Elma

Arsenal should be about 3 up by now. That worries me slightly. A second would more or less put the game to bed.

First time I've really watched them this season. Shocking defending that mind. Only one player in the box for Arsenal and he's the only one showing any desire to attack the ball. Funny though.

Özil really should have done better there.

Looks like the club have already responded: :lol:

Might be tempting fate but not sure the mackems will get through. If they do there could be a few derbies (-ish) in the next round: Arsenal v Chelsea Newcastle v Sunderland Man U v Liverpool Leeds v Hull

No double-headers available this round after Wolves and Preston. The closest we could get is Leeds, having played them at Elland Road one weekend earlier. Would like Leeds at home. Good atmosphere and a fitting way to mark the fifth anniversary of the loss of Gary Speed, which would be the Sunday before the game.

A big "if" at the moment. 3 points on Saturday would be excellent as it's arguably our most difficult game in the run up to Xmas - well, that and Leeds away. Did I see it right that we're now 1/7 for promotion, and 3/5 for the title? Unbelieveable that after only 14 games and only a three point gap. The bookies seem pretty confident anyway. They seem to think it's us with either Norwich or Brighton, and the other through the play-offs. Wouldn't mind that to be honest.

Having lost five of their first six in the league they must have looked at October with trepidation....Villa, Brighton, Huddersfield, Norwich, Newcastle x2. They've won three and drawn one out of the first four. Fair play to them. Certainly not the game we thought it was when the draw was made.

Was looking at some stats earlier. We really need to make this period count. We've only got Ipswich (12th), Sheff Wed and Brum to play in the top half before the halfway point. The rest are all in the bottom half including 5 of the bottom 6. However, strangely enough we are playing all of the current top six at home in the first half of the season and then have to go away to them all in the new year. You might argue that with our away form that's not an issue, but I still think I'd rather have them at home than away. Both Brighton and Burnley only lost five games last season, and Burnley played the entire second half of the season without losing a single game. Therefore it's important to get points on the board before a tough Feb/March.

At the time he played for us I heard from people at the club that he had the heart the size of a pea. Any minor niggle and he would cry off. Iirc correctly we had a bit of a defensive crisis one week in the championship season and he cried off at last minute when the medical team couldn't establish anything wrong. Think his attitude was why he was eventually released?

Think we can only call that for home games.

Might be cursing this but I think they'll be doing well to win a game before Hull at home on 19 November. West Ham away might be their best chance as Arsenal and Bournemouth are both flying.

Think they'll lose at Bournemouth. Might get a point from either West Ham or Arsenal before that. Could see them on 2 points after 11 games though. If I were a neutral I'd have them nailed on to go down, but still am worried that the others are creating a significant gap at the moment. Hull at home in game 12 could be interesting as to whether they have enough to beat those around them and keep the gap manageable.

Unfortunately none of the promoted clubs are covering themselves in glory this year. The mackems ambition at the moment should be to finish above the highest promoted club, currently Burnley on seven points, less than one a game. I know they don't look like they could win one game at the moment, never mind the two they would need to overtake Burnley, but that gap is still easily surmountable over thirty games. The problem last year for us (getting relegated on a number of points that in most seasons would have seen us stay up) was that both Watford and Bournemouth came up with decent management and had something about them. Both got over forty points and will again this year. Hull, Boro and Burnley are all poor teams who won't get to 38 points. This year 37 will keep you up and possibly even 35. That means they need 35 points from 30 games - 9 wins, 8 draws, 13 losses. Currently that would appear a tall order, but they've arguably only dropped six or seven points that you would have expected them get (3 vs Boro, 2 vs W Brom, 1 v Palace, 1 v Stoke), and picked up one they weren't expected to get at Soton. I would argue that if they were on 8 points now that would be par for the course. In saying all that, I don't see (m)any points for them in their next three games, but I won't start to think they might drop until we reach the halfway point and they are more than 6 points from safety (Burnley), whilst still turning in the sort of performances they are at the moment.

Perhaps Rafa is getting him to do what he had in mind for him when he originally signed him from Charlton? He must have seen something then in terms of turning him into a key player for his system. Obviously he never got the chance at Liverpool but they've now had a full pre-season together and hopefully things are starting to click.

Wouldn't mind getting a lower half Prem team in the cup, just to gauge our level. Although we lost a few quality players, only Townsend was really contributing regularly and we had only had him since January. We were relegated due to the ineptitude of McClaren coupled with a lack of support for him, leaving us with an unbalanced squad which was critically short across the back. Even despite that, we went down with a points total that would have kept us up the previous two years and indeed most seasons since the prem went to twenty teams. Now, with greater organisation and the confidence that winning brings, I'd fancy us against most of the bottom half. People think that because their is a league boundary between teams those above are automatically better, but I think this year there is a distinct overlap. Norwich too would fancy themselves to stay up in the current premiership group I imagine. I think the mackems, Hull and Boro all only have one point from the last 15. Could be a low total for survival this year.

remember it well, Ando says on TS tonight it was his first start. I was only 8 and my dad only ever took me to a couple of away games a year then - never missed at home though. Remember listening to it on the radio though and then watched the goals on The Big Match (?) the following day. That must have been the first time in my memory that we stuffed someone away from home, and didn't Kevin Carr save a pen?

My biggest complaint was against Villa - after putting decent pressure on the centre-half to the extent that Gayle was able to nip in and take the ball, he just stood and watched the 1 on 1. I was expecting a Rafa-drilled player to bust a gut to get alongside. Even if he were a yard or two back his presence would have made Gayle's job easier in that the keeper couldn't force Gayle wide whilst also covering off the square ball for a tap in. In the end Gayle hit Gollini but I thought it was just lazy from Diame. Am happy to give a player time to settle, but was disappointed in that. Suspect Rafa will rotate him out at the weekend, or soon if he doesn't improve. It's not like we don't have options.

In my early days of supporting the lads (early 80's) we hit the 90th minute at home to Fulham (?) I think 1-2 down and won 3-2 with Kenny Wharton grabbing the winner. Then of course there's the Leicester 2-4 to 5-4 with McGhee's late goal, but I think only the winner was in stoppage time for that one.

They got humped 3-0 at Birmingham too, although Brum have been better than expected so far.

We nearly always played midweek games on a Wednesday before this season The last time we were in the champ we were the only team playing home games on a Wednesday. Club preference. Probably makes sense for this set of fixtures anyway.

Some cracking results for us there like. Good late goals.

Not that he's my favourite journo/media person, but fair play to Colin Murray here. He read SackPardew.com and got it in spades. Went on a rant against him on radio that any of us would have been proud of, despite not being a fan iirc....

We're rapidly catching up to 2009/2010 now. After seven games then we were 5-1-1 (F10 A3). At the moment we're 5-0-2 (F16 A4). A win on Saturday and then first eight game form repeated over the season projects to 103.5 points. Excellent recovery after a poor start. For the record, game eight in 2009/2010 was a 3-1 home win over Plymouth. After a nice run of clean sheets I'd hate to concede, but that's being picky. Ultimately I'd take that and another three points now.

Impressive from Barnsley like. A couple of surprise packages up at the top with us early on.