If anyone is interested, attached is a table showing the results of the games played by the teams that finished in the bottom half of the PL against the top six sides. Interesting that the team that finished bottom had the best record, yet we didn’t fare too well. For some reason the top six always managed to put in a shift against us, unlike when they played some of their other games.

Only us and Huddersfield took points off Man City and yet we were the only two teams to be beaten by Arsenal twice. Arsenal in fact lost 5 and drew 3 of their games against the bottom half, Chelsea lost 4 and drew 2, United lost 3 and drew 3, Spurs only lost 1 but drew 6, while Liverpool lost 1 and drew 4.

Attachment: Bottom 10 v Top 6 .jpg (131.21Kb)

"Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain.

Yep, and we got Arsenal at the point that Sanchez had to pull his finger out to get his move and then in the middle of our injury crisis.

Optimistic as ever

It was disappointing that we weren't as good against the Big 6 this year, but we were always in games and should have won against City, Utd, Liverpool in the second half of the season... (last two should have at least got a point). As other posters have said though, we played nearly all of them when our team was buggered with injuries. To beat a top 6 team, the whole team has to be on its game and we have to put out the strongest 11 you can. It is frustrating that we were only able to do this towards the end of the season (and how well we did!) when we didn't have any games against them.

Also, it was immensely frustrating that the Big 6 were often so s***e against the teams around us but seemed to turn it on and get a narrow win when playing us. A number of the games WE have played against the teams around us haven't been tight even so it's not like they are that good.

Yes, I would have thought that was a factor, yet actually the last of Arsenal’s dropped points against the bottom half teams happened on 4th March and they shouldn’t have been on the beach at that stage. Also Chelsea were last defeated by a bottom 10 side on 5th February. However they did both put in an abject performance at Newcastle in recent games and cost us 10th place

"Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain.

Yeah. We got Chelski but could've/should've had Citeh & Manu at home & probably deserved something against the bin-dippers & Spuds.

Small margins & all that.

If you can beat the teams in the bottom half at home & average a point per game away then that's more or less safety guaranteed with anything else a bonus.

Will this be five? It's gonna be five! It IS five!