Are we in a relegation battle right now?

[ijjysmith]

It’s an optical illusion.

I was never any good at those magic eye jobs.

 

[TheFinnFan]

If we lose to WBA then yes.

 

[griffla]

we're 7 points above the drop zone and rock bottom of the form league. We haven't had a shot for 5 games.
We are utter, utter dross and need to get some form back ASAP.
We're bang in trouble as it stands, fingers crossed Cenk will save us

 

[toffee-L]

I’ve just looked at the league table for the first time in ages. I assumed we’d be like 13th-15th or something judging on recent form.

How on Jesus Christ’s sake are we 9th when we never take shots on goal??

Its a sad indictment of the standard of the league. You have a top 6 (well maybe not as Arsenal are utterly shameful - although still a damn way ahead of us) that are just so far ahead of the rest of the league. Everyone from us down is straight garbage.

 

[eaglebjk]

Talking of Bournemouth, I'd take Eddie Howie as manager plays football against any team with supposedly worse players than us.

Eddie Howie

 

[Toffe3m4n]

A win against WBA on Saturday will pretty much confirm, at least for me, that relegation is highly unlikely. We need to get to a point where we can say with almost certainty that our status in the division is assured so we can get to work on preparing for next season asap, both on and off the pitch.

 

[LiamG]

we are a mid table side with mid table players mate

we are in a position league wise where we should be

Agreed but we shouldn't accept it.

I hope after this season the board will make money available to correct it.

 

[DanEFC92]

Agreed but we shouldn't accept it.

I hope after this season the board will make money available to correct it.

Unless we restructure how we scout players, throwing x amount of monies at the problem isn't going to work.

 

[gonetomorrow]

Every team from ourselves in ninth downwards is involved in a relegation scrap.
The gulf between Leicester in eighth and the rest is immense, as shown by their performance at Chelsea.

 

[4737carlin]

Talking of Bournemouth, I'd take Eddie Howie as manager plays football against any team with supposedly worse players than us.

No chance, it was taking flavour of the month, or in Howies case flavour of the previous weekend, that got us Koeman and Martinez and had us looking at Silva a few weeks ago.

 

[originalgreaserbob]

We aren't very far from the drop if you just look at points, but there's a lot of teams between us and there. It's not hard to get passed by one or two teams, but to get passed by all those teams we'd need to lose almost every game. If we lose to WBA and Leciester and a lot of the teams below us win both then I'll be worried. But as of now we've a much better chance of getting 7th than 18th.

 

[originalgreaserbob]

Also:

We have 3 points out of 9 games against the top 6 (.33 points per game). We have 24 points out of 14 games against the rest (1.71 ppg).

We have 3 games remaining against the top 6. We have 12 games remaining against the rest of the league.

 

[MikeH72]

Bournemouth are 3 points behind us with a better goal difference. West Ham and Palace are 2 points behind us. But we're definitely not in a relegation battle, nah, safe as houses aren't we.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Bournemouth are 3 points behind us with a better goal difference. West Ham and Palace are 2 points behind us. But we're definitely not in a relegation battle, nah, safe as houses aren't we.

We have the easiest run in statistically of any team. 15 games. Only 3 against the top 6. Two of which are home. We also have WBA Leicester Palace Brighton Newcastle Southampton all at home. If we can't get the 13 points we need to completely guarantee survival from those 15 games then this is the worst coaching job ever done in top flight football. We probably only need 11 points as well. I'll be stunned if 38 isn't enough.

In short, win v WBA. And stop the panic that we're "doomed". It was this sort of hysterical panic that got us stuck with a complete footballing dinosaur.

 

[originalgreaserbob]

Bournemouth are 3 points behind us with a better goal difference. West Ham and Palace are 2 points behind us. But we're definitely not in a relegation battle, nah, safe as houses aren't we.

It's not the points, it's the number of teams that would have to pass us. There's just not that many combinations of possible outcomes that can lead to us dropping 8 places. Those teams behind us all play each other, too, so they can't *all* go on big winning streaks. Also almost all of them have more games left against the top 6 than we do. Finally, most of them are as bad as we are, if not worse.

I realize it's hard not to worry when we look as bad as we did yesterday, but it's nothing new. We were that bad against Man U, against Arsenal, against freaking Southampton. We're the same team we were then. An average, solidly-midtable club. We're not 100% safe, but I believe we're 90% safe. And for what it's worth, the bookies agree: odds range from 50/1 to 150/1.