The reality is Villa and Bournemouth now have nothing to lose and we do. They’ll be chucking the kitchen sink at teams that couldn’t care less and we’ve started to see how rapidly the rest of the league is switching off now in these final few games. Previous form and results mean little now.
Its still all in our hands. Vile and muff can’t stop us saving ourselves. We have 2 tough but winnable games. We have beaten better spam and arse sides before on their patch. Sure I’ll be pissed off like everyone else, but if we can’t get something from those games we get what we deserve. If our survival rests on other teams then we have no business being in the PL.
I thought Villa would be psychologically screwed after the Bournemouth game, but a quick look at their forum and they’re all supremely confident. Lots of talk of winning their final three.
I have done some mathematical modelling on this scenario. We just need to win the next three games and by my calculations we're safe.
With the fragile state of the teams confidence and motivation, I have no doubt that they were on a bit of a high after Newcastle only for it to be destroyed yesterday. The ones that care are probably as deflated as the ones of us with brains and the ones that don't are plotting their exit strategies.
You often find the person who retaliates gets sent off or booked more than the person who started it.
Nothings changed really, we just need to focus on our results and try and get something from West Ham and Arsenal.
That is what a win does .. They were probably all Smith out a day or two ago. Bit like with Bournemouth. Hoping we lose to West Ham and they will be safe.
Yesterday, Aston Villa faced arguably the worst restart side of the Season barring Norwich who had a legitimate headed goal ruled out early on to boot. If we faced Palace now than just before the break I'm confident we would win as well as they were toothless in attack and lacked any tempo in their midfield. This does not reflect an improved Aston Villa team than them being marginally less awful since the restart. But, Villa did need to turn up and to their credit they did which can't be ignored and still reflects as one of the worst sides in the league. Leicester is the type of game you see once or twice a Season from them and any other team where a manager tries to be clever and change a working lineup for the sake of rotation and resting and then spectacularly backfires. Bournemouth were utterly dreadful in the first half with no shots on target and could have been 2 or 3 down alone. It was not Bournemouth's skill that won the game but only as Leicester monumentally cocked up their tactics and a error from Schmeichel gifted them their lifeline. That was in no part down to Bournemouth's belief or ability so that can be considered an absolute fluke of a result. We meanwhile came from a goal down to beat a poor Norwich side on merit, but more importantly followed it up with a legitimately very good performance v Newcastle. Whilst the first half was not great we did come close, especially with Welbeck being mm's from scoring and Deeney killing our attacks. 2nd half we looked like the Watford side we know we can play like and earned the win and really should have had 3 or 4 goals had Deeney tried to find a corner and Welbeck having his deflected just over. Newcastle are not a gimme side since the restart which made it more impressive on that front. We have overall the most quality out of us, Bournemouth and Aston Villa and best chance of pulling off a shock upset. People saying that Arsenal will be on the beach for one team will also equally apply to us as well. It would have been ideal for the two teams to lose yesterday and give us an easier time for our stress levels but they were never going to roll over (More Villa than Bournemouth) if they were given the chance.
With the City ruling Arsenal could be out of the running for Europe by the time we play them and quite possibly on the beach.
City’s European ban overturned by the CAS. Bit of a joke really. How might this affect teams who were chasing Europe?
It seems quite likely they'll be on the beach for both ourselves and Villa. Pretty much the only way in which it could swing more in our favour would be if Sheffield United lose or draw to Leicester, and Spurs don't win both their matches vs Newcastle and Leicester. That would mean Arsenal would go in to the Villa game on the 19th with a mathematical chance of still finishing 7th. Then Sheffield United would need to win their home game vs Everton on Monday 20th to put 7th out of reach before Arsenal's final game vs us.
The thing that’s changed is the perception of our winnable games had gone. We now look like sitting ducks waiting to be overtaken. I think most would agree we’ve got no chance of anything against City, minimal chance at Arsenal and only an outside betting chance at West Ham. From this point I think our last three games look harder than the other two chasing clubs. But our advantage is that we hold a 3 point lead. It’s like we’ve been given a 50 meter head start in a 100 meter race, but have to run with our laces tied together.
I wouldn’t agree at all These are the worst spam and arse sides in years.... granted this is also one of the worst Watford sides
Blimey, what an awful day yesterday! Literally couldn’t have been much worse! The only slight positive yesterday was Ake going off injured and leaving the stadium on crutches! We just have to look after our own business now. Absolutely no reason we can’t go there and win, they’ll be just as anxious as us! We can’t start the game poorly though! Get Sarr in a more free role and let him run at them. Hopefully Citeh can stick 5 or 6 past Muff and Everton can bounce back from their poor result yesterday. Either way, it’s made the West Ham game one of our most critical games in our history!
From the the West Ham point of view, the good thing is psychologically they’ll be in a worse place than us. Beaten Chelsea, thumping 4-0 win on the weekend, yet they're still right in it.
I like that attitude. I, on the other hand, find it hard to be so optimistic when it comes to our prospects. I think psychologically they’ll be in a better place than us for the same reasons - beaten Chelsea, thumping 4-0 win at the weekend.
If city beat Bournemouth by a few goals and villa lose, I reckon a draw vs West ham would be enough for both us and them. Both villa and Bournemouth would effectively need to win both their last 2 games.
Villa are absolutely dogshyte up front. Aside from an abysmal palace team who literally shouldn't have bothered turning up, villa have scored 2 goals in their previous 6 games since lockdown. Villa shouldn't win at least. 0-0 maybe.
A caveat to this is things I say have an annoying habit of coming back and biting me on the arse in a big way!
True but also Villa are not a good team and are defensively very poor so if Everton turn up they should win.
Noone knows what's going to happen really. The Leicester capitulation shows that even if a team is in mid table and 'on the beach', they can be gifted a goal or situation from the opposition at any time. I don't fancy us on beating West Ham , but, who knows, certain situations on the day might end up in our favour. Lets just try and enjoy the ride.
