Next 7 games

[MoetVillan]

After games during last christmas break, i remember calling my brother on the way home from a terrible performance and result and said "we are gone, i just dont know where we are going to get the results from".  And then we ended up playing well enough to stay up, and certainly some exciting games.  last season we were closer to the bottom, so its not all doom and gloom just yet.  That there are more teams with fewer points, poorer goal difference and in effect worse than us, does not actually mean we have progressed, but other teams have worsened, giving us an artificial lift.  The really frustrating part is just how well we can play at times, second half last night, Liverpool away etc.  That is what will keep us up, a couple of blitzes in some of the upcoming games, and im not clever enough to say who they will be against.  I still think we will get ten from the seven games, which will keep us safe.  Too many teams below, some who will take points off each other, or will have to play games against a very good top seven teams in the league.

I think stagnation rather than regression is the term.  Cmon lads, give us something to cheer

[OzVilla]

I think we've regressed.

I felt that way that last November. We were labouring through games against Sunderland at home, West Ham away and the lest said about December the better.

I'm just confused by us. Resultswise, we haven't regressed if you recall the first 2/3 of last season but we've not kicked on at all from the final 1/3.

Football wise we have certainly gone backwards which is a massive concern. 

[PaulWinch again]

I think we've regressed.

I felt that way that last November. We were labouring through games against Sunderland at home, West Ham away and the lest said about December the better.

I'm just confused by us. Resultswise, we haven't regressed if you recall the first 2/3 of last season but we've not kicked on at all from the final 1/3.

Football wise we have certainly gone backwards which is a massive concern. 

Yep our football and creativity is frankly awful a lot of the time.

[russon]

our goalless 1 point 'haul'  from the last two games v West Ham & Cardiff hardly breeds confidence. We'll beat Norwich and sneak a couple of points out of the other fixtures looming leaving our sphincters twitching come May.

[adrenachrome]

We'll have no sphincter twitchers here!

We shall not be moved
Just like a bowel
As solid as a Concrete Ron
We shall not be moved 

We shall overcome some day
Oh deep in my arse
I do  believe
That We shall overcome some day

[old man villa fan]

We need to get back to a settled side.  The end to last season was played with virtually the same 11 each week.

[adrenachrome]

Look on the bright side: at least that bastard BBC predictor is no more.

[Irish villain]

It's a pity Newcastle are so far ahead of the bottom half. They are really struggling now. Pity they can't be sucked into the battle at the bottom.

[Ad@m]

It's a pity Newcastle are so far ahead of the bottom half. They are really struggling now. Pity they can't be sucked into the battle at the bottom.

On the plus side they've got nothing to play for and we still have to play them.

[Irish villain]

It's a pity Newcastle are so far ahead of the bottom half. They are really struggling now. Pity they can't be sucked into the battle at the bottom.

On the plus side they've got nothing to play for and we still have to play them.

True.

[eamonn]

Don't like how Norwich is increasingly looking like a must win game for us. "Must win" and "home game" don't really go together for us.

I think we'll get something at Newcastle although probably a draw. It's important we beat Norwich as I can see them going down tbh but especially as we have Chelsea, Man. City and Man. United all coming up soon after and also Stoke who have been a bogey team for us since promotion.

The only thing that might favour us against Norwich is that we've a good record against them under Lambert. I'd also love us to rub their noses in it after the Hoolahoop fiasco. Holt scoring a 90th minute winner would be fantastic.

The fact Norwich are utter shite is also in our favour. Stat I just looked up for another thread. 1 win in 11. Haven't scored more than 1 goal in a league game for 3 months.

They kept a clean sheet against Sheikhy. Respect yo.

[PeterWithesShin]

Defence bitch!

[SoccerHQ]

Don't like how Norwich is increasingly looking like a must win game for us. "Must win" and "home game" don't really go together for us.

I think we'll get something at Newcastle although probably a draw. It's important we beat Norwich as I can see them going down tbh but especially as we have Chelsea, Man. City and Man. United all coming up soon after and also Stoke who have been a bogey team for us since promotion.

The only thing that might favour us against Norwich is that we've a good record against them under Lambert. I'd also love us to rub their noses in it after the Hoolahoop fiasco. Holt scoring a 90th minute winner would be fantastic.

The fact Norwich are utter shite is also in our favour. Stat I just looked up for another thread. 1 win in 11. Haven't scored more than 1 goal in a league game for 3 months.

They kept a clean sheet against Sheikhy. Respect yo.

Chris Hughton refuses to win away games really, they get the vast majority of points at Carrow Road. Be interesting to see if he changes that approach at VP or just plays for the Point.

Norwich is looking must win to me given what Is to come in March after that game. A point at Newcastle shouldn't be beyond us either.

[Nastylee]

I don't think we're in a relegation battle, nor will we be in the shit. Most teams below us need to win two games just to overhaul us, then our GD is worth a point against quite a few teams down there. Another point is, with so many teams involved the points required to stay up will be much less than the usual 40 as so many teams will take points off each other. I reckon 37 will be enough and if we can't muster the 10 points needed to exceed that then I'd be surprised. I reckon there should be around 3 wins at least between now and the end plus a few draws for good measure and that will be more than enough. Stop worrying about something that won't happen.

[Ad@m]

The fact there are so many games between the teams at the bottom is a big thing for me as well.  As we saw with the Stoke v Swansea game last night, there will be plenty of draws between teams who are equally as crap as each other.  And every time there's a draw a point disappears out of the equation (ie only 2 points issued rather than 3) so I genuinely feel we could lose every game from now and it would still probably take 6 weeks before we found ourselves in the relegation zone.

We're not safe by any stretch but we don't need to be booking hotels for Brighton and Leyton Orient yet either.