6 games in...

[BWFC_Insane]

7 points, a decent start considering 3 of those we'd not have been shocked to lose.

As it is we've lost one, but only won one.

Next two games pretty important. West Brom away you'd normally look on as a good chance for an away win. Not so sure you'd say that at the minute it looks a very tricky game indeed. I think we may do well to take a point.

Then Stoke at home. 3 points from these two would be minimum IMO but 4 would be nice.

Performance and results wise things are coming together but the test will be whether our improved performances will lead to us winning games like Stoke at home.

One thing I'll say is all across the board this is shaping up as a very different premiership season. Tight and very little in it. Battle for 1st, battle for top 4 and then the relegation battle after 6 games all looks like being tighter than usual. I can't see Blackpool staying up but Newcastle and West Brom both look like they'll do better than you might normally expect from promoted sides.

Wigan look like they might struggle but no way Everton will stay down there and West Ham will sneak out I suspect.

So its a good start but I have the feeling it'll be one of those seasons where in March half a dozen or more teams will still be in danger of the drop and have a sneaking suspicion it could well be well in excess of 40 to be safe this time. Having said that OC is doing a cracking job so far a very decent start. Long may it continue.

[TANGODANCER]

I informed a certain missing poster not long ago that there are no shxte teams in the Premiership. The top three are pretty certain, Liverpool uncertain and everybody else going din-dong to give it a go. Banker games are no longer that (West Ham beating Spurs etc), and it's time we stopped talking about eminently winnable games and just went hell for leather at the lot. We've played most of two games with ten men and our one defeat might not have been so but for that. Every game has to be a cup final if we want to go up and stay there. Most confident of doing that I've been for a while. United, hate em or not, are a first class side and we came within an ace of beating them. Today I was proud of our fight and team attitude more than anything, and the crowd showing their appreciation of just that.

[Lord Kangana]

I always preferred the psychological trick that Allardyce used to use. That is, you look at a block of games and you set yourself a realistsic points total. That way, when you get bonus points (Villa away, Utd home) it fits into a grander strategy, doesn't let you get carried away, and also protects you form being too down when an (inevitable) loss crops up against oppo you feel you should be beating.

In that sense, I'm loathe to look at two games in microcosm. However, I would suggest for a good base to be built on, then 4 points (in whatever combination) from those two would represent a par score. 6 would be wonderland, 2 not exactly a disaster, but less than that and we'll have let a magnificent opportunity to climb the table slip.

Having said all that, West Brom will be targetting us as a winnable home game, and Stoke as a chance to garner points away. If we can achieve consistency of performance from the last couple ofweeks, though, I'm confident that we can hold our own in those games.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

I think this is a dangerous season. There doesn't at this moment seem to be any really bad teams. Wigan, Blackpool, Newcastle or Wolves may emerge as clearly worse than the rest but it is by no means certain. I saw the first half of Wigan v Chelsea when they lost 6-0 and until Chelsea scored Wigan were excellent. They are a strong athletic team. Likewise the rest all have some great attributes. I would not be surprised to see Birmingham, Sunderland, Everton have struggles this season. Everton always have a bad start, but this year it may be harder to recover from.

We look a lot better than last year but that seems to be the minimum requirement to be competitive. I am certainly thinking about avoiding relegation at this stage until we prove we can win games against lower and mid table teams. Whilst WBA and Stoke will be a more accurate measure of where we are, I don't think we should be drawing any hasty conclusions from those games either way. Lets see where we are at Christmas.

[CAPSLOCK]

We've won one in six

We've failed to win even one of our 3 home games

While the smart money may be on 2 more draws, 2 defeats aint out of the question..if that happens, we're bottom 3 with 7 from 9

We've played a third of the games against the big 3 so it aint too bleak

I'd happily take defeat at West Brom for a victory over Stoke

[BWFC_Insane]

We've won one in six

We've failed to win even one of our 3 home games

While the smart money may be on 2 more draws, 2 defeats aint out of the question..if that happens, we're bottom 3 with 7 from 9

We've played a third of the games against the big 3 so it aint too bleak

I'd happily take defeat at West Brom for a victory over Stoke

Cheer up Caps. I get your reservations. Long way to go and lots to prove yet.

But if on August 10th someone had said "we'll only lose one of our first 6 and be above Liverpool in the table" you'd be more than happy with that!

[General Mannerheim]

i fancy us at WBA despite their result this weekend.

should take a decent following too hopefully, reasonable prices & not too far. looking forward to it.

[CAPSLOCK]

Indeed and as I said we've got games against United and Arsenal out of the way

But, I've seen nothing so far this season to give me any great optimism about getting a win in either of the coming 2 - can you really say you think we'll win one of 'em?

The failure to beat either of Fulham and Brum is casting a shadow over our start

[CAPSLOCK]

Oh aye, Liverpool?

A fcuking irrelevance

We could finish above them

[BWFC_Insane]

Indeed and as I said we've got games against United and Arsenal out of the way

But, I've seen nothing so far this season to give me any great optimism about getting a win in either of the coming 2 - can you really say you think we'll win one of 'em?

The failure to beat either of Fulham and Brum is casting a shadow over our start

West Brom away- tough game. I'd take a point probably. However we may catch them on an off day.

Stoke at home- put it this way play like we did today and I'd be amazed if we didn't win it.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Indeed and as I said we've got games against United and Arsenal out of the way

But, I've seen nothing so far this season to give me any great optimism about getting a win in either of the coming 2 - can you really say you think we'll win one of 'em?

The failure to beat either of Fulham and Brum is casting a shadow over our start

West Brom away- tough game. I'd take a point probably. However we may catch them on an off day.

Stoke at home- put it this way play like we did today and I'd be amazed if we didn't win it.

Stoke beat Newcastle 2-1 today with 34% possession, and hit the bar and the post as well. They had 1 shot on target! It will be a totally different type of test, and an interesting one to see where we really are.

[CAPSLOCK]

I hope you're right

Its been a while since I explored Eastern Europe

[James B]

results wise. the start couldn't be more down the middle really. neither great nor poor.

the last 2 performances give heart. could have easily got 6 pts when we all expected 0. as it is i'll take the 2.

still a worry we're too open these days. don't envisage too many clean sheets this season.

[Lord Kangana]

We're already 1 up on clean sheets compared to last seasons "less open" team. Thats progress by any measure.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

As ever, under any manager, promise must be delivered upon. Some, maybe most, of the performances so far give confidence, if a little nervousness – poor today or not, taking off our chief ballwinner at 1-1 against That Lot is the kind of decision that can easily backfire. The four-man attack makes goals more likely at both ends, but when it gets right down to where the cheese binds we're averaging just over a point per game, not unlike the previous incumbent.

As has been pointed out, a couple of winners against Fulham and Birmingham would have done wonders, lifting us to fifth; a winner in either would have had us seventh. Those, then, are the games to target, and hopefully habitually win; as CAPS brings up in his usual gnomic way, would we have been happy with three points from the first three home games?

More widely, I worry that - aside from usually bringing on Mark Davies to ratchet up the central potential/risk - Coyle is veering close to dogma with his adherence to 4-4-2 with the usual suspects in the usual positions. Obviously nothing wrong with believing in your Plan A, but he rarely changes his charges early, and you get the feeling sometimes it might pay off. Besides dismissals/injuries and the regular exception of Mavis, the only time this term he's introduced a player before the 80th minute of a league game was Robbie Blake against Birmingham - and look what happened there...

PS re the closing par of BWFCi's opening gambit - I've written about this before, but the more even the division, the less likely you need 40 points.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Stoke beat Newcastle 2-1 today with 34% possession

Unusually low even for them, but they have never had majority possession in a Premier League game.

They had 1 shot on target!

In other words, they had more jam than Hartley's and that can't go on forever.

[KeeeeeeeBaaaaaaab]

Stoke beat Newcastle 2-1 today with 34% possession

Unusually low even for them, but they have never had majority possession in a Premier League game.

They had 1 shot on target!

In other words, they had more jam than Hartley's and that can't go on forever.

Stoke weren't jammy today. They used their set pieces to full effect. Newcastle cannot defend inswinging crosses. The first goal was the result of Carroll following the ball coming over to the back post rather than the two players marking Huth, and Kenwyne Jones was left alone in the six yard box, in the middle of the goal, to convert the knock back from Huth. The second goal was an own goal as a result of Perch ball watching, realising he'd forgotten he was supposed to be marking Huth, and then having to stretch as he was facing his own goal. Always a recipe for disaster.

Add to that Kenwyne Jones hitting the woodwork from headers twice, and Ricardo Fuller screwing a shot wide from about 7 yards out from a Jones knockdown. I hope Newcastle aren't reading this, because Kev Davies is going to have a field day with that lot.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Unusually low even for them, but they have never had majority possession in a Premier League game.

In other words, they had more jam than Hartley's and that can't go on forever.

They deserved to win. Whilst Newcastle totally dominated the first half, they never tested Sorensen at all and needed a recklessly given away penalty to not only take the lead but get an effective shot on target.

In the second half Newcastle just couldn't handle high balls and long throws into the box. Stoke could have had 4 or 5 easily.

Hence, why I say it will be a difficult and interesting test for us. Have we become too soft to deal with a neanderthal side like Stoke? Or have we got the right combination of phyiscality and quality to keep them out and create and score chances ourselves?

[KeeeeeeeBaaaaaaab]

Is it a case of missed opportunities for us, this start to the season? It sounded like we could and should have won today, against Fulham and against Villa. That's an extra six points that could have seen us as high as second. Birmingham might have been a different story had Jussi not got all toddler slap on Roger Johnson (although we looked a damn sight better with ten men than eleven that day). West Ham was a win we might not have deserved after the first half onslaught. The only game we've never looked like likely winners was at The Moral Champions, and even then we were creating chances to peg them level until the sending off.

So I'm more encouraged than frustrated, but those are the two main emotions. We deserve to have more points than we have.

We've scored the first goal in just two games. Against West Ham, where we were constantly in danger of conceding first, and today, where we struck early. Maybe it's been something in the warm up, or pre-match talk, or something or other, but that - to me - has been the difference between an encouraging start to the season and an excellent start to the season.

[Lord Kangana]

I'd take either though.