The way the press are laying into United and with us still not being safe and our away form, they may as well just rebrand this game as the first game of our Championship campaign next season.
I don't know how you guys can joke. Tomorrow is the biggest match of the sesson difference between 10th and ummm 15th COYH!
To be fair, the prize money between 10th and 15th is (likely) more money than we will all earn in our lifetimes combined.
So with Swansea relegated on 33 points, that means we have been safe since the 1-0 win against West Brom at the beginning of March. Our superior goal difference means we have probably actually been safe since the 24th February when we beat Everton at home. So that's over two months (and God knows how many pages of this thread) that people have wasted needlessly fretting and bedwetting. Hopefully a lesson for the usual suspects, but given it's the same people every season with the same baseless arguments I doubt it somehow.
It will hardly be the first football forum to have a thread like this, and I suspect every club from Burnley down this season probably had one at some point. It was always very unlikely, but I've no problems with discussion like this personally. Always interesting to hear (and respect) other people's opinions when it comes to football and Watford, no matter how unlikely or far fetched they are. So you here in a few months...
A thread like this is still interesting even if it doesn't directly affect us because even with the consistently low points totals needed to stay up (on average I believe lower over the last decade than it was the decade before) it's still the most interesting aspect of the Premier League, a damning indictment of just how predictable it is these days (the odd surprise like Leicester or Burnley apart). And obviously it has some bearing on who we'll be playing next season. Mixed feelings on Swansea going down, it's a nice if somewhat long away trip, but I don't like their hire-and-fire managerial policy (much more brutal than ours, at least Pozzo would've given managers like Monk, Guidolin and Clement a chance to turn things round) with players who only seem to pull their fingers out when their top flight status is on the line and the new manager effect hasn't worn off, and at least we have another Welsh side taking their place, with Colin to make things entertaining.
33 is presumably one of the lowest 3rd bottom totals ? Until we reach 40 points each season there will always be a chance we can go down as history shows. Fortunately we've had 3 great starts as its unusual to end 3 times between 40-45 points never having been in the bottom 3. Will be interesting to see what happens this summer which will influence how confident we feel in August.
At least Swansea won a cup and had a European tour before they dropped unlike west brom who actually have little to show for the past 10 years. I really hope we win a trophy soon
Here's the previous years: 33pts for 18th is the second lowest ever but it has now happened 5 times. 40pts is now clearly a significant overestimate of the average safety margin. The 5 year average is under 35pts now.
That's because with the odd exception, the gap between the top 6 and the rest is much greater than it was before. So the bottom teams are taking fewer points off the top teams and so fewer points are needed to stay up. Quite unlike the Championship, where just about everyone can beat everyone and teams frequently go down with 50 points or more. As happy as I am still to be up here, it's that competitiveness I miss most about that division - even our worst second tier teams never went on a run anything as bad as one measly point and two goals in 12 away games.
Good point, in the past there was a top 2 - Arsenal / united, increased to 3 with Chelsea, then City but now Tottenham and Liverpool have been added to the breakaway group. Sure Arsenal and Chelsea dropped points but it can't have been as many as the 5/6th placed teams in the 90s/early 00s
It’s also because the promoted teams are more competitive now and there are less banker points for the established lower mid table prem teams. The relegation scrap is more and more conjested year on year.
So looking back with a huge dose of hindsight we were basically safe by the end of Feb, totally safe at the start of March.
I'm voting 'yes' because as far as I can see we have no more fixtures until August,so the other teams could catch us.
How do you feel about the coming season? From outside it looks as if it will be difficult to sustain the kind of form you showed this season, plus dealing with Europe is a whole different challenge. Don't see you actually getting relegated unless something drastic happens though tbf
I imagine they probably feel generally annoyed at still being pegged for relegation candidates by bookies and, presumably, pundits, after a second consecutive season in the Prem where they finished in the European places. Kind of like us, except without the Europe thing.
