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?