The table at New Year's Day?
If Pards gets a bit of luck with the injuries to Iwelumo and Reid, the Christmas period could be a crucial time to get back on track. We've 4 games in a period of 10 days which means 12 points up for grabs. Looking at the fixtures, many of our promotion rivals will be taking points off each other along the way.
Our lineup is Hull at home, Norwich away, Leicester away, and Colchester at home. Despite our recent home form, I reckon wins against Hull and Colchester are very good possibilities. If we can continue our away form there's no reason why we can't nick a win and a point on the road. Tempting fate is never a good thing in football, but I can't see us losing those games.
West Brom have tricky away ties at Stoke and Ipswich, and also have to face Bristol City at home. Stoke have to play away at Plymouth, who have a habit of picking up a result.
Watford are anyone's guess at the moment. Every season The Championship follows the same pattern – one team makes an early season lead of 10 points, but by Christmas they've been reeled back in. West Brom finally caught them up yesterday and Boothroyd has a real job on his hands to get things going again. I fancy them to lose away to Sheffield Wednesday, but they should pick up points at home against Cardiff and QPR.
So – if my predictions are correct, I reckon we can start the New Year just 2 points off the top. I reckon five teams will battle it out for the top 2 spots, but for me West Brom will have as good as wrapped up the title by April.
Second place is definitely up for grabs though, with no team clearly having the consistency to see them through at the moment. If Pardew can get the run of results right and strengthen the personnel in January, we've got as good a chance as any.
Have a bash yourself on the BBC Predictor – see if you can get things as wrong as I know doubt will have! Seventh place anyone? ;)
Predictor: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/predictor/default.stm
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