[Albion] A three division Division?

[Stat Brother]

Anyone from 10th downwards could still get relegated quite easily.

Let's not get complacent please.

Another rather odd arbitrary line.
Either 14th or 6th, but not 10th.

 

[Blue3]

It's only the half way point still a long way to go I think we are better in depth than last year and the bottom seven teams look weaker I personally will not relax when we reach 40 points

 

[dazzer6666]

It's only the half way point still a long way to go I think we are better in depth than last year and the bottom seven teams look weaker I personally will not relax when we reach 40 points

Eh ? We’ll need about 35 to stay up. Four more wins and a couple of draws.

 

[Goldstone1976]

The Premier League seems to have sorted itself out into three broad divisions now.

1-6: The Big 6 (I'm ignoring Manchester United's current distance from the other 5) battling to avoid the Europa League
7-13: Midtable Mediocrity - 7 clubs separated by three points.
14-20: Relegation Threatened.

Remarkably we're not in the third group. Can you see anyone outside of the current bottom seven getting relegated?

View attachment 102839

I think the team outside the bottom 7 with the highest chance of relegation is us. I think the chances of us being relegated are really pretty low, but a long way from zero.

 

[Bry Nylon]

With Ryan absent for January, I'm far from relaxed about our current points tally.

I just hope our league position hasn't sustained too much damage by the time he get's back from playing in International football's equivilant of a Sunday pub league. Gutted that one of our most important players and probably the first name on the team sheet every week is going to be missing for a month in the middle of the season so he can play in some noddy competition featuring UAE, Thailand, Syria, India, Palestine, Bahrain, Jordan, South Korea, Iran, China, Iraq, Philippines, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Oman, North Korea, Turkmenistan.

 

[zefarelly]

I agree, very few obvious points on offer before February. and also agree with Goldstone 1976 who, similarly to my post a few days ago has suggested, we're not too good to not go down but we are good enough to stay up. All hands on deck.

With Ryan absent for January, I'm far from relaxed about our current points tally.

I just hope our league position hasn't sustained too much damage by the time he get's back from playing in International football's equivilant of a Sunday pub league. Gutted that one of our most important players and probably the first name on the team sheet every week is going to be missing for a month in the middle of the season so he can play in some noddy competition featuring UAE, Thailand, Syria, India, Palestine, Bahrain, Jordan, South Korea, Iran, China, Iraq, Philippines, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Oman, North Korea, Turkmenistan.

 

[Bozza]

Very generous putting the line below 6th and not above it.

Probably, yes. And done so based on my belief that they'll claw themselves closer towards that top group more than the current position. I'd be delighted to be wrong in that assumption though.

Especially as that 8 point gap is the most glaring in the table. Methinks Bozza may have been a bit of a Man U fan as a boy!

I was a Brighton fan as a boy. Wasn't everyone? Well, everyone here at least. Liverpool were the team of choice of the glory hunters in my early school days.

 

[golddene]

With Ryan absent for January, I'm far from relaxed about our current points tally.

I just hope our league position hasn't sustained too much damage by the time he get's back from playing in International football's equivilant of a Sunday pub league. Gutted that one of our most important players and probably the first name on the team sheet every week is going to be missing for a month in the middle of the season so he can play in some noddy competition featuring UAE, Thailand, Syria, India, Palestine, Bahrain, Jordan, South Korea, Iran, China, Iraq, Philippines, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Qatar, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Oman, North Korea, Turkmenistan.

I think our loss of Maty will be difficult but will also be an equal loss for another relegation candidate Hudds, who have Mooy missing at the same time. I think they are both influential for their respective sides!

 

[OzMike]

If Watford get anything from tonight's game then we would have gone from 10th to 13th in over 3 days.
Can't see us getting many points over the Christmas period, so will see where we are then.

 

[RandyWanger]

If we finish comfortable in that middle league, it'll be a successful season. Think we've got enough to be safe, even without Ryan, there's worse teams than us. Find a way to win those marginal games and we're looking very good indeed.

 

[Simster]

Anyone from 10th downwards could still get relegated quite easily.

Let's not get complacent please.

Why 10th? Bournemouth in 8th have now lost 5 of their last 6 league games and that odd one out was only a 2-1 home win against Huddersfield.

 

[father_and_son]

If we finish comfortable in that middle league, it'll be a successful season. Think we've got enough to be safe, even without Ryan, there's worse teams than us. Find a way to win those marginal games and we're looking very good indeed.

This.

We aren't safe by any stretch, but there are teams below looking in far worse shape than us in terms of strength and depth. We definitely aren't "too good to go down", but we aren't "so bad we're sunk". I think we have done fantastically well this season so far, we have a difficult run now for a few weeks but there are still points to be had after the new year.

35 looks like the target for safety, but I won'tr relax until its mathematically assured. But.. I won't be losing any sleep at th moment. We only need the tiniest margin of luck to improve on last season.

 

[crodonilson]

If we carry on as we have done so far this season and maintain our performance levels we'll be absolutely fine.

 

[FatSuperman]

I was a Brighton fan as a boy. Wasn't everyone? Well, everyone here at least. Liverpool were the team of choice of the glory hunters in my early school days.

Practically nobody in my school (in East Sussex) supported Brighton, most of them were Chelsea fans for some reason, one lad supported anyone who Andy Cole played for! My defining memory of supporting a 'little club' was about 92-93 in Birmingham, had a row with a few locals who taunted me because I was wearing a Brighton shirt - they were all Liverpool fans obviously. I had to run.

 

[maffew]

Very generous putting the line below 6th and not above it.

Indeed, an Everton will we see them promoted and United relegated to "our division". Ooh a win on Saturday would have seen us in a promotion battle

In answer to the question one wouldnt expect ANY of the teams to be too worried about relegation (right now)

 

[FatSuperman]

Why 10th? Bournemouth in 8th have now lost 5 of their last 6 league games and that odd one out was only a 2-1 home win against Huddersfield.

That made me feel quite positive, but I've just gone and seen their results for those other 5 matches. Away to Man C and Newcastle, and home to Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool... other than getting something at Newcastle, you wouldn't expect them to have got much from that lot? Although they really should be beating teams like Man U if they want to be competing.

 

[maffew]

probably, yes. And done so based on my belief that they'll claw themselves closer towards that top group more than the current position. I'd be delighted to be wrong in that assumption though.



I was a brighton fan as a boy. Wasn't everyone? Well, everyone here at least. Liverpool were the team of choice of the glory hunters in my early school days.

I was a Man Utd "fan"

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

It's possible, yes. Not likely though. There's too many poor teams in the bottom 7 for it to need anything other than an outright collapse for one of the 'middle' teams to get relegated. That doesn't mean there won't be teams swapping places in the three sections.

Cardiff are the best performing of the bottom teams and 16 games in to the season they've got 14 points. If they continue that rate of picking up points they'll finish with 33. And they're the best of the bottom seven. There are two teams on course for 21 and the third relegation spot is taken by a team heading towards 24. The others are due 29 ,29 and 31.

Obviously some, if not all, of those teams will improve their points per game tally but it'd need five of them to improve (with one of those five having to dramatically improve) their points ratio as well as one of the middle teams having a significant drop off in theirs. Possible but unlikely.

 

[Machiavelli]

The League is either a two-tier or three-tier one, and it really isn't clear which one is the most viable at present. If it's a two-tier, there is a top six, and then the rest. If it's a three-tier, it is not how Bozza has drawn it. This is just a snapshot, 16 games into the season, and it's highly unlikely that it will be so clearly aligned come the end of the season, for instance, as it wasn't last season. A three-tier would more likely have the top six, and then a small group that are challenging for a top half finish. Everton are in there certainly, and probably Leicester, beyond that, there aren't too many others in there -- Bournemouth look good candidates at present, but they've got injuries setting in revealing that the depth of their squad isn't up to too much.

And we're not safe yet, which is all people are saying about our predicament. That said, our current points total puts us in an extremely strong position to survive again this season, if you don't believe this, have a punt, because you'll get extremely generous odds. We won't end up with too many points from now until the end of January. Five would be an extremely good return from those games. This means that there will be a lot of anxiety expressed on this forum during this period (yawn). This is already being displayed by all those pointing to Ryan being absent in January, who are conveniently forgetting that he's likely only to miss three games (Liverpool, United, Fulham), and it's only really the last of those that we'd be expecting to pick up points.

 

[Blue3]

Eh ? We’ll need about 35 to stay up. Four more wins and a couple of draws.

Possable that 35 points will be enough but I will only relax once we get 40