Tempted to not bother posting again until it's all played out this season, but fwiw...

@12 games to go I used The Mustard's league predictor (the now traditional version) to churn out ALL the results (think it was something like 144 or in the 130s). By and large we were picking up the points I was expecting. Now we've finally dropped into the bottom 3 (something I predicted would happen in mid April and we'd only get out of on the final day) with just 2 remaining I thought that was a good time to see just how 'inevitable' it all was (just focussing on the key games this time: who cares about the title race etc?).

Turns out a draw and a win would be enough to survive by a single point (last time round it was on gd). Do a Chelsea on Chelsea and survive a goalless bore draw and we're still in it. If Liverpool can't break them down with their attacking game there's obviously no hope for us trying to make something happen chasing all 3 points. Chelsea beating Atletico will greatly help matters there. If we fail then Sunderland will have us effectively down with a midweek win over West Brom as we'd need to overhaul an estimated 13 goal deficit to draw level on 35 and overtake them in 17th. The survival also required Swansea beating Sunderland on the final day.
For the record Cardiff & Fulham finished 19th & 20th respectively, both on 33, Sunderland 18th on 35, Villa 16th & us 17th resp, both on 36, and West Brom 15th on 37.

Those results in full:-

Villa 1 Hull 1
Man U 4 Sund 0
Newc 1 Cardiff 2
Stoke 1 Fulham 1

Arse 3 WBA 0
Chelsea 0 City 0

Man City 3 Villa 0
Sund 2 WBA 0

Cardiff 0 Chelsea 1
Fulham 2 Palace 2
City 2 Arse 1
Sund 2 Swansea 3
Tott 2 Villa 0
WBA 1 Stoke 1

I also placed a bet with my heart to beat Liverpool and one with my head with the corresponding free bet. With the winnings (?25) from the free bet I've placed another heart bet to back us to stay up @10/3. Luckily I ticked the box to accept higher odds as checking today that's now lengthened to 6/1. Nice three figure sum for not giving up hope. It was 'free' money if it all falls flat.

Now I've put all this here for all to see - and I'm sure many to mock - and yes, I'm well aware that given how we've been playing all season and vs Man U etc etc, it's far more likely that Chelsea will destroy us meaning Arse will be irrelevant - and that'll be when Ricky bloody scores! But you all know my position on fighting to the last, so we'll see what happens...

I hope I have the strength of character not to monkey tilt against all the bed wetters should we survive, but I've no doubt should the worst happen that this place will be insufferable with all the told-you-soers repeating ad nauseum how they predicted all this months ago etc etc (like we couldn't all see something was wrong). I fully plan to stay away over the summer anyway to enjoy the World Cup (I've been supporting England longer than City and won't let things here spoil that) and other sports like the cycling, but seeing as everyone's on the 'looking forward to the Champ' or 'accepted relegation after x' tip, or more negatively stripping the players/manager/board apart in their fantasy rebuilds right now, I don't think there's much more we can say to each other in the meantime, given how staunch our views are, so I'm gonna see if I can give the Wrath a wide berth - or just lurk - until the 7th/11th. I've no idea if that'll last given how addicted I've been just lately, but it'd probably be for the best. Maybe one post when it's all over, then give it 'til the new season starts. I doubt you'd miss me anyway, as I certainly don't get the fanfares like other recent returners when I've resurfaced in the past after months of no posting!

For the record whilst I'm here, if we go down I'm one of those that doesn't think we'd be bouncing straight back up and things could get an awful lot messier, even with the financial clout. It's all conjecture over who goes, stays & joins etc so I won't waste any further space here with all that. I fully accept that from the top half of the Champ to the bottom half of the Prem it's a toss up between all those similar sized clubs and we're one of those that will spend the foreseeable future bobbing about between the two leagues every now and then, the length of each spell varying depending on countless factors. Relegation won't be the end of us and if I have to face it this season I know it won't be for the last time (from the Prem). Relegation will be relatively easy to accept as we've been so poor but I won't accept it until it is so. That doesn't mean that it won't wrankle that it could've been avoided with a whole heap of ifs and buts. If we survive we will've deserved it also, but it'd be one hell of a lucky escape which we'd have to learn from.

Apologies for the long post but I wanted to get it all out so that I could say my peace and then leave it at that for now. I hate these periods in our supporting lives when we're fighting amongst ourselves and hope the next upward period isn't too far down the line.

Deej signing out for now...
OTBC NMTD

Posted By: DJ Ginga, Apr 28, 02:28:52