Mic09 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 17 minutes ago, S-Platt said: Or we are just playing within ourselves it's a marathon not a sprint and we will start to pick up again soon!? I trust The Don knows what he is doing. Look at our form last year under Unai. As I remember, around Chritmas/Feb we had a similar run to what we have now. And then we went on a mad run back end of season. I am not worried - if we beat Sheffield and Man U we'd be 2nd. After 22 games that would be crazy. I believe we can get CL football. And should we fail and land in 6th, that is not bad at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 2 minutes ago, Mic09 said: I am not worried - if we beat Sheffield and Man U we'd be 2nd. After 22 games that would be crazy. If we'd done that in December we'd have been top! REGRESSION!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 2 hours ago, Leeroy said: If we went from joint 2nd at Christmas and 1 point off top to finishing 8th and lower than last season when we had Slippy for a third of the season that would be an almighty collapse and capitulation even worse than the ones under Gregory ad O'Neill and totally unacceptable for a manager of Emery's experience and success to allow that to happen. Really, none of the teams below us should be leapfrogging us. Even if West Ham win today we should not be allowing a team effectively 6 points behind us if you include GD to overtake us. They have Man Utd away and Arsenal home next two games, so we can open up a gap once more if we actually learn how to play effective football again. Man Utd are away at Wolves, I really don't think they are guaranteed to win that. Newcastle have some decent fixtures coming up but we should not be allowing a team 11 points behind us to overtake us. It's over to Unai now. He has at least a 50% win rate at all the clubs he's managed over the years. We have a 20% win rate in the last 5 league games, so he has to get back to the norm. Sheffield United is a must win and there'll be no excuses if we f*ck up again. Man U away at Wolves will be Man U playing largely terrible all game and being 1-0 down, getting some crappy penalty just before half time 1-1, then being largely crap all second half before they get a late corner and score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 There’s still much to play for and many twists to come. You can’t write us off due to a bad run of games. We can turn it around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 I'll take 5th, because it will still likely be a CL spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 35 minutes ago, The_Steve said: There’s still much to play for and many twists to come. You can’t write us off due to a bad run of games. We can turn it around. Absolutely. It looks very much like Liverpool and Man City will run off in to the distance. Arsenal and Spurs have both had, and will have, poor runs. We just need to get out of ours sharpish so we can capitalise on them when they happen. If we don't beat Sheffield United though, the eyes need to start looking below us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Really think we need to be winning at least two of the next four games to get some form back. I don't like to look too far ahead given the form we're in but we have five league games before we play Spurs at home which will be a genuine 6 pointer: Sheff Utd (a) Man Utd (h) Fulham (a) Forest (h) Luton (a) I'd say we've got to be looking to win the Sheffield and Luton away games (yes, I know Luton just beat Brighton 4-0) and Forest at home. We could easily beat Man Utd and Fulham if we have key players back but you'd take a point and if we can get 11 points from those 5 games we'd be on 2 points a game going into that Spurs game. Perfectly feasible scenario if we can get some form going. Which is why Saturday's game really is a must win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JPAngel Posted February 1 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted February 1 As much as our last result stings, I wanted to bring some context into the thread as I have done a few times before (and will continue to do so until someone tells me to go away). Our average PPG this season has now dropped to 1.95. Disappointing, yes, but still excellent and in any other of the last 14 seasons would be enough for 3rd on average. This figure is propped up by our early season form which is now being dragged down by the slump we are in. Lord Unai has pulled us out of a slump before and I trust that he will again. With that in mind, here's what we have to play for: A repeat of all of last season's results for the remainder of this season would see us finish 5th on average which would (hopefully) be enough for a CL place this season but, if not, Europa League is still a great achievement. It just stings after being in the CL running for so long. It's worth noting that, to achieve this, we'd win just six matches for the rest of the season, drawing three and losing the other 6. However, if we can arrest the slump and maintain a PPG average of 1.95 for the remainder of the season, we'd still even be in the running for 3rd place, let alone 4th. The season isn't over. We will recover. We can still get CL. 10 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Also it's worth pointing out when everyone j*zzes off about Spurs that, although they're in good form generally, they have been very lucky recently. Should have lost to Everton at home, Bournemouth had 20+ shots against them, and Brentford missed clear opportunities last night and could have got at least a point. We just need to stay very close to them and see what happens, because they are not a perfect team themselves and could easily have a poor run again at some point. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 35 minutes ago, Leeroy said: Also it's worth pointing out when everyone j*zzes off about Spurs that, although they're in good form generally, they have been very lucky recently. Should have lost to Everton at home, Bournemouth had 20+ shots against them, and Brentford missed clear opportunities last night and could have got at least a point. We just need to stay very close to them and see what happens, because they are not a perfect team themselves and could easily have a poor run again at some point. Angeball isn’t sustainable in the long term. Teams will score and take their chances too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 5 hours ago, Tomaszk said: Not for me. We just need to improve with or without Torres, JJ, Mings etc. If they appear and we play in this lackluster way, we still won't be winning many games. We're playing sooo slowly. Eh not for me. Spurs had years and years of UCL to build a competitive bench. If we somehow make it to UCL with Lenglet still back there, no JJ or Bailey consistently, then Unai really is a miracle worker in my eyes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 1 hour ago, DJBOB said: Eh not for me. Spurs had years and years of UCL to build a competitive bench. If we somehow make it to UCL with Lenglet still back there, no JJ or Bailey consistently, then Unai really is a miracle worker in my eyes. Obviously, yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvonVillain Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 4 hours ago, VillaJ100 said: Man U away at Wolves will be Man U playing largely terrible all game and being 1-0 down, getting some crappy penalty just before half time 1-1, then being largely crap all second half before they get a late corner and score. It's almost criminal how unutterably bad both Manchester United and Chelsea have been throughout the entire season, and yet, neither are that far away from the top 5. That's what happens when you can throw around billions without a care in the world. The teams below them haven't played badly by comparison, they simply don't have a multi-millionaire to stroll off the bench to score an undeserved goal or two in the latter stages of a game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 3 hours ago, The_Steve said: There’s still much to play for and many twists to come. You can’t write us off due to a bad run of games. We can turn it around. To simplify it, we need to win and draw as many games as Spurs do now. And either score one more or concede one less goal than they do. It's not like they're 6-7 points clear of us like this time last year. They've still got lots of hard fixtures to play home and away. We do need to get winning again sooner or later though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 4 hours ago, VillaJ100 said: Man U away at Wolves will be Man U playing largely terrible all game and being 1-0 down, getting some crappy penalty just before half time 1-1, then being largely crap all second half before they get a late corner and score. Wolves are very good at Molineux and have Neto back for the quick counters. They were robbed at Old Trafford so would've been motivated for this regardless, think it's more likely they win this 2-1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBOB Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 14 minutes ago, VillaChris said: To simplify it, we need to win and draw as many games as Spurs do now. And either score one more or concede one less goal than they do. It's not like they're 6-7 points clear of us like this time last year. They've still got lots of hard fixtures to play home and away. We do need to get winning again sooner or later though. With us match for match with Spurs, I’m glad our fixture against them is at home. Need the atmosphere roaring from the start for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farlz Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 Bournemouth 1-0 come on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 5 minutes ago, Farlz said: Bournemouth 1-0 come on Good lord, I didn't know West Ham were that close! Cherries til I die 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 6 hours ago, DJBOB said: With us match for match with Spurs, I’m glad our fixture against them is at home. Need the atmosphere roaring from the start for that one. Going to be tough as we play them three days after last 16 first leg. If that's a long trek across europe I get the feeling UE would gamble and put a mix and match team out as in mid March Spurs is simply the more important game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 The game against Man Utd next week is going to have plenty riding on it. A win/defeat could well be the difference between being 11 points above them or 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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