What a difference a game/mistake makes

[Since 1980 27]

Currently on 10 points with Watford on 8. If only we could have beaten them, and we should have, but for a silly mistake we'd be 8 points ahead of them instead of just 2. That would have been even higher than Everest for them to climb.

[Aggy 944]

You can always look back over a season and say what if one specific thing happened differently, but that’s football. It usually balances out over the season, depending on how good you are.

Im more interested in the teams above us anyway. Finishing 18th but eight points of clear of Watford is less important than finishing 17th regardless of how many points Watford have got. 
 

The Boxing Day Villa game and the game against Southampton are huge games. I quite fancy us to nick a point or three from Arsenal as well.

[Chip20 69]

I have to admit I feel disproportionately better today. It was beginning to look as if we were already being cut adrift of 17th and I have been concerned about how uncompetitive we have been in several matches I had thought we stood a chance in. It was not so much the points total but rather the seemingly relentless defeats and the inability to score that seemed to have set in.

Yet with one win and, more importantly, cohesive performance, the table looks so much better, as does our overall outlook. I know everything could change again in either direction in a week or two but it feels great to have a spark of confidence back and a glimmer of hope to cling to. 

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 605]

The question is which 3 teams can we finish above? Watford look a strong possibility, and with their next few fixtures Everton could slip into the bottom three - depending on who they get in instead of Silva (and when) - but which other team? Villa have struggled - except against us - but they will try and buy their way out of trouble in January. I hope that Southampton's performance was down to how bad Arsenal were rather than it being them who were good. Otherwise we need one or two of Palace, Brighton or Newcastle to plummet.

We may not stay up with our policy of not spending any money, but I for one applaud the attempt. Everton have spent £500 million on players in the last 4/5 years, although they have sold some for big money too. Villa spent over £100 million this summer to build a squad which can't score many goals. This level of spending is unsustainable. I hope we will be proved to have been right.

[Aggy 944]

1 hour ago, Trevor Hockey's Beard said:

The question is which 3 teams can we finish above? Watford look a strong possibility, and with their next few fixtures Everton could slip into the bottom three - depending on who they get in instead of Silva (and when) - but which other team? Villa have struggled - except against us - but they will try and buy their way out of trouble in January. I hope that Southampton's performance was down to how bad Arsenal were rather than it being them who were good. Otherwise we need one or two of Palace, Brighton or Newcastle to plummet.

We may not stay up with our policy of not spending any money, but I for one applaud the attempt. Everton have spent £500 million on players in the last 4/5 years, although they have sold some for big money too. Villa spent over £100 million this summer to build a squad which can't score many goals. This level of spending is unsustainable. I hope we will be proved to have been right.

Southampton have had a couple of decent results (Man Utd draw, beat Brighton and Shef Utd) but they’re still down there. I’ll be shocked if they don’t go down this year. 
 

Watford I keep thinking will pull out of it, but the longer they stay down there I’m not sure.

I can’t see West Ham, Palace or Everton getting seriously dragged into it. Brighton look alright too, Newcastle seem to have turned it around a little bit but are they ever more than a couple of weeks from implosion? 
 

Watford, Southampton and one of us, Villa and Newcastle for me.

[Jim Smith 2,608]

Even sides like Bournemouth are only 6 ahead of us. Someone will have a bad run surely 

[dylanisabaddog 6,131]

I've just posted Everton's forthcoming fixtures on another post. They won't get many points out of the next 8 games regardless of who their manager is. Hopefully they'll think they're Everton and couldn't possibly be relegated..... 

[Indy 3,471]

Certainly always great to win, shows we can compete with most teams at this level with all our players fit and their natural positions.

We are still in a long fight to stay up, we have the smallest budgets and one of the youngest first teams in this league, we’re still probably going to get relegated but our youngsters are learning, getting better with each game and the more we grow learn and adapt the better chance of staying up.

Keep to the system Farke don’t move from this formation or style as it’s a very good formation in any league.

[Indy 3,471]

4 minutes ago, dylanisabaddog said:

I've just posted Everton's forthcoming fixtures on another post. They won't get many points out of the next 8 games regardless of who their manager is. Hopefully they'll think they're Everton and couldn't possibly be relegated..... 

Everton never get relegated, remember many years ago them getting last day result thanks to some very dubious refereeing at the time.

Would love for Everton along with a Villa to go down.

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

3 hours ago, Indy said:

Everton never get relegated, remember many years ago them getting last day result thanks to some very dubious refereeing at the time.

Would love for Everton along with a Villa to go down.

I do indeed.

Mike Walker's first season in charge. Wimbledon 2-0 up at Goodison and they turned it around 3-2. Wimbledon goalie Hans Segers dived like a sack of spuds to let one in I remember

Nothing ever proven but that result was dubious with a capital ' D '

[keelansgrandad 6,680]

Some of the teams around us are ahead of us because they beat us. And they, Brighton, Palace, WHU have to come to us and Villa away.

Hindsight says we could have been on more without mistakes or VAR.

[Monty13 2,736]

10 hours ago, Since 1980 said:

Currently on 10 points with Watford on 8. If only we could have beaten them, and we should have, but for a silly mistake we'd be 8 points ahead of them instead of just 2. That would have been even higher than Everest for them to climb.

I must be misremembering because I thought we didn’t look like scoring if we had another half an hour on top of the 90 even with them down to ten men.

Id love us to have been 3 points better off at this point but I’m not sure how you are coming to the conclusion we “should have” beaten them. It was a pretty dire performance deserving of a loss.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Monty13

[Canary Wundaboy 1,423]

12 hours ago, Monty13 said:

I must be misremembering because I thought we didn’t look like scoring if we had another half an hour on top of the 90 even with them down to ten men.

Id love us to have been 3 points better off at this point but I’m not sure how you are coming to the conclusion we “should have” beaten them. It was a pretty dire performance deserving of a loss.

Yeah anyone looking back on that Watford performance and saying we should have won has a serious case of the rose tinted glasses. We were dire and deserved nothing. Stark contrast with Everton.

[Since 1980 27]

On 24/11/2019 at 20:08, Monty13 said:

I must be misremembering because I thought we didn’t look like scoring if we had another half an hour on top of the 90 even with them down to ten men.

Id love us to have been 3 points better off at this point but I’m not sure how you are coming to the conclusion we “should have” beaten them. It was a pretty dire performance deserving of a loss.

Confidence was low and then Buendia's silly mistake drained any ounce that was left. Had he not done so we should/could have won the game or at least got a point. Sometimes dire performances win games.

[wcorkcanary 4,781]

7 hours ago, Since 1980 said:

Confidence was low and then Buendia's silly mistake drained any ounce that was left. Had he not done so we should/could have won the game or at least got a point. Sometimes dire performances win games.

I only  watched it on t'tellybox  so obv didn't get the full picture as those there did, but to me we were the poorest that I've seen since.... I can't remember when. As for dire performances winning games...yep , possible but very unlikely.

  Win ugly ? Yes, but a different thing altogether from performing poorly. 

[Since 1980 27]

Sometimes you just need one shot on goal in the whole of a game to win.

[splendidrush 720]

On 25/11/2019 at 02:19, dylanisabaddog said:

Hopefully they'll think they're Everton and couldn't possibly be relegated..... 

I remember another Team in blue with that attitude back in the early 2000's. After a first good season when they caught everyone by surprise, a few games in Europe, splashing the cash on Finidi George and Matteo Serini and down they went.

They have never recovered 😂😎