Neil

Inevitable.

Team spirit and togetherness will be the key factors in whether you stay up or not IMO. As much as better players help, if you can go into the season with momentum, it'll have the same sort of affect. Just look at Hull's squad that stayed up last year.

Where's the swirling wind?

Could. Probably won't though. (Unless you get decent investment, etc etc).

But equally, Arsenal aren't out of the title race. Shaping up to be an exciting 2nd half of the season.

Both looking good after dodgy starts. Now need us to win... Think I can guess what might happen from here... Bloody hell mate, perfect day pretty much. Mine was fucked by Exeter allowing Gillingham to get only their 2nd point away from home all season. Sigh.

2-0. Sexy.

Was P'boro 0-4 Cardiff now 3-4.

VAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHANNNNNNNNNNNNN! SUPER SUB!!!!!!!!!!

2-1.

Drogba, 1-1.

Never known such a one-man team as Sunderland this season.

Burnley down to 10. Fucking hell lads, howay.

£5 on us, Swindon and Exeter. Looking iffy. Pays £27.30.

If it wasn't for Darren Bent's form then Sunderland would be in the relegation zone. They've spent a lot of money in the last few years to put together a very average team. its their fluke results against arsenal and man u and a lucky beach ball thats got them ahead of relegation spots and even then not much ahead Yes, it's probably just bitterness because of our situation, but I'd fucking love it if Darren Bent got injured for a few months - then we'll see them squirm.

Yep, 67% possession according to BBC. People don't realise we do play a lot of good stuff - but we too often get desperate when we're not winning. We ripped Birmingham to shreds by playing good football, and then in the 2nd half, what do we do? Launch it high to their tall centre-backs. On another note, what about Sunderland? That early-season optimism is draining away, their away record is wretched, and now they're not winning at home either. They saw us, a side at our lowest ebb for a while, go there with our squad and dominate them for most of the match, and they were lucky to escape with a draw. If they don't improve in the next 4-5 games, they're in big trouble. And yeah, if we don't win today, I'll go clinically insane.

I think you will, their away form is woeful. I think they have like one point on the road. Can see Saha bagging two here. The way we're playing, someone's going to get a twatting off us soon. It would have been the Birmingham game had Saha's goal to make it 2-0 not been disallowed, and even then, we dominated yet contrived to only draw. 4-1 today, howay.

Me for one. Why do YOU think he's any good ? You wouldn't want Hughes because he's no good? Jesus H Christ f***ing wept. You think he's top notch do you ? Explain why please, instead of mouthing off. Which isn't exactly telling us WHY he's any good. I don't rate him, and you throw a wobbler ? Why don't you dump YOUR manager and go for him then ? Absolutely stellar reasoning. Didn't say he's top notch - I think he did a good job at Blackburn, making them one of the better sides in the league, and he's done pretty decently at Man City if you ask me, and it was a ridiculous decision to get rid of him. I could vaguely understand wanting to stick with Hughton for the sake of "stability", but you're seriously telling me you'd not want him at Newcastle if he was available and interested, because he's not very good? I don't think it was. In one game Mancini's tactics have already been better than anything Hughes has done. Simply by picking players in their natural positions to actually have some balance to the team. He has his shortcomings but I think it was far too rash to get rid and the situation did not merit a sacking at this stage - I'd have at least given him until the end of the season. Also, I think I'll wait a bit until assessing Mancini at City. (Fwiw, I'd say he's better than Hughes, judging his previous work).

Me for one. Why do YOU think he's any good ? You wouldn't want Hughes because he's no good? Jesus H Christ f***ing wept. You think he's top notch do you ? Explain why please, instead of mouthing off. Which isn't exactly telling us WHY he's any good. I don't rate him, and you throw a wobbler ? Why don't you dump YOUR manager and go for him then ? Absolutely stellar reasoning. Didn't say he's top notch - I think he did a good job at Blackburn, making them one of the better sides in the league, and he's done pretty decently at Man City if you ask me, and it was a ridiculous decision to get rid of him. I could vaguely understand wanting to stick with Hughton for the sake of "stability", but you're seriously telling me you'd not want him at Newcastle if he was available and interested, because he's not very good?

Might put my money where my mouth is and stick £10 on Everton -2. Hmm.

I'm going to be the most gutted I've been in a long, long time if we don't win today. Fwiw, I think we'll trounce them.

Me for one. Why do YOU think he's any good ? You wouldn't want Hughes because he's no good? Jesus H Christ fucking wept.

If we update that to now... Aston Villa................P 676.................Pts 974 Tottenham...............P 677 ................Pts 919 Newcastle................P 616.................Pts 906 Everton....................P 676.................Pts 882 So 60 games in hand and we're still in touching distance, ahead of, or have a better points per game record than 3 of the clubs who've been there the whole time. Is that supposed to be a surprising statistic?

Probably. DID YOU NOT SEE HIS HATRICK IN EUROPE!?

He'll trot off the bench soon enough.