This seasons tough spell: March and April

[Mr Pink]

March isn't too bad, April looks tough but we've done most of the really difficult away games bar Chelsea. Its all about momentum, and the Christmas period should be the spring board for that.

 

[lillywhites61]

It looks very tough on paper, but impossible to tell, all teams go trough good spells and bad spells, injuries will play a key part to it as well.

If we are fit and healthy and in good form I think we will be ok but the team around us may be better?

This league is so tough now it's crazy, the fight to get into the top four is an epic battle that no other league can boast. As is the fight to stay in it!

 

[gregga]

Gregga.
I wouldn't rule out a late season collapse again because our players clearly are still mentally weak.

What does this even mean?
Sandro, Parker, Kaboul,Vertonghen, Dembele, Bale, all suffer from 'mental weakness' do they?
What is it, a sort of virus running through the club?

It was the manager that lost focus last year if anything and we still made top four.

Not trying to put a downer on things just that the players seem to get rattled a little too easliy: retreating to the edge of the penalty area to defend leads (see the Southampton and City games), giving away 2 goals in less than 90 seconds against Everton.

Put another way we certainly aren't a team like Man U that is able to rely on mental strength above talent and team balance.

 

[bugsdad]

Not trying to put a downer on things just that the players seem to get rattled a little too easliy: retreating to the edge of the penalty area to defend leads (see the Southampton and City games), giving away 2 goals in less than 90 seconds against Everton.

Put another way we certainly aren't a team like Man U that is able to rely on mental strength above talent and team balance.

The difference is Man U are used to having season after season of sucess. We are a new squad that has been slaughtered in the press and just dont have the confidence in their own abilities YET. The more games we win the less these aberations will happen . I don't think we are mentally weak, just not yet sure of our own abilities, but as I say this will come.

 

[AngerManagement]

I worry more about seemingly easy games, like the little run we have now

I feel we will raise our game for the bigger games and give at least a fair account of ourselves. Plus losses or draws from tough games are easier to swallow.

It's the Wigan at home type of losses that really get to me and these are the games we seem susceptible to also *Norwich and West Brom home also this year

From that run I could easily see us getting give or take 12 points

March:

2nd: Arsenal (H) W

9th: Liverpool (A) D

16th: Fulham (H) W

30th: Swansea (A) D

April:

6th: Everton (H) W

13th: Chelsea (A) L

20th: Man City (H) D

 

[robbiedee]

It's not that tough really though is it! Chelsea away may be the toughest.

Agree completely with the 1 game at a time approach but here's how I see it...
Arse - we were in control for the 13 minutes at theirs before Ade had a moment of mentalness. We will win this.
Liverpool - we beat them out ours just about (apart from all those penalties they should have had ) and we do well at their place. Win or draw at worst.
Fulham - possibly the most straight forward of the fixtures...Big win.
Swansea - I actually see this as a tricky one...win or draw at worst.
Everton - we very nearly beat them at theirs the other week apart from a lapse of concentration for the 5 mins of injury time. At home we will win this.
Chelsea - this is the one I want to see AVB go out and smash. We lost 4-2 at ours and most CFC fans, pundits and media say we were hammered by chelsea in that game which isn't true. That last goal was a comical fuck up by walker so 3-2 wouldn't have been the hammering everyone other than Spurs so wanted. Draw at best but hope for a shock win to shut those idiots up.
Man City - I think we could nick this at home. Win or draw at worst.

So there you go! Even if we don't sign anyone in Jan but do have our injured players back, we are a much stronger prospect for 2013. We'll be just fine. If we could take 19 -21 points ther we'd be knocking on the door of 2nd spot, and that would shut a few people up wouldn't it.

Hang on...whats that noise...sounds like my fucking alarm...bugger...time to wake up...fuck!
COYS...To Dare is To Do

 

[michaelden]

March:
2nd: Arsenal (H) - Win 3-1
9th: Liverpool (A) - Win 2-0
16th: Fulham (H) - Win 2-1
30th: Swansea (A) - Win 2-0

April:
6th: Everton (H) - Win 1-0
13th: Chelsea (A) - Win 3-2
20th: Man City (H) - Lose 1-3

My guesses

 

[stormfly]

At least 13 points from that lot I reckon.

 

[EastLondonYid]

No such thing as a 'tough or easy spell' in the prem..IMO...if you don't turn up against any given team,you get beat, we have won at OT this season and lost at home to wigan, yes i suppose i would rather play wigan every week than Man U , but i don't like labelling games as easy or hard, thats when teams like us come unstuck.
every game in this league is tough.

 

[Gedson100]

March:
2nd: Arsenal (H) - Win 5-2 (Oh the irony, Sandro's injury time hat-trick seals the deal)
9th: Liverpool (A) - Draw 0-0 (Brendan Rogers football philosophy has taken hold as a game without shots but plenty of passing leads to an obvious scoreless draw, Defoe anonymous)
16th: Fulham (H) - Win 4-3 ('Berby' runs a half, pulling all the strings as we are shocked to go in 3-0 down, an inspired introduction of Soulimane Coulibaly and a trademark overhead winner in stoppage time from him seals the comeback)
30th: Swansea (A) - Win 1-0 (Another game full of passing looks like 'passing' into nothing until a long Dawson hoof loops into the net late on)

April:
6th: Everton (H) - Win 4-0 (Everton have completely run out of steam under player manager Phil Neville and we cruise past them easily)
13th: Chelsea (A) - Win 5-2 (Benitez first game in charge in his second spell, it's oh so easy as Kyle Walker & Aaron Lennon pretty much retire Ashley Cole setting up all 5 goals between them
20th: Man City (H) - Win 2-0 (Champions elect? Surely after a moment of Balotelli madness in the warm up leads Man City to play the entire match with 10 men. Jermaine Defoe's 34th and 35th goals of the season see him hailed as one of the greats)

Easy innit

 

[brasil_spur]

We're in for a very tough March and April this season.

Our fixtures are as follows:

March:

2nd: Arsenal (H)

9th: Liverpool (A)

16th: Fulham (H)

30th: Swansea (A)

April:

6th: Everton (H)

13th: Chelsea (A)

20th: Man City (H)

What do you guys reckon, could we potentially be in for a crash-and-burn ending just like last season? Of course January could have a big impact on our spring half of the season if we actually strengthen our squad. With Scotty, Kaboul and BAE back in the squad and hopefully fit through March and April we will get some leadership, heart and added quality without spending money.

I see the Arsenal game on 2nd of March as the most important game of the season, not only for the rivalry part of it, but getting a good result there will hopefully see boost the teams moral and give us a good run of form ahead of two tough months with 6 tough fixtures one after the other. Last seasons loss to Arsenal saw us plunge into a very bad run of form and them hitting their stride.

On the upside we have a bit easier finish to the season with Wigan (A), Southhampton (H), Stoke (A) and Sunderland (H) as our last games. Hopefully Wigan will have secured their spot for next season by then so they don't really have that much to play for as they can be rather tricky.

I can't say i'm too worried about Swansea, Fulham and Liverpool - not the easiest games but far from games we should be losing if we play well. Arsenal at home should be a game where we have a decent chance too.

April looks tough though, if we come through those 3 games with 3 points we'll have done well, more than 3 points would be an excellent result.

I think what this shows is that we will need a couple of signings in Jan in order to keep us in our current position, 4th, which has to be the goal right now for this season.

 

[StartingPrice]

We only took 3 points from possible 12 in this sequence of games. We can't afford to repeat this when we play them again, especially Arsenal and Everton, who will in and around us.

I agree with Mr Eastwood (he might beat me up with a pick-axe handle if I don't ...but, there again, we did lynch him when he was innocent ). United, Citeh, Chelsea and the Goons away are definitively our hardest games of the season, technically - what the OP and your train of thinking misses is that they should all be thinking crikey, Tottenham at the Lane is one of our hardest games of the season - definitively! We could three points, which is something. We were ahead and looking comfortable against the Goons until Ade got sent off (numpty ). And that was during a transition period, with a long list of 1st team absences.

There are no easy games, in any case, and that is a hard looking run. But to be panty-pooping at this stage is, well, a bit like making a thread about being really worried about the Swansea game a couple of weeks before it was played. Who did that, again?

 

[Gbspurs]

I'm not worried, everyone knows we go from strength to strength at the end of the season....... Oh.

 

[ultimateloner]

I think 3 wins are achievable so 10 pts.
The most important period is now. If we get everything we should through this 'easy' spell we will be very solid going to 2013.

 

[Mullers]

I am not worried at all, you can't get a champions league spot by just playing easy teams, if you want to be the best you have to play the best and earn your spot.

 

[Riandor]

It's all about momentum.
If we have gotten into that stage of the New Year in a great position then i think we will maintain it. but it depends on the other teams momentum just as much. Have we overtaken Chelsea? Are we just behind them, were are Arsenal? Are City still close enough to United to challenge for the title, etc etc...

All we can do is worry about each game as it comes, put ourselves into the best possible position and just play those games in the context they need.

Heck Chelsea could lose every game between now and then and be so far adrift our result with them is irrelevant. Hugely unlikely, but there is simply little point trying to predict the run in.

We had a fairly do-able run in last season and we still fecked it up royally. maybe the tougher run in will focus us.

 

[Paq]

No easy games in the Premiership. One game at a time...

 

[chinaman]

If we can put together a run through Xmas and New Year, and with injured players coming back, we should be able to go through Jan and Feb with such confidence that we'll be pushing for 3rd place. With that carrot dangling in front of their faces, the players will not just fold as they did last year.

Hopefully with a couple of good signings in January will help the cause.

 

[Montasura]

We've got a nice little run in the next few games though. I'm really optimistic and I think we could even create a bigger gap on 5th of the next few weeks.

This is more important IMO...it is during our next few games where we really need to capitalise. On paper they are easy enough games that we should win. If we do we have a chance of building a bit of a gap which will allow for some cock ups during the March/April games.

But yes, I do remember having a 13 point cushion last season!!

 

[BillyWhizz]

It's not a given that we'll fall away during the run in, the last 2 seasons were tough to take but the season before our late run got us 4th spot.

Believe.