Why do we always play Chelsea at the end of the season?

John McCormick writes:
So you’ve been onto the SAFC home page, clicked the appropriate icon and found the fixtures. No need for me to do much then, is there? Only, M Salut, who is travelling today, would be delighted to find the site that carries his name has not ignored this (pretty much) inauspicious occasion.

Inauspicious for me, at least. With the demise of the Lancashire B teams (That’s Bolton, Blackburn, Burnley, Blackpool and Breston North End), not to mention Wigan, my prospects of getting to a game have diminished. Boxing day will be out as the trains don’t run, and already booked holidays mean I can rule out at least another couple of home games. So what have I to look forward to?

Well the opening few games could be interesting. In August we play three of the 7 teams I selected for my “relegation poll”. None of them are favourites but a couple might be vying for third spot if my punters have it right. (Don’t worry if you haven’t voted yet, you can when you get to the bottom of the page). Relegation candidates or not, they will all need approaching with respect.

Then comes a tricky September, Spurs at home followed by two away trips, one to the far reaches of the Premier League, the other to the far reaches of the country. October brings a home derby and one game I’m banking on getting to: Everton at Goodison. Autumn into winter brings games we should expect to win and the year comes to an end with three tough challenges, Chelsea and Man City away, Liverpool at home.

I was talking to someone this morning who said

“You look at the fixtures these days and you think, ‘that’s tough, that’s tough, that’s tough’..”

He’s right. January to March brings a host of matches we could win but not one guaranteed three pointer. Crystal Palace, for example, in March. We often play them around then, we often need points. We don’t always get them. And so we come to the Mags (well, we go to them but you know what I mean), on March 19th.

April brings more games we should win and then in May we reach the final home game of the season. Chelsea.

Bloody Chelsea. Why do we always play them at the end of the season? Let’s hope we don’t need the points this time.

But just in case we do we have a final game to come. Away to Watford. And there’s something about that that makes we wince. They’re among my punters’ favourites to go down, but last time they were here they graced the Premiership and I wouldn’t put three points in the bag just yet.

 

M Salut tells me  SAFC  have Ok’d putting the whole of our fixtures on this website, so here they are:

AUGUST Sat Aug 8 Leicester City A Sat Aug 15 Norwich City H Sat Aug 22 Swansea City H Sat Aug 29 Aston Villa A	SEPTEMBER Sat Sep 12 Spurs H Sat Sep 19 Bournemouth A Sat Sep 26 Man Utd A	OCTOBER Sat Oct 3 West Ham H Sat Oct 17 WBA A Sat Oct 24 NUFC H Sat Oct 31 Everton A
NOVEMBER Sat Nov 7 Southampton H Sat Nov 21 Crystal Palace A Sat Nov 28 Stoke City H	DECEMBER Sat Dec 5 Arsenal A Sat Dec 12 Watford H Sat Dec 19 Chelsea A Sat Dec 26 Man City A Mon Dec 28 Liverpool H	JANUARY Sat Jan 2 Aston Villa H Tue Jan 12 Swansea City A Sat Jan 16 Spurs A Sat Jan 23 Bournemouth H
FEBRUARY Tue Feb 2 Man City H Sat Feb 6 Liverpool A Sat Feb 13 Man Utd H Sat Feb 27 West Ham A	MARCH Tue Mar 1 Crystal Palace H Sat Mar 5 Southampton A Sat Mar 12 Everton H Sat Mar 19 NUFC A	APRIL Sat Apr 2 WBA H Sat Apr 9 Leicester City H Sat Apr 16 Norwich City A Sat Apr 23 Arsenal H Sat Apr 30 Stoke City A
MAY Sat May 7 Chelsea H Sun May 15 Watford A

 

It’s early days but a couple of hundred votes have been cast in my 2016 relegation poll. Watford and Bournemouth are favourites so far, Leicester and Norwich some way behind. If you’d like to take part be my guest. You can tick up to three boxes, and I’ll start putting out results in a few days:

[polldaddy poll=8923571]