Some may disagree but----------

[Nobodys Perfect 0]

I think we will stay up. On what do I base this statement on I hear you ask? Well,five matches in and only one heavy defeat, and that against you know who. No great disgrace there. Now, here comes the bit where I may get shot down in flames. Apart from you know who, I''ve seen nothing yet to suggest that the Premiership is anything too scary. Today, we didn''t look out of place.

Now, let''s be honest here, a year ago draws against Newcastle and Spurs, both away would have been deemed a miracle, yet I repeat, we didn''t look out of place. Nor did we against United.

My point? I think, despite all the punditry, the Prem is,whisper it, over-rated. There I''ve said it. Defoe today, in the second half was non-existant. England striker? Yes. Best player on the pitch? Er no. Will we be be afraid of him again and show him too much respect, no. Now David Bentley. Highly rated Arsenal prospect, yet I''ve seen nothing from him yet to suggest why.

Is this Prem as great as everybody (whose in it anyway), says it is? What do you lot think is the harder. Coming top of the Nationwide by a mile after taking nine years to do it,or "merely" finishing above three other (probably dire) teams to stay up?

To me the hard work was done last year, the joint effort of Board, team and fans. We did it, we came through top of the pile above twenty plus others. We can do it again. This time we''ve only got to finish forth bottom to stay up, and despite it being very early days, it doesn''t look impossible by any means. Fans of "big" clubs may read this and laugh, especially after only five games, but I believe that this division is not the hideous bear-pit of outrageously gifted Norwich slaughterers we thought it would be.

[sheded 0]

I can`t say I disagree at all ! ......  Spurs came out  and started to knock it about  like this was to show us how supreme they were ! .........  as the match progressed  [ particularly in the second half ]   there ego`s  started looking a bit jaded ......  if we keep playing in the manner we did today .we have nothing to fear !! .........  I can`t fault any of our players  

[ZLF 271]

I have to agree that there seems to be very little in the prem that we should be scared of and I have said for years that the prem is vastly over rated, especially over hyped by our media.

Where the prem differs from the nationwide is in the level of consistency. Defenders need to concentrate for the full 94 minutes and get punished for any small error (see Helveg & Drury in our two defeats for example) whereas neither woud have probably have led to a goal in the nationwide,sorry coca cola. And how many defenders we saw last year would have made that challenge by King?

Spurs did look good in the first half but I am convinced that was due to US adapting to playing 3 holding midfielders and reshaping our game - once we got a grip of that we won control of the game - IMO we looked by far the better side in the second half.

Bring on the villa!

OTBC

[gazzathegreat 0]

[quote]I think we will stay up. On what do I base this statement on I hear you ask? Well,five matches in and only one heavy defeat, and that against you know who. No great disgrace there. Now, here comes the...[/quote]

I do agree with you supernaut, i have long since thought the prem was over-rated, along with the ratings of some of the so called star players, yes of course it is a class up from the first division, but as you said, we haven''t exactly been hammered (who else has beaten arsenal, or even kept it down to one goal difference?)

spurs started well and were all over us for a while, nothing new there, we started most games like that last year - the hype is put about by overpaid journalists and TV pundits, who are basically jusitifying their own jobs.  Arsenal looked awesome - but man u, newcastle and spurs really looked nothing special.  Yes, we haven''t won a game, but with bettter finishing yesterday we would have done.  Defensively we were superb, especially Greeno.   And of couse as fans,  we outsang them.  Not too difficult really.  Their faces afterwards said it all.  They looked as though they had lost the game.  Will it be a draw at Carrrow Road, no, we will beat them. 

We have little to fear, long term injuries being the main thing to worry about.

[rich 0]

i''ve been saying all along that the gap is huge, the gap between arsenal, chelsea and the rest that is. 

these two are well ahead of the rest, then there''s the good sides like man u, villa, liverpool, newcastle,boro.  the rest of that league is much of a muchness.

however don''t over estimate us just yet were nowhere near safe, the table tells it all, safe on goals scored, it may be that tight come the end of the season. we have the chance to stay up, but we need to push on. true we can stay up, but as the squad is now it''ll be very tense, we have to push on and I hope the board recognise that with the right investment we could join the likes of bolton, charlton and brum as safe premier team. that has to be our next aspiration.

[BedsCanary 0]

From what I''ve seen this season (excluding the Palace game) we are too good to go down.

 

If we play like we did yesterday every week we will probably finish mid-table.

But will we be able to raise our game like we did yesterday for a match against Fulham or Blackburn or Bolton?

[blacko 0]

I also agree with you, but we have to concentrate the whole time. Ledley Kings intervention, twice yesterday, shows the quality that we are up against. We have to take our chances to score and we have to keep getting those tackles and saves in. But so far so good.

Pity we didn''t win against Palace, because the results since have been very good and with a little more belief early in the game at Manure I think we could have had a point there too.