expectation. As for City - there's no reason why we can't go up there and take all the points, we did last season and we did it comprehensively too. The Olympiakos game is a good opportunity for players like Oxo, Frimpong, Coquelin and Park to get some more game time.
If we ended City's unbeaten run, it would be the result we need to get huge momentum going. You know what the dream would be? Beating City without Van Persie. Would say a lot.
Keeping up the form and momentum would indeed be what we needed to do but this recent run apart it's quite a while since we have been able to do that. My take is that we don't have a team that is firing on all cylinders. Most notable for me anyway is the lack of a striking force beyond RvP. However elements of the team are much improved from the start of the season and that has to be encouraging. Come January I expect our midfield and defence to be much improved. If we bring in a decent striker to partner RvP and perhaps some cover in other areas if needed, this would help our quest for Top 4 and hopefully, a trophy. Best thing to do would be for the team to take one game at a time and go into each game hunting down a win.
