3, 4 or 5? the team for Swansea

I think Burnleys spirit and fight will win them more points than Hull and Sunderland. They're both short on confidence and are playing without any belief. Going into the remaining games on the back of recent results is going to he tough. They've both got some really difficult games and although Hull have four at home the only winnable one would be Burnley, though that's not guaranteed, Burnley could win that.

I wouldn't rule West Brom out yet, they could easily lose every game. If they were our remaining fixtures I'd expect is to lose them all and I'm positive.

Arro what odds do you think you could get for them losing all seven games and us winning five.
Both are highly unlikely but we are going for it.

They only have to pick up a point or two

Was not Wes for me too! Now there was a band for you! The Blue Army all walking the dinosaur would have those Swans well and truly befuddled!

West Brom have some difficult games in there, but they Liverpool at home (they've got problems) and Newcastle away (a team you want on your fixture list right now). Plus there's no guarantee that Palace's run will go on forever and I wouldn't be surprised if West Brom beat them this weekend. I'd give up looking at them and Villa as they'll get out of trouble easily - what I'm hoping for is that one of Sunderland and Hull won't be able to address their downward slide in the face of some difficult games. If we can maintain some momentum then we should be able to overtake Burnley and QPR, and pick off one of the northeasters if they fail to pull their act together.

Palace just smashed Sunderland and just seem to know how to win games. I definitely fancy them to beat a West Brom side on the back of two home defeats to the bottom two. Liverpool need to win to have any chance of qualifying for Europe. Could you imagine the backlash if they fail to even get into Europe? That's not even an option for Liverpool so they have to beat West Brom so I think they'll find the quality they need. They'll lose again then before going to Newcastle. Newcastle aren't great but would you fancy beating them if we'd lost five on the bounce?

Villa are better than West Brom, they have some very good players who have been underperforming and I have no doubt they'll pick up enough points so I'd agree to forget about them.

I reckon you'd get great odds on that Nev and you're right it could easily happen. We can beat Swansea, Newcastle, Burnley, Sunderland and QPR, draw with Southampton and lose to Chelsea. But draws at Burnley and Sunderland would be fine because they'll have to beat us i'd imagine.

But form changes, arro. Hopefully Palace are motivated by the opportunity of finishing in the top half and will keep going, but I certainly wouldn't discount West Brom from that match. I then think they'll win at least one of Liverpool at home and Newcastle away, and one win and a draw would probably see them safe. And that's to discount any chance they have against the top teams.

I also think there's going to be a fair degree of 'ex manager returning to club' syndrome when WBA play Palace as well.

We all know what normally happens in those games.

I don’t think you can under value the advantage of “points in the bag” rather than “games in hand” at this stage. We are all looking at future fixtures and trying to second guess the outcome, but we know that not every game will go to form – there will be shocks along the way. That’s why Leicester start at a disadvantage as we’ve still got less points than anyone else.

That’s also why I think we can discount Villa and WBA: one win that wasn’t expected or a draw when a defeat was anticipated and they’re more or less safe. Sunderland and Hull still have an advantage over us and we need to keep winning to catch them. One round of results when they lose and we win would do it, but equally this could go the other way.

It may well come down to our performances against Burnley, Sunderland and QPR, but we have to try and keep winning to ensure that those results matter.

It's a 3 for me. Play to our strengths and go 4-2-3-1 if that isn't working.

Good to have options.

Not looking at anyone else's games. Just taking it one match at a time...

comment by johngee (U5021)
posted 10 hours, 39 minutes ago
I have to say I had doubts when I got to my seat against Hammers - bloody nonsense I think was my comment- but they seemed to work with a lot of people nearby who normally sat on their hands
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JG, I think I must sit quite close to you in B2 and that was about as noisy as I've heard in our area. Hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow.

We won't win if we play like we did at the Liberty though, we were truly dreadful in the first half particularly and 2-0 did not flatter the Swans in the slightest (I was there too).

Game at a time now so let's hope that no Bony, Gomis, Naughton and Montero not playing recently gives us a chance for revenge!

I am bewildered by the possible formations but please not 5 at the back!