How many points for safety?

[damon loves JT]

I have made a little shrine to Marcus Allback

[Matt C]

I've got us finishing 12th with 44 points. You can't say I'm not optimistic.

[VillaZogmariner]

With the current form of Sunderland I wouldn't discount them from the relegation fight just yet either.

[Dr Butler]

With the current form of Sunderland I wouldn't discount them from the relegation fight just yet either.

Sunderland supporter yesterday said exactly the same thing VS

[VillaZogmariner]

Looking at their fixtures too and they are going to have a big say in the relegation battle either way -

West Brom (h)
Birmingham (a)
Wigan (h)
Fulham (h)
Bolton (a)
Wolves (h)
West Ham (a)

[TheSandman]

I'd say 7 or 8 points will be what we will need. I can see that coming from wins against Newcastle and Wigan and draws against Spam and either West Brom or Stoke.

Lose against Newcastle and we are well in it and it will have a bad effect upon morale of players and supporters. That is what worries me most as when at other points this season we have faced a game as critical for our ambitions we have turned in a piss poor performance like against Wolves and Sunderland.

I can definitely see Sunderland going down. Would be interesting if we stay up and they go down after our signing Bent. Not that I want that to happen as I like Sunderland.

[The Villa Werewolf]

Here's my take on it:

[TheSandman]

The fact that Sunderland have to play lots of teams at the bottom is a bit worrying. On paper you would be certain that Sunderland would beat all of them but Sunderland are on a terrible run and if you believe the form table and expect the trend there to continue they will lose them all.

The other wildcard is us. You cannot predict what will happen to us based on how we have been all season.

[Concrete John]

The other wildcard is us. You cannot predict what will happen to us based on how we have been all season.

Although you can't, our ratio this season is 1.1 points per game (34 from 31).  That, with a bit of rounding, would give us 8 points from the remaining 7 games and probably see us safe on 42.

[Risso]

It's the "probably" that's the problem in my eyes.  We don't how many points we're going to get, and no idea how many will be enough.

[nick harper]

Have read all the posts on this thread and the optimism is making me feel a bit better about our predicament.

Can't look any further than the next game and because we don't play until Sunday, the pressure may be greater than it already is.

I think we need 40/41 points minimum - so three teams need to get less than an average of a point per game from the last seven.

[Dr Butler]

It's the "probably" that's the problem in my eyes.  We don't how many points we're going to get, and no idea how many will be enough.

7 games left and it will be tough there are a lot of games to be played yet, especially at the bottom of the table.

I'll go for 21 points from a possible 21 

[andrew08]

I know for certain we'd go down if we didn't have Bent. Sooner or later Ash will have a match winning on his own type of performance as well.

And we might one game keep a clean sheet

[Concrete John]

I know for certain we'd go down if we didn't have Bent.

I thought at the time Bent was effectively Randy buying Gezza out of the hole he had gotten us into.  I still think it now!

[Dr Butler]

I know for certain we'd go down if we didn't have Bent. Sooner or later Ash will have a match winning on his own type of performance as well.

And we might one game keep a clean sheet

stop it with your crazy talk...