The next six games

Away at Bournemouth, Fulham and Newcastle. Home to Brighton, Arsenal and City.

So, given even I accept we are not getting relegated, it seems the next six games are pivotal for European ambition vs mid table mediocrity. Not sure what my expectations are. We are really solid, confident and clinical on the counter. Burrrttt….The unbeaten run has to end at some point. 4/6 of those teams have already beaten us, the other two have drawn. Our last 3 goals have been from set pieces and we’ve had some Aina goal line magic.

It could be anything from 0 to about 10 points….

FTFY

Have some ambition, young man.

I still think finishing 6th is as high as we can hope for and that may not be achievable. Villa at the weekend had Bailey, Buendia, Duran and Malen all sat on the bench - we're sending on Jota, Sosa and Awoniyi to kill off our attacking threat.

If we take 10 or more from those six, I'll start to believe we can make top 5. I'm expecting 6 or less.

Agreed. Despite where we are, I just can't see us staying in the top 5. 6th or 7th likely.

If we can take 8 points from those games, 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats, we’ll be well placed for the last 10 game run in, when we mainly have games against the bottom half. For Man City or Newcastle to catch us over the next 6, they’re going to have to get 6 more points than us. Bournemouth will have to get 7 more and Chelsea 4-7 more. I think we can still hope to be fourth or fifth after this run.

And Newcastle's next 6 league games:

Soton (A)
Fulham (H)
Man City (A)
Forest (H)
Liverpool (A)
West Ham (A)

1) Are there six more points for them in that lot than we have in ours?

2) The league is not determined over the next 6 games.

Citeh are the team to watch with the Geordies. We have to turn up against them and not roll over and die like we did at the Eti-sad... They will have a new team by then so maybe not cohesive yet. Soton are too poor defensively to stop the Geordies and even though they have a new manager Wet Sham are still gash.

I would be happy with 6 draws. I know that sounds mental but with CHO injured, we have to find new ways to snatch some games. Chances are we will draw more than win unfortunately.

It's been fun though and if Anthony Taylor and his VAR buddy aren't around we might have more of the rub of the green...

Or we piss it and win the league...

Chicago: Managing Expectations..

I think they are massive favourites in two of those and clear favourites in two. I'd have us as marginal favourite at home to Brighton and second favourites in the other 5 (albeit close underdogs at Fulham and Bournemouth).

If CHO is injured, I'd be tempted to play Sosa. He's been steadily improving. Looking stronger and tidy with the ball. Silva looking like he'll get a long holiday in Greece in the Summer. Running about a lot doesn't make you a Premier League player.

Hmm. Maybe. I think I'd be tempted to see if Danilo has got 60 minutes in him.

Jota also cannot defend at all. Has no idea what to do. It's a problem.

Suspect that the reason we haven't seen him on the bench since 5 + injury time against Luton is that he's not ready to play for an hour.

I think it was Kelvin Wilson on a podcast who said that Jota reminded him of a piece of paper blowing in the wind. Unpredictable and therefore exciting to watch as a fan but a nightmare for colleagues because he was not disciplined enough to be where he was supposed to be.

I expect we'll see Dominguez (or possibly Anderson or MGW) out there, with Yates (or possibly JWP) coming into midfield.

I want to like Jota and his Thunderbirds eyebrows but at the moment I regard him as a bit of a cool Brian Rice.

He's got that Yatesy energy.

In a 38 game premier league, no team with 70 points has ever finished outside the top 5 and there's only been 3 times that they've finished outside the top 4.

So 26 points from 16 remaining games, win 7 draw 5 lose 4. Piece of piss.