While Leicester result wasn’t an ideal one from our perspective, we do still remain 7 points above the drop, a much, much better position than we were in a week ago. The other thing as well, while I would’ve preferred a Spurs win, it at least means we’re no longer cut adrift of teams directly above us anymore and we can keep one eye on teams above us now, while still obviously looking over our shoulder while we’re not out of it. It definitely keeps Van Nistelrooy as manager for our game as well. I would be perhaps a bit more nervous about our game and a ‘new manager bounce’ had they pulled the trigger, should they have lost.
The Leicester game next week is still a big one for us, out of the February fixtures. Win that and we’re 9 clear of them, possibly the same amount above the drop zone and derby aside, we’ve got a month of fixtures where I’d be fairly confident of us being able to get something out of them. That would put us within touching distance of safety, as far as I’m concerned. If we do lose it, different story, we definitely won’t be out of it, but still in our hands and plenty of opportunities to pull ourselves away between now and the start of April.
I can’t say I’m completely relaxed about our position, in truth and probably won’t be until we get to 30 odd points or keep ourselves in amongst the batch of Spurs, Man United, West Ham and Palace. Those teams won’t go down and if we’re in that group, then neither should we.