The start is a Myth.
Up until the Derby we drew with Wolves, Bournemouth, Huddersfield and Chelsea.
We won against Southampton, Fulham, Leicester, Crystal Palace, Brighton and Cardiff.
Lost to West Ham, Arsenal, Man Ure andthem lot.
Even after the derby we drew with Newscatle and Watford before being beat by City and Spurs before beating Burnley and losing to Brighton. It has continued pretty much as before! Pretty much the same consistency as before! I think some on here are starting to believe the rubbish the club want us to believe......
At the start of the season we played some good stuff without much reward. West Ham game we were dreadful, and v Arsenal we were unfortunate.
If you take our first 9 lg games (a third of the season)
Wolves (A) - 2-2 (with 10 men for an hour, unlucky not to win)
S'ton (H) - 2-1
B'mouth (A) - 2-2
Huddersfield (H) - 1-1
West Ham (H) - 1-3
Arsenal (A) - 0-2
Fulham (H) - 3-0
Leicester (A) - 2-1
Palace (H) - 2-1
Overall, decent. We'd started to hit our stride with three successive wins by the time the team had settled (the team having had to go from playing under Allardyce to playing a completely different way, while three players who were brought in to play Silva's way weren't even fit).
Next, the middle. By the derby, due to those three wins above and some decent performances, we were in 6th. Stop with rubbish comments that we weren't playing well, we were.
Man Utd (A) - 1-2
Brighton (H) - 3-1
Chelsea (A) - 0-0 (Chelsea had won like 10 in a row or something at that point)
Cardiff (H) - 1-0
Liverpool (A) - 0-0
Newcastle (H) - 1-1
Watford (H) - 2-2
City (A) - 1-3
Spurs (H) - 2-6
So, the second part of the season (based on the thirds). Confident to begin with, then the derby happens, and we can't recover the form. The footy was still good, and the team still looked to have a system and style that worked.
Third part...
Burnley (A) - 5-1
Brighton (A) - 0-1
Leicester (H) - 0-1
B'mouth (H) - 2-1
S'ton (A) - 1-2
Huddersfield (H) - 1-0
Wolves (H) - 1-3
City (H) - 0-2
Watford (A) - 0-1
As I said, recently (i.e. the last third and the tail end of the second third) it's been very bad.