Who's left in the Battle

[ozzjim]

The international break and moving the Sunderland game will kill us I reckon. I fear these 2 games are simply playing with us, I am more worried tonight than I was before Mark Halsey beat Newcastle.

[curiousorange]

As Paulie said earlier today, Villa's form has been massively beholden to the side's confidence at the time, and I don't think it's any co-incidence that we seem to do a lot better when we're playing under the radar, as it were. We put four past Man City and Norwich on freezing Tuesday nights when nobody much cared, and our league wins have been part of regular league programmes. In fact, it's only really been the QPR game when we've had the eyes of the country on us and as welcome a victory as that was, the pressure was still there for all to see.

Moving a good few of our remaining games is stupidly unhelpful - it just brings the circus to town and a young team has shown it doesn't do well in one-off televised games this season.

[SoccerHQ]

The international break and moving the Sunderland game will kill us I reckon. I fear these 2 games are simply playing with us, I am more worried tonight than I was before Mark Halsey beat Newcastle.

8 points from Fulham, Norwich, Wigan and Stoke and I reckon we could afford to lose to Sunderland and still stay up, bit like losing to Bolton last year.

The thing that has worried me was Wigan's fluke win. Draw and they'd have been 5 behind us with their spare game Man. City away.

Now I worry they'll go on a bit of a run and beat Norwich and QPR before their FA cup semi.

[ozzjim]

The international break and moving the Sunderland game will kill us I reckon. I fear these 2 games are simply playing with us, I am more worried tonight than I was before Mark Halsey beat Newcastle.

8 points from Fulham, Norwich, Wigan and Stoke and I reckon we could afford to lose to Sunderland and still stay up, bit like losing to Bolton last year.

The thing that has worried me was Wigan's fluke win. Draw and they'd have been 5 behind us with their spare game Man. City away.

Now I worry they'll go on a bit of a run and beat Norwich and QPR before their FA cup semi.

Same here. It was more than a fluke, it was just totally wrong.

[Irish villain]

What a difference a day makes. Saturday I was confident we'd stay up. By Sunday Wigan were looking very effing dangerous. I think we need Sunderland to drop right into it. Wigan could easily end up winning another ten points.

[junxs]

Southampton have 1 win in 8.

They've won 2 from 3 last home games 3-1 v Man City and Liverpool, and taken 8 points from the last 6 games in total - hardly relegation form.

[PeterWithesShin]

Southampton have 1 win in 8.

They've won 2 from 3 last home games 3-1 v Man City and Liverpool, and taken 8 points from the last 6 games in total - hardly relegation form.

They've won 3 out of their last 14, hardly the greatest form either.

[tomd2103]

What a difference a day makes. Saturday I was confident we'd stay up. By Sunday Wigan were looking very effing dangerous. I think we need Sunderland to drop right into it. Wigan could easily end up winning another ten points.

I don't think we should worry too much about Wigan's results.  I think we should be concentrating more on surpassing the teams directly above us.   

[paul_e]

Southampton have 1 win in 8.

They've won 2 from 3 last home games 3-1 v Man City and Liverpool, and taken 8 points from the last 6 games in total - hardly relegation form.

and we have 10 points in those same 6 but there's still people on here convinced we're going to go down.

As things stand the favourites to finish bottom 3 should be Reading, QPR, Sunderland, with ourselves, Wigan, Southampton, West Ham and Stoke all in danger of being drawn in, either because of current points or form.

[damon loves JT]

And when he came back he left his expensive sports car outside the railway station, gathering dust and parking tickets.

[Ads]

Southampton have 1 win in 8.

They've won 2 from 3 last home games 3-1 v Man City and Liverpool, and taken 8 points from the last 6 games in total - hardly relegation form.

They've won 3 out of their last 14, hardly the greatest form either.

Including losing to QPR. Only shit teams do that.

[Ads]

I wouldn't be surprised if the last game of the season is a dead rubber.

[Concrete John]

What a difference a day makes. Saturday I was confident we'd stay up. By Sunday Wigan were looking very effing dangerous. I think we need Sunderland to drop right into it. Wigan could easily end up winning another ten points.

I don't think we should worry too much about Wigan's results.  I think we should be concentrating more on surpassing the teams directly above us.

Wigan may have picked up lately, but they're still right in it and there's not guarantee their present form will last.  The game in hand they have is against Man City and they'll also have a fixture pile up/distraction if, as you would expect, they get to the FA Cup final.

I think they're still VERY likely to go down.

[Des Little]

I wouldn't be surprised if the last game of the season is a dead rubber.

I'd be delighted, absolutely delighted (if for the right reasons obviously)...as would the people running pubs in Wigan

[ktvillan]

I'd say we'll be okay as long as we finish above either Sunderland or Wigan.  If we do that it should be enough to prevent QPr catching us even if they do a Wigan like run in.