12 games gone
66% win ratio
Only 2 defeats
26pts
Yes the last two games have been hard to take - that of itself is a positive. Before the season started we expected those kind of results to be the norm.
Even if we have a very tough time until Xmas we'll end probably en-par with our pre season expectations.
This is a few seasons rebuild - still is. With that came risk. The risk being a worse scenario of the CBs, Madders or Vicario not working out of being unavailable. We know past about 13 players that there is a big drop off, it's why we got to where we are.
Dier, GLC, PEH etc are squad players at best. Any team that suddenly has to bring in lots of squad players will struggle. Even moreso when players are out of position.
There is also a fascinating phycological learning curve across the league - 90 mins is no longer the end of the game. You need to "see out the last three minutes" anymore. We'll see lots of interesting results because of it - we already have.
Ange is still learning too. He's galvanized everywhere he's been. The PL is the least forgiving league in the world. He's have got away with the last two games with good results in Scotland etc. You don't in the PL. So he will learn from that. And he lacks the support of real experienced PL leaders on the pitch to help see these last ten minutes through.
We are great shape. If the first 12 games is replicated across the season, we'll finish 3-6th based on most previous seasons. 65pts will almost certainly make top 6.
We'd have all taken that preseason.
Add in the league is far more equal across a good 12-14 teams and the added time, I think the points threshold for 6th will be quite low.
It's good we have a long break now to work on Dier and Davies or Royal at CB. None of them would have been expected to be needed for a few months at CB, so the work needs doing now. It's also a time for Ange to tweak the system to accommodate the lack of pace for recovery.