4 Games In

[Finley Parsons]

After 4 games into the premier league season what are we all thinking? Seems like the players are putting in a performance but we can't seem to get the points. What do we all think?

[chicagofox]

I think our manager makes baffling decisions.

[DennisNedry]

3 minutes ago, Finley Parsons said:

After 4 games into the premier league season what are we all thinking? Seems like the players are putting in a performance but we can't seem to get the points. What do we all think?

 

Impossible to say much after playing Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea.

 

We certainly need more strength in midfield and soon.

 

Maguire the biggest positive.

[st albans fox]

I expect we think we have the number of points we expected to have before the season began

 

onto Huddersfield where we may have expected to win but given their confident state of mind a point may not be a terrible return. 

[Sir Shep]

Well Stoke have taken 4 points playing Man U and Arse whilst we've taken none, the football hasn't been particularly pretty or entertaining but I'll wait to see how we do against udders before I dust off me old pitchfork. 

[VLC86]

Was always a really harsh fixture set for a manager who needs to get off to a good start. We will be fine but I don't see Huddersfield as an easy three points.

[VLC86]

Just now, Sir Shep said:

Well Stoke have taken 4 points playing Man U and Arse whilst we've taken none, the football hasn't been particularly pretty or entertaining but I'll wait to see how we do against udders before I dust off me old pitchfork. 

Il dust off my old pitchfork if we get 6 points from the next two matches.

[HankMarvin]

15 minutes ago, DennisNedry said:

 

Impossible to say much after playing Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea.

 

We certainly need more strength in midfield and soon.

 

Maguire the biggest positive.

Why impossible?

it was arguably the weakest Arsenal team we have played since our return to the PL and also a weaker Chelsea team than previous years.

 

if we would've given the teams as much respect when we won the league, it would not have happened.

 

 

 

 

[David Guiza]

1 minute ago, Sir Shep said:

Well Stoke have taken 4 points playing Man U and Arse whilst we've taken none, the football hasn't been particularly pretty or entertaining but I'll wait to see how we do against udders before I dust off me old pitchfork. 

In defence they were at home for both of their games; whilst we were away. I never tend to expect us to get anything about those kind of sides thanks to my glass half empty footballing nature, but I'd cetainly prefer our chances at the KP than Old Trafford or the Emirates. Stoke will likely lose at both grounds too.

I'd say we've been fairly par so far this season. A few positives and a few negatives.

 

Arsenal (A) - fantastic attacking but some woeful tactics and game management once ahead with so little to go. 

Brighton (H) - comfortably dispatched a fairly poor side on the day. Didn't need to leave second gear.

Man Utd (A) - looked fairly strong defensively throughout before allowing a poor set play to beat us. Much better than our performance there last season. Toothless in attack.

Chelsea (H) - conceded at two very decisive points in the game which killed momentum hugely. On another day we could have taken something against what is a very strong Chelsea side whom will almost certainly be top 4 again.

 

We'll certainly have a much better idea of things after the next 4 - hopefully with a settled squad too. 

[Fox92]

Haven't changed my prediction from the start of the season. Think we'll be anywhere between 13th - 17th.

 

People bang on about "tough starts" but Stoke have taken four points from Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton.

[filbertway]

I think we've performed about as well as you'd expect with the squad we have. Lots of players that aren't very good footballers but will put in a shift. We're like a slightly more glamorous Burnley.

 

Glad Maguire is looking as good as expected, hopefully we try and shift on more of the poor players and bring in a higher quality in January.

[Sir Shep]

Well against udders I just hope we don't switch off and concede stupid goals, yes they've had a good start but surely we have enough quality to beat them. 

 

If it's a case of losing and not playing well then I'm afraid this baby will be coming out.....

 

[Leamington Fox]

Well, we're not getting stuffed like the first two-thirds of last season.  I felt we deserved a point yesterday.  Chelsea were not that impressive.  We could easily have got a point at Arsenal too.

 

A win at Huddersfield and things are looking fine, in my view.  We've not really seen our main signings either, so there is more to come.

 

[chicagofox]

2 minutes ago, Leamington Fox said:

Well, we're not getting stuffed like the first two-thirds of last season.  I felt we deserved a point yesterday.  Chelsea were not that impressive.  We could easily have got a point at Arsenal too.

 

A win at Huddersfield and things are looking fine, in my view.  We've not really seen our main signings either, so there is more to come.

 

Chelsea weren't that impressive and Arsenal were there for the taking for any side with a bit of belief.  That's why the argument that we can't judge yet because of the opposition doesn't wash with me.  The only team we have played who were fully on-song was Utd.  

[RODNEY FERNIO]

As expected really. Suppose we should really judge after 10 games and the next 6 games are not too bad

with only Liverpool out of the top teams ( should be able to get at their defence if we are more positive and their danger man is banned ).

If we say are on 13 points after 10 games will be ok ... if we are on less than 9 points the alarm bells will be ringing though. 

[Guest Col city fan]

Not too worried at the moment. Lose the next two, I will be worried.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

We've picked up the same amount of points any sane individual would have expected us to get.

[AKCJ]

It's a shame that we haven't been able to take at least a point from the 3 tough games but the way we dealt with Brighton was a good indication of where we are.

 

We were dealt a poor hand with the start and it means that next week against Huddersfield is, in some ways, a must win.

[foxinsocks]

Professionally i once worked with a guy managing stock traders.  When they had taken a beatibg they were never the same....ever.

The loss to spurs last year has had this impact on shakey.  In his mind... to keep his job he needs to avoid a battering. .. so he tried to hold arse at 2.3 and yesterday he didnt chase the game at 0.1

These mistakes will be repeated

 

[Matt]

41 minutes ago, DennisNedry said:

 

Impossible to say much after playing Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea.

 

We certainly need more strength in midfield and soon.

 

Maguire the biggest positive.

While it might be a 'realistic' mentality that is a poor negative mentality.

 

Don't get me wrong, we can take many positives in how we've played, but in the same breath we can be mightly frustrated and angry about how it's gone.

 

Arsenal - They've been poor, awful some might even say, we were in command of the game but we literally threw it away. 3 points dropped, at the very least 2 points dropped.

 

Man Utd - They've undefeated and looking very good but Stoke challenged them, dared to attack them (Albeit at Stoke and not Old Trafford) they got a draw.

 

Chelsea - Similar to Arsenal (Although they have more quality that Arsenal) they've been poor and we fairly poor yesterday, the game could have been alot different and think we could have got a draw.

 

I'm sick of people seeing games against the top teams as a 'free hit' it's negative and the gap between the 'big' teams and 'small' teams is smaller than ever.

[KrefelderFox666]

Shakespeare's substitutions baffle me, always seem negative to me.

 

I think 11th to 13th is for us this year. Just hope we turn up for the League Cup (and FA Cup) as we have good chances to get somewhere.

[somebum]

Disasterous start tactically inept 

[RumbleFox]

I think it is too early.  Of course we could have "gone for it" against the "bigger teams" and we may have been able to get a result from one of them but should we "expect" points from them?  Probably not. The only game so far played we would be expected to win we won quite easily.  Look at Everton, Chelsea destroyed them (they ooked far worse than we did yesterday) and they only have one more point than us so far and their start has been no harder.  We need at least 10 games to get a proper idea of where we are.  I think we will be OK, I predict 7th-10th which I know some people will say is not good enough but we just cannot compete with the top 6 on a consistent basis, it just isn't possible.  What we did in winning the league was truly miraculous.  It wont happen again.  At least not for a while anyway.  That is not defeatist, just the truth.  Look at the money Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool have spent over the recent seasons and they have won nothing.  We'll see, I like Shakey and I think we'll be OK. X

[RumbleFox]

5 minutes ago, somebum said:

Disasterous start tactically inept 

Disasterous (sic) sentence, grammatically inept. X

[Farrington fox]

54 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Why impossible?

it was arguably the weakest Arsenal team we have played since our return to the PL and also a weaker Chelsea team than previous years.

 

if we would've given the teams as much respect when we won the league, it would not have happened.

 

 

 

 

This was the game we didn't do ourselves justice, to surrender that lead when you could say we were comfortable was criminal. Negative substitutions cost us!