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They say that 10 games into a season is a good time to judge and reflect...

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Yes, I am aware that we have played 9 games but I don''t know how much our opinion will change after the Blackburn game so here goes.I think we''ve adapted to this league a lot more easily than I certainly expected.Taking it game by game:Wigan- did really well to take a point. Cant really complain about the penalty. A good point in my opinion.Stoke- should have won. Played well. Stupid ref ruined it. Did well to save the penalty. It felt like two points dropped in my mind as I left Carra Rd. Others probably feel differently? At least we didnt lose.Chelsea. I think it was our best performance of the season- bearing in mind the sheer value of the players. Again, the penalty wasnt really a plus point but we''ve seen time and time again players going over the goalie''s hand. Nobody expected anything but a defeat.West Brom. Not our best performance- should have been given a penalty but for the ref not seeing JV getting elbowed in the face.Bolton. Only game that I havent attended this season- didnt watch either. We won though so it''s all good. Cant really assess the performance- we must have played well to win though?Sunderland. We dominated them for 80 minutes until they got back into. A few hairy moments but we did well. A great win, particularly nice to get the first win at home.Man U. Had it been for better finishing we might have won the game. Was very  proud leaving the ground. (8) We support our local team!Swansea. Played well, started like a train. Swansea didnt really do anything apart from tap tap football and had we not switched off for a silly moment I think we''d have kept a clean sheet.Liverpool. The red men should have been out of sight at half time. We pulled it back in the second half, the lads played well enough to justify a point. A fantastic away point. Shame about the restricted view but thats another story....All in all I think we''ve played extremely well. Could maybe have had 2/3 more points but 12 points from 9 is brilliant. What say you guys? On the ball City.

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Dare I say it, but consistency, which has been one of the keys to our success over the last two seasons, has stayed with us even in this difficult league.

Got to be pleased - could have easily beaten Stoke, should have got a point against WBA, should have got at least a point at ManU, could have beaten Liverpool! (despite their domination in the first half)

Resilience, consistency, focus, good players are there - all the traits of the last two seasons. And the team are learning, just like they did last year.

A joy to be a city supporter at the moment. Long may it continue!

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I for one didnt expect us to appear so comfortable in this league and to pick up points and wins (especially away ones!) is fantastic!

Chelsea is the only game I havent been to/watched on tv as I was on holiday - but we listened to some of it on Five Live all the way from sunny Venice!

Really unlucky not to get an extra 2 points against Stoke. Could have got at least a point at Man U if it was our day so to speak but I guess you win some/lose some - e.g Liverpool away!

Onwards and Upwards

OTBC!

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Will be interesting to see how we do against the established teams who are neither gunning for the Champions League or worrying about relegation (Everton, Villa etc) We''ve played three of the best and have performed well, though with little pressure to get a result. We''ve played a lot of our competition to avoid relegation and looked very comfortable most of the time, but apart from maybe Stoke we''ve haven''t played the middling teams. Results against these sorts of teams could be the difference between a nice calm end to the season and some nail-biting and worrying looks over our shoulder.

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We are nearly a quarter of the way through. If we were to finish the season on 48 points, on the basis of recent seasons, we would finish somewhere between ninth and twelfth. As a newly promoted team, I would take that.

Of course, or more established opponents have strength in depth that will show as the season progresses and injuries take their toll. However, if I had been offered 12 points out of the first 9 games I would have been in Ellysium.

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Considering our last venture into this league back in 2004, we didn''t win our first game until 20th November.

We only had 15 points going into January, but the second half of our season that year was very good picking up 21 points from the seconf half.

Given that we might well pick up three more points from Staurday, the next few games thereafter are going to be tough:

Aston Villa A - We don''t do well at Villa, but hope for a draw.

Arsenal H - Can''t see anything than an Arsenal win.

QPR H - Really a must not lose game, QPR are a funny team and will be hard to beat, another draw for me.

Manchester City A - If we can keep it to just 6 goals, that would be a result.

Newcastle United H - We beat Newcastle at home last time and we will this time.

Everton A - Anotehr team we can never beat, so another loss.

Wolves A - Again this match might well be the three points which makes sure we finish ahead of Wolves come the end of the season, I think we will win this one.

Tottenham Hotspur H - This has a draw all over it.

So my prediction going into next year is that we will be sitting pretty in 11th place on 24 points.

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One example from last season. Blackpool. Started the season very well but the second half of the season they were terrible and nose dived down the league. This could easily happen to us. We just have to take each game as it comes and really make a fight of it. The prem still feels new to our players and the danger is that after Christmas they won''t show the same desire and hunger in the second half of the season.

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I tend to agree Indy. We could pick up a point or three against an out of sorts Arsenal and Everton are not what they were but Spurs could be tough and QPR could go any way. The only certainty seems Man City but, you never know.

However, 24 points at the end of the year looks about right.

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[quote user="colneycanary"]One example from last season. Blackpool. Started the season very well but the second half of the season they were terrible and nose dived down the league. This could easily happen to us. We just have to take each game as it comes and really make a fight of it. The prem still feels new to our players and the danger is that after Christmas they won''t show the same desire and hunger in the second half of the season.[/quote]The Blackpool comparison could easily become a monkey on our backs if we are not careful. I don''t see the comparison myself though in anything other that yes, ok we''ve both had or had good starts to a season in the premiership after promotion. There I think it stops.My view is Holloway was a lucky fool. Out of his depth in every respect from the media to the football on the pitch. Lambert is controlled, considered, he doesn''t court the media or seek the attention. Holloway was attack, attack, attack. No control no brains you don''t want open games at this level when you are at the level we and Blackpool are/were at.Yes we play attacking football but we can also defend, and control games. We will lose games this season but we will not lose many 4-3. 9 games in and we are doing just fine. Stay out of the limelight a catch teams by surprise, especially at Carrow Road.

OTBC

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[quote user="Rex Hudson"]We could pick up a point or three against an out of sorts Arsenal [/quote]

Arsenal have won 7 of their last 8 games. So while they might struggle against the very strongest sides like Man City, Utd or Spurs they''ve still got the beating of most teams they play.

 

And of course van Persie''s goalscoring record over the last few months is sensational. If we''re lucky he''ll have had his usual season-ruining injury by the time we play them - though it''d also be nice to see him playing.

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Blowing my own trumpet a wee bit here, but i said at the start of the season that our squad was stronger than Blackpools was at any time last season, and much stronger than our last season and i think that`s been vindicated. Look at the players struggling to get a game or coming back from injury- Holt, Surman, Crofts, Ward, Whitbread, Jackson, Vaughan, De Laet, Drury, Korey Smith, C.Martin. That`s an entire 11 almost as strong as our current starting one. Happy days!

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Although I agree with the posters saying we were unlucky not to get more than a point against Stoke, I think even if Pilkington had scored against Man U they would have still gone on to beat us.

 

We have been pretty lucky in a lot of games I think - against Bolton we were by far the weaker side in the second half, despite them only having 10 men on the pitch. Also Sunderland had a lot of very good chances which they wasted against us, if they had been a little more clinical then it might have been a very different story.

 

So far we have done very well and have managed to keep scoring despite not creating a massive amount of chances in any game so far, think we had about 1 shot in the first half against Wigan. We look very dangerous from set pieces, which is a great way to pick up points through out the season.

 

So far, so good. Better than most would have expected I''m sure. But the Premier League isn''t easy and the team will have to continue changing and evolving as the season goes on - teams will soon work out our weaknesses and start to punish us. Employing the biggest cliche of them all, but it really is about taking it ''one game at a time''.

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I reckon we''ve had a reasonable mix of fixtures so see no reason why this form can''t continue all season. At this rate we will finish with around 50 points probably just in the top half[Y]

 

 

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It''s a hard one - obviously whilst we''re winning and playing well, you want that to continue for as long as possible until we''re safe.

But on the other hand, I think we won''t know for sure how good we are until we have a couple of poor results. I think it will happen at some point this season, and it''s how we respond to that which will see where we finish.

Blackpool got stuck in a rut. They kept on losing and losing and couldn''t turn it around. I think past results under Lambert would suggest that won''t happen to us, so you''ve got to be more confident of us staying up than Blackpool. BUT in this league, you just don''t know.

In saying that, I''d rather not find out until we''ve won more than enough games to finish comfortably above 18th!

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Our performance so far has been excellent, and our ability to compete with the best teams even on their own pitch has rightly won us plaudits and new friends. (MOD pundits are now convinced of our prospects, - even Lawrenson.)

I think that I am by no means the only supporter who has been delightfully surprised at our qualities, - already two regular (Welsh) internationals, and two or three more being spoken of as on the margins of international selection. In addition, some players who shone in the Championship are showing that they have been able to lift their game to the higher level.

Above all, we have shown signs of learning rapidly. The central defensive duo are perhaps the best sign, We have still to keep a clean sheet, but several recent goals have involved unfortunate deflections. I think that it will not be long before the elusive clean sheet arrives.

So can we look forward with confidence? Yes, but with reservations.

We still have only limited cover in some positions.

So far only the CBs have suffered lengthy lay-offs, but the season is is still early. How well we may perform on the heavier pitches of Winter, and how far we can continue our very energetic and athletic approach, is not easy to predict.

I am a great admirer of PL, and of his ability to solve the problems of players out with injury or suspension, but I feel that at the end much will depend on finding some new players in January to bolster the size of the effective and Premiership standard part of the squad.

So, quiet confidence is in order, I think.

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What Salopian said.

I''d add that we have been blessed with five very winnable home games, including Saturday''s. Yes we''ve had some very difficult away games, but the home fixtures have allowed us to get some points on the board.

So, while I am delighted with the start, I would be far from surprised if we slipped a bit over the next two months. And that''s the time when players and fans need to hold their nerve.

I''d still be thrilled with 17th on goal difference.

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Well we''ve picked up 7 points at home and 5 away from home Robert. I would expect Manchester Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Stoke to finish in the top half. Wigan, WBA, Bolton, Sunderland and Swansea I feel may be bottom half. So I think up to now our fixtures have been a pretty even mix. We topped expectations with the point at Anfield and failed expectations dropping three to WBA. I don''t think we fully appreciated how difficult the Stoke game was and the fact that we came so close to winning it is another plus in my book.

 

 

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On the Blackpool comparison - for me the reason they struggled in the 2nd half of the season is down to teams figuring them out. Towards the beginning of the season teams would panic if Blackpool scored against them (they were the least fancied team in the League), at the end of the season teams realised it doesn''t really matter if Blackpool score, there is a very good chance to score against them - also they played with one formation for the entire season, didn''t take a tactical genius to work them out.

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We simply need to sustain our form,  but that is far harder to do than say  

 

Its not just Blackpool who have started a season well only to get relegated as form tailed off; its long established that second halves of seasons can be tougher as teams sus out out to play a new team and tactically learn from other managers mistakes.  Its a long season and the key to our survival is not whether we go on a bad run but how quickly we can recover from a series of defeats - that will almost certainly happen at some stage.

 

What I have is a lot of confidence that this squad will respond positively if and when that situation arises.

 

We have made a fabulous start, even better than we could have hoped for,  so there is every reason to have some confidence that we can sustain that through to May. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Some very grounded opinions on this and as a Club we need to carry on that way.

For me so far:

Outstanding fitness and application - especially surprised by Bradley Johnson who is also a better passer than I dared hope.

Captains all over the pitch yet a well bonded squad.

Numerous goals from set-pieces which are priceless in this league and which we historically have failed to score from. This means we always have a chance.

We have created chances galore and our chance to goal ratio is improving - ask Liverpool.

We have somehow managed to cope with a CB crisis and in doing so found that Russell Martin is better in this position in the PL than most of the other CB''s.

We have settled into a system which incorporates Wes and been fortunate enough to have kept those players fit. Below the first team I personally believe we are thin on the ground. The loss of Vaughan can be tolerated in the present system.

We have steadily accumilated points and the performances at Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool have built confidence. Lambert has stayed true to his ''go for the win'' principles whatever the opposition.

We have unearthed a gem in Pilkington.

Saturday is another huge game and in many ways a pressure game. We must not ''do a vs. Hull'' and let Blackburn gain any confidence.

I believe than Paul Lambert has looked towards the winter transfer period the last two seasons in that he has succeeded in getting the Club into a position whereby it has been viable to push the boat out. I think he''ll do the same this season to keep the side fresh and give us more options for all the come-back games. If staying up is realistic I expect he will be fully backed.

Personally, I''d like to see a quality CB.

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The secret thing for me is Paul Lambert and his tactics.

He is clever enough to tweek things around, depending on the opposition, and will, undoubtedly have eyes on a player or two in January

It''s the subtle things that will take points in games that we look like losing/struggling, things that Holloway never looked like he could muster.

In a sense we are under the radar at the moment, and IF we can win tomorrow, that will be 15 points, a big total for a team ''like us'' at this stage of the season

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