4 quickly becoming 3

[Yellowhammer 86]

It was a 4 horse race at the bottom but this weekend results have reduced that to three , Newcastle have paid for their safety, and all the teams have games in hand . A bit of investment in jan would have helped, we seem to be improving but just feel it’s all too late 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,716]

Saudi blood money, sale should never have gone through but money talks.

[Robert N. LiM 4,342]

We have a game in hand on Brentford and we play them at CR. Unlikely, I know, but if we're going to finish above three teams, they're the third, not Newcastle.

[Badger 2,405]

As Robert has said, Brentford are not out of it yet.

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

At the end of the month Brentford play Newcastle, us, then Burnley, a lot could change then but realistically they only have to avoid defeat 

[Capt. Pants 4,233]

Nor Leeds.

A six  team mini league now consisting of us, Brentford, Leeds, Everton, Watford and Burnley.

[alex_ncfc 662]

I honestly thought Newcastle would lose the two games vs Everton and Villa. Shows how quickly things can change, they also have some more winnable games coming up.

I think Brentford may end up being our only hope, that is as long as they continue being poor. Leeds too, but feel they have enough to stay up. I fear it will just be the bottom 3 being cut adrift soon as you say.

[kinggoblin 37]

18 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

Nor Leeds.

A six  team mini league now consisting of us, Brentford, Leeds, Everton, Watford and Burnley.

Agree with this, we were always going to lose ground with the games against Man City and Liverpool, forever the optimist 😀

[Monty13 2,232]

There’s plenty of games left and if 34ish points is the minimum needed there’s a number of teams with a long way to go.

We just need to continue picking up points and hopefully draw some others in for the photo finish. 

Realistically with the investment Newcastle had it was always likely to be enough to escape.

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 527]

I hope that one of the promoted teams stays up - of course I hope the most that it is us, but it seems unlikely - but if all 3 promoted teams go down this season it strengthens the argument for making the Premier League a closed shop.

 

[chicken 2,624]

It was 8 teams before, people are writing out Newcastle and Everton still... both have the quality on paper, even before January signings, to stay up.

Palace are the team who have made progress towards ruling themselves out of the battle at the moment.


Everton beating Leeds was preferable to Leeds beating Everton. Neither have been consistent this season and another slump for a couple of games is not beyond either side - and that's all it takes.

If people think Burnley are gone, then Watford have to be as well, picking up only a point more from two games. It's certainly a tough league this season, but realistically, there isn't much to call between the bottom ten sides, some of which are better off purely because of an early season run. I would even say Brighton are like that. Not too dissimilar to Brentford, points on the board early doors, but they have a better defence.

Certainly isn't only four teams just yet.

Newcastle have now got to face West Ham(A), Brentford(A), Brighton(H), Chelsea(A), Spurs(A), Wolves(H), Leicester(H). None of those games will be easy. Brentford will be seen as the key battle. Brighton are no mugs and are currently top half as are Wolves. Leicester have slipped a bit in recent weeks but again, have a lot of quality. Then you have current top six sides like West Ham, Chelsea, Spurs...

In the meantime we play Liverpool(A), followed by Southampton(A), Brentford(H), Leeds(A), Brighton(A), Burnley(H), Man Utd(A), so comparatively, we have two of the current top six and Brighton and Southampton from top half of the table. Good results against Brentford, Leeds and Burnley and perhaps another one, or a couple of draws... and who knows?

It really is all over the place this season. You could see any of the bottom half of the table having a slide and not picking up points for two to three games, where as others could do the opposite. 

Just like the last run of fixtures, some may argue playing West Ham, Wolves and Spurs is not great... but as we found with Man City a few seasons ago, they may not have a lot left to play for by that point, and our fight might be too much for their half way to the beach resort mindset to cope with.

You just never know.

What we do know is that there are still a good 6-7 teams who are certainly still in this dogfight.

[Heading South 24]

13 minutes ago, chicken said:

It was 8 teams before, people are writing out Newcastle and Everton still... both have the quality on paper, even before January signings, to stay up.

Palace are the team who have made progress towards ruling themselves out of the battle at the moment.


Everton beating Leeds was preferable to Leeds beating Everton. Neither have been consistent this season and another slump for a couple of games is not beyond either side - and that's all it takes.

If people think Burnley are gone, then Watford have to be as well, picking up only a point more from two games. It's certainly a tough league this season, but realistically, there isn't much to call between the bottom ten sides, some of which are better off purely because of an early season run. I would even say Brighton are like that. Not too dissimilar to Brentford, points on the board early doors, but they have a better defence.

Certainly isn't only four teams just yet.

Newcastle have now got to face West Ham(A), Brentford(A), Brighton(H), Chelsea(A), Spurs(A), Wolves(H), Leicester(H). None of those games will be easy. Brentford will be seen as the key battle. Brighton are no mugs and are currently top half as are Wolves. Leicester have slipped a bit in recent weeks but again, have a lot of quality. Then you have current top six sides like West Ham, Chelsea, Spurs...

In the meantime we play Liverpool(A), followed by Southampton(A), Brentford(H), Leeds(A), Brighton(A), Burnley(H), Man Utd(A), so comparatively, we have two of the current top six and Brighton and Southampton from top half of the table. Good results against Brentford, Leeds and Burnley and perhaps another one, or a couple of draws... and who knows?

It really is all over the place this season. You could see any of the bottom half of the table having a slide and not picking up points for two to three games, where as others could do the opposite. 

Just like the last run of fixtures, some may argue playing West Ham, Wolves and Spurs is not great... but as we found with Man City a few seasons ago, they may not have a lot left to play for by that point, and our fight might be too much for their half way to the beach resort mindset to cope with.

You just never know.

What we do know is that there are still a good 6-7 teams who are certainly still in this dogfight.

And all we have to do is win 1/2 more games than them ….. Hmmmmm not happening I’m afraid, plan for championship.

[Making Plans 936]

4 will become 6 and that doesn't include Newcastle

Some people just give up too easily

[Badger 2,405]

3 minutes ago, Making Plans said:

4 will become 6 and that doesn't include Newcastle

Some people just give up too easily

Some gave up in September 😀

[TESCO 70]

This is how I see it. Can’t see Newcastle or Everton going down. It’s a 5-team mini league.

[Branston Pickle 3,657]

19 minutes ago, TESCO said:

This is how I see it. Can’t see Newcastle or Everton going down. It’s a 5-team mini league.

No it isn’t.  So the weekend didn’t go brilliantly, I’m not sure what was expected when we were playing Man City.  The fact is that there will be other weekends when we win and others don’t - or at least we hope there will - and things will look different again.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Branston Pickle

[Bomber 48]

Think the relegated sides will be the three that now occupy the relegation slots unfortunately 

[Helsinki canary 242]

21 minutes ago, TESCO said:

This is how I see it. Can’t see Newcastle or Everton going down. It’s a 5-team mini league.

This is the relegation mini league, spot on

[Haus 259]

2 hours ago, alex_ncfc said:

I honestly thought Newcastle would lose the two games vs Everton and Villa. Shows how quickly things can change, they also have some more winnable games coming up.

I think Brentford may end up being our only hope, that is as long as they continue being poor. Leeds too, but feel they have enough to stay up. I fear it will just be the bottom 3 being cut adrift soon as you say.

But I thought January signings never bed in and doesn't work, that's what everyone on here was saying.  Seems to be working for Newcastle pretty well 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

Had the Villa 'equalizer' had counted, the results elsewhere would have been pretty good this weekend

....onto another weekend next week of damage limitation elsewhere

[Midlands Yellow 3,980]

17 minutes ago, Haus said:

But I thought January signings never bed in and doesn't work, that's what everyone on here was saying.  Seems to be working for Newcastle pretty well 

Depends how much your spending, when it’s loans, freebies and the odd million then probably best not to bother. 

[Gordon Bennett 783]

20 minutes ago, Haus said:

But I thought January signings never bed in and doesn't work, that's what everyone on here was saying.  Seems to be working for Newcastle pretty well 

Paying big money for players already acclimatised to the PL will almost certainly work if they are half decent. Getting g players in with little or no experience of our league probably wouldn't and I expect that's what we would have done if the funds were there.

[Jimmy Raggatip 59]

I didn't think Newcastle's signings particularly screamed "match-winners" but the Trippier signing seems to be transformative

 

also Howe seems to have done his defensive homework since his Bournemouth days, Newcastle are managing to keep teams out at their end which goes a long way in terms of scrapping for results

 

 

[Branston Pickle 3,657]

5 minutes ago, Jimmy Raggatip said:

I didn't think Newcastle's signings particularly screamed "match-winners" but the Trippier signing seems to be transformative

 

also Howe seems to have done his defensive homework since his Bournemouth days, Newcastle are managing to keep teams out at their end which goes a long way in terms of scrapping for results

 

 

Not totally - they were rescued today by an extremely tight var decision, one I thought they’d not be giving this season.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Branston Pickle

[NorthCarolinaYellow 197]

Umm ... the weekend went well for us?? We were never going to win BUT 3 of the 4 alongside us in the relegation fight lost (Burnley, Watford, Leeds) and the other drew 0-0. That's pretty great! People should give up on Everton and Newcastle.

[chicken 2,624]

1 hour ago, Haus said:

But I thought January signings never bed in and doesn't work, that's what everyone on here was saying.  Seems to be working for Newcastle pretty well 

No, people said that they could struggle to bed in, but that they had brought in solid/steady if unimpressive signings. Burn, Wood and Trippier being the most likely to impact from the off. It could take them a while to settle though. So far, Trippier is having arguably the biggest impact.

Everton... who people are suggesting we should give up on..
.
7 of their remaining games against top 6 sides. Wolves, Southampton are top half teams currently. Games they'll target are Palace, Leicester and Brentford as things stand. Those two of those games come in their last three fixtures. Otherwise Southampton and Wolves represent the best opportunities otherwise.

They certainly don't have an easy run of games that's for sure. Man City, Spurs, Wolves, West Ham, Man Utd - all before Palace... then Liverpool and Chelsea... They could very much be left needing results from the final three games. Do they have the quality - yes, they do. Should they be doing far better? Yes, they should. Will they?

[glory.win or die. 270]

I wouldn't count Newcastle out yet. They have definitely improved but Everton were poor and Villa were embarrassing today.

 

[Making Plans 936]

9 hours ago, Jimmy Raggatip said:

I didn't think Newcastle's signings particularly screamed "match-winners" but the Trippier signing seems to be transformative

He got injured yesterday and it could be long term

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60369706

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,219]

9 hours ago, Jimmy Raggatip said:

I didn't think Newcastle's signings particularly screamed "match-winners" but the Trippier signing seems to be transformative

 

also Howe seems to have done his defensive homework since his Bournemouth days, Newcastle are managing to keep teams out at their end which goes a long way in terms of scrapping for results

 

 

They bought weapons. 

Trippier’s set pieces, Wood (a) to create the space for the big weapon Saint-Maximin. Wood (b) for Trippier’s set pieces and a simple tactical structure.

Remarkably sensible buys I’m afraid.

Parma 

[......and Smith must score. 1,342]

Clutching at straws perhaps but Trippier injured his ankle during yesterday‘s game and could be out for some time.

Still think the Geordies and Everton will escape the drop fairly easily but every little helps as they say….