Staying up or going down

[Q165]

The biggest thing in our favour is the surprising amount of teams who are potentially under serious threat. I really don't know. Just want to get tonight out of the way.

[holmleighchris]

The Bournemouth & Swansea midweek results have hurt us.
Far from convinced we will make it now. We have several must win games, but the opposition will look on us as a must win game as well.
No team is going to roll over and die.
Bloody Pulis!

[Johnny on the spot 1]

The Bournemouth & Swansea midweek results have hurt us.
Far from convinced we will make it now. We have several must win games, but the opposition will look on us as a must win game as well.
No team is going to roll over and die.
Bloody Pulis!

I have to agree Chris we are now 3 pts behind so we have to win a game just to catch up , we have only won 3 game most teams have won double that the exception being Southampton & Brighton, our next away game is Chelsea who will have point to prove after last night , I am going to say will make it
But deep down I fear the worst .

[TipperaryBaggie]

Saturday’s game is so key now. Win and that positive feeling it brings could get us out of trouble. Draw or lose and the enthusiasm built up over the last week could disappear down the plughole.

[WBA123]

I'm still optimistic,

I think we're playing well, we've just been missing key chances at key times. Now we've got Sturridge hopefully that will change,

We've got a squad as good as any other team in the bottom half of the prem.

If we win on Saturday the whole bottom half will be divided by only a couple of points.

We have of course, got it all to do though

[mickd1961]

We need a miracle now.

We need two wins just to get out of the bottom three and we've only won three matches all season!

We now have to win virtually all the winnable matches because we can't afford to give any of our near rivals anything when we play against them.

Because of the points gap our rivals can afford to just not lose against us whilst we need to win for definite and that's a terrible pressure to play under.

Draw or lose Saturday and it's all over bar the shouting.

I think we'll get relegated playing our best football in years and then be decimated in the summer.

I fear a "Sunderland" situation for us next year.

[Johnny on the spot 1]

We need a miracle now.

We need two wins just to get out of the bottom three and we've only won three matches all season!

We now have to win virtually all the winnable matches because we can't afford to give any of our near rivals anything when we play against them.

Because of the points gap our rivals can afford to just not lose against us whilst we need to win for definite and that's a terrible pressure to play under.

Draw or lose Saturday and it's all over bar the shouting.

I think we'll get relegated playing our best football in years and then be decimated in the summer.

I fear a "Sunderland" situation for us next year.

Again a good post Mick , it's going to very difficult to get out of , so f ing disappointing.

[goodlordmurphy]

Points will come from unlikely sources if we give it our best shot....if we are going to adopt a Pulisesque attitude as we did against City then it's goodbye to Premiership football for god knows how long.

[Calgarybaggy]

This is a strange season. There are no teams that are cut adrift. It started with Palace being totally useless, not even scoring for however many games let alone winning, and now look where they are. Just when you think Swansea are going to drop off, they start winning. Are here we are, dead bottom and playing the best we have played all season! And we are only 15 points out of seventh place! We are closer to Arsenal in points than Arsenal is to Man City! It is so jammed up at the bottom than any of the bottom ten could easily go down - its really a question of who keeps their nerve, who has the fewest injuries, who has the hardest fixtures on the run in and good old fashioned luck (or the lack thereof). I wouldn't want to bet against any of the bottom ten going down, its a complete crap shoot. Right now, I think the best candidates for the drop are Newcastle - not playing well, club in turmoil, Huddersfield and Brighton, probably just not quite good enough, Stoke and Watford - playing like they don't care, and Southampton - seem to have lost their mojo. But we have seen teams turn things around a number of times this season. There's no reason to believe that we have not turned things around (playing Man City is hardly a fair measure of our progress) and are on the way up. Actually the game against Southampton is going to be huge. If we have turned things around, we should win that game and won't look back and then Southampton really is in trouble. - But if we let Southampton get their mojo back....
So I know its a cliché, but seriously, the best thing we can do as fans right now is keep out chins up and cheer our lads on as much as we can. It may make all the difference in what will be a very tight race.

[samhubball]

It's a really strange season - I will offer my opinion though if you don't mind - West Bromwich have the best group of players they've had for a long time. If the villa had any of the following we would be improved:

McAuley, Evans, Hegazy, Gibbs, Barry, Chadli, Philips, Sturridge and Rodriguez. I also like Krychoviak and Rondon.

I'll offer some comfort to you baggies - you may be bottom of the table but your team and squad are far better than that of the villa team who finished rock bottom. A few wins in the bounce and you'll be putting pressure on those around you - and football is wildly unpredictable - anyone have a tenner on a double for Swansea beating Liverpool and then Arsenal?

You'll be alright. And if you're not, you won't have the same vitriol from us villans as we got from some of your fans!