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Where will we finish ?


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Still think the next few games are vital. If it wasn't for our poor home form we'd usually all happily take a point and a clean sheet away from home.

 

I think we'll take between 4 and 6 points from the next 4 games (Cardiff H, West Brom A, Sunderland H, Southampton A), although I'd hope for 8. If we can take 8 points, two wins at home and two draws against the Baggies and Southampton, things should hopefully look a bit better before Xmas.

 

Our next game, Cardiff at home, is a must win in my opinion. We need to get ourselves on a run now we've got some of the big teams out of the way.

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I'm sticking with 6th. Bold I know but **** it.

Maybe closer to 8th due to the Benteke injury. If Gabby and Delph are back next week and Benteke can finally shake his injury we'll be still on for 6th though.

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I think we are in for a dull season myself with little to cheer about. We won't finish mid-table and we won't go down. 13th I reckon. We won't be near the bottom 3 unless Norwich sack their manager and pull us back into it, and we fail to start winning games. Sunderland and Crystal Palace are so god-awful, and Norwich aren't far off those two at the moment. Likewise we won't make much progress up the table as we can't score goals unless Benteke feels like it and our defending is still suspect. We are lucky in that there are three absolutely shite teams in the league this year, whereas last season there was only two (Reading & QPR).

 

Win against Cardiff with a few goals and we can start to turn things around. I expect a win really, lose and we really are in trouble.

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I think we are in for a dull season myself with little to cheer about. We won't finish mid-table and we won't go down. 13th I reckon. We won't be near the bottom 3 unless Norwich sack their manager and pull us back into it, and we fail to start winning games. Sunderland and Crystal Palace are so god-awful, and Norwich aren't far off those two at the moment. Likewise we won't make much progress up the table as we can't score goals unless Benteke feels like it and our defending is still suspect. We are lucky in that there are three absolutely shite teams in the league this year, whereas last season there was only two (Reading & QPR).

 

Win against Cardiff with a few goals and we can start to turn things around. I expect a win really, lose and we really are in trouble.

 

Think that's fair. How poor we are looking going forward is not good at all and shouldn't happen with one of the best forwards in the league upfront.

 

Still poorer teams than us.....Hull (o.k above us but they'll be closer to the bottom 3 come the end), Cardiff, Palace and Sunderland obviously, Stoke, Norwich, Fulham. There's 7 teams there we really shouldn't be finishing below.

 

We're in the mid table group of us, West Ham, Swansea, WBA and Newcastle. Toss of a coin which team will finish 9th and which will finish 13th, won't be a lot in it as there's inconsistency. Newcastle lose at Sunderland and then beat Chelsea, we're also capable of results like that. Swansea are the best team in that group but already seem to be struggling with competiting alongside Europa league and are also struggling to win home games.

 

Southampton will finish 8th.

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While it's true we're not a bundle of joy to watch currently, I have no idea how Ashvilla is predicting something like 16th for us.

 

Yes we are poor to watch but our problems are nowhere near what Fulham (very old squad and about to sack Jol), Stoke (really struggling to get on from the Pulis era and don't win much at home anymore or score many goals) and Norwich (spent 20 odd million and still can't score) have.

 

Those 3 are below us and don't forget Stoke and Fulham had the luxury of a cast iron 3 points against Crystal Palace which we haven't had the luxury of playing and beating yet.

 

Fulham and Norwich are shipping goals for fun, they're at the level we're were this time last season.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm bored at work so I just knocked up a quick spreadsheet with the remainder of our fixtures for this season and then predicted the outcomes. I have us finishing on 51 points. Granted I was probably a little biased in our favor. I have us doing the double over teams like Sunderland, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Cardiff, and Norwich. I have us losing to Arsenal, Liverpool, City, Chelsea, Spurs, Newcastle and Utd away (although I went for a draw vs. United at home, possibly my most optimistic prediction). Occasional draws against the likes of Swansea, Stoke, Southampton and WBA. I figure with my over-optimistic viewpoint, some of those draws may turn to losses, possibly some wins to draws. But I think right around 50 points is what we should be aiming for this season, and should be more than do-able.

 

Still sticking with my initial prediction of between 9th and 13th.

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My fingers are still crossed and locked. I have seen nothing yet to have the confidence to say we won't be in a relegation battle but I'm desperately hoping for mid table obscurity with some better football played than we are currently seeing.

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My fingers are still crossed and locked. I have seen nothing yet to have the confidence to say we won't be in a relegation battle but I'm desperately hoping for mid table obscurity with some better football played than we are currently seeing.

As has already been said, what about the fact that we've had by far the toughest start in the league (plus a lot of injuries already) yet we're sitting slap bang in the middle of mid table obscurity? I'd be interested to know what it is you see that makes you think that. We're a fair way into the season now and barring a prolonged injury crisis (that's even worse than the one now) or a sudden dramatic drop in form I really can't see it.

Edited by Mantis
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My fingers are still crossed and locked. I have seen nothing yet to have the confidence to say we won't be in a relegation battle but I'm desperately hoping for mid table obscurity with some better football played than we are currently seeing.

 

In part my confidence comes from watching some of the other teams out there, I mean... there are some pretty bad teams in the PL this year. We're not going to be challenging for Europe or anything this year, but we're a damned sight better than some of the others out there. I also can see the improvement in our team from last year, defensively in particular, and it makes me believe we're moving, albeit slowly, in the right direction.

 

If we're on 30 points by the New Year (as my spreadsheet predicts ;)), will you feel more confident then, or are there other factors? I'm also hoping to see some better football being played, and hopefully very soon. For now, though, I will take results over performance if it means keeping us away from the relegation zone.

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I can see this Villa team building up momentum and going on a bit of a run at some point.  I think we're capable of finishing anywhere between 6th and 13th - my money is on us finishing closer to 6th than 13th.  

 

6th? How on earth would we be able to finish 6th this season? In my opinion we would be much closer to 16th than 6th.

 

That means we have to beat one of Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Man City, Liverpool or Tottenham. And what about Everton or Southampton?

 

The only player good enough for one of those teams is Christian Benteke, the rest of our team wouldn't be close to even getting into their squads. One could argue that Everton or Soton could break the top 6 this season due to their good starts, but we are on 14 points and we are four points off the relegation zone. To be fair, we haven't been playing well either. We win games because the Premier League is filled with other poor teams and we kind of lose/win when the other team is having an off-day. We have lost more than we have won, just like last season. People seem to be making conclusions based on us taking a few more points than we did last season, after 11 games, let's wait until after Christmas to really see how it is. Our squad is thin and the people we have on the bench aren't good enough to take us higher up the table.

 

Sure, objectively speaking, we can catch Newcastle and WBA and finish 9th. That would be the highest possible for us this season, and if Soton falter we can even catch them but they have a better team and tactical setup than us. But to finish 6th? Never going to happen, we would have to spend 100M in January for that to happen.

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My fingers are still crossed and locked. I have seen nothing yet to have the confidence to say we won't be in a relegation battle but I'm desperately hoping for mid table obscurity with some better football played than we are currently seeing.

Nothing to have the confidence to say there won't be relegation battle? What about the fact that Villa have played the toughest schedule in the league up to this point and sit 11th, and that's with Villa's best player hurt or out of form to this point.

And the fact that Villa have the youngest squad in the league, so the team should probably improve over the course of the season more than other teams.

And the the fact that the manager has a record of success.

And the fact that Villa have four straight clean sheets against non top seven sides.

The style has been disappointing, yes, but to say you've seen nothing to suggest Villa won't be involved in a relegation battle means you've been ignoring the start to the season. Villa will be fine.

 

No I haven't ignored the start to our season at all and I certainly haven't been as selective with stats as you have have just been.

 

I have however looked at our poor home form, our lack of goals concerning our front three not clicking this season and still only being 4 points above the relegation places even though we've had a much better start than last season.

 

Being a young team doesn't always stimulate progress as we've seen from our style of football this season and what record of success has Lambert in the Premiership? Very nearly relegating us last season by playing a system that clearly wasn't suitable to the players available.

 

No I'll keep my fingers crossed for a while longer thanks.

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