Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I love being right

Well, nuts to that - Liverpool now need United to lose two games or draw three

The one glimmer of hope is that was the one game you could expect to be drawn; Hull, Newcastle, West Ham, West Brom and Tottenham are all that are left and now only 15 points will do

But United have to lose six points off their remaining seven games - Portsmouth, Tottenham, Middlesboro (a), City, Wigan (a), Arsenal and Hull (a)

Do you see it? I don't, Arsenal are playing well and will meet United three times over the coming month, but realistically that's just two points lost - Portsmouth should be a full three gained, as should Hull - three more wins on top of that will effectively seal the title - Tottenham have a slim chance of getting a draw at OT, Boro, Wigan and City (purely for local reasons) are maybes, but remain slim

So five games, of which united have to cock up three - in my opinion it's a long shot, you have to hope for injuries and fatigue from the Champions' League action

In other news I found an old post of mine from January, I was right about Stoke having favourable games and being likely to get into the 40s - they're not going down now

I also expected Bolton to be OK, they were 3 above the drop zone then and now they have a six point cushion with 5 games left - so I was right...

I expected Blackburn and Newcastle to scrape towards 40 at the end - looking good on Blackburn, but Newcastle have to at least beat Pompey and Boro to stay up (I did say 16th, unlikely now)

I also expected Hull and Sunderland to slip, albeit Sunderland have only gone from a five point cushion to four, it's worth three places - Hull have collected only 7 points since I wrote that nearly three months ago and I think they need four or five points from somewhere (better beat Stoke and Bolton then)

Boro I expected to go, against the bookies opinion - and they now sit three (as opposed to one) from safety with Arsenal, United and Villa to play - only a crucial trip to Upton Park looks worth anything, and that Newcastle v Boro on 11th May game now looks like it could define the season

Not a bad prediction considering I named the current bottom six, and predicted Stoke and Pompey would live, and bear in mind back then Hull were 10th and Sunderland 12th, and Stoke were 19th

I'll stick with Boro and West Brom, and place a hefty chunk on Newcastle to go with them

Update: I know this completely ignores form and their rivals' performances but I worked out United's points-per-game ratio, and at their current rate they should get 16 points off seven games - meaning they finish on 87, and Liverpool can mathematically only get 86

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