Proximity.

[Insidious]

After 31 games played -

Distance from 1st - 21 points still. No improvement.

Distance from 4th and 5th - 5 points behind Villa in 4th (we're 3 points worse off) and ourselves are 5th. We find ourselves 6 points behind Man United, who are 3rd which is.....well, less said the better.

Distance ahead of 6th - we remain a solitary point above Chelsea - no change - though I expect they'll find something in these last 7 games.

Feels like forever since I updated this.

After 32 games played -

Distance from 1st - 18 points off - 3 point improvement. If we win at the weekend (not optimistic) and League leaders Arsenal lose, we'd be 15 points off. I bring this up because when we moved Houllier on years ago, the distance from top was mentioned at board level, as we finished a whopping 30 points behind Arsenal back then. If we can finish closer to 15 points behind, it would be a little less embarrassing - indeed, Man United finished 15 points off the pace that year.

Distance from 4th and 5th - 3 points behind Villa in 4th (we're 2 points better off) and we ourselves are 5th. We find ourselves 3 points behind Man United, who are 3rd which is a little bit of an improvement. I don't think we'll catch them, but finishing 3rd after a horror season is something to aim for.

Distance ahead of 6th - we are now 4 points ahead of Chelsea.

Game-week 32 was absolutely huge for us - a win for us, chased Brentford and Everton drew, Chelsea lost to Man City. It's rare that we get everything we want in a weekend, but that was pretty perfect at the time.

We could easily have been going into our Game-week 33 game (Everton) facing the prospect of the Bitters drawing level with us if we lost the Derby, if only a couple of results had gone differently.

Nobody will call the 4 point gap on Chelsea or the 5 points gap on Brentford and Everton "comfortable" but we do at least have a tiny bit of wiggle-room.

6 games to go and we still have a tiny bit of breathing space in our attempt to finish in the Champion's League spots.

Hopefully that remains the case for week 33, week 34 and beyond.

[Insidious]

I had meant to update before the Brighton v Chelsea game but it doesn't really matter. Now just 5 left to play.

After 33 games played -

Distance from 1st - A 15-point gap now, which is a 3-point improvement. I think the gap will increase once more, but it's certainly less embarrassing than the 21-point deficit we had. It's mental to think it's a 5-game swing considering how poor we've been. It really should be a bigger gap. It "feels like" seasons where we finished 30 points adrift. I

Distance from 4th and 5th - 3 points behind Villa in 4th (no change) and we ourselves are 5th. We find ourselves 3 points behind Man United, who remain in 3rd spot.

Distance ahead of 6th - we have a 5-point lead over Brighton, who have leap-frogged the free-falling Chelsea. The Chelsea side with so much youthful promise is in absolute free-fall having lost 5 League games on the spin. The 7-point lead over Chelsea is an improvement on us being 4 points ahead. We have a game I. Ha d now on both Brighton and Chelsea, thus the potential for an 8-point cushion, which would make failing to achieve Champion's League football something of a bottle job if we do go on to beat Crystal Palace at Anfield - historically a banana skin fixture for us.

It's interesting to note that the now 7th-placed Chelsea are only 2 points ahead of 11th-placed Sunderland. Are we going to witness a season where Chelsea finish in the bottom half?

[Insidious]

Totally lapsed on this as every time I went to update it, the forum would keek it's proverbials and wouldn't bloomin' work.

Might update the last few games of it (not that there is much "point" so-to-speak) just to see what the gap looked like in best and worst weeks if I get a minute.

Essentially bumping the thread to remind myself to perhaps do so, sorry!

[Red October]

Totally lapsed on this as every time I went to update it, the forum would keek it's proverbials and wouldn't bloomin' work.

Might update the last few games of it (not that there is much "point" so-to-speak) just to see what the gap looked like in best and worst weeks if I get a minute.

Essentially bumping the thread to remind myself to perhaps do so, sorry!

Yeah. It's been a depressing end to what was a depressing season. If City win tonight that secures fifth place for us and if City beat Villa on the last day and we do our stuff (whatever that might mean), we could finish 4th which is crazy considering how poor we've been. It's been painful this season.