VillaChris Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Marco Silva with a 10am appointment at Bootle job centre tomorrow. Hope he dosen't ask for hardship payment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 2 minutes ago, Farlz said: Our away form is definitely a problem I dont think it is. 6 of our 8 away games was vs the current top 8 in the table, the other was Arsenal and Norwich 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Been a ridiculous run of fixtures and we've got 2 more tough ones coming up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 The reason we find ourselves just one point ahead of the bottom three is because we've just had to play Man City (a), Liverpool (h), Wolves (a), Newcastle (h), Man Utd (a), Chelsea (a), a run of fixtures that any team in the league would find daunting, it's a miracle that we're not entrenched in the bottom three after that lot. And it's just our luck that the next two, Leicester and Sheffield United are in the form of their lives, albeit I think we can get a couple of points from those games, maybe more as I think we're capable of beating Leicester at Villa Park. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Sheff U are beatable at their place too. It’s on the road they seem to be invincible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 The thing with Watford and Bournemouth is they haven’t been in such of stress as they do now. Watford knew already they’re into a long season. Bournemouth is getting there, they all didn’t fight for relegation. Norwich has the promotion battle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSteveUK Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) I am a stats nerd - tro the extent I keep my own record of all PL games. I also rank each team on their home record and separately on their away record. This (and a spreadsheet) enables me to compile a "Strength of Schedule" - much like the NFL. I appreciate that it is folly to rely too much on stats - but I will post this anyway - after tonight's matches Hardest remaining Home schedule left: (Hardest first) 1. Leicester 2. Liverpool 3. Brighton 4. Villa Easiest remaining Away Schedule (Easiest first) 1. Tottenham 2. Leicester 3. Brighton 4= Newcastle Palace Villa One would normally expect an easy home schedule to go hand-in-hand with a hard away schedule (i.e. Leicester, Brighton & Villa in above lists) (and vice versa) - but at this stage, it is not looking good for Norwich They have the hardest away schedule - but the 5th hardest home schedule. Similarly, Everton's home AND away schedules are in the top half for difficulty All to play for !!!!! *rubs hands* Edited December 4, 2019 by SirSteveUK edit 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Everton have certainly had a pretty kind schedule so far, still not played any of Chelsea, Man. United or Arsenal yet this season although way season is going they'll probably get 7 points from that. The schedule is getting harder for them anyway and they're losing every week. That's why I'm not convinced they'll just stay up because they signed Alex Iwobi for 45m. They still have loads of hard away games left so going to be huge pressure on them at Goodison for their final 10 home games (if they don't beat Chelsea or Arsenal). Given they're on 14 points they need 7 wins minimum to be pretty sure of staying in the divison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Everton have a pretty average looking starting lineup considering they've spent around half a billion since the new owners too over. Their back four is dodgy and only Richarlison looks a threat up front. They could well stay in the mix for relegation. Southampton, Norwich, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Watford and Brighton will all be in the fight for survival too. We need to bring in another two forwards to help our cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 I've just looked at the fixtures planned for TV. By January 12th we will have played 12 live leagues already this season. There will surely be more to follow so that looks good for the accounts side of things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Hate being in a dogfight. This is exactly what i haven't missed while being down in the Championship for a few seasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxjackle Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Hopefully stay out the relegation spots these next 2, then a critical Christmas week. If we are in form then we could be moving up the table with a buffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 This month we play Leciester (h), Sheffield United (a), Southampton (h), Norwich (h), and Watford (a). That run of fixtures could make or break our season, playing those teams on the one hand gives us an opportunity to pull clear of the bottom three, but on the flip side if we do poorly in those fixtures we could find ourselves in quite a bit of trouble. A very important month coming up for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punkiller1981 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 I think we need to do what Southampton have just done in beating the teams below us. I think Leicester will be a really tough one based on last nights performance. Sheffield Utd will surely drop off at some point but fair play to them I haven’t seen evidence so far and also what a manager Chris wilder is (I rated him after the job he did for Northampton). If we win our games against the teams below is that will open up a huge gap. I’m already looking at the league and thinking Watford have given themselves to much to do. 7 points off safety with an awful goal difference. They are going to need to win 3 games without the others getting a point to get out which starts to feel unlikely. norwich I admire for what they did in not trying to bankrupt themselves but I just think their squad is too light and lacking in quality to get enough points. So I’m not fully writing either side of yet but I’m leaning towards the being 1 spot to fill. history is telling me it won’t be Everton but then I’m looking at the players they have and other than maybe richarloson and Davies I’m struggling to see to many decent players which given the money spent is remarkable but I’ve long felt their transfer business has been lazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 (edited) I think we just have to make sure we don't fall into the trap of presuming that just because the fixtures look easier that we're suddenly going to on a winning run. But if we can get something from the next two should give us some momentum going into the games against our fellow relegation rivals. Edited December 5, 2019 by useless 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 9 or 10 points from the next 5 is not impossible. Except Bournemouth which I put down to nerves we have got results vs the shitter teams 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 12/13 points isn't impossible from those 5. Definitely have to be looking at at least 3 wins from those 5 games really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 For me it's not really about which teams are easier fixtures and more likely for us to earn points in. It's about preparation and getting the approach right, then maintaining focus and intensity in every contest. Do that well and we can take points from any team at any stadium, and we've nearly done that against Spurs and Liverpool. We showed that we can cause all sorts of problems for a Manchester United team that people expect to finish in European placing. Once we get the chemistry and approach right over 90 minute displays, which isn't easy by any means, we'll be a top outfit in this competition. I think everything considered, we're en route to doing that without there being any guarantees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughable Chimp Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 (edited) 36 minutes ago, A'Villan said: For me it's not really about which teams are easier fixtures and more likely for us to earn points in. It's about preparation and getting the approach right, then maintaining focus and intensity in every contest. Do that well and we can take points from any team at any stadium, and we've nearly done that against Spurs and Liverpool. We showed that we can cause all sorts of problems for a Manchester United team that people expect to finish in European placing. Once we get the chemistry and approach right over 90 minute displays, which isn't easy by any means, we'll be a top outfit in this competition. I think everything considered, we're en route to doing that without there being any guarantees. I mean tbf lots of other teams have been causing all sorts of problems for Man United too. And seeing the state of Spurs now, hard to consider that performance all that impressive, especially we still lost handily by the end of it. I just dislike these kinds of, "we did good against team that people expected to do well" arguments so we've been impressive. Mostly because its really easy to paint up certain opposition as being impressive when they really haven't been this season and it generally doesn't mean all that much by itself. I'm pretty sure we still have the least amount of points taken from last season's top 6 out of anyone in the division,(0 points before the Man United match) which implies other teams have been doing in better than us in that regard. Does that mean they're better teams than us? Not necessarily. Norwich beating Man City didn't exactly mean much for how good they are considering their current placing. Premier League works like that, good teams can perform poorly for any individual match and bad teams can perform really well for any individual match such that bad teams can perform well against good teams. If you're only looking at it from one side, you're gonna get a skewed picture of how good or bad a certain team actually is. But at the end of the day, there's a reason we're 1 point above the drop. Edited December 5, 2019 by Laughable Chimp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 5 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said: I mean tbf lots of other teams have been causing all sorts of problems for Man United too. And seeing the state of Spurs now, hard to consider that performance all that impressive, especially we still lost handily by the end of it. Probably didn't convey the meaning I intended to all that well. Newcastle just gave City a game, and we beat them two-nil. It just goes to show that it's not really about the standing of the team you play, but how you approach the contest and the degree that you can maintain standards to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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