The latter is bad news. Whoever needs the points will get them. MC may no longer be interested but if so we may benefit too.
Next 6 games. Football is a crazy game and anything can happen as proven yesterday. However based on the next 6 games, we have a great opportunity to pull away. Even after Norwich we have Newcastle at home and West Ham away.
We certainly have the most favourable fixtures (on paper, with reality normally being completely different of course) so it’s all in out hands.
******* hell Brighton, they must be absolutely cacking themselves right now! Not counting my chickens, we majorly ****ed up our winnable fixtures when Sarr was out, but with him in the side we can beat anyone. Need points in those games though as we have a tough last two games though. Brighton were looking pretty comfortable for a long time, but as it stands now, I'd be surprised (but not shocked, of course) if they don't drop into the bottom three soon. Horrible weekend for them coming up, be nice if we could get Palace to dump them further in the **** by handing us a win next weekend!
Last 10 games of the season (except Villa who have 11), here is my predictions. To save those who don’t want to read it. I have Norwich, Newcastle, and Villa on GD going down. I think Newcastle are sleep walking to relegation. Aston Vila Leicester (A) - L Chelsea (H) - W Newcastle (A) - W Wolves (H) - L Liverpool (A) - L Man Utd (H) - D Palace (H) - W Everton (A) - L Arsenal (H) - D West Ham (A) - D Sheff Utd (H)* - L Finish - 37 points Brighton Wolves (A) - L Arsenal (H) - W Leicester (A) - L Man Utd (H) - D Norwich (A) - D Liverpool (H) - L Man City (H) - L Southampton (A) - W Newcastle (H) - W Burnley (A) - L Finish - 39 points West Ham Arsenal (A) - W Wolves (H) - L Spurs (A) - W Chelsea (H) - D Newcastle (A) - W Burnley (H) - D Norwich (A) - W Watford (H) - D Man Utd (A) - L Villa (H) - D Finish - 43 points Bournemouth Liverpool (A) - L Palace (H) - W Wolves (A) - L Newcastle (H) - W Man Utd (A) - L Spurs (H) - W Leicester (H) - L Man City (A) - L Southampton (H) - D Everton (A) - L Finish - 37 points Newcastle Southampton (A) - D Sheff Utd (H) - L Villa (H) - L Bournemouth (A) - L West Ham (H) - L Man City (A) - L Watford (A) - L Spurs (H) - W Brighton (A) - L Liverpool (H) - L Finish - 36 points Norwich Sheff Utd (A) - L Southampton (H) - W Everton (H) - L Arsenal (A) - W Brighton (H) - D Watford (A) - L West Ham (H) - L Chelsea (A) - D Burnley (H) - L Man City (A) - L Finish - 29 points Watford Palace (A) - W Leicester (H) - D Burnley (A) - D Southampton (H) - W Chelsea (A) - L Norwich (H) - W Newcastle (H) - W West Ham (A) - D Man City (H) - L Arsenal (A) - D Finish - 43 points
I bet those predicted results aren't right It's a pointless exercise as almost any result can go any way as this weekend has proven. I'd love to think we will win 4 and only lose 2 of our last 10 games - top 6 form.
I agree, Markoa is very optimistic, being a hornet fan the only winner is the bookies, after the season we have had I would just be delighted to be in this division next season!
Where we've done well is against Liverpool. None of our rivals will be getting points off them. Villa, Brighton & Bournemouth all have to play them. Looking at the run-in, Bournemouth and Villa look to have the toughest. They play 6 top six sides as well as Everton away. Villa play 6 top six sides plus Everton away as well and Sheff Utd at home (they've only lost 2 away games all season at Liverpool and City). We have only 4 top six sides, Norwich only have 3 plus Sheff Utd away, but they are a lot further back. West Ham play 5 top six sides. Brighton's next 7 games look horrendous. Wolves away, Arsenal home, Leicester away, Man Utd home, Norwich away, Liverpool home and Man City home. So I'd say looking at the remaining fixtures ours look easier than Bournemouth, Villa and Brighton, which could be significant.
I can see Liverpool taking their foot off the gas in the league now and playing a few reserves to focus on the 2 cups they are chasing. Now that the wins record and undefeated record have gone there's little substantive to play for. We still have to play 3 of the top 6, plus arsenal away.
Brighton and Bournemouth look in real danger. I wouldn't fancy being the team going to Liverpool this weekend. We've had our experience of being on the wrong end of a beating from a wounded animal this season, I wouldn't bet against Liverpool dishing out a similar walloping to Bournemouth.
They certainly wont be doing that until the title is mathematically won. Plus what we did to them will hurt deeply. They will want to put that right. A team like Liverpool have only lost 2 league games in nearly two seasons. They have a winners mentality, and you do not go on the runs they've been on if there is a weakness of character about them. They play Bournemouth at Anfield in their next fixture, wow, I certainly would not want to be them. Currently they need 4 more wins to confirm the title. That takes them to Villa. However, they do play City away before that game, so that could be a game where they drop points. If that's the case, then it bumps it on to Brighton away. The way I see it, none of these teams will be playing Liverpool AFTER they've won the title, so I think they won't be playing a weak or demotivated Liverpool side. It's funny how football works. Had Villa lost to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final we would not have played them on Saturday. Our game would have been rescheduled. Now, because we played Liverpool and beat them, it pushes their possible title winning game back to Villa at home!! So Villa beating Liverpool HAS had a dramatic impact on their league campaign.
Unfortunately I can see Muff getting a result there. I'm sure Liverpool have an FA cup game against Chelsea during the week then isn't it their Champions league game the following week? I can see them focusing more on the two cup competitions than the muff game. Hope I'm wrong about it though.
Yes me too. Hopefully Liverpool will still have enough to win but I'm sure a few will be rested at the weekend.
All teams will now adopt the Watford 'go for it' blueprint against Liverpool, cat is out the bag & that will wear them down further. Personally I won't be surprised to see a few more Liverpool hiccups from here on. I see it relegation as; Brighton 18th, Villa 19th Norwich 20th. Think I'm going to have £50 on it.
Liverpool have shown they're not unstoppable in recent weeks, but I can't see that happening even with a less than full-strength team. For one thing, Bournemouth's confidence may be dented by conceding that late goal against Chelsea and dropping two vital points before seeing us pip them to 17th place by the most unlikely of results. It would take a huge amount of character and a monumental team effort to make the most of their limited collective ability for them to get a result there.
Also don't forget that there's a decent chance Liverpool will go out of the CL against Atletico next week, in which case even I wouldn't be surprised if even once they'd won the league they didn't continue to play mostly full strength just to maximise their points total while they have nothing else to play for.
Brighton have a horrible run of fixtures Im thinking Muff, Brighton, Norwich to drop When we lose 4-0 at Palace my thinking may change....
Latest relegation odds from Skybet Norwich 1/12 Villa 8/15 Muff 5/6 Wham 7/4 Brighton 9/4 Watford 10/3 Newcastle 11/2
Would be highly amusing if born-again Everton fan Eddie Howe was relegated at Goodison Park on the final day
Love how everyone on here, including myself, now think as of today it's a forgone conclusion we'll stay up. Even though that's not the case at all with this team. We know how this lot can operate.
It's 3 from 6, maybe 7. I think it's about 50/50. But after 5 winless games and with LFC coming up, I'd have said 25-30% on Saturday 5pm after wins for WHU and Norwich.
They have no back bone, when up against teams that have something to fight for, they shy away. They have been awful this season, which is amazing when you have a front three of Aubameyang, Lacazette and Pepe.
Others results will play such a big part too. We could be completely safe in as early as 3 games, but unlikely. One things for sure it's all set up to be the most dog-eat-dog relegation battles in years. Good for the league overall I guess, as the quality is now trending better year on year.
I don't know, it may be more exciting with more passionate support, but there's a fair amount of dross in matches between midtable and bottom teams that I imagine you wouldn't get in La Liga, Serie A, etc. To illustrate my point, take our match at Brighton recently (15th vs 19th). I imagine the equivalent matches in the other big European leagues, Real Valladolid vs Leganes, Torino vs Brescia and Hertha Berlin vs Werder Bremen would have a higher technical quality and have just as much if not more entertainment (the first one actually finished 2-2, with three of the goals in the first 13 minutes, and had much more shots on goal than in the Brighton match).
2 horse title races are yesterdays news. It's all about a supreme champ & anyone else beating anyone else on any given day, bottom clubs being able to beat bigger clubs more regularly, overall standard increasing from the ground up etc. Promoted clubs coming up & going all guns blazing with astonishing results. Prefer this style IMO.
Liverpool have 10 games left, if they draw all of their remaining games and City fail to win just one, then Liverpool will limp over the line. I think that Liverpool will want to put their recent poor performances behind them and take it out on Bournemouth, I predict a new PL record of 10-0.
