The bloody fixture! 15/16

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arbok

Player Valuation: £15m
Here's our first 10 games.

Sat 8th Aug Watford (H)
Sat 15th Aug Southampton (A)
Sun 23rd Aug Man City (H)
Sat 29th Aug Spurs (A)
Sat 12th Sep Chelsea (H)
Sat 19th Sep Swansea (A)
Mon 28th Sep West Brom (A)
Sat 3rd Oct Liverpool (H)
Sat 17th Oct Man U (H)
Sat 24th Oct Arsenal (A)

Who the hell did this nightmare fixture? Could it be any harder? Top 7 from last year in the first 10 games. We use up all our 'home' games on the harder teams while we are still trying to find form. Most years it takes a while before Everton get going. In last year's case they didn't get going at all.

I'll be laughing if we can get 4 wins, 3 draws, 3 losses from this. Thoughts?
 
Here's our first 10 games.

Sat 8th Aug Watford (H)
Sat 15th Aug Southampton (A)
Sun 23rd Aug Man City (H)
Sat 29th Aug Spurs (A)
Sat 12th Sep Chelsea (H)
Sat 19th Sep Swansea (A)
Mon 28th Sep West Brom (A)
Sat 3rd Oct Liverpool (H)
Sat 17th Oct Man U (H)
Sat 24th Oct Arsenal (A)

Who the hell did this nightmare fixture? Could it be any harder? Top 7 from last year in the first 10 games. We use up all our 'home' games on the harder teams while we are still trying to find form. Most years it takes a while before Everton get going. In last year's case they didn't get going at all.

I'll be laughing if we can get 4 wins, 3 draws, 3 losses from this. Thoughts?

....I don't think it really matters what the fixtures throw out. Sometimes it works out when you play a better team when they are struggling with injuries or lose a key player through suspension but it's usually a case of swings and roundabouts. Where a team is after 10 games usually sets the tone for the season.
 

Got to play everyone twice, what does it matter when?

I think it does actually.

For instance look at last season. Due to poor preparation we weren't conditioned properly to last 90 minutes against the big boys early on, and from being in a comfortable position against Arsenal we let a 2 goal lead slip. The following week the best team in the league turn up and we're still under cooked and although we put up a fight they steam roll us easily. By that point it's obvious to everyone we've not been properly prepared for the season and we've faced two top teams who didn't need to be in top gear to beat us. If we'd had played say teams like Villa or Sunderland would we have had a better chance of beating them while not being at our best or fittest? I reckon we could have got away with it, or at least not took a confidence sapping 6-3 home defeat. Suddenly after 3 games we've gone from being a team with a solid water tight defence, one of the best in the league, to team leaking goals and looking a mess. You can't say that didn't effect how the season began to unravel.

The key to a good season is starting off well and gaining confidence and momentum quickly, a run of Newly promoted team>Southampton>City>Spurs>Chelsea would never be easy but with it coming at the beginning of the season while your trying to find a rhythm and confidence it's a tougher ask. If things don't go well then and the next batch of games consists of Liverpool>Utd>Arsenal we could be looking at a very large gap between us and the top teams before the clocks have turned back. A good start will be vital to how our season pans out and these fixtures don't make it easy in any way for us.

If you could hand pick a sequence of the first 10 games there's no way anyone on here would choose it like this.
 
Whats inportant there is that 1 win and 2 defeats is better than 2 draws and a defeat.
So if we can get out of that winning say 4 and drawing a couple then after the 10th game we give it a 'season starts here' mentality.
Opening 2 games are very important.
Anything less then a win vrs watford and we are chasing our tales from the off, also we have a notoriously bad record at southampton but with a few changes again for them this summer we are unsure how they are going to start. If we could get 6 points from our first two games that would give us room to manouvere. 4 points wouldnt be a crisis but it would mean we have to go into city looking for a win
 

Having time to think it over - far better to play the best before they are in their stride - for example how many games do the top 5 lose after Christmas against the other 15 sides? Not too many is it?

An easier way to look at it is that Chelsea had the league wrapped up by November last year (IMO) as they had played all their tough away games (at United, City, Everton (6-3 win)) and were already well ahead of the pack. If we can emerge with 12 or 13 points we're in a great position for the rest of the season - and if not, well at least it can only get better..
 
Sat 8th Aug Watford (H)
Sat 15th Aug Southampton (A)
Sat 29th Aug Spurs (A)
Sat 19th Sep Swansea (A)
Mon 28th Sep West Brom (A)
Sat 3rd Oct Liverpool (H)

All crap
 

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