The run in

Yes, how can West Ham hope to beat an invincible stag?

 

Assuming it is Villa you are referring to , their accounts for last year just filed show no debt - they lost £69m in that year which takes their accumulated losses to £450m but the owners have injected £550m as capital.

Norwich did have £20m of debt also in their promotion year like Villa last year.

We have £110m of debt and owe another £50m in outstanding player purchases

Burnley had no debt in 2018 but £50m in cash following 2 years of very profitable trading

 

We're in a bit of a mess now. So yes. We would need a lot of cash income from player sales and rely on our kids, the ones who were nearly as good as Tranmere.

 

Amazing that Pozzo can create so much debt and still have Mariappa as a first team regular. Still at least we have 200 players out on loan that will never play for us.

 

After successfully getting nothing correct last weekend. I will go .
Muff win
Spam draw
The mighty Orns draw
The yellow budgerigars loss
Toon a classic bore draw
The chip throwers to get easily beaten by a Gerge Berry hatrick
Brenda's blue boys to do us no favours at all. Villa win ruining the start to another glorious work week, putting us back in the bottom three. Resulting the usual meltdown from forum guru's.

 

Alisson injured for Liverpool.

Bournemouth get a small boost... I do think they will score, its just up to Liverpool to score more.

 

Playing Liverpool at home and playing them at Anfield are 2 wholly different things. The atmosphere when Liverpool are on it can be physically oppressive. Hughes described it as having the breath sucked out of you. Can't see Muff getting anything there.

 

Agreed, doesn't seem remotely likely they'll win at Anfield.

Liverpool losing two on the bounce to teams in the relegation zone after being unbeaten for over a year also seems a little far fetched to me.

 

Nigel has made the phone call to Brendan telling him he better win or Nigel will be stopping by for a bit of a visit & it won't go well. Apparently Brendan **** himself.

 

I dunno, I finally just got around to taking Vardy out of my FF team, meaning he's guaranteed to grab at least one goal against them.

 

I think we all know that we’ll lose against Palace, in a most feeble surrender, having taken the lead.

I think we all know that our rivals will pick up points this weekend.

 

I'm confused as to why this thread is Still going? I thought we were relegated and there was no chance of survival according to some?

We'll smash Palace by 4 or 5 and then go on to win 6 or 7 more. Easy.

 

Blame heading your way. How could you be so selfish?

 

That's the spirit

 

If Pereyra, Deeney etc. keep playing how they have been, I genuinely think we could finish top 8 next season...

Especially with the likes of Leeds and West Brom out of the league. Stoke, Hull and Middlesbrough are nothing special.

 

We need Leicester to turn-up tonight or we are back in the brown stuff.

 

Pereyra will be back in Italy for a knockdown £5m to get him off the payroll. TD will score a hat-trick against us for Brum.
Ps it will be 2 Vydra goals for Burnley that effectively send us down.
Have a nice day.

 

We are already deep in the brown stuff. We need a lot more than that, including showing much better form over the next 9 games than we have for the last 7 games irrespective of others results......

 

Our current form is not good enough to keep us up and this concerns me. We got that incredible bonus of beating Liverpool, which turned a disastrous run into just a poor run of form. From our last 6 games we've only picked up 4 points. That's nowhere near good enough. 1 win, 1 draw and 4 defeats.

This clearly has to change. If we want to get to that magic 40 point mark we need 13 points from the final 9 games. I already feel that's beyond us. 4 wins and 1 draw is not impossible, but it would be a run of form totally out of context with the current campaign in all reality. Although, having to win, does tend to focus the mind a little, so it's not totally out of the question we could still get 40 points. I just feel it's unlikely.

The picture is now shaping up. Assuming Norwich have already gone, it's two from Bournemouth, Watford, Villa, West Ham and Brighton. I think Bournemouth will certainly go down, so it's a fight between us and three other clubs for the final place. The match we have at West Ham could be hugely significant.

I'm pinning my hopes on our home form, as away we are diabolical. Leicester, Southampton, Norwich and Newcastle are all games we have to feel we can win......even the Leicester one. The bare minimum is 10 points from those. No margin for error really. We just have to win these games.

We cannot expect to get too much from Burnley, Chelsea and Arsenal away or Man City at home. Even 1 point would be above expectations IMO. So it's those cluster of the next 4 home games that will decide our fate. I've not discounted the West Ham away game, as no doubt that will be a massively nervy game, which could swing in any direction.

The way I see it, we've just about got enough games to stay up, but we cannot slip up any more. We need to win the games we're expected to win and get 2 or 3 good draws in the more difficult games.

 

I agree with your concerns but I also think 37 points may be enough to stay up. 3 wins and 1 draw I would like to think we could manage. I’d love to beat Leicester though as a I feel we won’t be able to compete with Burnley’s organisation, desire and especially set pieces.

 

No one can truly judge anything with this Waford team. It's a week by week, whatever way the wind is blowing on match day.

On paper we've got plenty enough ammunition to have powered out of all this mess weeks ago, yet the reality is completely different.

The erratic nature is the cancer of this team. This squad can't gel in order to take it to the next level of consistency required in the PL.

 

It's impossible to predict. I can see AV beating Leicester tonight.

 

No result in the PL is truly surprising nowadays. Still trying to work out if that's a good thing or a bad thing?

 

.......and then disappear totally on Saturday!

 

Nice one, Filbert's boys.

 

Whilst I agree with you, it wouldn't be too far out of context. After all, we went on a very good winning run when big Nige came in which has given us the opportunity we have now. We were dead and buried when he came in.

Home form is the key. Wins against Norwich (probably already down), Newcastle (virtually safe now) and Southampton (ditto Newcastle) would put us on 36 points. I could definitely see us picking up a win on the road somewhere as well, maybe at somewhere like Burnley or West Ham, certainly not out of the equation.

Personally I think another 10 points would be just about enough, but lots will happen over the last 9 games.

 

You know you are in a relegation battle................when you are urging Leicester City on!

 

The thing is our general play is good enough to win nearly all our remaining games. But our goal scoring ability, which I’m fairly sure is quite important in football, is woeful. It’s doable but it’s definitely going to the wire.

 

Looking like one of us, West Ham, Bournemouth or Brighton to go down with the bottom 2

 

Wouldn't put it past this Watford team to beat Leicester now! Never bet on the early kick off. All my money is going on Leicester and I'm making Soyuncu my fpl captain.

 

Isn't this more fun and exciting than other EPL seasons at this time of year?
Emotional and nervous at each game!

 

Having seen Villa tonight and looking at their remaining fixtures (the "easiest" is probably Palace at home), I think they will struggle to make 30 points.

I am beginning to think that Brighton are the side that might get overtaken. We have three home fixtures in April - Soton / Norwich / Newcastle, on the corresponding weekends they face Man U / Liverpool / Man C.