Premier League season, 2021 / 2022

Buendia's had 12 appearances, 3 of those as sub, and I think he missed one match because he had covid problems in Argentina on World Cup duties. His ratings aren't great, averaging 6.64 on WhoScored. IMO he's a great player in the Championship but drops to a good player in the PL and there's plenty of competition in that squad. Whether Villa feel that they're getting good value for £33m is hard to say.

The Birmingham Mail view:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sp...boola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic

 

Here's the table after todays games:


Brentford beat Everton 1-0 and Watford lost 4-2 at Leicester. Overall we lost 2 points to Villa and Brentford, stayed even with Leeds and gained a point on Watford, Newcastle, Palace, Everton and Southampton.

 

Thanks, works well.

2021/22 running total: 9 points

2011/12 equivalent running total: 14 points

2012/13 equivalent running total: 15 points

 

From DS:

'Lukas came on and played really well, showing myself and Craig the strengths and abilities he’s got. Pierre has been good in training and Jacob Sørensen has been showing his strengths in training.'

 

It almost feels good to be disappointed with only a point away from home...

So for a bit of positivity, that actually inches us a point closer to our 11/12 and 12/13 running totals based on my above very rough comparables. We lost against both equivalent teams.

2021/22 running total after 14 games: 10 points

2011/12 equivalent running total after 14 games: 14 points

2012/13 equivalent running total after 14 games: 16 points

 

Another very weird fact: in the table right now, only four teams out of twenty have a positive goal difference.

Shows how badly the PL is fixed these days.

 

The form table looks pretty good:

 

Gotta keep that up after our awful start!

 

True, but it also depends on how the teams around us do. In the latest midweek games Leeds won after an injury time penalty, Southampton, Burnley, Newcastle and ourselves all drew and Watford, Villa and Everton lost. Brentford are currently losing 2-0 at Spurs. Thus we lost 2 points to Leeds and gained a point over Watford, Villa and Everton and possibly Brentford as well. That tightens up our mini league slightly.

 

Just seen the rest of the month's fixtures. After Burnley Newcastle's looks like our opening run. If they don't win tomorrow I can see them getting nothing between now and New Year.

 

Watford have ManCity tomorrow and West Ham and Spurs later but most of their others are 6 pointers in our mini league.

Burnley are similar with West Ham and ManUtd their toughest games.

Leeds play Brentford then have 4 straight games against Chelsea, ManCity, Arsenal and Liverpool (ouch).

Southampton have Arsenal, West Ham and Spurs.

Everton have Arsenal, Leicester and West Ham.

Villa have Leicester, Liverpool and Chelsea.

 

Reports suggest that Hugill is on his way back to CR from WBA. Having scored just one goal in 17 matches, I can’t see him playing much part in matches for the rest of the season. Idah out on loan to Nottingham Forest is another rumour I have read on Newsnow Norwich website.

 

Here's the Pinkun take on that:

https://www.pinkun.com/

 

Idah needs to go out on loan to a championship team where he'll get plenty of game time, for his development. He's not a PL quality striker at the moment.

 

We will see!

 

Watford's record under Munoz in the Prem: P7, W2, D1, L4.

Watford's record under Ranieri: P8, W2, D0, L6.

Another manager change imminent?

 

So in terms of how we compare to our two survival seasons, we have slipped a further point behind each of them as the equivalent match to Tottenham away was Everton away (both in 11/12 and 12/13 as Everton finished 7th for two seasons) and we managed a draw both times. I have somehow managed to mess up my calculations for the 12/13 Hughton season, so I have corrected the running total below and in the posts above.

2021/22 running total after 15 games: 10 points

2011/12 equivalent running total after 15 games: 15 points

2012/13 equivalent running total after 15 games: 17 points

Interestingly, the next equivalent six matches (for this season: MU H, AV H, WH A, ARS H, CP A and LEI A) were polar opposite under Lambert and Hughton: Lambert managed nine points from the six (losing only to WBA at home, the equivalent of AV this year), whereas Hughton managed just four points, beating Man U at home (equivalent to Man U in 12/13) and drawing with Swansea at home (equivalent of AV) but losing the rest.

I think if we can get five points from the next six matches that would be tidy, anything more than that will be excellent.

 

I will be very pleasantly surprised if we take five points. My guess is three. Those fixtures are easier than our opening six, but not by much. Then again I think we will be above Newcastle at the end of the month.

 

The schedule is a bit messed up as the halfway game should be Palace rather than Arsenal, given that we've already played the gunners. We managed 8 points from our 4 game unbeaten run, so 5 points or more is possible.

 

Hi Rick, not sure I understand you? Our next six matches this season are Man U at home, Aston Villa at home, West Ham away, Arsenal at home, Crystal Palace away and Leicester away. It's a bit weird, but a quirk of this season's fixture list is we play Arsenal twice before playing Crystal Palace at all.

Although I have just realised I did get the calculation right before and have re-corrected the above calculations!