Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith is a proper football fan. Prawn sandwiches may be an odd thing to call posh (copyright Roy Keane) but you wouldn’t catch Sixer eating one at the game all the same. Nor should you look out for him in the East Stand on Sunday and expect to see him with a happy plastic clapper. Here’s his rather appealing, if reactionary, rant …
All graphics courtesy of Jake
Pete Sixsmith says we will go down unless we win four games. Big Sam sets the same target. With only seven left, and looking at who we face in them, it takes a serious half-glass full believer to have much faith in that happening.
“Can we halt the Leicester juggernaut and drive the Foxes into a hole?” Sixer asked at the start of a splendid trawl through the nicknames of those opponents. ” Having done that, can we survive the plastic clappers at Carrow Road and knock the Canaries off their perch? Can we silence the Gunners, break the Potters and consign the Pensioners to their barracks. Will we come unstuck against the Toffees before drawing the sting from the Hornets?”
It looks beyond us. But it can be done, subject to rather a lot of Ifs.
Another international weekend, another look at the bottom of the table. And, yes, we’re still there. In fact, looking at the numbers, it looks very much as if we’ll be there until the bitter end.
Sunderland’s predicament is the stuff of shredded nerves. Sam Allardyce talks of needing perhaps four wins and a draw from eight games and many of us doubt we are capable of producing anything like such a haul.
This, as we approach yet another weekend without “our” football, is how the bottom half + one of the Premier League looks:
[polldaddy poll=9342929]
As we all know, the Tyne-Wear derby is more than just a question of whether SAFC can make it seven wins in a row. Premier League survival could depend on the outcome.
Steve McClaren has gone. The unprofessionalism he showed in handling the media in the death throes of his Newcastle United managerial career may have been caused by the stress of knowing the axe was poised above his head, so maybe he deserves our sympathy.
And the smart money – only money – is on Rafa Benitez, another manager with a history of strops with the press, to replace him. He may find St James’ Park “less sexy than Real” according to a Belgian site I came across, but we can hardly say he’s a useless manager.
Not forgetting ….
The Norwich-based Eastern Daily Press is inevitably getting as worked up about City’s prospects of survival as we are about our own. Black Cats vs Canaries vs Magpies. Which creature will prevail? So the EDP came knocking at the door and asked Pete Sixsmith how he thought the relegation battle would finish. The questions and answers presuppose that Villa are relegation certs so let’s hope they haven’t a Leicester-style revival up their sleeves …
Who is going down? We all want to know and The Observer asked supporters of all the threatened clubs. See the full set of verdicts at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/feb/20/premier-league-battle-for-survival. Pete Sixsmith‘s thoughts have cheer-up value …
 Relegation poll results after the close of the summer transfer window |
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By now you must be getting bored with the graph above on the left, especially as it has been less than a month, and only three games, since it was last posted up.
John McCormick writes: there’s no Premier League football this weekend, so it’s another chance to take stock and update my “relegation watch” series. If you’re new to the series and want to see how it began, or if you want to refresh your memory, you can try this link)
By now regulars should be familiar with the first graph. It dates from the close of the summer transfer window and shows our readers’ choices for the relegation spots. I’m putting it in once more so you can remind yourself how closely it resembles reality or, alternatively, so you can work out just what the clubs have to do to prove our readers right by the end of the season. If that’s too difficult you can jump to the end, where I’ve made it simple for you.
John McCormick writes: It’s another international break, so another chance to take stock and update my “relegation watch” series. For some of the clubs at or near the bottom, it’s getting scary.
(If you’re new to the series and want to see how it began, or if you want to refresh your memory , you can try this link)
By now regular readers should be familiar with the first graph. It dates from the close of the transfer window and shows our readers’ choices for the relegation spots. I’m putting it in (again) so you can see how closely it resembles reality or, alternatively, so you can work out just what the clubs have to do to prove our readers right by the end of the season.