Former Pompey ‘B.B.C man’ Avram Grant did us a favour last night when his Chelski side beat Everton 1-0 at Goodison to leave our chances of finishing 5th very much alive.
To be honest I cannot quite understand why Everton and Chelski had to play last night – surely the TV scheduling did not dictate this – but either way defeat for Everton sees us 4pts behind but we do now have a game in hand – this game being against Citeh on Sunday.
One thing that is certain, if we are going to have any chance of claiming 5th then we must go to Citeh and win!
This is how the table currently stands in the race for 5th:
5. Everton – Pld35 – GD+21 – 61pts
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6. Pompey – Pld34 – GD+14 – 57pts
7. Villa – Pld34 – GD+18 – 55pts
‘If’ Citeh beat us on Sunday then they ‘could’ be back in the race for 5th, but there form on the whole since the turn of the year does not really make me think that they can claw back enough points to finish 5th – that is not to say that I am expecting us to be able to go there and win easily on Sunday, far from it.
The race for 5th place will be a battle, and could be a battle that goes right down to the wire. I fancy us to do it, but then again I ‘might’ be over optimistic as I always think that we will win whenever we play?
On paper Villa ‘probably’ have the more favourable fixtures, but then again Birmingham and Wigan are both still fighting relegation, although Wigan could be safe by the time they face Villa?
Everton have a tough task of going to Arsenal and also face an improving Newcastle side – not easy at all…
I think our ‘key’ fixture could be the Blackburn one, they are always a tough nut to crack and if they are still going for a European place then they will give us even more of a game as they would have to beat us.
The Everton – Villa game could prove the decisive one, ideally we would like a draw, failing that so long as we have a gap on Villa a Villa win might not be bad – should one of these scenarios happen I quite fancy us for 5th to be honest.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
