Relegation?

[SoccerHQ]

I don't think we are in a relegation battle and I don't think we have been at any point this season.

To be revisited after: Fulham at home, Palace away and Hull at home. The pessemist in me refuses to lie down until we have 40 points on the board (ok this season 37 could be enough).
Its hard to believe that I am responding to Ads about the exact same topic we discussed this time last season - do you honestly think we have moved on or improved (albeit slightly) from last season?
I fail to see any improvement whatsoever and the "quality" of football on offer at home has been dire. For that very reason I will not be renewing- the owner and CEO don`t seem to bother - why should I? OK the Villa are in my DNA but there comes a tipping point and I appear to have reached mine.
Having said that I have "fallen out of love" with football in general for so many reasons - looks like I will be spending more time in the garden in future !!! 

Easy to find out if we've improved and by how much, compare last season's points total with this one's although i expect some will choose to use league placings instead.

League placing is surely the best guide for how you have done in comparison to everyone else. Winning the league with fewer points than the team who won it the previous year doesn't make it any less of an achievement.

I don't think we are in a relegation battle and I don't think we have been at any point this season.

To be revisited after: Fulham at home, Palace away and Hull at home. The pessemist in me refuses to lie down until we have 40 points on the board (ok this season 37 could be enough).
Its hard to believe that I am responding to Ads about the exact same topic we discussed this time last season - do you honestly think we have moved on or improved (albeit slightly) from last season?
I fail to see any improvement whatsoever and the "quality" of football on offer at home has been dire. For that very reason I will not be renewing- the owner and CEO don`t seem to bother - why should I? OK the Villa are in my DNA but there comes a tipping point and I appear to have reached mine.
Having said that I have "fallen out of love" with football in general for so many reasons - looks like I will be spending more time in the garden in future !!! 

Whatever way you look at it though just scrapeing past 40 points each season isn't exactly going to get us even competiting for 8th anytime soon is it?

In fairness we've been mid table pretty much all season, our results reflect this. Anytime we've started to drop down the table our results have suddenly picked up (look at the 7 points from Sunderland, Liverpool and WBA after the awful xmas run and the two wins v Norwich and Chelsea after 1 point from WHam, Cardiff and Newcastle).

But we have failed to kick on every single time and that seems to be a problem with the manager.

[SoccerHQ]

It is the best Premier League season for years on the basis everyone beats everyone else, we have a three or four horse title race that doesn't include the holders and anyone in the bottom half could still go down. But the reason behind all that is that generally the quality is poor.

I agree. The prem was at it's strongest between 06-09, look at the quality of players back then and the results in europe. Frustratingly that was when we were at our best aswell.

It amuses me that La Liga is now derided as a a two team league but look at their league table and it dosen't look much different to the prem, three teams fighting for the league and 7 or 8 teams involved in a relegation scrap.

[SoccerHQ]

It is a poor league, Liverpool will not win it and we won't be relegated, at least not this season.

I'm glad it is a poor league, if it wasn't we really would be in the brown smelly stuff.

How much longer will there be 3 worse teams for though?

If Fulham, Blunderland & Cardiff go this year, there's possibly Norwich, Palace & a promoted team who'll be worse than us again.  What fun.

There will always be poor teams in any league. You'd imagine Burnley won't be up to much coming up as one and the play off winner is say it's Reading or Wigan again.

The crux is you have to be really really bad to be relegated from the prem nowadays, trust me we've tried it over the last few seasons!

Look at West Brom, they've won 5 of their last 40 league games or something and STILL they aren't in the bottom three.

[villasjf]

I dont usually watch other teams on TV but having watched the Fulham match (2 17 year olds and a 19 year old and an Iranian striker who looks like he could hurt us) and highlights of the Palace match I really dont fancy our chances. Is this where the crowd turns? They were ready too when Norwich scored but then we had that purple patch.

[SoccerHQ]

We will beat Fulham and scrape a draw at Palace although we could easily lose that one.

I'd say in terms of staying up two draws will probably be enough on it's own.

[Jon Crofts]

I admire your confidence, I said after the Sterk game I thought Villa were capable of going on a run to the end of the season where nil points are acquired we were that shite, I still think that's possible.

[Jon Crofts]

It is a poor league, Liverpool will not win it and we won't be relegated, at least not this season.

I'm glad it is a poor league, if it wasn't we really would be in the brown smelly stuff.

How much longer will there be 3 worse teams for though?

If Fulham, Blunderland & Cardiff go this year, there's possibly Norwich, Palace & a promoted team who'll be worse than us again.  What fun.

There will always be poor teams in any league. You'd imagine Burnley won't be up to much coming up as one and the play off winner is say it's Reading or Wigan again.

The crux is you have to be really really bad to be relegated from the prem nowadays, trust me we've tried it over the last few seasons!

Look at West Brom, they've won 5 of their last 40 league games or something and STILL they aren't in the bottom three.

Of course there will be poor teams in any league, the question is will there be 3 poorer than Villa?

[JUAN PABLO]

If we cant beat Fulham we deserve to bloody go down ;(

[ADVILLAFAN]

Have said all season that the only really good team in the league is Man City. Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal would be about 8th in the Spanish league.

The Italian league is even weaker mind you.

[Chris Harte]

Over the last three seasons (those with McCleish and Lambert in charge) we have won 14 of our 54 home PL games. Of those 54 we've lost 26, or 48%. I'd say Villa have the most tolerant support ever.

Meanwhile, we haven't won on the road since new years day. This is relegation form, there is no doubt about it in my mind.

We're 12th on current form.

There's a lot of crap below us then, helping to keep us afloat. Sure, we can have our good days (Chelsea) but they are so few and far between.

It says much about our home form when the PL is so poor that we win as few as we do.

[john e]

Have said all season that the only really good team in the league is Man City. Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal would be about 8th in the Spanish league.

The Italian league is even weaker mind you.

No chance, have seen how any goals Messi and Ronaldo get in that Spanish league,
I bet they wouldn't find it as easy in the prem,
well we know Ronaldo didn't although he still managed one or two

[Chico Hamilton III]

If we cant beat Fulham we deserve to bloody go down ;(

I was talking to a Fulham fan on Saturday night and he said exactly the same. He reckons we'll murder them

[Jon Crofts]

If we cant beat Fulham we deserve to bloody go down ;(

I was talking to a Fulham fan on Saturday night and he said exactly the same. He reckons we'll murder them

We've shipped 8 in 2 and I have zero confidence due to no track record whatsoever in our management lifting our team for this game or putting those errors right.  Fulham will be in our faces from minute 1, expect a long afternoon.

[Ads]

The contrary argument is that Fulham are garbage, going down and we will bollock them with ease.

[ozzjim]

Last season and this in some crunch games we have actually turned up and played well. I can understand pessimism but to pretend that we never win, never have, and never will again is just self indulgent negativity with little evidence. We had a shit day against Stoke defensively and lost to United who played quite well but in truth were allowed in by poor defending and woeful finishing from us. No reason to think we won't create chances and get a couple of goals against Fulham.