The Run In

[playboypaul]

Well I have been looking at the matches we have got coming up and I have to say, we are really going to have to work hard to maintain our league position.

When comparing our fixtures against the other contenders for the Champions League places you have to say we have probably got the hardest ones. Now is that a blessing in disguise? Will it mean that we won't let complacency slip in to our performances or will it prove too difficult?

It's hard to say how these matches will all turn out and each team has potential banana-skins so where does everyone see it all going?

Of the fixtures coming up, I would say we have six 'hard' matches: Arse, Liverpool, Swansea, Everton, Chelsea, City. Thats not to say I am dismissing the other teams we will play as easy in any way but these seem to be the more difficult opponents.

Spurs
Arse (H)
Liverpool (A)
Fulham (H)
Swansea (A)
Everton (H)
Chelsea (A)
Man City (H)
Wigan (A)
Southampton (H)
Stoke (A)
Sunderland (H)

Chelsea will have five 'hard' matches: Spurs, Liverpool, Swansea, United, Everton.

Chelsea
West Brom (H)
Fulham (A)
West Ham (H)
Southampton (A)
Sunderland (H)
Spurs (H)
Liverpool (A)
Swansea (H)
Man Utd (A)
Villa (A)
Everton (H)

Arse will have only four: Spurs, Everton, Swansea and United. Their next three opponents are Us, Everton and Swansea. After that its a relatively easy run punctuated by United.

Arsenal
Spurs (A)
Everton (H)
Swansea (H)
Reading (A)
West Brom (A)
Norwich (H)
Fulham (A)
Man Utd (H)
QPR (A)
Wigan (H)
Newcastle (A)

Everton have five 'hard' fixtures: Spurs, Arse, City, Liverpool, Chelsea.

Everton
Reading (H)
Arsenal (A)
Man City
Stoke (H)
Spurs (A)
QPR (H)
Sunderland (A)
Fulham (H)
Liverpool (A)
West Ham (H)
Chelsea (A)

City have four 'hard fixtures: Everton, United, Spurs, Swansea and they will also have one mystery who may or may not be hard.

Man City
Villa (A)
Everton (A)
Newcastle (H)
Man Utd (A)
West Brom (H)
Spurs (A)
West Ham (H)
Swansea (A)
Reading (A)
Norwich (H)
Mystery team

Liverpool have arguably the easiest run in as of the 'big' teams they only have to play Us, Everton and Chelsea.

Liverpool
Wigan (A)
Spurs (H)
Southampton (A)
Villa (A)
West Ham (H)
Reading (A)
Chelsea (H)
Newcastle (A)
Everton (H)
Fulham (A)
QPR (H)

West Brom are included but I think they will tail off. Also because of that I haven't catagorised them as 'hard'. But, you never know.

West Brom
Chelsea (A)
Swansea (H)
Stoke (A)
West Ham (A)
Arsenal (H)
Man City (A)
Newcastle (H)
Southampton (A)
Wigan (H)
Norwich (A)
Man Utd (H)

So, where does everyone see it all going?

Our last four matches should be bankers, so thats a nice little run for hopefully twelve points. But before that we have a block of hard matches amongst which we are going to play Inter twice. We may also have other Europa League matches to contend with.

I'm not sure about other clubs European matches but we seem to have a tough few weeks ahead.

 

[playboypaul]

I used a spread sheet..... Why????? Why does it not work for me?

 

[Spursidol]

I used a spread sheet..... Why????? Why does it not work for me?

Think you need to reformat to make your table understandable - only way I have found it is to put some '........' in manually to get the spacing/columns right.

 

[Woland]

Well I have been looking at the matches we have got coming up and I have to say, we are really going to have to work hard to maintain our league position.

When comparing our fixtures against the other contenders for the Champions League places you have to say we have probably got the hardest ones. Now is that a blessing in disguise? Will it mean that we won't let complacency slip in to our performances or will it prove too difficult?

It's hard to say how these matches will all turn out and each team has potential banana-skins so where does everyone see it all going?

Of the fixtures coming up, I would say we have six 'hard' matches: Arse, Liverpool, Swansea, Everton, Chelsea, City. Thats not to say I am dismissing the other teams we will play as easy in any way but these seem to be the more difficult opponents.

Chelsea will have five 'hard' matches: Spurs, Liverpool, Swansea, United, Everton.

Arse will have only four: Spurs, Everton, Swansea and United. Their next three opponents are Us, Everton and Swansea. After that its a relatively easy run punctuated by United.

Everton have five 'hard' fixtures: Spurs, Arse, City, Liverpool, Chelsea.

City have four 'hard fixtures: Everton, United, Spurs, Swansea and they will also have one mystery who may or may not be hard.

West Brom are included but I think they will tail off. Also because of that I haven't catagorised them as 'hard'.

So, where does everyone see it all going?

Our last four matches should be abnkers so thats a nice little run fo hopefully twelve points. But before that we have a block of hard matches amonst which we are going to play Inter twice. We may also have other Europa League matches to contend with.

I'm not sure about other clubs European mathces but we seem to have a tough few weeks ahead.

fiy
the screenshot from http://www.anfieldasylum.com/2013/2/26/4029326/can-it-be-done?

 

[CJMurray]

Arsenal have got more than 4 hard games.

Spurs (A), Everton (H), Swansea (H), West Brom (A), Fulham (A), Man Utd (H), QPR (A), Wigan (H), Newcastle (A).

All of those games look tricky. The problem they have is that they've got the teams in and around the relegation zone right at the end of the season when they're scrapping for their lives. Wigan will be hitting form by then (they won at Arsenal last season btw) and QPR will be battling away providing they're not already down by then.

I'd much rather be playing teams like Sunderland, Stoke, Swansea and Fulham at this point in the season than teams in and around the relegation zone as they've got nothing to play for.

 

[not_tenth-again]

fiy
the screenshot from http://www.anfieldasylum.com/2013/2/26/4029326/can-it-be-done?

Better graph, thanks for that

....but please give yourself an upper cut for daring to visit that board

 

[playboypaul]

Well thats one way round the problem.

 

[playboypaul]

Arsenal have got more than 4 hard games.

Spurs (A), Everton (H), Swansea (H), West Brom (A), Fulham (A), Man Utd (H), QPR (A), Wigan (H), Newcastle (A).

All of those games look tricky. The problem they have is that they've got the teams in and around the relegation zone right at the end of the season when they're scrapping for their lives. Wigan will be hitting form by then (they won at Arsenal last season btw) and QPR will be battling away providing they're not already down by then.

I'd much rather be playing teams like Sunderland, Stoke, Swansea and Fulham at this point in the season than teams in and around the relegation zone as they've got nothing to play for.

Very valid point there, I hadn't noticed that we play no teams that are really in the relegation fight. Could be something that works to our advantage.

 

[Jay070]

I like to think of it as we have 11 games left, can we win 6 of them? irrelevant of draws etc. i think if we win 6 of our last 11 (taking us to 69pts) we will be top 4.

Any points dropped at home now are points dropped even to City and Arse and we have 6 of them left so win all of them and we can lose all the rest and should be ok. But really we can expect to get something at stoke wigan and swansea, annnnnnd even then whenever we play pool we always play well in recent years annnnnnd chelsea look shaky

If i was an arse fan or chelsea fan id be more worried about top 4 then we should be

 

[chinaman]

Whether they are hard games or easier ones are immaterial. If we can sustain our present winning streak by another 3 games, I think our momentum will be such that the adrenalin will be flowing and players will not feel the weariness or little knocks. It's only when we have 2 or 3 bad results on the trot that we'll feel deflated and all of a sudden we'll have leaden feet.

 

[ItsBoris]

Arsenal have got more than 4 hard games.

Spurs (A), Everton (H), Swansea (H), West Brom (A), Fulham (A), Man Utd (H), QPR (A), Wigan (H), Newcastle (A).

All of those games look tricky. The problem they have is that they've got the teams in and around the relegation zone right at the end of the season when they're scrapping for their lives. Wigan will be hitting form by then (they won at Arsenal last season btw) and QPR will be battling away providing they're not already down by then.

I'd much rather be playing teams like Sunderland, Stoke, Swansea and Fulham at this point in the season than teams in and around the relegation zone as they've got nothing to play for.

It's Swansea away I believe.

Btw I thought it would be interesting to look at the points difference in the exact same fixtures played between us, Arsenal, and Chelsea.

Us vs Arsenal
-Ignoring the Emirates game, we are 7 points better than them in the same fixtures played (ie we've picked up 7 points more in the exact same games).

Us vs Chelsea:
-Ignoring the WHL game, we are 1 point worse than them in the same fixtures played.

Chelsea vs Arsenal:
-Ignoring Chelsea's home and away wins, Arsenal are 3 points better from the same fixtures played. Of course that's offset by Chelsea's wins against them (6 points).

Which is funny because Chelsea do the best in a points by points comparison, and Arsenal worst, yet it is generally thought that Arsenal have the easiest run it.

 

[Matthew Wyatt]

Why do City play a "mystery team"?

 

[spursandbarca]

Spurs 74pts Chelsea 73pts Arsenil 66pts Everton 58pts City 75pts

1. Utd 2. city 3 spurs 4 Chelsea 5 Arsenil 6 Everton

 

[kazzah9]

Why do City play a "mystery team"?

No one can know - it's part of the mystery

 

[spurious1]

I don't know what are easy and hard games. Look at how many points we drop in the "easy" games, at home at that, and how many we pick up unexpectedly in the "hard" games...I think I would rather have the "hard" games. Throw into that the end-of-the-season motivational factors as to whether teams have anything to play for or not - the one sure thing is that you would like to play the last games of the season against mid-table mediocrities most concerned about not getting injured and ruining their vacations!

 

[LeSoupeKitchen]

Hope man u don't have the league sown up too soon! Don't want to see them playing weakened teams and giving up points to our rivals.

 

[Shadydan]

Wouldn't say Swansea is a hard game, their season is pretty much done now.

 

[spurious1]

Hope man u don't have the league sown up too soon! Don't want to see them playing weakened teams and giving up points to our rivals.

They won't have it won yet when they play city. But might, when they play Arse and Chelsea. Alternatively, in those two games they might be in the position to clinch the title, which I am sure they would enjoy doing against one of those two teams (or maybe they don't consider Arse a major rival any more )

 

[talkshowhost86]

It's almost impossible to predict at this stage because this season everyone has been losing to everyone else.

I think if we beat Arsenal at the weekend then that is a massive step towards finishing above them, and although their run in looks easy, they have been incredibly inconsistent recently so again very hard to say whether their games are 'hard' or 'easy'.

Personally I think if we can get 6 or 7 points from the Arsenal (H), Liverpool (A), Everton (H), Chelsea (A) and Man City (H) games then we'll be okay.

 

[Roynie]

Let's face it all games at this stage of the season are hard.

I don't think away to Stoke for the penultimate game is easy by any stretch of the imagination. In addition. Le Arse (their last game), City and Pool have to play Newcastle who, with their January signings will be no easy match.

We just have to try and keep our form and DON'T LOOK DOWN!