The chances are that we won't win against Chelsea, after all we haven't won in London for 3 years, We might get a draw or a narrow win, which would be wonderfull, But what will our reaction be like if things go the way most pundits predict

Will we be full of doom and gloom, tearing the players and managers apart? "He should have risked Shearer"? Ameobi was shite? Barton's past it? and we should have used the other keeper?, will this be our reaction?

Why not, for a change, stay tight lipped about the Chelsea game and wait until after the Sunday game before we start criticising the team.

the point being we sometimes over react to individual games and don't look at the overall picture.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Answers

How true. Remember early season - top of the league after three and we were Barcelona, lose to Southampton and we are destined for the Unibond League. Ups and downs and so on are part of it all, though....

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

I'd already decided that we were gonna lose this game so was looking forward to the southampton game :)) I'm suprised anyone could think that we've got a good chance of getting anything out of this game......if we do then it'll certainly be going firmly against form...

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Consider this Chelsea (a)

The next two months:
S'hamp (h)
Charlton(a)
Man C(h)
Everton(a)
Smog(h)
Bradford(a)

Six points behind. What'd'y'reckon

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

they're the games we have to win if we want to be in europe.

Unfortunately, they're EXACTLY the games we've been throwing away aal bloody season...!

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

We'll get trounced. I've already ordered an extra nurse and the "medical supplies" are in. Mind, I have been wrong about results in Lahndaan in the recent past (every one, if my memory isn't failing me).

But in all honesty, we're sh!te and we know we are. We're in a false position and Shearer should never play for us again. In fact, nee bugga owa the age of 25 should play again. And while I'm at it (so to speak), we should get rid of YBR. He's past it and has no chance of success. The board are cr@p and it's never been the same since Wyn Davies was sold.

Hang on - is that a pig I can see flying past the winda?

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

I'd rather we didn't prosepct as to how close we could be to the top of the table, it inevitably leads to defeast!

I don't expect a win against Chelsea but I'll be pissed off if they put out a performance of Derby proportions.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Screach, you taking on Softie's warlock duties while he's sans internet access?

I'll probably only moan if we lose by 5 or 6. Realistically I expect us to lose by 1 or 2 goals. Will be quite content with a draw. Can't even contemplate a win a)cause it's London, b)cause it's bad luck when I expect us to win, c)my head would explode if I seriously start thinking we'll win in London.

Now about the smoke that keeps seeping from my ears when I think about Charlton next week.... ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

I was sure we'd beat Spurs and, in truth, we were beaten by circumstances - we were the better side by a country mile. It's luck that deserts us in London. As long as we give the King's Road 11 a run for their money and don't get turned over humiliatingly, I'll be made up.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Oh come on, Chelsea are toss at the minute. They're disheartened, disorganised and unimaginative. We've had a nice little rest and for the first time in ages we are not playing predictable football. We should stroll it by a couple of goals.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

That would have been right about a month ago Dread!

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

You talk a lot of sense since being GAGged Dread.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Well that's well and truly blown any chance we might have had, Dread (not that I ever thought we had a chance, you understand). Why don't you go the full bliddy Monty and suggest we can still catch ManUre? Arghhhhh - Nurse, come quickly slowly ;-)

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Balderdash and baloney!

They get criticised when they deserve it: they get praised when they deserve it.
They are extremely well paid professionals, so why it should be any different?

If they get criticised for playing well, then you can legitmately get uptight about it.

If you seriously expect me to tug my fetlocks to Mr. Shepherd and turn a blind eye to glaring deficiencies simply because I'm life-long, longer-suffering fan than most - then dream on.

BTW, if we really are top 6 material, then we should be perfectly capable of giving Chelsea a very competitive game tomorrow - and I for one expect us to.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

Well, I put us down on DT Predictions for a 2-2 tie, which means we'll likely lose, but then again I do remember the Semi Final, so does Nobby Solano, and a few others no doubt. I hope YBR has shown the video. I would. What a motivation. I fully expect the unexpected and would not be in the least surprised with a nice unexpected win, unexpectedly like.

-- Anonymous, January 30, 2001

If the team put in the effort they put in at WHL, we have every chance of doing something. They should at least be relaxed and rested. Having said this, it's much more important to beat Southampton on Sunday.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

Only in as much as we are expected to beat Southampton. We should be looking at this match as one of the most important of the season.

Two ducks to shoot here.

1. Getting out of this awful win one lose one habit, which is pathetic.

2. Eventually breaking the London losing streak.

Hopefully a result here would set us up for a three or four match winning streak which would finally elevate us high enough so that we cannot fall to about 11th after one defeat!

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

Gotta disagree there - we have already lost three home games this season. For all sorts of reasons, we can't lose too many more.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

At the start of the season our home form was poor i.e. Charlton, Everton but our away form was what kept us in touch with the top and indeed Coventry away, well who could forget it?

Lately our home form has been galvanised with performances against Manure, Leeds and even Villa in the cup wasn't that bad. The performance against Derby was thankfully remedied by the victory against Leeds but it is important that we strike this balance correctly.

What better way than to beat the win-lose sequence, beat the London jinx and then set up an intruiging home tie against a resurgent Southampton, for a three match winning strek. Lets face it if we wan't to qualify for Europe we need to hit some serious form and go in unbeaten from here with the possible exception of the odd blip.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

This is a good fixture for us in the sense that any sort of result will be a massive confidence boost for fans and players whereas a defeat, whilst disappointing, would not be a huge shock.

The fact is that we are more than capable of getting a result anywhere and we've every chance of a win tonight. Two consecutive away wins at Leeds & Chelsea would have been undreamed of at season start and is a lot to ask for now, but we're halfway there already. I don't make predictions. Our reaction tomorrow should be based, win, lose or draw on the quality of the performance.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

Thank you Jonno. We are really going to have to stop agreeing like this - it will tarnish our reputation for being disagreeable. ;-{)

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001

Thanks, Jonno. Judging based on performance is what I was thinking yesterday. In other words if we lose by a huge margin, chances are our performance was sh*te. All I ever ask for is that the players on the pitch show 100% commitment and fight for the cause. They've got to show they *want* a result. Boxing Day was the finest example of it, with Spurs away(second half) being a close second.

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2001