Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1 Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 (edited) Has it? Only the top 2 lost less games at home than us and until Man City away only the top 2 had lost less games away from home. Fair to say that we've been poor in 4-5 games that we've got points in too, but generally performances have been decent (occasionally more than decent). In a broad sense, yes; I assume Liverpool and Chelsea will be stronger next year, and we could be slightly weaker in the league depending on transfers and depending upon our schedule. We should remember that QPR will also be challenging for the title next season, as Mark Hughes insinuated in his post-match interview: "We will NEVER be in this position again, as long as I am in charge of THIS club." Everton Wigan Tottenham Fulham Wolves Brighton There's 6 DISASTROUS performances for you. It's easy to forget how poor we were against Bolton until HBA's wondergoal. Hence my point: POOR PERFORMANCE LEVEL. If you add European fixtures into the mix, the performance level is going to be EVEN WORSE and we will struggle to WIN the RESPECTIVE FIXTURES that we have won this season. Then again, we could easily make the top 6 again. Edited May 13, 2012 by Kevin S. Assilleekunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Manson 0 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 We played poorly 6/38 times! Crivens! Are you on the wind up? It's not football manager where HBA has a dribbling rating of 18, finishing 17 so he should be able to replicate the Bolton goal each week. Most of our points were lost away from home, generally much harder to earn points there. You can't be at your best all season, even City went on an extremely dismal run yet won the league. Dips in form happen, thankfully the management was able to steer us out of them and pick up points elsewhere. The table doesn't lie at the end of the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitman 2188 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 I'm not predicting points/places as I'm totally shit at it. I hope we can stay in the top 6 but it'll be a tough ask imo. A lot will ride on the close season ins & outs, whether our fringe players can step up more and good old fashioned luck. We were unlucky with Taylor's injury but otherwise I think we generally did pretty well on the injury/suspension front. Not sure we can expect the same again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 The table doesn't lie at the end of the day. Just in the morning to mid-afternoon then. The table is talking absolute bollocks if it thinks Aston "7 wins" Villa weren't one of the 3 worst teams this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggio 0 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 In a broad sense, yes; I assume Liverpool and Chelsea will be stronger next year, and we could be slightly weaker in the league depending on transfers and depending upon our schedule. We should remember that QPR will also be challenging for the title next season, as Mark Hughes insinuated in his post-match interview: "We will NEVER be in this position again, as long as I am in charge of THIS club." Everton Wigan Tottenham Fulham Wolves Brighton There's 6 DISASTROUS performances for you. It's easy to forget how poor we were against Bolton until HBA's wondergoal. Hence my point: POOR PERFORMANCE LEVEL. If you add European fixtures into the mix, the performance level is going to be EVEN WORSE and we will struggle to WIN the RESPECTIVE FIXTURES that we have won this season. Then again, we could easily make the top 6 again. It's only 5 league games to be fair, our biggest problem was the amount of goals we shipped in those away fixtures which did the damage to our goal difference. Pardew is making the right noises about needing new bodies at the back so hopefully that can get sorted, I think it's fair to say that Simpson and Williamson are not the standard that's needed if we want to stay in and around Tue European places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathras 234 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Even with a side that maintains current quality through ins and outs, I would say that we should return to the scheduled expectation which would have had us hoping for top half this year and nipping about the European places next season. That would do me just fine, provided we show decently in the Europa League, put in decent runs in the cup(s) etc. Just don't want to go too far backwards. Holding steady would be a good achievement, IMO. 8th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hostile_statue 0 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 I'd love to win something, even if it's just the league cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christmas Tree 3997 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Jeff Sterling interview in the independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jeff-stelling-presenter-predicts-gloomy-seasons-for-villasboas-and-di-matteo-8046752.html Stelling's season's predictions Top six 1 Man Utd 2 Man City 3 Arsenal 4 Newcastle 5 Chelsea 6 Liverpool Bottom three: West Ham, Swansea and West Bromwich Championship automatic promotion Bolton and Blackpool League 1 winners Notts County League 2 winners Fleetwood Town The Saturday matinee at St James' Park between Spurs and last year's over-achievers Newcastle United looks set to be a fascinating encounter. Stelling has the Magpies finishing fourth: "I'm sure a lot of people see Newcastle as one-hit wonders but they have the potential to do better this time, and they haven't lost any big hitters. They also have Steven Taylor back. The only proviso would be that yet again there is an African Nations Cup, and they will have to strengthen before that comes round." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbsweeney 0 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Stelling's season's predictions 4 Newcastle Ha? I wish ... but it ain't gonna happen. I really hope we go on a great cup run. The League Cup would be more doable than the FA, but I'd prefer the FA. My head thinks we'll be seventh (actually, probably eighth) this year. A somewhat realistic hope is that we end up ahead of Liverpool again and that they have another shocking (or even worse) season. Would love that. I also hope that we also have the same amount of exciting games that we've produced the last couple of seasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OTF 6129 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 (edited) Top 8 I would be happy with. Top 6 would be excellent. Just hope that we play games on our own terms (especially at home) and try to win every game we play by putting out our best avaiable side - including cup games. And I'll add that I would most like us to beat Man City this season. Last year they had our measure, but in the few years prior they always managed to jag results through poor officiating or dodgy play. We owe them a hiding. Edited August 15, 2012 by OTF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetleftpeg 0 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 I expect this season to be tougher than last season. That's a good thing in a way though, brings us back down to earth and just shows how excellent of a season it was. Teams will have sussed us so it's how we deal with that. More teams will turn up at our place much tighter and negative than before and our reaction, attitude, and tactics will go a long way if seeing if we have the players and manager to push on. I'm looking forward to it, I just think that we'll need a bit of patience as I do fully expect some home games to be frustrating affairs. Good in a way, shows how far you've come when teams are turning up with a bit more fear. A good cup run would be class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kelly 1115 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 To finish ahead of Chelski again will be very tough. They've brought in a lot of attacking quality (although they're not looking so blessed with out and out strikers after Drogba's departure). Liverpool still don't look any great shakes to me, Gerrard is another year older and picks up more and more injuries, their best player from last season has gone to Cardiff and i'm not convinced about their new signings. Spurs could be interesting. Redknapp going could be a massive miss and AVB hasn't convinced in this country so far, Modric will be a massive loss if he goes and they're also a striker down still at the moment. But Sigurdson looks a good singinig for them and they still have plenty of quality so it remains to be seen how they do. Finally us, we've lost no one of importance but we've not gained anyone either. Cisse is here from the start and hopefully we'll see more from Marveaux. But can Cisse, Ba, Ben Arfa and Cabaye keep up the form they showed last year? If they can and we can add a couple of good players before the end of the window we could get 5th again but I think the top four would be very difficult without a meltdown from either Arsenal or Chelski and it all depends on how Liverpool and Spurs react to the changes. We could quite easily drop down to 7th without having a bad season. But I think I don't see much in the rest of the league to worry me that we'll drop lower than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acrossthepond 699 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Like many have already said, I think I'd be more than happy with top 8 and some decent cup runs, especially in the Europa League. I have concerns about our squad depth if we're going to compete on three fronts (could go up to 4 if we have a long run in the league cup) and I think a lot hinges on the next few days of the transfer window. We're going to need to lose no-one and acquire at least 3 more players if we want to have a go at replicating last season's achievements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarStripes 0 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 I think if we get the players we need and get the balance right for each competition, i actually think we could have an outstanding year! League: 1st. Man Citeh. 2nd. Arsenal. 3rd. Man Utd. 4th. Newcastle. 5th. Chelsea *Some may be suprised at me putting 5th but even though they have brought in some quality, i dont think Di Matteo will do well this year. 6th. Spurs. 7th. Liverpool. 8th Everton. Cisse to get 20 league goals. Ba 15. Ben Arfa 10. Cabaye to get most assists in the PL. LC: Semi's FA Cup: Winners Europa League: Final...Winners? Would love a trip to Amsterdam! That would be some season! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hostile_statue 0 Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Top 7 + a cup win and I would be delighted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 34166 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 I think if we get the players we need and get the balance right for each competition, i actually think we could have an outstanding year! League: 1st. Man Citeh. 2nd. Arsenal. 3rd. Man Utd. 4th. Newcastle. 5th. Chelsea *Some may be suprised at me putting 5th but even though they have brought in some quality, i dont think Di Matteo will do well this year. 6th. Spurs. 7th. Liverpool. 8th Everton. Cisse to get 20 league goals. Ba 15. Ben Arfa 10. Cabaye to get most assists in the PL. LC: Semi's FA Cup: Winners Europa League: Final...Winners? Would love a trip to Amsterdam! That would be some season! It would also be over 60 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2bias 3 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 Top 7 and a cup win to retain european place would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toonotl 2406 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 (edited) I'd be esctatic with 7th-9th, a good run in the FA Cup and the knockout stages of the EL. Edited August 16, 2012 by toonotl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toonotl 2406 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 http://uk.eurosport....Y3Rpb25z;_ylv=3 Preseason prediction. Newcastle .. 7th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandman02uk 0 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 top 8 and balls deep in one domestic cup and not to make cunts of ourselves in europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toon_Man 0 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 We've just got to take it one game at a time in the league, cups and Europe. I am optimistic about next season and don't see any reason why we can't replicate it. It's about time we won something though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 8947 Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 top 8, good performances, few Goal of the Month candidates. Cup final or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 top 8, good performances, few Goal of the Month candidates. Cup final or two. You said 6th before, make your mind up man.... 1 Christmas Tree (seriously), Happy Face (put £1 on it, but not my prediction) 2 3 4 Jeff Stelling, Stellar Stripes 5 Happy Face (real) 6 Trophyshy, JawD, duo, Fish 7 Baggio, J69, TicTacWoe, 2Bias, ADP, David Kelly, hostile_statue, Ant 8 Gemmill, dbsweeney, OTF, Sandman02uk 9 toonotl Some big names yet to join the predictions on the eve of the opener. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CleeToonFan 1 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I thought I'd done one but if not have me down for 5th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JawD 31 Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 I'm still thinking 6th like, id be happy with that. Don't see Liverpool changing much short term though i think Everton could be chasing again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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