Are we safe yet?
That’s the question most United fans are concerned about. Have we done enough to stay in the Premier League so that we can spend another dreary, wasted season under the clueless Ashley and Bruce?
Well, before the Arsenal result yesterday, I reckon most of us were quite confident. We’d had a mini-run of better results and had hauled ourselves 9 points clear of 3rd bottom Fulham. And this belief was reinforced when, as expected, Fulham lost to Chelsea.
That mini-run of results had almost convinced us that United were beginning to play well now that our “big” players (as Bruce calls them) were back. All we had to do was beat Arsenal and that would be it – safe for another season.
But as we now know, beating Arsenal didn’t happen. Because of Arsenal’s impending cup match this coming week, they even tried to help us by fielding a weakened side. Yet, as anyone who saw the game knows, it was too easy for Arsenal. They stroked the ball around, scored two goals and made us look like a 3rd division outfit.
There was no pace, no effort from the United players and they looked clueless when given the odd chance to go forward. The team looked like they already had their flip-flops on and were thinking about their summer holidays.
It didn’t help hearing Bruce telling a TV interviewer how difficult it always is against these “big” teams. If he’s saying the same things in the dressing room, no wonder his players were beaten before they even ran onto the pitch.
You know, there have been discussions this season that some teams are missing having a crowd in the ground more than others. I think that’s true. And if 50,000-odd geordies had been at St James’ Park yesterday I doubt if our team would have been allowed to get away with that display. They would have been given a kick up the posterior in no uncertain terms – something our hapless manager seems incapable of doing.
Anyway, back to the question – are we safe yet?
Mathematically no we are not. Fulham are 9 points behind us with 12 points to play for. If they win their last 4 games, a tall order, I agree, they would reach 39 points and have a better goal difference.
it would then all depend on whether we can get any more points this season – we would need 4 points to be safe.
So where would those 4 points come from?
We have 4 games left – Leicester City, Manchester City, Sheffield United and Fulham.
If we play like we did against Arsenal, we can forget about getting anything from Leicester or Manchester City.
Sheffield United are down already and playing for fun – and I’m sure nobody needs reminding that they already beat us this season – at the time ending their run of 20 games without a win! So no guarantee of any points here.
Which would leave Fulham. From what I’ve seen on social media, a lot of United fans think it will all come down to this last game – and quite a few think Fulham would beat us and send us down.
So, how likely are Fulham to win their remaining 4 games? Bearing in mind, this is a team that have only won 5 games all season!
Their 4 games are: Burnley, Southampton, Manchester United and Newcastle United.
Well, Burnley, Southampton and us are all “winnable” games. And even Manchester United is a possible, given that by the time Fulham play them, Manchester City will have probably been declared title winners and the Man Utd players will have their flip-flops on dreaming of a sunny beach somewhere.
So are we safe?
Well we are certainly in a stronger position than Fulham – we’ve got the 9 points in the bag, whereas they’ve got it all to do if they are going to catch us.
But my gut feeling at the moment is – until the fat lady sings, this isn’t over by a long way.
What do you think? As ever, we would welcome your comments, opinions and views below.
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