Definitely. Just how exciting would it be to finish 9th?? 8th even?? Can you imagine? Awesome.

Or rather it makes no difference. Not really. This is how it is, how it was always going to be, and how it will be. Success goes to the wealthy at the top table (other than for the very occasional aberration.) The rest of us just scrabble around for their scraps and try not to look too bored as we keep ourselves busy. We all know this, surely.

There are the established top 6 teams tieing up the business end of the Premier with 2, maybe 3, others - again, generally those with (and typically wasting) a good few quid - trying to squeeze into that group. After that it's largely a free-for-all other than for usually 1 or 2 teams stinking up the place up and another 1 or 2 above them starting to whiff a bit. Any of the 9 or 10 or so 'middling' teams can finish anywhere from 8th or 9th to 16th or 17th, in any given year, given a few vagaries. There's very little to choose between them. And even less to get excited about in the difference.

Painful truth is it's actually more exciting to be defying the odds to avoid relegation than it is to 'succeed' to 8th. 8th! Whoo! Who gives? Stick that on a scarf. "We're by far the 8th-best team, the country has just seen." Sing up... And is it worth spunking an unaffordable shedload of money to be able to do so?

Cup's always a - relatively slim - possibility of course but that's the lottery everyone says - unless, again, you're one of the big boys. So you can't really do a lot of planning for a cup run - best you can do is give it a really good go every time. I totally get why people say the glory of a cup win beats league survival. That's my instinct too, but I probably need a guarantee of the cup win to warrant risking our future. And they're not around. And would spoil it anyway. And as 2010 felt like it nearly killed me, y'know...

So that's that. Unless we find a load of cash down the back of somebody's couch then this is it. If it's the excitement of success you're after then sadly you'd be better hoping for us to get relegated again. (Which we will before long. All of us 'middlers' will at some point.) Maybe yearn for us to 'do a Pompey' if you're feeling really kinky! Otherwise, better get comfy...

Definitely. Just how exciting would it be to finish 9th?? 8th even?? Can you imagine? Awesome.

Or rather it makes no difference. Not really. This is how it is, how it was always going to be, and how it will be. Success goes to the wealthy at the top table (other than for the very occasional aberration.) The rest of us just scrabble around for their scraps and try not to look too bored as we keep ourselves busy. We all know this, surely.

There are the established top 6 teams tieing up the business end of the Premier with 2, maybe 3, others - again, generally those with (and typically wasting) a good few quid - trying to squeeze into that group. After that it's largely a free-for-all other than for usually 1 or 2 teams stinking up the place up and another 1 or 2 above them starting to whiff a bit. Any of the 9 or 10 or so 'middling' teams can finish anywhere from 8th or 9th to 16th or 17th, in any given year, given a few vagaries. There's very little to choose between them. And even less to get excited about in the difference.

Painful truth is it's actually more exciting to be defying the odds to avoid relegation than it is to 'succeed' to 8th. 8th! Whoo! Who gives? Stick that on a scarf. "We're by far the 8th-best team, the country has just seen." Sing up... And is it worth spunking an unaffordable shedload of money to be able to do so?

Cup's always a - relatively slim - possibility of course but that's the lottery everyone says - unless, again, you're one of the big boys. So you can't really do a lot of planning for a cup run - best you can do is give it a really good go every time. I totally get why people say the glory of a cup win beats league survival. That's my instinct too, but I probably need a guarantee of the cup win to warrant risking our future. And they're not around. And would spoil it anyway. And as 2010 felt like it nearly killed me, y'know...

So that's that. Unless we find a load of cash down the back of somebody's couch then this is it. If it's the excitement of success you're after then sadly you'd be better hoping for us to get relegated again. (Which we will before long. All of us 'middlers' will at some point.) Maybe yearn for us to 'do a Pompey' if you're feeling really kinky! Otherwise, better get comfy...

Burnley, McArthur 16'

Fulham, Milivojevic 25' pen

It’s a bleak analysis but you can’t fault the logic.

Look at the teams which have finished in 8th, 9th and 10th positions in the last 6 years:
18: Everton, Leicester, Newcastle
17: Southampton, Bournemouth, West Brom.
16: Liverpool, Stoke, Chelsea
15: Swansea, Stoke, Palace.
14: Southampton, Stoke, Newcastle.
13: WBA, Swansea, WHU

Finishing 8th, 9th or 10th is a nothing more than a fleeting achievement (or in the case of Liverpool and Chelsea in 2016, failure). Rather than establishing the team as a PL fixture as some posters suggest, teams are more likely to struggle against, or actually succumb to, relegation in subsequent seasons.

On the bright side, we won’t have to wait long to see Watford go down!