A long December.......

[skiathospurs]

"A long December&there`s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last........."


A month that will define our league position and ambitions,stuff this fixture crammed month up,then its either prioritise the cups or put everything into trying to get back into top 4 contention.Light relief early on when Apoel come to town in a game except uefa coefficient points wise is meaningless,so perhaps a 3rd round league cup looking side in the champions league?

Four home games & three away,have to be thinking 4 wins and a draw or 3 !!Means I would be happy indeed with 15 pts in the month and fancy us to maybe beat that.That would set us up nicely for the 2nd half of the season in the new year,21 played around 40pts,means west ham wont be finishing above us anyway.

2nd Dec Watford A
6th Dec Apoel H
9th Dec Stoke H
13th Dec Brighton H
16th Man city A
23rd Burnley A
26th Southampton H
31st West Ham H (TBC)

Other notable fixtures;
Arse vs man u merseyside derby,manc derby,arsenal vs liverpool,and west ham have a horrible month !!

 

[Don Diaz]

Well I'd settle for a fully fit squad as a start and if we can sort that, combined with starting games a bit better the rest will take care of itself. To have any chance of challenging City we will have to beat them and hope United and others do the same. To be honest I'll be happy just playing well, because with this group that will translate into wins.

With the exception of City they all look like we could win them, Chelsea did something similar last year so why not. Good luck lads go for it.

 

[Flump]

3 tricky away games, although we have been decent away from home, 1 meaningless champions league game against minnows playing at wembley and 4 potential repeats of the west brom game in the league. Could go any number of ways.

 

[Flump]

A nice little eight wins on the bounce would be handy right about now.

 

[Liam]

A nice little eight wins on the bounce would be handy right about now.

We need to go on a good run for sure.

 

[skiathospurs]

I saw some info that said after this many games we and arse are on the same points and positions as this time last year.And yet it does feel worse?dont know is it expectation,all the hype or media bollox that players will leave if we dont keep going and do better.And this is inspite of us having a really good time in europe so far,especially compared to last season.
Is it also because city&united have improved immeasurably and we havent in comparison?I dont see anything from liverpool or arsenal to suggest we cant finish above the pair of them,they are absolutely no better than last year,chelsea have dropped and really are just a few steps away from either losing their manager back to italy or firing him cos thats what roman does if you finish 3rd or worse.But still there is this feeling we havent done as well as hoped,and this is inspite of most saying with playing at wembley,group of death in europe probably we wouldnt achieve top 4 in our preseason predictions.

Back to this month,if we can do what we did last year in december,have a good run this feeling of we are struggling,not playing as fluent,teams have worked out to just park the bus will evaporate,and we can carry on look forward in place of thinking we are falling back.I dont think the teams coming to wembley have the same mindset as west brom,swansea,burnley,completely devoid of ambition,or that brighton,southampton,west ham,stoke have the players to just defend,if we dont manage 10 pts at least from those 4 then we arent going to catch up and put ourselves back into being top 4 not just hoping for it.OFC if we can beat city well game is on again for a week or two.

 

[Style And Glory]

"A long December&there`s reason to believe maybe this year will be better than the last........."

A month that will define our league position and ambitions,stuff this fixture crammed month up,then its either prioritise the cups or put everything into trying to get back into top 4 contention.Light relief early on when Apoel come to town in a game except uefa coefficient points wise is meaningless,so perhaps a 3rd round league cup looking side in the champions league?

Four home games & three away,have to be thinking 4 wins and a draw or 3 !!Means I would be happy indeed with 15 pts in the month and fancy us to maybe beat that.That would set us up nicely for the 2nd half of the season in the new year,21 played around 40pts,means west ham wont be finishing above us anyway.

2nd Dec Watford A
6th Dec Apoel H
9th Dec Stoke H
13th Dec Brighton H
16th Man city A
23rd Burnley A
26th Southampton H
31st West Ham Ham H

With 1st place wrapped up in the CL, I expect many regulars being rested & players like Lamela playing (once he puts baby to bed) though his legs may be shot from lack of sleep.

I'll be a bit more optimistic by saying the only game in question would be the ManCity game. I expect us to win the rest now that we're not having to deal with extra matches.

 

[Dorset]

I saw some info that said after this many games we and arse are on the same points and positions as this time last year.And yet it does feel worse?dont know is it expectation,all the hype or media bollox that players will leave if we dont keep going and do better.And this is inspite of us having a really good time in europe so far,especially compared to last season.
Is it also because city&united have improved immeasurably and we havent in comparison?I dont see anything from liverpool or arsenal to suggest we cant finish above the pair of them,they are absolutely no better than last year,chelsea have dropped and really are just a few steps away from either losing their manager back to italy or firing him cos thats what roman does if you finish 3rd or worse.But still there is this feeling we havent done as well as hoped,and this is inspite of most saying with playing at wembley,group of death in europe probably we wouldnt achieve top 4 in our preseason predictions.

Back to this month,if we can do what we did last year in december,have a good run this feeling of we are struggling,not playing as fluent,teams have worked out to just park the bus will evaporate,and we can carry on look forward in place of thinking we are falling back.I dont think the teams coming to wembley have the same mindset as west brom,swansea,burnley,completely devoid of ambition,or that brighton,southampton,west ham,stoke have the players to just defend,if we dont manage 10 pts at least from those 4 then we arent going to catch up and put ourselves back into being top 4 not just hoping for it.OFC if we can beat city well game is on again for a week or two.

It's jolly queer! Yep we are doing as well as last year, the scum are 3 points lower than they were after 13, we are exactly the same in points and positions. We have only been higher than 5th after 13 games once and that was in 2012.... and we have scored 2 more goals than we did last season.

The stats could be read as very encouraging as we have not drawn as many ( 6 in 2017, 3 this season ),but they could be read by numpties as shite because we have lost 2 more games ( 1 - 3 ) , but they should be read as encouraging because we have won one more than last year ( 6 - 7 ) ..... so those 3 less draws ( 3 points ) have been turned into one extra win ( 3 points ) and 2 losses, which is a nett difference of fuck bleeding all, but the trend towards more winningness is encouraging, probably, fucked if I know.

As you say, City and United are doing so much better than last season, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are doing worse. It's all good, but not good enough for some.

Swingometer of Doom, Pretty Graphs Comparing Seasons In Premier League

We should be walking around with huge grins on our faces, we have mulched the bollox off of the group of death, taken 4 points from Real Madrid and are still in a great position for a good PL season, nice!

 

[Don Diaz]

I had no idea the stats from the previous two seasons were almost identical as this. It just goes to show how quickly our 'normal' can change and perception of reality - that sounded clever ha ha. I remember a couple of years back, when I though we were doing quite well anyway, Poch's first season bentaleb et al, felt brilliant beating Arsenal from 1-0 down etc., then better again and Champions league and finishing second in the league, wasn't ever sure that I'd see us really challenge at the top of the table in my lifetime. So this season's reality is just as good, but actually we now feel like we should be winning almost every game, the draws against Swansea, Burnley and WBA aren't good enough anymore and all of this isn't helped with the runaway success of the billionnaires at the top of the league and the cash cows in second. Of course we could be doing better in the league, but there's only a third gone, it's just that we've recently lost to United and Arsenal, picked up a few injuries and the players have looked a bit lethargic. The Champions League has been a fantastic improvement, lets not forget to include that in the season so far.

I feel much better after the premier league stats injection, thank you, clearly we will now go on a fantastic winning streak.

 

[skiathospurs]

I had no idea the stats from the previous two seasons were almost identical as this. It just goes to show how quickly our 'normal' can change and perception of reality - that sounded clever ha ha. I remember a couple of years back, when I though we were doing quite well anyway, Poch's first season bentaleb et al, felt brilliant beating Arsenal from 1-0 down etc., then better again and Champions league and finishing second in the league, wasn't ever sure that I'd see us really challenge at the top of the table in my lifetime. So this season's reality is just as good, but actually we now feel like we should be winning almost every game, the draws against Swansea, Burnley and WBA aren't good enough anymore and all of this isn't helped with the runaway success of the billionnaires at the top of the league and the cash cows in second. Of course we could be doing better in the league, but there's only a third gone, it's just that we've recently lost to United and Arsenal, picked up a few injuries and the players have looked a bit lethargic. The Champions League has been a fantastic improvement, lets not forget to include that in the season so far.

I feel much better after the premier league stats injection, thank you, clearly we will now go on a fantastic winning streak.

but did you like the song!!!

 

[wilson]

I'll admit that I was rather surprised to read that we are on the same points as this time last season.

I assumed it must feel like we are doing worse because of the teams above us being United, City and Arsenal (with Liverpool sniffing around) which wasn't the case last season... But nope! It was the same last season - just United and Liverpools roles swapping.

So then I assumed it must feel like we are doing worse because the gap between us and the teams above us is larger than last season.. Wrong again! Yes, we are 6 points further off top spot than this point last season. BUT we are actually a point closer to 2nd, 4 points closer to 3rd and 3 points closer to 4th.

Okay, okay, well then the football must be worse somehow now.. Surely we've scored less and conceded more? You guessed it, bloody wrong again! We've scored 2 more goals and let in the same amount.

Now I've come to the conclusion that I should assume that my assumption is wrong and that I must be getting far too used to winning ways. I now have regained total belief and confidence that we will indeed win the league this season

Here's a link to the premier league standings after 13 matches last year: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...eague-standings-after-sundays-week-13-matches

 

[skiathospurs]

I'll admit that I was rather surprised to read that we are on the same points as this time last season.

I assumed it must feel like we are doing worse because of the teams above us being United, City and Arsenal (with Liverpool sniffing around) which wasn't the case last season... But nope! It was the same last season - just United and Liverpools roles swapping.

So then I assumed it must feel like we are doing worse because the gap between us and the teams above us is larger than last season.. Wrong again! Yes, we are 6 points further off top spot than this point last season. BUT we are actually a point closer to 2nd, 4 points closer to 3rd and 3 points closer to 4th.

Okay, okay, well then the football must be worse somehow now.. Surely we've scored less and conceded more? You guessed it, bloody wrong again! We've scored 2 more goals and let in the same amount.

Now I've come to the conclusion that I should assume that my assumption is wrong and that I must be getting far too used to winning ways. I now have regained total belief and confidence that we will indeed win the league this season

Here's a link to the premier league standings after 13 matches last year: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...eague-standings-after-sundays-week-13-matches

I remember there was debate in another place in another time,about why losing and winning were better than drawing (after that huge run of draws we had in poch`s 1st season i think).Well,i guess the points work emselves out,but definatly for fans & probably the players,its the losing that sticks in the memory,and if we had drawn 3 instead of winning one and losing two to arse&man u they would be 2pts each worse off even if we were the same.But it definatly has a negative feeling doesnt it??

 

[wilson]

I remember there was debate in another place in another time,about why losing and winning were better than drawing (after that huge run of draws we had in poch`s 1st season i think).Well,i guess the points work emselves out,but definatly for fans & probably the players,its the losing that sticks in the memory,and if we had drawn 3 instead of winning one and losing two to arse&man u they would be 2pts each worse off even if we were the same.But it definatly has a negative feeling doesnt it??

I think that may well be it. I mean, we're only one league loss away from the total losses for the whole of last season yet we're currently no worse off for it. Maybe losing isn't so bad after all haha!

From a psychological standpoint, after a loss I think "right, we have to start again now, grit our teeth and bounce back" whereas you can put a draw down as disappointing but not detrimental to keeping up momentum or derailing. But then at the end of a close season I tend to rue dropped points from draws because just one goal is 2 points difference per draw. Fine balance between the two eh!

Moral of the story? Win every match, starting tomorrow!