Relegation Watch

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Has a team with the worst defensive record in the PL ever managed to stay up?

Bournemouth conceded seventy last season. Something for us to aim for.

Indeed but Fulham were the worst, conceding 81 and were relegated. Huddersfield let in 76 and were also relegated. After a quick check, since the turn of the century, no team with the worst defensive record has survived. John? Anybody seen John?

[Drummond]

Why was it never going to happen? That’s nonsense. Better recruitment and better coaching could have seen us much higher.

You were really expecting us to be 7th or higher? Because that's where you'd be with 40 points.

[VinnieChase84]

Has a team with the worst defensive record in the PL ever managed to stay up?

Bournemouth conceded seventy last season. Something for us to aim for.

Indeed but Fulham were the worst, conceding 81 and were relegated. Huddersfield let in 76 and were also relegated. After a quick check, since the turn of the century, no team with the worst defensive record has survived. John? Anybody seen John?

How does this relate to goal difference though? as currently 3rd worst with another 2 sides only 1 GD better

[Risso]

Why was it never going to happen? That’s nonsense. Better recruitment and better coaching could have seen us much higher.

You were really expecting us to be 7th or higher? Because that's where you'd be with 40 points.

Who mentioned either 7th or a specific points total? FFS.

[Drummond]

I'm not naive enough to think everything in the garden is rosy, but we're heading in to March in 17th which is where we'd like to finish. It's not a bad state of affairs. Obviously we'd all like to have amassed 40 points already so that we could afford to lose the rest of our games but that was never going to happen.

We have bad matches and good matches, and bad periods in good matches. If we're only as good as our last fixture, then yes, we're in big trouble, but we're not are we? We've shown in a number of matches that we're better than that, even if we're prone to fuck a few things up.

Oh Risso, that's what you replied to.

[BoVillan esq]

The way it stands right now, I think that's the way it will probably finish with certain conditions attached, so, West Ham, Watford, Norwich, to get relegated, I can't see West Ham getting anymore than 8 to 10 points from there remaining games, the vital game for Villa is Leicester, we need a point from that, 3 would be fantastic, somehow, I feel we can get a point from the Chelsea game, I've got us down for 3 points versus Newcastle Utd, I genuinely think we can beat Wolves for another 3 points, confident we can get a good result versus Palace for another 3 points, and then its down to the West Ham game, I have that down for another 3 points to give us 39 points in total, so the conditions, if we don't get at least points, from the Leicester and Chelsea games and West Ham win one more game than I am allowing for, then it will go right to the last game of the season us versus West Ham full on head to head, to stay up, that's how tight it is in my opinion.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Has a team with the worst defensive record in the PL ever managed to stay up?

Bournemouth conceded seventy last season. Something for us to aim for.

Indeed but Fulham were the worst, conceding 81 and were relegated. Huddersfield let in 76 and were also relegated. After a quick check, since the turn of the century, no team with the worst defensive record has survived. John? Anybody seen John?

How does this relate to goal difference though? as currently 3rd worst with another 2 sides only 1 GD better

Goal difference doesn't come into it, just the simple fact if you have the worst defence you get relegated (at least until now).

[charlatan]

Has a team with the worst defensive record in the PL ever managed to stay up?

Has the most fouled team ever been relegated?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Has a team with the worst defensive record in the PL ever managed to stay up?

Has the most fouled team ever been relegated?

Probably.

[aev]

Would wishing a coronavirus mass cancellation of sporting events and public gatherings be the wrong thing to wish for?

[eamonn]

You get a chance to score against us every 5 and a half minutes.
Smith has done nothing to address this situation, on Saturday we gave Southampton 20 opportunities.
This is just sheer madness and I would love just one journalist to ask him why he thinks this is and what he is doing about it.

Closest answer so far, from skysports.com yesterday:

Smith joined Villa in 2018 after impressing in his development of the Brentford team - but he admits he has had to adapt his philosophy in his bid to keep the West Midlands club in the Premier League.

"I've learned an awful lot about going into games and thinking you can control the ball," he said. "With the quality of the players you've got, there are periods where you're not going to have it, and not to go chasing it so quickly.

"I'm one to go and win it back as quickly as possible but some of the quality within this league doesn't allow you to do that, and when they do beat that press they can get at your back-four or three very quickly, and it gives you problems.

"We've had to adapt as we've gone through the season but we've also lost some big players to injury, which has also made us adapt. But the players and myself have learned all the way through."

[ChicagoLion]

You get a chance to score against us every 5 and a half minutes.
Smith has done nothing to address this situation, on Saturday we gave Southampton 20 opportunities.
This is just sheer madness and I would love just one journalist to ask him why he thinks this is and what he is doing about it.

Closest answer so far, from skysports.com yesterday:

Smith joined Villa in 2018 after impressing in his development of the Brentford team - but he admits he has had to adapt his philosophy in his bid to keep the West Midlands club in the Premier League.

"I've learned an awful lot about going into games and thinking you can control the ball," he said. "With the quality of the players you've got, there are periods where you're not going to have it, and not to go chasing it so quickly.

"I'm one to go and win it back as quickly as possible but some of the quality within this league doesn't allow you to do that, and when they do beat that press they can get at your back-four or three very quickly, and it gives you problems.

"We've had to adapt as we've gone through the season but we've also lost some big players to injury, which has also made us adapt. But the players and myself have learned all the way through."

Cheers Eamon. Not sure what they have learned.
But a huge problem is the ease with which we give the ball to the opposition and turnover Ball is the most dangerous.

[chrisw1]

Would wishing a coronavirus mass cancellation of sporting events and public gatherings be the wrong thing to wish for?

Absolutely not.  You're are just thinking of public well being and should be applauded for that.  This years league should just scrapped and we should start again from scratch in August.
Dissapointing, but the right thing to do and I'm sure Liverpool, Leeds and Baggies fans would be gracious enough to accept it's for the best.

[Behind Bluenose Lines]

Would wishing a coronavirus mass cancellation of sporting events and public gatherings be the wrong thing to wish for?

Absolutely not.  You're are just thinking of public well being and should be applauded for that.  This years league should just scrapped and we should start again from scratch in August.
Dissapointing, but the right thing to do and I'm sure Liverpool, Leeds and Baggies fans would be gracious enough to accept it's for the best.

Reports that this is being considered. Cant do links to anything but the Telegraph is one of the sources.

No way of getting out of Sunday, though!

[Border villan]

Would wishing a coronavirus mass cancellation of sporting events and public gatherings be the wrong thing to wish for?

Absolutely not.  You're are just thinking of public well being and should be applauded for that.  This years league should just scrapped and we should start again from scratch in August.
Dissapointing, but the right thing to do and I'm sure Liverpool, Leeds and Baggies fans would be gracious enough to accept it's for the best.

A win on Sunday will result in us being the only club to qualify for Europe before the big shutdown.