terrytini Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 13 hours ago, useless said: The reason we find ourselves just one point ahead of the bottom three is because we've just had to play Man City (a), Liverpool (h), Wolves (a), Newcastle (h), Man Utd (a), Chelsea (a), a run of fixtures that any team in the league would find daunting, it's a miracle that we're not entrenched in the bottom three after that lot. And it's just our luck that the next two, Leicester and Sheffield United are in the form of their lives, albeit I think we can get a couple of points from those games, maybe more as I think we're capable of beating Leicester at Villa Park. I don’t agree with much of what you have said recently, but fwiw I 100% agree with all that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 1 hour ago, useless said: This month we play Leciester (h), Sheffield United (a), Southampton (h), Norwich (h), and Watford (a). That run of fixtures could make or break our season, playing those teams on the one hand gives us an opportunity to pull clear of the bottom three, but on the flip side if we do poorly in those fixtures we could find ourselves in quite a bit of trouble. A very important month coming up for us. 2 Wins from that lot is pretty much essential. Anything more would be terrific. Personally, I think we will get 9 points from those 5. That will put us entering 2020 on 20 games played, with 24 points, needing probably 4 more Wins from 18 games. Thatll do me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handsworthlion Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 To me, after last nights display, our premier league survival depends on 1 thing, we need to swallow our pride and get a replacement for Wesley. Somebody who actually resembles something like a footballer. We are hindered so heavily by having somebody as poor as that leading the line for us. (Hope he proves me wrong, but I very much doubt it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Already Watford have to match Spurs form to stay up, Norwich have to match Burnley’s. I can’t see it. One place to fight over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 48 minutes ago, A'Villan said: Newcastle just gave City a game Hardly. 6-24 is shots. 3-9 on target. 77 % possession to Man City. They rode their luck and were extremely clinical. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 9-10 points from the next 5 + a cup win against Liverpool kids would be an excellent end to the year. And however outplayed we were last night, keeping the goal difference to -1 is also important looking at those below and immediately above us. I'm expecting a merry football Christmas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 2 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Hardly. 6-24 is shots. 3-9 on target. 77 % possession to Man City. They rode their luck and were extremely clinical. The game's narrative might not always be the one most desirable for a team, but when you take points from a game, you've been in the contest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hitzlsperger_12 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 It's vital we win the majority of our next run of games. Everton have a run similar to what we've just been through coming up. They could be well in the bottom three comes the new year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 6 hours ago, villalad21 said: Hate being in a dogfight. This is exactly what i haven't missed while being down in the Championship for a few seasons. We were in a dogfight down there, remember how we were after Fulham won. The stress down there is more, survival is usually easier than promotion. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 We need to make sure we beat both Southampton and Norwich at home and get something at Watford too. Do that and we'll be OK. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 38 minutes ago, Villarocker said: We need to make sure we beat both Southampton and Norwich at home and get something at Watford too. Do that and we'll be OK. Us not being able to win a single game against the top teams just puts more pressure on these games. I'm just hoping and praying Jack will get us out of jail once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 What really worries me is we've played well in this hard run but people see it as a guarantee that means that against the bottom 6 we'll have guaranteed wins. We won't. We'll have slip ups and off days, it's football. That's why it's so important to pick up even a couple of points against the big teams to help yourself out - as many of our bottom half rivals have done. And we've been in some pretty dominant positions against the big ones but cocked it up for whatever reason. It just creates more pressure on the must win games. And to be honest we aren't getting anything from Leicester. It could be our heaviest defeat so far, their counter is the best in the league and we're not exactly quick in our build up play. If they're more clinical than Chelsea it could be painful. However I think we will stay up. We have a lot of talented albeit flawed players. I agree we need another striker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdulaziz1 Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 8 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said: What really worries me is we've played well in this hard run but people see it as a guarantee that means that against the bottom 6 we'll have guaranteed wins. We won't. We'll have slip ups and off days, it's football. That's why it's so important to pick up even a couple of points against the big teams to help yourself out - as many of our bottom half rivals have done. And we've been in some pretty dominant positions against the big ones but cocked it up for whatever reason. It just creates more pressure on the must win games. And to be honest we aren't getting anything from Leicester. It could be our heaviest defeat so far, their counter is the best in the league and we're not exactly quick in our build up play. If they're more clinical than Chelsea it could be painful. However I think we will stay up. We have a lot of talented albeit flawed players. I agree we need another striker. In reality, 5 points from our next 4 is an ok return, but we need more to secure ourselves. We need another 6-7 wins from the next 23 game and the odd draw. If we got 3-4 wins in our next 5 then thats half of our mission completed. I’d be more worried if I were Everton, Brighton or even Newcastle and Bournemouth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Leicester's run has to come to and end and I think historically we've had a pretty good record against them at home........ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 51 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said: Leicester's run has to come to and end and I think historically we've had a pretty good record against them at home........ That's what we all said when they went on to win the title, and Rodgers was the manager who really put Liverpool back on the map as title contenders, albeit with Suarez. They're going to be tough to beat, personally I'm reserving judgement about it, they've established how they want to play and smoothed out the creases and it shows. They've put some teams to the slaughter this season, and have consistently been good enough to win in most matches. They'll be motivated to stay on top of the wave. We on the other hand go anywhere between trotting, a canter and galloping, without having found the thoroughbred in us just yet, I can't be certain which Villa will show. Of our next five matches in the PL I would hope that we are playing to win all of them, but would be most understanding if a loss came against Leicester as opposed to the rest. Just depends on how well we identify the plan to come up against them and how relentless we can be in seeing it through over 90 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 I think Everton will bounce back when they change manager but teams like West Ham, Brighton and Bournemouth are looking shaky. If we keep doing what we’re doing we should have enough to stay up and build from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosmicVillan Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 (edited) Smith has been in a relegation scrap before at Walsall, 9 points adrift when he took over and they stayed up - one point clear of the relegation zone Edited December 5, 2019 by CosmicVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 It's gonna be another 70 min backs to the wall job for Newcastle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenjiOgiwara Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 Gonna watch Maupay with interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 5, 2019 Share Posted December 5, 2019 The good thing is we're 40% of the way to the points figure we need to stay up. 37.5 and with our GD being comfortably better than most in bottom half that's an extra half point to get to 38 which hardly anyone gets relegated on. The fixture list will get easier from here on in. Yes home games will be more tricky but given we've been competitive in the aways I don't see why we couldn't get a couple of wins at VP v likes of Spurs, Man. United, Arsenal and Chelsea in second half of the season. Target needs to be another 7-9 points by end of Burnley game. We could do better than that but we could also do worse. Minimum I want is 7 so that would put us on 22 points and mean we could win as few as four games from there and still stay up. I think we can do a little better than that and hopefully we can sign 2-3 really good players in January to help things along. My gut feeling is we've got over the hardest part of the season. In the first 4-5 games of the season I couldn't really see us scoring many goals at all so that has been a big and welcome surprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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