Relegation Watch

[paul_e]

By the time you get to Jota and Lansbury, you know you've stopped scraping the barrel and have actually got through to the other side.  Neither are even Championship standard, so shouldn't be within a million miles of a Premier League squad.

I think they’re both Championship standard, but lower/mid-table. Doesn’t change your point though!

Yep, that's why I think their inclusion is just blocking space for us to get some of the academy players involved.

[Mister E]

By the time you get to Jota and Lansbury, you know you've stopped scraping the barrel and have actually got through to the other side.  Neither are even Championship standard, so shouldn't be within a million miles of a Premier League squad.

I think they’re both Championship standard, but lower/mid-table. Doesn’t change your point though!

Yep, that's why I think their inclusion is just blocking space for us to get some of the academy players involved.

Which is what really irritates me: Jota and Ange add no obvious value to the matchday squad so why not throw in a couple of youngsters and let them run around disrupting the oppo.


I still marvel at the inclusion of Graham Fenton into the starting line-up in the 1994 LCF by BFR.

[Big Ming]

I don't mind Jota being on the bench. He's someone who could come on and lay a good ball off and he nearly equalised against Chelsea. Lansbury's space could go to someone else though. (He'll come on and score now I've said that).

I do have less issue with Jota than Lansbury but his lack of pace bothers me.

That's because Smith sticks him out on the right when he looks like he should be tucked in behind the striker.
 He has guile, not pace.

[Le Lapin]

Its all in our hands now. A win and a draw should do it, pending expected results elsewhere of course. If we balls this up we deserve to go down.

It’s in our hands pending results elsewhere?!

Yes, pending expected results elsewhere, Citeh beating Watford, Arsenal beating Watford and hoping Everton turn up against Bournemouth.

So we are hoping to beat Arsenal, who outplayed Citeh at the weekend but hope that said Citeh beat Watford and then the Arsenal we manage to beat return to form to beat Watford, with nothing to play for in the league and one eye on the cup final...….Okaaaaayyyy!

Okaaaayyyy!.

[Sexual Ealing]

Any repentance from the miserable bastards?

[David_Nab]

I think we have enough to beat West Ham who after all the pressure to get safe will be in cruise mode

As for the others , I can't see Arteta wanting 2 loss's going into an FA Cup final and there will be players playing for their place in team but more so Watford are dire.Bournmouth are a little better and have shown some spirit lately but are weak at the back especially if Ake miss's out again and Everton  have been solid since the restart apart from a horror show against Wolves.There players are playing for future under a newish boss and also has some youngsters who are keen to do well

[dave17]

My understanding is the hierarchy for when teams are even on points is

- goal difference
- goals scored

Which leaves us ok if we both go down 1-0 and 2-0....as long as Bournemouth don’t win....

[cdbearsfan]

I still have the fear. But it is now combined with hope. My natural pessimism is still causing me to go through all the bad combinations of results in my head. I almost won't let myself think about staying up as a defence mechanism, because it will be so horrifically disappointing if we don't, now, having done so well in the last three games.

If this means I'm one of the miseable bastards, so be it. I just hope to be one happy bastard on Sunday, as I have been tonight.

[Hillbilly]

I still have the fear. But it is now combined with hope. My natural pessimism is still causing me to go through all the bad combinations of results in my head. I almost won't let myself think about staying up as a defence mechanism, because it will be so horrifically disappointing if we don't, now, having done so well in the last three games.

If this means I'm one of the miseable bastards, so be it. I just hope to be one happy bastard on Sunday, as I have been tonight.

How are you reading my mind from the other side of the planet?

[olaftab]

We have just been been endorsed by the Dutch guy, famously known as the brolly man, to stay up so I am scared now.

[Meanwood Villa]

It's funny how it goes isn't it? Yesterday couldn't have gone much better for us, aside from scoring a couple more maybe, but now I'm bricking it about last day!

[Flamingo Lane]

I still have the fear. But it is now combined with hope. My natural pessimism is still causing me to go through all the bad combinations of results in my head. I almost won't let myself think about staying up as a defence mechanism, because it will be so horrifically disappointing if we don't, now, having done so well in the last three games.

If this means I'm one of the miseable bastards, so be it. I just hope to be one happy bastard on Sunday, as I have been tonight.

I feel exactly the same, and I'm really sorry that I have a need to state it.  I have a horrible feeling that Villa and Watford will both get beaten on Sunday, and that Bournemouth will get to stay up by winning at Everton.  One way or another, Sunday is going to be an ordeal.

[Ads]

For all Everton on the beach, they've not lost at home since the resumption and Bournemouth have lost 9 on the spin away from home, winning 1 game in their last 12.

I'm alive to the possibility Bournemouth can win, but I don't consider it very likely.

[Rory]

I'd rather have our fixture and our recent form than Watford's or Bournemouth's. Unlike Watford, we still have our manager and have just beaten Arsenal as opposed to being humped by Citeh.

We are mostly conditioned to expect the worst, but other than our natural pessimism, there's nothing to suggest we aren't best-placed out of the three.

In many ways that makes it even more nerve-wracking, and anything could happen, but this time yesterday I fully expected to be going into the last day still on 31 points, so I cannot bring myself to be too unhappy!

[Sexual Ealing]

Any repentance from the miserable bastards?

Apologies for this comment. I hadn't slept since Sunday night and I was mainlining merlot throughout the match. Miserable gits are A-OK by me!