Delphinho123 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 10 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said: Next six then, takes us through to the end of February. Everton (a), Newcastle (h), Sheffield Utd (a), Man Utd (h), Fulham (a), Forest (h) I find it difficult not to look at those and think each is a game we should be looking to win. But realistically something like 14 points would be good? I’d take 12 tbh. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Can someone more intelligent than me tell me if 5th is definitely a CL spot? Because if it is, honestly, we should be playing CL football next season! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted December 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 31, 2023 4 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: Can someone more intelligent than me tell me if 5th is definitely a CL spot? Because if it is, honestly, we should be playing CL football next season! Won’t be decided until the end of the season and is dictated by English clubs as a whole and their performance in Europe. There is a high probability it will be but not guaranteed until May. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSvillain Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 4 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: Can someone more intelligent than me tell me if 5th is definitely a CL spot? Because if it is, honestly, we should be playing CL football next season! Its undecided at the moment. If we, Liverpool and Man City all go deep in our respective competitions then we will get the 5th spot 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 1 minute ago, MSvillain said: Its undecided at the moment. If we, Liverpool and Man City all go deep in our respective competitions then we will get the 5th spot Got ya. So we want Liverpool to win the Europa and obviously Man City to get to the final and lose. It’s a shame Newcastle and United didn’t drop into the Europa, especially with the additional games they’d have to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 16 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: It's like 2 games or something? Hardly matters. Though they lost Sarr to injury in the first half today and it looked pretty bad so he'll likely be out for far longer than AFCON. I thought it was longer than that based on previous times. Two games though is still something, all points are going to be vital so 6 points, 2 games is now a lot harder for them. Arsenal have gone from Top at Xmas to 4th for NY after two games so shows how big it is now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 52 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said: We’re in a position where we probably want Man Utd to do us a favour against Spurs in a couple of weeks. Yep that's a nice position now. Even if Man. United win they'll still be miles off us but will stop Spurs getting too close to us. Bit like Liverpool-Newcastle tomorrow. Few weeks ago you really wouldn't have known what result was needed but now I'm all for a draw or even shock Newcastle win as they're miles off us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 28 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said: Next six then, takes us through to the end of February. Everton (a), Newcastle (h), Sheffield Utd (a), Man Utd (h), Fulham (a), Forest (h) I find it difficult not to look at those and think each is a game we should be looking to win. But realistically something like 14 points would be good? Think I'd take 12 points if offered but we're definitely capable of more 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Just now, villan95 said: Think I'd take 12 points if offered but we're definitely capable of more United and Newcastle at home are massive games. We could pull away further or at least maintain the gap by the end of Feb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 2 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Yep that's a nice position now. Even if Man. United win they'll still be miles off us but will stop Spurs getting too close to us. Bit like Liverpool-Newcastle tomorrow. Few weeks ago you really wouldn't have known what result was needed but now I'm all for a draw or even shock Newcastle win as they're miles off us. Definitely a Newcastle win, but unlikely at Anfield. Funny old season though, so who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 33 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said: Next six then, takes us through to the end of February. Everton (a), Newcastle (h), Sheffield Utd (a), Man Utd (h), Fulham (a), Forest (h) I find it difficult not to look at those and think each is a game we should be looking to win. But realistically something like 14 points would be good? A few of those will be much harder than if we played them two months back. Nuno had a good record v us as Wolves manager and beat us in his short stint at Spurs so Forest will come and low block us to death. Strangely the one I'm most confident about is Man. United. We'll be well up for it after what happened on Boxing day and think UE will realise we were a bit naïve in that second half and drop the defence a little deeper. We beat them at VP comfortably last season so no reason why we can't do it again. What would be unforgiveable though is not beating this Sheffield United team home or away. They will surely attack us more at Bramall Lane so no excuses for that one. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said: United and Newcastle at home are massive games. We could pull away further or at least maintain the gap by the end of Feb. I don't think either should be catching us now and if they do it will be down to us. Could still be very tricky games though if they turn up. Everton and Fulham away will be tough too. Basically every game will be tough as we saw yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 24 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: Can someone more intelligent than me tell me if 5th is definitely a CL spot? Because if it is, honestly, we should be playing CL football next season! I assume it's 5th if we, Liverpool and Man. City just get to the final of respective europe competitions. Brighton and West Ham both in last 16 of europa league so one of them could make the SFs. That will surely be enough given there's two spots available so can afford another nation to have very strong performance e.g. Bayern Munich winning CL and Leverkusen the europa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeroy Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Aim has to be sticking to at least 2 points a game until matchday 30. The last 8 games of the season are difficult and include games against Man City, Arsenal and Brighton away and Liverpool and Chelsea (if you consider that difficult) at home. I predict: Everton (a) - D Newcastle (h) - W Sheff Utd (a) - W Man Utd (h) - W Fulham (a) - L Forest (h) - W Luton (a) - W Spurs (h) - D West Ham (a) - L Wolves (h) - W That puts us on 62 points from 30 games with those last 8 games tricky but still think we'll win at least three of them. If I was more optimistic I'd say we beat Everton and Fulham and draw with West Ham which would put us on 68 points from 30 games but I'm not sure we'll go 10 games unbeaten and West Ham and Fulham away look our most likely defeats. I'd back us to get top 4 if we're on over 60 points with 8 games to go which I think we will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted December 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 31, 2023 41 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said: Next six then, takes us through to the end of February. Everton (a), Newcastle (h), Sheffield Utd (a), Man Utd (h), Fulham (a), Forest (h) I find it difficult not to look at those and think each is a game we should be looking to win. But realistically something like 14 points would be good? Please. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Just now, villan95 said: I don't think either should be catching us now and if they do it will be down to us. Could still be very tricky games though if they turn up. Everton and Fulham away will be tough too. Basically every game will be tough as we saw yesterday Everton away actually shouldn't be tough. Since we've come up we've won 7 of the 9 we've played v Everton. Scored 17 and conceded just three. We have their number and we also know from the league cup game that if we're complacent they can expose us so would be disappointing not to win there as we also should have Pau, Cash, Kamara and Tielemans all ready to start in two weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viivvaa66 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 5 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: Got ya. So we want Liverpool to win the Europa and obviously Man City to get to the final and lose. It’s a shame Newcastle and United didn’t drop into the Europa, especially with the additional games they’d have to play. Primarily I want us to end up in the top 4, so that we don’t have to depend on how other teams are doing in Europe. We are second at the moment, after more than half the season have been played, top 4 is very much in our own hands. ManU and Newcastle are more than 10 points behind us, they are not catching us unless we have some sort of collapse. Teams we are competing for a top 4 spot are Spurs and Arsenal and maybe West Ham. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 6 minutes ago, Leeroy said: Aim has to be sticking to at least 2 points a game until matchday 30. The last 8 games of the season are difficult and include games against Man City, Arsenal and Brighton away and Liverpool and Chelsea (if you consider that difficult) at home. I predict: Everton (a) - D Newcastle (h) - W Sheff Utd (a) - W Man Utd (h) - W Fulham (a) - L Forest (h) - W Luton (a) - W Spurs (h) - D West Ham (a) - L Wolves (h) - W That puts us on 62 points from 30 games with those last 8 games tricky but still think we'll win at least three of them. If I was more optimistic I'd say we beat Everton and Fulham and draw with West Ham which would put us on 68 points from 30 games but I'm not sure we'll go 10 games unbeaten and West Ham and Fulham away look our most likely defeats. I'd back us to get top 4 if we're on over 60 points with 8 games to go which I think we will be. Re the bolded, that will be a D at best. It's Wolves, we always disappoint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted December 31, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted December 31, 2023 37 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: By definition, anything above 12 would be good. Obviously we won't win them all but 4 wins 1 draw and 1 loss would be an outstanding return. I guess I’m hoping we have a bit above the 2 PPG, which we have so far, in this batch of games, as after those it’s Luton (ok, I would expect a win there), Spurs, West Ham, Wolves, Man City, Brentford and Arsenal. I would half anticipate a PPG lower than 2 across that half a dozen games after Luton. So my thinking is across all those games we are maintaining a 2PPG but the first 6 or 7 have broken the back of it, as it were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan95 Posted December 31, 2023 Share Posted December 31, 2023 Just now, VillaChris said: Everton away actually shouldn't be tough. Since we've come up we've won 7 of the 9 we've played v Everton. Scored 17 and conceded just three. We have their number and we also know from the league cup game that if we're complacent they can expose us so would be disappointing not to win there as we also should have Pau, Cash, Kamara and Tielemans all ready to start in two weeks. I didn't see them yesterday when they lost 3-0 at Wolves. I'm assuming they were poor. But apart from that they have been playing well recently and Dyche seems to have sorted them out a bit. I'll be delighted if we get 3 points there because I can't see it being easy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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