Can a fast start avoid a slow death? Promoted teams have struggled to survive in the Premier League, with 47% relegated in their first season. So it is little surprise that they have such a poor record on the opening day. In fact, they have won just three such fixtures out of 30 in the past decade, losing 20. But getting early-season points is just as vital lower down the table as it is at the top and rebounding from an early setback quickly marks out those that survive. Over the past 20 seasons there has been a reasonably clear threshold that promoted teams have to reach to be confident of survival - 11 points from the first 10 matches. Below we see the number of points earned by promoted teams during their first 10 matches in the Premier League, the number of teams surviving and being relegated with those points, and the survival rate: Promoted teams - and how they have fared over last 20 seasons Points after 10 games Survived Relegated % survival rate 0-7 2 15 12% 8-10 8 7 53% 11-12 10 2 83% 12+ 15 1 94% Overall, 11 or more points to start your campaign gives an 89% chance of staying up, but get less than 11 and the survival rate drops to 31%. But are the opening games more important than the final ones? Does the closing of the transfer window allow teams to regroup? Crystal Palace and Leicester City have previously made memorable runs to avoid the drop, winning 18 and 22 points respectively from their final 10 games, but these superhuman efforts are rare. When comparing the opening and closing 10 games of the season for promoted teams, being better in the first 10 gives a 71% chance of survival, while being better in the final 10 (Palace and Leicester aside) gives a 58% chance. And what of the magical 11 points from 10 games? Twenty five clubs have managed this in their first 10 games and survived, while only 15 have managed this in their final 10 and stayed up. A poor start can lead to a long, disappointing season. So whether you hope to challenge at the top or scrape survival at the bottom, it is wise to carefully analyse those opening fixtures and make the most of them.
I draw your attention to my post yesterday in the Premier League thread @Manatleisure https://www.wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/the-premier-league-2021-2022.58308/page-30 Looks like you've copied and pasted the article I have already shared.
From this article, getting 8 to 10 points from the first 10 games still has a 53% chance of staying up so if Watford reach that rather than 11 its not the end of the world.
I didn't see it but it's alright Stu, at least this thread gives an open discussion of how we get on in the first 10 games and what number we get.
The next 3 are very important. We have to be looking for minimum of 5 points from them. The 3 after that we could get 0, leaving us needing a win against Southampton to make 10. Yesterdays performance was very encouraging though, play like that for the rest of the season and we should be ok.
Wouldn't be a disgrace if we lose to Wolves given how they've played so far this season, but Norwich away and Newcastle at home are big big games. Don't think we can write off the next three games after that, Leeds and Everton even at home aren't invincible and I don't think anyone will be relishing a trip to ours
Norwich have played Man City, Liverpool and Leicester so far, and are only three points behind us. They will be looking at our visit as a chance to put points on the board. A must-win game for them even more than for us.
We’ve gone from good solid start to worse Premier league team ever according to 2 particularly well known pundits in one week.
Sack Xisco - wtf! They've made a good solid start. One game later, against one of the top 3 sides who are in form - going down, worst side evvvveeer. As usual somewhere in the middle. Not the worst start in premier league history or even our own premier league history. But could and should have made more of the run we had at the start.
How about the ‘your own eyes’ test? I assume you saw the performances against Wolves, Leeds and Newcastle?
Well that is the point fans were tying to make to these pundits who refused to accept why Munoz had been sacked. They only saw the points total and not the performances as you say. The Liverpool game was obviously on TV so they managed to see how poor we were/are.
After an astonishing and over-the-moon result in game 9. 10 points. 1 game to go. A point at least in that one and it's the fast start.
After game 10. 10 points. In summary - we didn't get the 11 plus points from the 10 games, so from a trends perspective its going to be harder to stay up.