afar

Looking at history, the 93 points that Burnley attained in 2013/14 is the most points anyone has reached finishing second, since the PL came to be. That's 31 wins, but assume that we draw at least 10 games then we'll need 28 wins to almost guarantee promotion, we are sitting on 5 right now, so a very long way to go. If you look at the table right now, you can see the teams who will be there or thereabouts at the end pushing up, us of course, Norwich (who interestingly have a goal difference of just +3 despite only losing one game, that would suggest a lot of close victories), Brighton and Sheff Wed. There are some teams who were tipped for the top that have started badly, like Aston Villa and Derby. Barnsley, Huddersfield and Fulham are much higher than most expected, with the fixture about to get congested their squads are going to be severely tested. I do think this is a hugely important month for us, if we can get through it sitting at the top, I think psychologically it will be tough for any of the other teams to knock us off and with the depth in the squad we have, we'll be well set up to cope with the crazy amount of games that are coming up. We haven't conceded a goal in almost 8 hours of football, we are scoring goals with easily the best GD in the division, we've played 4 away games to 3. We just beat a team that was sitting around the playoff spots by 6 goals on their own patch. We have a world class manager, huge fanbase and everyone is pulling in the same direction, this is the most positive I've been about the club in goodness knows how long, but we are still in the 2nd division of English football, it still all hinges on getting back up this season.

Wow just got back from a meeting, it was 3-0 when I went in, I fucking love Rafa me like

This is just stupid

Shelvey is starting to become a key player for us, I don't think it's any coincidence that we've played so well in the last three games with him starting. He's also the one player (well perhaps Ritchie too) that we don't have a direct replacement for should anything happen.

Norwich are starting to worry me a little, 2 up also right now but we should really have enough quality to comfortably finish in the top 2, if we can keep up this form we'll be fine.

This seems to be the line they go with, a lot of them blaming Short, which tbh is fair enough, but they are blaming him for the wrong reasons, he has put his hand in his pocket, they have spent money, they've spent a lot more than a lot of the relegation rivals they'll have this season. Where he is culpable though is by employing the wrong people over and over, he's obviously got very little clue about the game and whomever he's relying upon to give him advice hasn't got a clue. The amount of money they've spent on absolute trash is crazy and it's nearly always short termism, way too heavily relied on the loan system over the years, that's why they've never been able to build a squad.

I'm not sure they are wrong to be honest, after watching them last night. There was no bite to that midfield last night, Rodwell is a nothing player and any replacement for him would be an upgrade. The idiot probably would improve them, but it's all relative, I doubt he would improve them enough to make them not s*** !

That's not really based on anything imo. Man United was a poison chalice and everyone could see that they needed a massive overhaul/massively overachieved with the team from the season before. Real Sociedad aren't the sort of team to be pulling up trees in La Liga and even though he didn't do well, it's not unlike them to be in those positions, and he was only given one year in a country speaking another language. You can't just write off his 11 years at Everton because of 2 seasons at other clubs. Whilst I agree with the general sentiment that there's not enough evidence yet to write him off as done, he's made a lot mistakes. Going to the press and telling the world you are in a relegation fight in August, just to get extra funds (you would presume) was stupid and counter productive. The business he did in the window was curious to say the least, it's not like they had no money they spent a fair chunk and brought in what ?? They have one PL quality striker who is about 104 now. He's critcising his players in public, that's a huge indication that the pressure is getting to him. The man is just a dour individual, does not inspire excitement at all and his teams play that way too. His body language was all wrong last night, he just sat back in his chair looking thoroughly disgusted. The clock is ticking I think. Everton played some cracking football at times, so I don't agree with the whole dour football thing. He's obviously not Guardiola, but he's hardly Allardyce or Pulis either. It seems to have been a criticism that's stuck with him. Personally think the things he's come out with at Sunderland are honest, that club is a complete mess and has been for ages. We've effectively saved them from the drop for 3 seasons in a row. The Everton fans that come on here from time to time can correct me if I am wrong, but there were significant grumblings about the style of play under him towards the end, certainly that first season that Martinez was in charge for they were all banging on about how much better the style was. He plays a functional style, I think he relies a la Pardew on a few individuals with real quality to form the attacking intent of his teams. His methods take time to bed in, he hasn't been given that time at his last two clubs. The two big questions for him is will he be allowed enough time at Sunderland and are his methods still relevant today, not sure this was the right appointment for either party to be honest. Sunderland's squad is about as bad as they come for a PL club and the additions he's made haven't really helped that, I think he would have been better off at a Swansea or Southampton.

Winning tonight would be huge IMO. Three away wins in a row against 3 of the teams people expect to be up there at the end of the season would give us a great platform to push on from. We are more than capable, expect him to change things up a bit considering we played just 3 days ago.

No you are mis-reading the point Triggs is making, he was in a similar situation 14 years ago to what he's in now. At a new club who had been struggling.

I agree, I think it was really important in the 92/93 promotion that we drew Boro (who were in the PL at the time) in an early round of the League cup and beat them comfortably, I would like to say it was 3-1. This gave us confidence I think in that we were more than good enough.

That's not really based on anything imo. Man United was a poison chalice and everyone could see that they needed a massive overhaul/massively overachieved with the team from the season before. Real Sociedad aren't the sort of team to be pulling up trees in La Liga and even though he didn't do well, it's not unlike them to be in those positions, and he was only given one year in a country speaking another language. You can't just write off his 11 years at Everton because of 2 seasons at other clubs. Whilst I agree with the general sentiment that there's not enough evidence yet to write him off as done, he's made a lot mistakes. Going to the press and telling the world you are in a relegation fight in August, just to get extra funds (you would presume) was stupid and counter productive. The business he did in the window was curious to say the least, it's not like they had no money they spent a fair chunk and brought in what ?? They have one PL quality striker who is about 104 now. He's critcising his players in public, that's a huge indication that the pressure is getting to him. The man is just a dour individual, does not inspire excitement at all and his teams play that way too. His body language was all wrong last night, he just sat back in his chair looking thoroughly disgusted. The clock is ticking I think.

I so want this to happen and for him to finally take them down, two birds, one stone. The problem with that is that Pardew always has a year or so period where he looks like a world beater, that'll do the trick to keep them up no doubt. What we need them to do is employ another Lawrie McMenemy type manager one that'll rip them completely apart to the point where they get relegated to the third tier like that time.

As if they would sack Moyes He's probably their only hope of staying up in a sad world where survival artists like Allardyce, Moyes, Pulis and Pardew can become superstar managers just by dint of being English. Oh yeah, I forgot about Bruce. If they want to stay up this season there best hope is to wait for Moyes's traditional second half of the season revival that he tends to have but if they want to risk that, then wait till Pulis leaves WBA and get him in there ASAP. Edit: Wow reading RTG, there's A LOT of anti Moyes stuff there. He's not going to be given time I don't think.

That's a good shout.

I'm not worried about this considering he plays for Spurs Sorry, I meant Lukaku. Sissoko may in the end have been better off going there, tbh. They look a good team and he would probably have fitted in better there than he will at spuds.

They aren't gonna be playing Everton every week, who look really really good. There's enough poorer teams down there for them to pick up the points they need, but for sure the only target for them this season is 17th, and don't expect thrills and spills from this Moyes team, exciting times ahed for Mackem fans, lol. Hmmm they just conceeed again, maybe I'm giving them too much credit.

I wish I was as "Fat" as Khazri !!

They'll be fine, they look solid in that first half, look like a strong and powerful side, may lack some craft but that's just a typical Moyes side.

That's true, the Bristol City game this year reminded me of the Cardiff game in that last promotion season too. We've been functional to this point without pulling up any trees, which is a great sign because we'll only get stronger as the fixture list starts to stress teams squads. If we can get through this month at the top, I think we'll start to pull away.

I don't think it is. I think you've caught a break this year, there will be a few more teams in the fight than certainly last year, when really it was only 4 of us, I expect 6 to even 8 clubs who will struggle this year, also expect the top teams to be more dominant, you won't see as many bottom clubs beating the teams that have traditionally been at the top this year. Your Defence looks on paper a pretty solid unit, as long as Defoe keepis scoring you'll have a good chance of staying up imo, but an injury to your only striker and you are screwed, it's ridiculous planning from a PL club with an experienced manager in charge tbh.

His performance against a very tricky player in Anya on Saturday shouldn't be underestimated. I tend to favour Rafa's judgement on players over yours tbh and Anita's probably played more games since Rafa came to the club than any other player. He's an important member of the squad, very important.

This is why we fans aren't thankfully in charge of football clubs, after 2 games I had thrown in the towel on the season !! I think we are a solid 8 right now though, there's a lot more to come from this team we are in cruise control right now. The really good thing for us is we have a very deep squad now, that'll start to become a huge factor soon as the games really start to flow. Think right now clubs with a good first 11 will be doing well, Huddersfield and Barnsley as we've had a gentle start to the season, but as we get into the 2 games a week routine, strength of squad will be tested, can see the smaller clubs dropping back, rafa's squad rotation and our strength in depth is going to help us immensely.

I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a bunch of changes for this one. Think will see a much different team to the Derby game. Wouldn't be surprised to see debut's for Lazaar, Atsu and Murphy, with Hanley Hayden and Clark probably getting involved too.

The best thing about this performance for me was the fact that we hardly had to break sweat, it was controlled from start to finish. You felt if we had had o get out of 1st or 2nd gear we could, most impressed with the captain today, that's the best game I've seen him put in for us, faultless.