After today there is a good chance of us finishing seventh if we can hold our nerve. It is realistically now down to ourselves, Wolves, West Ham and maybe Everton so a top 10 finish ought to be as bad as it gets if we do not have another end of season meltdown. 52 to 54 points is not unrealistic. For any other team to get that many they really will have to go on an amazingly good run. Three of us have four of the top six to play but West Ham only three of them. We have five home and four away but the others only four at home and five away. It is likely to end up with only two or three points separating us Wolves and West Ham with Everton maybe slightly behind.
I think most of us would have been delighted with that even a few games ago - maybe I am now being greedy but am really hopeful we can get 7th or 8th
A lot hinges on our home games v Wolves and West Ham, win those and we have a chance of 7th win our other three home games v Southampton, Fulham and Arsenal and I think we would definitely be 7th!
With 4 of our remaining 9 fixtures against top 6 sides (3 away from home) i'd expect us to lose ground. The home game vs Wolves might well prove pivotal but i think it's possible we might drift down to say 10th. PS 0-0 in the Mersey derby today would be nice.
I think we’ll just miss out but either way it will be a great achievement and it’s been a great season. Realistically West Ham have better players than us, they had a slow start but are now playing closer to their potential. I think they’ll finish stronger than us based on this and a slightly easier run in. Wolves seem to have come through a sticky patch and are back on form also. I don’t really worry about Everton, I think they’ll finish below us.
We are definitely in with a shout. I never accept the thought of ‘free-hit’ so in that vein, I hope we put up creditable displays against City and United and don’t damage the goal difference beyond an amount we can’t recover. Manage that and I think 7th is possible, 8th very achievable and 9th is the least we should expect. Away form outside of those two games will be key to achieving 7th as we are good enough at home against the teams below or around us.
I'd rather our away games were the tough games, Burnley at home and chelsea away you would look to get 3 points off. Chelsea at home and Burnely away could easily be 0.
All the others have four fixtures against top 6 sides too though so that is not a disadvantage for us. Of our 5 home games left only one is against a top six side.
I agree that for a 7th place the two games against Wolves and West Ham are pivotal - if we get results in both of those we will be well placed
I'm being optimistic and saying 7th, we can do it........................ U'OORRRRRRNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
I made it 3 for Wolves and West Ham? and just one for Leicester and Bournemouth (though perhaps those two are too far back) While it's true that you might as well face top 6 clubs away from home, it still takes up fixtures when there's only 9 to play.
I repeat what I said in January. If we write off our away games against the big boys, then every other game is more than winnable. None of the teams around us are in a better position than us. 7th.
I predict RookeryDad will make many late night posts, sometimes one after another.... PS If we do finish at least 8th it would be our second highest finish ever.. something else to aim at.
I thought a while back that we'd get around 60 points (to much laughter on here). Today was a big game to win. After we didn't make any signings in January I had to revise my points total down a bit. I still think we'll comfortably get into the mid-fifties. May be even as high as 59 points. After those two Manchester away games, it's pretty plain sailing.....on paper at least. We'll have 7 games remaining and 5 of those will be at home, and a very winnable away match at Huddersfield being one of the only 2 away games. We have a very good run-in, better than anyone else around us, with West Ham and Wolves as key matches. We've already beaten them both away, so no reason why we can't be confident of winning at home.
9th in 86/87 was the 2nd best finish. Funnily enough GT's last season of the first spell. Our 80's top flight record was.. 2nd-11th-11th-12th-9th-20th.
That team which finished 9th was a very good one. How the hell Bassett cocked that up is beyond belief. So our entire historical record is 2nd-11th-11th-12th-9th-20th, 20th, 20th, 13th, 17th, 14th, 7th?, 1st? 13 seasons and counting in England's top tier, not too shabby for a tin-pot club after all.
I think we’re heading for 58pts. Should be enough for 7th so long as we don’t lose to Wolves. And top half is basically in the bank after today. It’s a big gap now back to 11th with only 9 to play.
I'm thinking we'd have to win pretty much all of our games against non-top 6 sides and then maybe nick a result or two against the top 6, Wolves have a slightly easier run in and a good record against the top 6. The non-top 6 games are pretty favourable (three relegation threatened teams and two league rivals at home), but it'll be a task and a half to win all of them. I suppose our record against the top 6 is the one slight disappointment about this season, given our record against them last year, our early win against Tottenham and Javi's record in Spain, but that's just being greedy I guess. That's not counting our annual win over Arsenal still to come mind you!
Merse: 'Watford are like a packet of Revels, one season they finish 7th, the next they're in a relegation battle. I still think Rowett-I mean Silva-was hard done by, and without their best player Northern Acrobat they might struggle. I fear for them, I really do. 20th'
Suspect you have missed Wolves posponed game on cup weekend - against Arsenal. Yes and West Ham as I said before have only 3 top 6 sides - but are four points adrift. If you are going to lose to top six sides - probably - it is better they use up away matches. As someone said we have four out of five winnable home matches left. If you assume we all lose to top six sides, draw games against each other and win the other games we come seventh. Of course that won't happen but it means on paper 7th is very realistic.
Providing we win our home games against Wolves and West Ham and run to form on paper with the rest of our fixtures I think 7th is very obtainable. IMO on paper 7th spot is ours to lose and that is my biggest fear, ourselves