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What The Gaffer Has Said
Thirteen games, six wins. They’ve done it before, haven’t they? They’re good at miraculous recoveries here – let’s hope we can do it again.
We’ve still got an awful long way to go, but a point at Liverpool is very precious, particularly under the circumstances. If the lads can show that kind of spirit and never-say-die attitude, then we’ve got a good chance.
If they can start playing more like they did against Man City, couple that with spirit and scoring goals, then we’ve got a good chance of getting out of trouble. Our games are running out.
People will say draws aren’t good enough, but on Saturday it was. Nobody would have expected us to get a draw, but we did, so that’s a precious point.
Hopefully, that will start leading to a victory very, very shortly because we need to start putting three-pointers on the board.
Form
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Although our form over the last six games hasn't been particularly great we've only lost twice, and that was against sides that are going for the league title. We taken eight points from a possible eighteen, which equates to 1.33 points per game. If we can continue to collect points in that fashion it should be enough to see us survive, but only just.
That said, we've gone four games without a win.
The key, I'd suspect, is taking it one game at a time. We've got Manchester United on Saturday and although they're starting to play better football their away form recently has been patchy at best, with alot of their games away from home being rather close encounters. Should we win on Saturday it will be an enormous lift.
What's To Come?
Our next six games don't look too bad, really, but they'll look alot better if we can win on Saturday.
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West Ham away is a game I think we can cause an upset in. Sam would love to go back there and take three points from a side that are challenging up the top end of the table - I've said recently that we have to beat teams that we aren't expected to beat, and I feel that, taking into account just how well West Ham have played this season, they are in that bracket of sides that we perhaps aren't expected to win against.
West Ham haven't lost at home since August. For me, that is the hardest test we face from those six fixtures.
Beyond that, Crystal Palace are in abysmal form and that is absolutely a game that we have to win, especially considering it's at home. They came from behind to draw against Swansea on Saturday and collect their first point in six league games, and are lucky they collected so many points early on in the season otherwise I feel they'd be viable relegation contenders. When you consider they lost to Aston Villa at Villa Park in January, you simply cannot come out of that game with anything less than three points.
After the Palace game we are away to Southampton (we were thrashed there last season), are home to an Everton side who have lost only once away from home in the league (away to Arsenal in August) and have a relegation six-pointer away at Newcastle, whose home form has been more than good enough recently It's a tough ask.
What do you think - will Sunderland pick up the six wins (or eighteen points) that Sam Allardyce thinks will be enough to survive this season? Leave your comments and thoughts below.
