I keep hearing people say we were good against United and Chelsea and some people see that as a reason that we will be OK. There is this common view that results against the top 6 (Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea) 'won't define our season'. So defeats to those sides are just written off as expected.
However, let's look at that in reality. Matches against those 6 sides are 12 of our 38 games - so virtually one third of our season - you simply can't write off that many games, turn a blind eye and accept defeat in all those games. We will lose more than we won't, of course, but we could also pick up some very valuable points.
Last season we took 8 points from those 12 fixtures (a win at Liverpool, a win at Chelsea, a draw v Man U and a point at Arsenal). With 8 points fewer, we would have been relegated.
The season before (we finished 10th) and gained 13 points!! Without those 13 points we would have finished on equal points with 18th placed Hull. Depending on the margin of defeats in those games, we may have been relegated, if we only lost them all by 1 goal we would have survived by the skin of our teeth, by 2 goals.
The first season we were up we only got 4 points from those 12 games so the impact would not have been drastic. However, it is still worth remembering that beating Chelsea (who I think were top) was the springboard for our huge improvement which earned survival.
Anyway, my point is that so far this season we have taken 0 points from 5 of these games and if we don't improve our record against the big boys it could well be the difference of staying up and going down. The likes of Burnley have beaten Liverpool, as have Bournemouth, Middlesbrough took a point off Man City, West Ham did from United.
When Sunderland escaped in 13-14 it was precisely victories against the big boys that saved them.
We can't use two plucky home defeats to two big boys as evidence that Pardew is going to turn us around (especially while the other results have remained so poor). We do need to pick up some unexpected points too and against United, Chelsea and not long ago Man City, there were points there for the taking and we blew them all through lapses (and twice very late in the game).
However, let's look at that in reality. Matches against those 6 sides are 12 of our 38 games - so virtually one third of our season - you simply can't write off that many games, turn a blind eye and accept defeat in all those games. We will lose more than we won't, of course, but we could also pick up some very valuable points.
Last season we took 8 points from those 12 fixtures (a win at Liverpool, a win at Chelsea, a draw v Man U and a point at Arsenal). With 8 points fewer, we would have been relegated.
The season before (we finished 10th) and gained 13 points!! Without those 13 points we would have finished on equal points with 18th placed Hull. Depending on the margin of defeats in those games, we may have been relegated, if we only lost them all by 1 goal we would have survived by the skin of our teeth, by 2 goals.
The first season we were up we only got 4 points from those 12 games so the impact would not have been drastic. However, it is still worth remembering that beating Chelsea (who I think were top) was the springboard for our huge improvement which earned survival.
Anyway, my point is that so far this season we have taken 0 points from 5 of these games and if we don't improve our record against the big boys it could well be the difference of staying up and going down. The likes of Burnley have beaten Liverpool, as have Bournemouth, Middlesbrough took a point off Man City, West Ham did from United.
When Sunderland escaped in 13-14 it was precisely victories against the big boys that saved them.
We can't use two plucky home defeats to two big boys as evidence that Pardew is going to turn us around (especially while the other results have remained so poor). We do need to pick up some unexpected points too and against United, Chelsea and not long ago Man City, there were points there for the taking and we blew them all through lapses (and twice very late in the game).
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