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I think this is a must win and results dependent Arsenal becomes the most not lose, we have to put the pressure on ahead of the Friday night game and hope city thump Bournemouth. Watching Everton v Wolves they are definitely there for the taking and looking like Mina and maybe Holgate could be out at the back we have to go for it.

No worries I was basically just summarizing how we could get to a last day jobbie - Once you get to that anything can happen!

Can Baggio play Sunday?

Agree, if it happens then it happens and i would be confident that we could bounce back and I know we will win games/compete

Watford Newcastle D West Ham L/D City L Arsenal L Bournemouth Leicester L City L Southampton D Everton D Leaves us 6 points to find.....7 If West Ham/Watford is a draw I just cant see it - Desperately need Norwich/Newcastle results tomorrow

In my head (Written on my work pad version 251 of how we stay up) this week I actually had Watford to win, Bournemouth draw and Villa defeat this week which when I was doing them I thought leaves us in a horrible position of being 4 points off with the potential to go 7 points on Saturday lunch time which I think would be curtains regardless of any result we get. However trying to stay positive I still think it may look a bit like this Watford Newcastle D West Ham L City L Bournemouth Leicester L City L Southampton D Im ruling West Ham out as think they will beat Norwich tomorrow, and so the above would leave us needing 4 point minimum to take things into a showdown with West Ham who hopefully would be on the beach.....seems do able? The problem it it just doesn't at the moment, we look so empty of ideas, effort and quality I struggle to believe we will score a goal let alone get points but trying to be positive for me we have to look back and think about where our best performances have been think that means a potential 343 again. I would personally like to see this Sunday.... Reina Konsa Mings Hause Guilbert Luiz Hourihnne Taylor (Target if fit) El Ghazi Sammatta Grealish For what its worth I have us down for Palace W Everton D Arsenal L Got to keep that little bit of hope!

Not that im ever right on these things but i can really see..... Watford - Newcastle (D) City (L) West Ham (L) Arsenal (L) Villa - United (L) Palace (W) Everton (D) Arsenal (L) and then needing to win at West Ham That Watford v Newcastle game is the big one....Ive always loved you Stevie and if I ever did say you were a potato head I always did mean a La Bonnotte

Good news is sounds like Brucey is going to rest a load tomorrow at City and target Saturdays game for points

We can debate all the other results as much as we want the facts are that set of players of ours needs to now stand up and go and win a game on Thursday night. A win in my opinion will completely knock the stuffing out of Watford as they will expect to go into the weekend with a 4 point gap

This!! I woke up this morning and I was already thinking about the game as if Villa were playing. Even if Norwich can get a draw it will mean one of their better games to go. Looking at Everton (Awful last night), Palace (inconsistent), West Ham (If already safe) Arsenal (In form but play in the cup semi on the Saturday night before and may have little to play for) we cant argue we haven't got an opportunity to stay up we just need to get out of this Norwich/Watford game week with the game growing by no more than a point

My view is (and may be unpopular) that the left midfield position suits him better and is where we should be playing him in the prem. It just feels when he is playing centrally he doesn't get the ball in as many dangerous positions and so the opposition can either swarm him or foul him - Giving away a free kick which is 40 yards central to goal is quite difficult to do much with where as out wide you have a better angle to get the ball into the box. I would go with connor in the more advanced central role, yes granted he may let the game drift by but that space created by Grealish does give him opportunities to shoot and he also has a great free kick on him and while we are lacking goals he has to in my opinion be a starter.

Its just the goals for me, we do look more solid but we need to score at least two to win games and it looks so unlikely currently

I think having watched the game yesterday Jack has to go back out wide and Hourihanne needs to come in the centre of the park. We just dont look like scoring and what ever people think about connor he can produce goals and assists especially from free kicks and for me that is worth a place above one of the 2 wingers (I would edge towards keeping El Ghazi in)

This week is huge, 2 Watford wins and a united defeat for us could mean we are 7 behind by the time we play palace so vital that they dont get more than 3 points from them 2 games I still think we will end up going to West Ham a point or 2 behind needing to win and hopeing for an Arsenal win

Just looking at a couple of others as examples of people who have escaped Sunderland 2014 - Last 6 games they had Chelsea/Man United/Man City away and took 7 points Wigan 2011-12 - Won at Arsenal/Liverpool and beat United in last 9 games Its been done but you cant write off thees games as to hard, you have to get something

As a few have said its down to us, we need to forget who everybody else is playing as if we don't win games then we don't stay up regardless.... My guess is we will need 10 points to stay up which means unless we take anything over Liverpool and Man United we will need 10 from 12 which I think is just to big an ask

Bottom 5 have earnt 3 points since the restart and we got 2 of them - We are all just as bad as each other !

6 games to go and 4 pretty awful teams, there really inst a fat lot between any of them and I think it will come down to a mistake/moment of magic for one of them teams to step out and win a couple of games - You only have to look at the points gained between us since restart, 3 and we have got 2 of them! I look at our squad and one thing that has improved is the back line and Luiz, we are not conceding as many chances/goals and so at least we are getting a bit of a base to build on - It just needs someone to step out now and be that hero (Jack?) Will be interesting to see where we are after this weekend as I think if we can just hang in touch to that last 4 games I think there will be opportunities to get some points Maybe im daft but I still think we can do it - Keep the faith !

Totally agree, there is still a number of twists in this season, we are no worse than the others down the bottom - Its who can find a couple of results

Only little advantage is they play City Thursday night, they will absolutely not want to lose this game and will play as strong a team as possible with it being their first as champions with the whole guard of honor etc and will put everything in. Added to that City will be also wanting to show them they mean business their is the potential for some fatigue/knocks which may lead to changes on Sunday and maybe some complacency. For them reasons im going to be positive and predict we will only lose 4-0

This... If you read the twitter # of each team and look at reaction to Watfords defeat last night you realise everyone feels the same Lets hope that bit of fight we saw in the last 15 v Newcastle from the players shows they believe, cant believe so many fans are giving up, granted you need to take points at Newcastle but so do you at Burnley who have their main two forwards out

Comical reading threads like this, the fans are half the problem as they dont give time to the younger players and demand big money buys. Albrighton was seen by a lot as not good enough and then when he goes and is successful people are up in arms

This.....

Not saying that 100% right by the way, just the feeling I get from a few bits i hear, Smith is a very good coach as he has shown at Brentford but he was working with a competent recruitment team who brought in a convener belt of talents that he improved and they took on to another level - It just hasn't worked with Villa for various reasons and I cant help but think if we had ended up with Phillips/Benrama/Maupy we would be in a better position than with Marvelous/Trez/Wesley

Really frustrating that we again are relying on others especially when you look at the games played, there has definitely been some improvements since we have returned but then we have slipped in others however that said you have to say that the 4 teams involved are pretty much all as bad as each other and so this is far from over. If you look at the games so far we could have taken something despite poor performances and I honestly believe that it could just take 2 wins between now and West Ham to create that shoot out on the last day..... Sheffield United - We defended pretty well and restricted them to very little but then missed the 3/4 chances we had in the game however should have lost through an error Chelsea - Difficult watch and very frustrating in our approach however again we defended ok and missed a couple of decent chances to take a point Newcastle - See Sheffield, exactly the same pattern of the game however the one error has this time cost us