Our Form and 'The Run In' with Sunderland

[AJ 1,359]

First of all, this is not a negative post. I am not here to preach doom and gloom, I''m not here to cause negativity. It''s just a discussion simple as that.

It was pointed out to me at the weekend that after our win our form over the past ten games is exactly the same as Villa. 1 win, 2 draws and 7 defeats. Whilst it is easy to look on this negatively as relegation from (well, let''s be honest, it is!). I was interested to compare that to those above and around us in the table. Newcastle simply have an extra win to that tally, as have rather surprisingly, Watford. Crystal Palace have no wins in 10. Sunderland, however, have picked up an additional 3 points from draws to gain on us.

Whilst by this point it is a possibility that Watford and Swansea have done enough, certainly Crystal Palace are now on the verge of being in trouble. A week ago I''d have been happy to finish 17th, now I think it''s very plausible that we can actually finish 16th. My real concern is Sunderland - and we can be very happy with Newcastle''s equaliser on Sunday. Sunderland have become quite difficult to beat in recent weeks and have drawn a number of games - and those they lost against Man City and West Ham were by a solitary goal. My greatest fear was that they''ll get above us and stay there - but with Crystal Palace also looking likely to drop into the mix (admittedly 5 points clear of us at the moment) I''ll certainly be feeling a lot more chipper about our survival chances if we can get another win whilst Palace lose. Although, the only hindrance is both Sunderland, Newcastle and Palace all have a game in hand on us.

So, do you think can we finish above Palace? Will Sunderland finish above us? Will both us and Sunderland finish above Palace? It''s certainly looking more positive that a week ago. What wonders 3 points brings...

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Best indication of form is...... well your last couple of games I guess!

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

Another poster made the point the other day that - in the next weekend of games, we play Newcastle at home, and they play West Ham away. Given that the next weekend we go to Palace, we could be going there with the chance to go above them.I don''t think it''s too soon to say that Palace have been dragged into a relegation fight, a point which I have changed my opinion on. A few months back, they only needed 6 points to get to 38. I still thought they''d get that, even if they had gone on a bad run. Now they still need 5.Our game against them will be massive! They''ll be - quite rightly - looking at that as an opportunity to get things moving in the right direction again, with a home banker against team near the bottom. If they lose it, we could see their heads well and truly drop.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

Palace were included in the relegation mix (fixtures to come) in The Game this morning.

The fact that they have us to play is quite pertinent in as much as we could close the gap on them to two points.

Given their very poor recent form and our recent (very) re-emergence onto the points gathering scene we could well catch them.

That current five point gap seems quite a mountain to climb at the moment, even though I do sense a growing confidence around the place and there will inevitably be some concern at Selhurst Park..

[Grant Holts Moustache 113]

Some good points AJ but I will also add for Sunderland that whereas they have been picking up points they have shown some real symptoms of relegation form recently. In the last two games they have conceded late on to snatch draws from the jaws of victory and have now gone 18 games without a clean sheet. This must be pretty worrying for an Allardyce team as he tends to like to build on a solid defensive line which despite the money spent isn''t quite happening. Also two results like that are not going to do the teams confidence much good where as we have just had a real injection of belief after looking certainties to slip away to the championship quietly.

If we beat Palace they will certainly be in the mix but first up we need to take 3 points from Newcastle otherwise it will only really be helping our rivals. Long way to go yet but this next few games will show us if we have the fight and quality to stay up.

[Tumbleweed 106]

What still worries me are (I) the line up still keeps changing which still reduces our levels of cohesion and (ii) our propensity for individual mistakes.

Point (I) has been well discussed, but I see all these next few games as being really really tight. I doubt any of the managers will really "go for it"- the most important thing will be not to lose, and if you can nick a win then that is good. But not losing is crucial. So point (ii) is my main issue- can we keep solid enough compared to our rivals to maintain concentration levels and not give the Defoes or Wijnaldens or Bolassies any chance to clear sights on goal. These will all be nerve jangling affairs guaranteed.......

[westcoastcanary 0]

"These will all be nerve jangling affairs guaranteed......."On the evidence of this thread, not half as nerve jangling as the next 12 days are going to be on here ......! [:D]

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

One things for sure - and I''m going to state the obvious here....No matter which way you look at it, next Saturday''s game is massive, and we need to get FCR rocking from start to finish!

[Hairy Canary 754]

When it comes down to the last few games the surviving team can be the one that just happens to hit a bit of good form at the right time. Fingers crossed the last couple of results has given us some confidence and that team is us!

[It's Character Forming 1,204]

Well, if you look back to before Saturday our form was 10 games since Soton with no wins and 2 draws.  Now I haven''t checked the form tablebut I''m pretty sure we would be solidly  bottom over that 10 game period ?

 

Although putting it another way, Sunderland have less points than us (although they do have a game in hand) and ditto Newcastle, so it means they''ve been consistently rubbish over the season so far... we weren''t doing too badly until our form nose-dived after 2nd January...

 

So, what does this tell us ?  It''s pretty clear all of Sunderland, Newcastle and us have been poor for quite a lot of games, that''s why we''re down the bottom.  I still feel Sunderland have a poor team overall, and the question is whether Allardyce can get them sufficiently organised/motivated to get enough points.  Newcastle have good attacking players, but defensively look a mess - I''m not convinced Benitez is the guy to sort that out for them.  Both teams will be looking at us now - 2 clean sheets against teams with good strikers and an away win, which as someone said to me this morning has "put the cat among the pigeons".  before Saturday they could be pretty confident that we were unlikely to recover, now that''s all changed.

 

The big thing for me is that defensively we''re now looking solid, as long as we have Klose, the other CB has looked good, Olsson is back to form, RM has been doing well.  So we have the foundation for points like the last couple of games.  And the other teams are probably more worried about us, than vice-versa, right now.

[......and Smith must score. 1,596]

[quote user="The ghost of Michael Theoklitos"]One things for sure - and I''m going to state the obvious here....No matter which way you look at it, next Saturday''s game is massive, and we need to get FCR rocking from start to finish![/quote]Well good luck with that.....massive or not we don''t play until the following week [;)]

[The ghost of Michael Theoklitos 0]

[quote user="......and Smith must score."][quote user="The ghost of Michael Theoklitos"]One things for sure - and I''m going to state the obvious here....No matter which way you look at it, next Saturday''s game is massive, and we need to get FCR rocking from start to finish![/quote]Well good luck with that.....massive or not we don''t play until the following week [;)]

[/quote]Next Saturday. Not this Saturday.Next Saturday would be the Saturday after this Saturday.

[Yellow and Green 352]

It goes without saying the next three games are massive. Being at home to N''castle and Sunderland is an excellent advantage - especially with our good performances recently at Carrow Road, coupled with both sides'' away form, it certainly looks positive. We need to make sure Carrow Road is rocking for both.

I would happily take a point vs Palace now. They are a good team with some excellent players. Their performances have actually been OK, it''s just that their confidence is drained. If we draw with N''castle and lose to Palace, then they will be 7 points clear....

I am positive and full of hope/optimism/faith, however we never seem to do things the easy way!

Newcastle, for sure, will know that a loss will be a devastating blow to their survival chances and will not go down without a fight.

[Capt. Pants 5,008]

If we can hold our nerve defensively then I think we''ll be ok.Touch wood, our back 4 looks solid now, defending really deep and closing down space. Musn''t get sloppy in midfield, Dorrans fluffed a back pass against Man City and O''Neil set Berahino up nicely but we had that little bit of good fortune that escaped us in earlier games and we deserve that.Naismith and Bamford need a goal, but all in all it''s looking a lot more positive.OTBC.

[It's Character Forming 1,204]

All this and a "next Saturday "/""this Saturday " debate!