Exactly, and it doesn't really mean too much where you get your points from, just as long as we get them. I just found it interesting to see we're actually 5 points down on our relegation season in corresponding fixtures, plus we also beat Liverpool and United, which is unlikely to be replicated this season. It means we need a big swing in our favour against the other teams, but we can easily claw back those points in the home games to Brighton, Burnley, Southampton & Palace, where we only picked up 1 point last time. If we win all those games it would give us an extra 11 points against the relegation season, which would make up for dropping points against those we've lost to already this season plus the expected defeats to United and Liverpool. That would put us on target to match our relegation season total of 34 points. So an extra win on top of that should see us ok. I'll transpose Bournemouth and Sheff Utd for Leeds and Brentford. We got a total of 6 points from those 4 games in the relegation season, so if we improve on that against Leeds and Brentford that might be enough, if all other results are equal. Hopefully we'll get a few unexpected wins along the way, like beating someone like Leicester or Everton.
Thing is that all of this is irrelevant, particularly as two seasons have passed since then. We play for the points in front of us, there's barely any point in worrying about 'identical' fixtures from history, our squad is not the toxic one from two years ago, plus within the first 5 games we have secured a home victory and an away victory, in 2019 we took until November to get our first away win, and the Sunday before Christmas before our first home win, with what was our 4th man in charge in the season if you include the couple of games with a caretaker.
I mean it probably won't matter when they **** 6 past us again, but I do think we have a lot to worry them with, they usually play with little regard for the opposition, so hopefully Sarr, Dennis and King can hurt them with their pace!
Can you do the previews every week @reids ? Most insightful. Don't care much for Jackson Pollock but nice of you to throw in his latest work.
Our third consecutive league match against a team without a win so far this season...and if Leeds don’t win this weekend, we will extend this sequence to four...
Good form Reids! Great write up. Why do I get the unfounded yet annoying, sneaking doubt that it’s more detailed than the players get from Xisco?
Hopefully our defence will be more Rothko (solid and bold) than Pollock (random, chaotic and all over the place) against the whining entitled delusional geordies
Think it's fairly obvious that if we win this game, we'll stay up comfortably. If we lose, we're down.
Totally agree. All this comparison stuff is a total waste of time, particularly with 2 years ago, as we have a completely different squad and coach that can only get better as they become more familiar, and the other teams have also changed. The fact is we can beat any team in this division, obviously with a win less likely against the better teams, but possible all the same. Every result will depend on how we and our opponents perform on the day, the referees/VAR decisions, injuries, with a hefty slice down to nothing more than fine margins and luck. So, I predict we win 2-0 with King scoring in after 32 mins and 23 secs with a near post header, and Dennis scoring on 48 mins 07 secs with a back heel.
Then we're down. Unless one of the following events occurred, in which case it's still in the balance. -denied a clear penalty in the last minute -played 60 minutes with 10 men
Can you put a points value on that? 12? 15? Also, any idea how much effort our players will need to give in order to triumph?
Joe Willock is in a protective boot. Wilson injured. Anything that gets Joelinton on the pitch is a bonus.
People love comparisons. At the weekend we had: "Arsenal haven't lost at Burnley since 1973". How meaningless is that? Hundreds of players must have been in those two teams during that period and how many times have they even played each other? You're also right about Watford being able to beat anyone on the day, however unlikely it seems. I was baffled by Farke's comment that Norwich expected or budgeted to be on zero points after four games and only fell below their expectation against us. That approach automatically gives his players an excuse for losing to the 'big' teams and piles pressure on them to win against their direct rivals.
It was a stroke of genius by Mike Ashley to persuade the Toon Army that Joe Linton, a gas fitter from South Shields, was a gifted Brazilian striker.
Seeing as we're on 6 points, and the magical mystical mark for survival is 40 points, a win on Saturday is worth roughly 34 points.
Quite like the unrelenting misery on their forum. The most positive prediction they get is "fluke win against a ***** team"! https://newcastle-online.org/topic/...tle-united-saturday-25th-september-3pm-no-tv/
There is a lot of discussion about Watford’s hunk quota on this forum, yet imo not enough discussion of how our team would shape up against the other teams in a death match. I think our midfield introductions of Sissoko, Kucka and Tufan would fair well. I feel like WTE would have the physical attributes to cause a lot of damage but we’d pay the price in mistaken “friendly fire” accidents. Gosling would have to be used like that goat in Jurassic Park.
As much as I love the Kiko-Sarr partnership and it looks like it could be back on Saturday, we need to wrap Kiko in cotton wool atm. Most if not all of our best attacks come from that side. Don't know if it's actually legal to gaffer tape cotton wool to his legs for 90mins however.
