Folski Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Problem is all of our remaining games are against teams with a lot to play for. Wigans aren't. Wigan still have to play a top 4 chasing Spurs & Arsenal & ourselves all with something to play for. That's excluding a West Ham team who you can be guaranteed will be told to finish as high as possible with Gold & Sullivan on the board, and also have a squeak of a top half finish. A Man City side who will want to keep the points United win the league by to a minimum. The other games are WBA (a) & Swansea (h). Big factor for me is Wigan have 5 games in 14 days in the month of May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Problem is all of our remaining games are against teams with a lot to play for. Wigans aren't. Agreed, Wigan have City, WBA, Swansea and West Ham, you could hardly pick 4 teams less arsed by league results right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 but they have a mountain of games and not a big squad fatigue may play a role Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 It'll be decided weekend of May 4th/5th. We'll be coming off the back of glorious/horrific Sunderland result and travel to Norwich. Wigan will probably win at West Brom with the sight of another winnable Swansea home fixture on the following Tuesday. If we lose to Norwich and Wigan beat WBA I think we'll be 4 points adrift in the zone, unless Sunderland beat Stoke. Stoke will have 4 more points by this time after a draw and a win against QPR then Norwich. I will not say May the 4th be with you, but prepare for some cringey space themed shorts on Soccer Saturday and Final Score. Will no doubt be a huge weekend as they all are from here on in. With Norwich's next two games home to Reading & away to Stoke you could see them picking up a minimum of 2 points barring a shock. That is of course unless they fall apart completely after that Arsenal result. Tough to see Reading picking up anything the way they are playing but hopefully Adkins can work some magic. Let's hope Everton give Sunderland a hammering too and bring them back down to earth. Norwich could be out of it or well and truly in it by the time we meet them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshVilla Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 I don't think any team has nothing to play for, as everyone will be wanting to finish as high in the table as possible, regardless of whether they're fighting relegation or not. Man City, Tottenham and Arsenal aren't gonna go easy on Wigan and the teams in mid table such as Swansea and West Ham are only going to want to push themselves further away from the drop (especially West Ham, 4 points away from us, could easily be dropped back into the mix), Wigan still have a tough run in. We just need to take the chances we have properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted April 16, 2013 Moderator Share Posted April 16, 2013 There's a 9-game mini-league (of 6 pointers) between the bottom 8 clubs between now and the end of the season. Norwich, Stoke, QPR & Villa are involved in 3 apiece. Newcastle & Wigan only have 1 each. Reading & Sunderland have 2. Gameweek 35 will be crucial as it contains 3 of those 6 pointers. Mat Kendrick has just blogged that he reckons Villa, Stoke, Norwich & Wigan will all finish on 39pts with Sunderland on 38 and Newcastle on 41. I really hope it's not that close but it could be. If he's wrong about Sunderland (and I think he is) then we're next on the chopping block thanks to our goal difference. I do think he's wrong though because I can't see Stoke getting to 39 either. One thing's for sure though. With that many 6 pointers left, if anyone goes on a run from here onwards, they'll be OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie09 Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 A friend of mine is a professional footballer, spent most of his career in the premier league and is currently plying his trade in the championship. He has told me that it is common practice for a players bonus to be based on where the teams finishes in the league so it is in their interests to finish as high as possible. Whether the incremental increases make much of a difference is open to debate but it will make a difference to their bank balance where they finish in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted April 16, 2013 Moderator Share Posted April 16, 2013 Yes but unfortunately that goes for all players in all teams so they're all motivated to finish high and therefore all the incentives cancel each other out as being an advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 A friend of mine is a professional footballer, spent most of his career in the premier league and is currently plying his trade in the championship. He has told me that it is common practice for a players bonus to be based on where the teams finishes in the league so it is in their interests to finish as high as possible. Whether the incremental increases make much of a difference is open to debate but it will make a difference to their bank balance where they finish in the league. Yes but I think some bonus money is hardly going to matter to players who are already super rich. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 West Ham will want to get to 40 points if they lose to United then Wigan at home is a great opportunity to do that.At home they have been pretty good and Carroll is finding form for them right now so certainly not an easy one for Wigan.Spurs after will all rest on Spurs getting Defoe and Bale back as without them don't have enough goals. Forgetting the rest of them we need 2 wins from 5 and that should be enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted April 16, 2013 Moderator Share Posted April 16, 2013 Those 2 wins will more than likely have to come against our direct relegation rivals. The only other games we have are against Man Utd & Chelsea. At a stretch we could get something from Chelsea but I wouldn't want to have to rely on it! Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that 2 of our 6 pointers are away from home (Norwich & Wigan). On a scale of one to eleventy, how much will the Norwich fans want to stick the dagger in at their place *gulp*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Agreed we are better away from home ,we are still better as a counter attacking team and our best performances , Newcastle ,Liverpool WBA Everton Sunderland Stoke where all on the road.A last day shootout is not the ideal situation anyway but doing it at a nervy Villa Park would be worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Honestly thought after the back to back wins v Reading & QPR that we were safe, but now I'd say it's back hanging in the balance. This season has been so draining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Surely has to be Wigan to finally go down, they've have danced with relegation for three seasons now and I think it's about time they went. Also what might be in our favour is the FA Cup final and their players will all want to play in that game and not risk an injury beforehand.* *Hopefully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Been looking at the run ins, and ours is just the hardest. If you ignore current form and look at games over the entire season the average points per game of the oppositions are as follows: Stoke - 1.16 Norwich - 1.25 Newcastle - 1.33 Sunderland - 1.35 Wigan - 1.48 Villa - 1.49 This gets slightly better for us when you take into account home and away form of sides, i.e. only counting the home games of a side if you are playing them away. Sunderland - 1.10 Stoke - 1.16 Norwich - 1.24 Newcastle - 1.48 Villa - 1.55 Wigan 1.71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 Been looking at the run ins, and ours is just the hardest. If you ignore current form and look at games over the entire season the average points per game of the oppositions are as follows: Stoke - 1.16 Norwich - 1.25 Newcastle - 1.33 Sunderland - 1.35 Wigan - 1.48 Villa - 1.49 This gets slightly better for us when you take into account home and away form of sides, i.e. only counting the home games of a side if you are playing them away. Sunderland - 1.10 Stoke - 1.16 Norwich - 1.24 Newcastle - 1.48 Villa - 1.55 Wigan 1.71 I'd say Newcastle have the hardest. They've won once away all season and their home games are Arsenal and Liverpool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted April 16, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted April 16, 2013 It's weird because with 10 games left our run in looked the easiest. But now that we're down to the last 5 we seem to have gotten rid of most of those easy games and we're left with 2 top 4 teams and 3 six pointers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SikhInTrinity Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 I don't get this teams have nothing to play for nonsense, sometimes as proven on Sat, it is harder to play teams who have no pressure whatsoever. Swansea could have easily rolled over against Norwich. All teams down the bottom including us will be very tense, say Wigan get battered tomorrow, they then go to West Ham knowing they need something, lose there and then Spurs at home. We just need to concentrate on two games which are Sunderland and Norwich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packoman Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 I think we'll get 7 points from Norwich, Wigan and Sunderland. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Condimentalist Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 It's weird because with 10 games left our run in looked the easiest. But now that we're down to the last 5 we seem to have gotten rid of most of those easy games and we're left with 2 top 4 teams and 3 six pointers! We're still playing well enough to win those 6 pointers though. We've won our last 3 which has given us a chance. I wish we'd have been more ruthless against Fulham, those two points would have made such a massive difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts