9pts away from...

[KRS]

9pts away from...both relegation zone and the Europa League spot. Just over half way through the season and we're currently in 11th spot on 27pts, which is about as midtable as you could get.

Things could be a lot worse or a whole lot better depending on how you view our season so far. If things hadnt conspired in our favour against Wolves we would currently be 16th in the table, and the heat would really be on AM but that result has bought him some time and pushed us more or less safely away from any remaining fears of relegation.

I'm not fooled by the table as its all very close down there, and to be honest, I genuinely expected us to be lower in the table than we are now given the Christmas fixtures so its almost a pleasant surprise. A couple of decent results against QPR and Newcastle should push us back into the top half of the table and we should be looking to catch the group of teams above us rather than treading water above the teams below.

So how do you see it...will we be looking upwards for the rest of the season or looking over our shoulder at the teams below?

[QBVILLA]

I think any team from 9th down should be looking over their shoulder.Wigan aside i don't think there's much in it between the sides.Blackburn have hit a run of form and Bolton showed what they are capable of against Liverpool.We can just as easily finish 8th as we can 15th this season.It will be an achievement if we are safe by April.

[KRS]

I think the current bottom 5 will be battling it out for the relegation places for the rest of the season, and dont think any of the teams from 8th-15th will get dragged into it.

5pts seperate 7th-8th, 8th-15th and 15th-16th...you couldnt really get more clearly defined groups of teams. Its not out of the question if not a little optimistic, but a few wins (and if results go our away) could easily see us chasing the group of Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool for 6th place. We should be looking up and aiming to finish 8th at least.

[QBVILLA]

We should be looking at 8th but it only takes a few results to change the season.Swansea,Norwich and Sunderland looked in trouble six weeks ago, now they're comfortable in mid table.Apart from the top three it wouldn't surprise me if any other Premiership side lost four on the spin and that's been the story of this season.We go away and spank Chelsea then a couple of days later get soundly beaten at home by Swansea.

[Chris Smith]

I just don't see us getting dragged into the relegation battle, we've hovered around mid table all season and expect that to continue. We had a good win on Saturday achieved with our best player so far going off sick and the current form player snd most significant summer signing both injured - I don't think many others outside the top 7 could do that. We've also got a number of very promising youngsters giving us additional options.

Inconsitency will probably prevent us pushing on much higher so my guess is 9th and a repeat of last season.

[andrew08]

9th would be a good result having sold our two best players. I'd like a more relaxing 9th this year though, I would even accept a late drop from 7th to 9th this time. I'm feeling a little optimistic but understand that we will move up and down a few times this season, but there is no reason why we can't target picking off Stoke,Norwich and possibly Newcastle.

It's in the past now but the league outside the top 2 is a lot easier this year. Young and Downing plus another £40m spend in the summer would perhaps have given us Top 6 and a crack at the top 4 I reckon. Maybe we'll have another go next season.

[N'ZMAV]

I'm not going to think about anything until we're mathematically safe.

[Holte132]

We are 5 points better off than we were after 22 games last season, when we were only one place above the relegation places. Wigan were immediately below us, having scored fewer goals than us.

[Irish villain]

As I've been saying, if we can improve our home form we should be looking up towards sixth or seventh. Our away form is certainly top 6, our form form is bottom 6. It'll probably take less points to finish sixth, even possibly fifth, than it used to in MON's day. It seems to be an automatic top three now, with Arsenal and Chelsea in decline.

I'd like to see the fans really get behind team and manager for a few weeks.

[andrew08]

I'd like to see the fans really get behind team and manager for a few weeks.
[/quote]

It would be nice, but it's going to take a good home win for that.

[Simba]

Still very concerned. Quite right to point out that the table would look very poor if we hadn't got the three points. But we did TG. It doesn't make us safe though as we are so inconsistant and we have seen what a good short run has done for Sunderland for example. Sorry, but I am not ready to relax and declare us safe just yet.

Let's get that home form on track.

 

[Merv]

A decent win on Saturday, but I can't see that a lot has changed - a couple of bad results and we'll slide a few places down the table; a couple of good ones and we can push into the top half. Things can turn around pretty swiftly in the Premier League, especially this season. I can't see us being in a relegation battle - we've shown enough to suggest we can beat those teams in the bottom places.

A good sign of progress will be if we can secure successive victories and put together some sort of consistent run.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Points wise we are doing better than at the same stage last season after selling Downing and Young. Also, we do not have stories surfacing about players arguing with each other or sniping behind the managers back to the media.

Well done Alex Mcleish, good tangible progress and a firm base from which to push on.

[asgpaul]

Good question given many of our melancholy moods at the start of season.  Positives for me has to be the youngsters being given first team games, although I appreciate it could be argued that McLeish has had little option given numbers, but the game Saturday saw Clark, Gardner, Albrighton, Bannan and Weimann all play a part.

It's been a real Jekyll & Hyde season, a win at Chelsea followed by an inept performance at home to Swansea...!  I think trying to predict results from our next five games is a tough call, QPR and Man City at home, Newcastle, Wigan and Blackburn away, basically results wise, I don't think anything would surprise me at the mo'!

[Simba]

True Andy and let's not forget the positive inception of the youngsters who have been very impressive.