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It would be fair to say that neither this season, nor the last are anything to shout about. Whilst we sit at the bottom of the table this time around, last year avoiding relegation by virtue of Wigan Athletic's misfortune was certainly not anything you want to really say was that much better.
This season we've once again changed managers early in the year, which his yet another similarity to last year however there's an interesting comparison to last season to be made.
When we get round to shortly facing West Ham United, Everton, Cardiff and Norwich we will have faced every team in the league, and with us approaching the half-way mark, why don't we see how last season compares to this one so far?
| Fixture |
2012/13
Season Result
|
2013/14
Season Result
|
| Arsenal (H) | 0-1 | 1-3 |
| Aston Villa (A) | 1-6 | 0-0 |
| Chelsea (H) | 1-3 | 3-4 |
|
Crystal Palace (A) /
West Ham United (A)
|
1-1 | 1-3 |
| Fulham (H) | 2-2 | 0-1 |
|
Hull City (A) /
Reading (A)
|
1-2 | 0-1 |
| Liverpool (H) | 1-1 | 1-3 |
| Manchester City (H) | 1-0 | 1-0 |
| Manchester United (H) | 0-1 | 1-2 |
| Newcastle United (H) | 1-1 | 2-1 |
| Southampton (A) | 1-0 | 1-1 |
| Stoke City (A) | 0-0 | 0-2 |
| Swansea City (A) | 2-2 | 0-4 |
| West Bromwich Albion (A) | 1-2 | 0-3 |
| Tottenham Hotspur (H) | 1-2 | 1-2 |
A couple of oddities in the league what with teams coming up and going down, so their comparison teams have been put in. For example Crystal Palace are this season's incoming playoff winners, West Ham were in the 2012/13 season. Similarly, since Hull City were promoted in 2012/13 season, so we swapped Reading in for the year before.
So the overall table looks something like this;
| Season | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Points |
| 2012/13 | 15 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 24 | 12 |
| 2013/14 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 12 | 30 | 8 |
I'm sure you'll agree that when it's down there for everyone to see, it's pretty f--king grim to say the very least.
The points and goals we picked up last season would have been very handy this time around too, which makes it all the more annoying now I've looked at the numbers.
12 points and a -12 goal difference would have still had us 20th in this season's table, though trailing fourth from bottom West Ham United by just a single point.
This season a meager eight points has us rooted to the bottom, five points adrift from safety, and with all due respect to what appears to be a better off situation on the pitch and new philosophy, all the above really does make us look quite doomed.
It just goes to show the monumental task ahead for Gus Poyet to keep the club in the Premier League, and if he does so it will be nothing short of a miracle, with a real 'Manager Of The Year' case to be made for the Uruguayan.
If we can improve on last years 1-1 draw at West Ham with all three points this time around then things may begin to look a little rosier, but until Saturday evening we all better start doing a lot of hoping and praying.