Cherries on Top

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View attachment 202011Following our impressive performance against Everton I was hoping that we could continue against Southampton. We couldn't however.

Southampton were overal the far better team and we only sporadically managed to create a good chance so I have no complains about this one best to just keep moving on.​
 
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March Review
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March was a decent month for us, we started the month of against a struggling West Brom side. It wasn't the most convincing win in the world but in the end we got the 3 points.

We then travelled to London to face Arsenal at the Emirates. Arsenal were by far the better team and we were lucky to only concede 2 goals. The game against Everton was much better and we totally deserved the 3 points that we got from our very convincing win against them.

The final game of the month took place at St Mary's, unfortunately we put in an absolutely terrible performance and in the end Southampton got a deserved win.



Table
View attachment 201345At the top we find that the title race is still very close as Arsenal are still in 1st place only 1 point in front of Chelsea. Chelsea however have played one game less then Arsenal and so they could potentially move into 1st place with a win. Manchester City meanwhile are still in 3rd place and look guaranteed for a top 4 finish while Manchester United are still 4th.

At the bottom we find that Stoke City, while having picked up a few points, are still last and are pretty much guaranteed to go down. Villa are still in 19th place while West Brom now complete the relegation trio as they are currently 18th.

We find ourselves in the 16th place only 1 point above he relegation zone however, it should also be noted that Crystal Palace have played 1 match less than us and a draw or a win could see them claim the 16th place at our expense.



A Look Ahead: April
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As we near the end of the season we find ourselves facing some tough opposition in the very important month that is April.

We start of the month at Stamford Bridge before facing West Ham United at home.

Then we face Watford at Vicarage Road followed by Manchester City at home. Finally we end the month with an away game against Newcastle United.



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An away game at Stamford Bridge was always going to be a tough game.

Chelsea started the game off much, much better than us and within the first moments of the match managed to grab the lead after an error by Tommy Elphick. They quickly doubled their lead and within 12 minutes even managed to make it 3-0.

In the second half they continued and showed no signs of mercy as they made it 4 in the 53rd minute. Finally the team seemed to wake up and we managed to score 2 goals in the space of 2 minutes to make it 4-2.

We continued to try and make something happen but in the end we came up short and so we lost, deservedly, to an excellent Chelsea side.​
 
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We haven't been lucky with injuries this season and in the week between the Chelsea and the West Ham match bad luck hit again as 2 played got injured during training:​
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View attachment 201332The Gradel injury is a particular blow as he only just got back from a major injury and now looks to miss the rest of the season as well.

Still the show must go on.
View attachment 201331In the Chelsea game we mainly lost due to our bad start, this time however we got of to an excellent start and as a result managed to grab an early lead through Atsu.

For a while the match continued to be very evenly matched but as time went on West Ham managed to become the better team. In the 70th minute they managed to grab their reward as they scored an equalizer.

They continued to push on but we managed to hold them of and so the game ended in a 1-all draw. While I would have liked the 3 points, given the overal match, this was probably a fair result.


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Watford have been very impressive this season so we knew that we were in for a tough match.

While we dominated the game possession wise we didn't manage to create enough chances to capitalise on this. Watford on the other hand had less possession but were far more effective than us.

In the 18th minute Jelavic opened the scoring and in the end this proved to be the only goal of the game.

Not happy with this game at all, we were far too inaffective with the ball and in the end that ended up costing us massively.​
 
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Not much to be said about this one. City are on paper a far better team then us and this should be an easy win for them. That's also exactly how it turned out.

While the scorline might not make it appear so City were the far better team and controlled pretty much the entire match. Really don't know what else to add, best to just move on.​
 
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April has been a terrible month for us so far and we continued our below par performances against Newcastle United.

We started this match of again very poorly and quickly found ourselves 2 goals behind. Ritchie then pulled 1 back for us and gave me a glimmer of hope.

Newcastle then crushed then hope as Cisse made it 3-1 for them. In the second half Newcastle continued to dominate the game and they managed to score 2 more goals to give them a very convincing 5-1 win over us.
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April Review
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Pathetic, that is what we have been in April. There is no other way of saying it.

We started of the month very poorly and only got back into the Chelsea game after going 4 goals down, against West Ham things looked far more promising but in the end we came up short once more only getting 1 point.

The game against Watford was another very close one but in the end we got the short end of the stick and ended up with nothing for our hard work. City are simply a much better team than us and while the scorline might not reflect it totally deserved their win.

Finally the game against Newcastle was simply unacceptable. We were extremely poor and honestly with performances like that we don't deserve to be in the Premier League.
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Table
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At the end of April we find that Arsenal are still nr 1. Chelsea have had a very poor month and as such they now find themselves 3 points behind Arsenal. City are still 3rd while Watford have moved up and are now in 4th place while United have fallen down the table and are now 6th.

At the bottom we find Stoke who have definately been relegated while Villa are still 19th. Then we find ourselves once more. Our extremely poor performances in April has seen us fall back into the relegation zone and we are now 2 points behind Palace who have 1 game in hand as well... things are not looking good at all...


A Look Ahead: March
View attachment 201315The game against Aston Villa is hugely important and a win is vital if we are to have a chance of staying up. Finally in the last match of the season we face Tottenham... can we stay up or are we doomed, that is the question.
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Some tough results there, been a real fight all season, good luck!
 
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As we head into a new month we obviously need a new injury so two players decided to step up
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Then came Aston Villa...

View attachment 201302What a game! This game was hugely important for us and the team seemed to be aware of this as we totally dominated a mediocre Aston Villa side.

The first half was a very tight affair and Aston Villa went into the break with a 1 goal lead. In the half time I made the team aware of what was at stake here and they went into the second half looking a different side.

We quickly equalised in the 50th minute and just when we were in control we got a red card as Daniels picked up his second yellow card of the game. This however did not deter us and we continued to take the game to Villa.

This resulted in us picking up 4 more goals and so we secure a vital 5-1 victory against Villa whom as a result of this loss are the 2nd team to be relegated of the Premier League.​
 
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AFC Bournemouth were desperately unlucky to come away with a loss in their encounter against Tottenham Hotspur... two key words there: desperately unlucky. Pretty much sums up our season.

While the result might not reflect it we didn't play badly at all instead we were just unlucky... okay maybe it's not fair to blame it all on bad luck but still I feel that we deserved far more from this game.

We went into this game knowing that we needed atleast a draw while Palace needed to lose their game, in the end we lost and Palace won so even if we had won this one we would have come up short.
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Season Review
Now that the season is over lets take a look at the final table:

View attachment 201276As you can see Arsenal have clinched the Premier League title 12 years after their last one. Chelsea have ended up in 2nd place 6 points behind Arsenal. Manchester City have become 3rd with a total of 75 points while Leicester City have become the surprise of the season finishing 4th!

The 5th and 6th places have gone to Liverpool and Watford respectively.

At the bottom we find the team that has been down there for most of the season Stoke City, Aston Villa have ended up in 19th place while we have finished the season in the 18th place only 2 points behind Crystal Palace.


Post-Season Thoughts
Going into the season we were favourites to be relegated and were even predicted to come in last. Given those expectations I feel that we did okay. We picked up some impressive results: getting a draw at Old Trafford, getting a draw against Chelsea at home. Beating Liverpool very convincingly, 3-0 , and finally beating Everton 4-1.

Ofcourse there are also plenty of bad things to talk about. We simply gave away too many points in games that we should have won and both our cup runs were very disappointing to say the least. On paper getting into the 5th round of the FA Cup might not look bad at all but the fact that we lost against Yeovil Town is simply unacceptable.


So were did it go wrong? For one we were very unlucky with injuries, I suppose that we also lacked that extra bit of quality that would have made the small difference required in the end. Finally maybe my tactics are to blame as well. I am a huge fan of direct attack oriented football and maybe that isn't the best way to play if you are going to fight a relegation battle. Maybe I should have gone with a more defensive style as we conceded a total of 77(!) goals.


So this is the end. I want to thank all of you for following this interesting journey, I really enjoyed this ride as it was something totally new for me and I hope that you enjoyed it as well.




What's next for me?
Well I am not sure I will definately be starting a new story very soon and I am planning on making it a longer one than this one and the Stuttgart one that I have done so far. If you have any suggestions for what you would like to say please do not hesitate and let me know below, thanks ;)
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