2023/24 - The Race For..................

[SPURSLIFE]

I still don’t think we’ve played anyone very good yet. Our hardest game has been Brentford away. We can only play the teams in front of us of course, and we have looked very good. But I still think we are a bit of an unknown as far as consistency goes, and whether we can go toe to toe with the good teams in the division. We beat United convincingly, but they look shite right now.

I agree we haven't really played any of the top clubs yet and the way we play are going to let in goals but we will score and in fact I don't see many matches where we don't. Personally I think we will have a good season and one we can enjoy but I think top 4 might be just out of reach this year and go for a 5th place. Hopefully we will have a good cup run, providing we pick our best team.

 

[easley91]

I agree we haven't really played any of the top clubs yet and the way we play are going to let in goals but we will score and in fact I don't see many matches where we don't. Personally I think we will have a good season and one we can enjoy but I think top 4 might be just out of reach this year and go for a 5th place. Hopefully we will have a good cup run, providing we pick our best team.

Brentford away isn't exactly an easy away day (we haven't won there since they were promoted), and same game last season they battered United 4-0. Speaking of United, we have a poor home record v them especially in the new ground. United finished 3rd last season and won the league cup, so to say we haven't played any of the top clubs yet is a bit disingenuous.

 

[danielneeds]

Same. I hope that this is pretty much an entirely new team so no reason to fear arsenal,
I expect to lose but would be happy to just go to there, fight play we’ll go toe to toe with them.
We never get results tyere, even when we were a top side and they were struggling we never won there

No, to be fair, when each side's away, they generally don't like going into the atmosphere of the home stadium in the last 10 years. They rolled us over last year, but we were a rabble and they were flying.

 

[hughy]

No, to be fair, when each side's away, they generally don't like going into the atmosphere of the home stadium in the last 10 years. They rolled us over last year, but we were a rabble and they were flying.

We were well in the away game until the Hugo mistake and the debatable red card.

 

[danielneeds]

We were well in the away game until the Hugo mistake and the debatable red card.

Oh, I meant the home game in which we were shocking, although again Hugo was like a cardboard cutout.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

If I am being honest, and only slightly biased, we should be competing for the league this season.

GK - Vicario is still raw, but he is pretty good. top-5ish

Def - I'll come back to this

Mid - Our CM3 of Maddison/Sarr/Bissouma is in the conversation for the best overall midfield in the league. Each of our Mids is very good at their particular role - Maddison the creator, Sarr the box-to-box, and Bissouma the DM/holding Mid. I still don't think Bentancur walks back into the XI when healthy - but what a rotation we would have - particularly for Sarr, and also giving Bissouma a rest.

F - I think the acquisitions of Solomon and Johnson - combined with Ange's tactics - make this a strength now - even if we lack a dominant striker/goalscorer. It may be that we have to mix and match to find the right combination for a given opponent, but we really have lots of different ways we can play the front 3. I'd say Brighton and City have better attacking groups on paper - and maybe Arsenal.

Intangibles - no mid-week distractions until January. Teams with managers who could work out how best to play against us, won't have time to work us out until January, with limited training and mid-week competitions.

Our Defense has been much maligned over the last couple of years - part of that is down to the players, part is down to the formation/tactics. Right now - I would take our back-4 against anyone - defensively. Maybe not as attacking as Liverpool, but much better at defending, particularly when you add Bissouma and Sarr in front of the back-4.

In fact, I think our back 7 plus Vicario is as good as anyone in the league. Its not that the players themselves are necessarily individually brilliant(some are), its that they each fill a very specific role that fits their attributes - which makes the collective even better than the individual pieces.


Now, having said that - we are not particularly deep. I would say Royal, Bentancur (when healthy), Solomon/Perisic, Johnson, Richarlison could come in for a starter and we would not see a significant drop-off.

But, if we lose Vicario, a CB, Udogie, Maddison (or Sarr and Bissouma at the same time) - we would be in trouble. Losing Sonny probably would hurt a little too, but we have better options up front.

Given that we have sold Sanchez, I have to think that the powers at the club are not thinking of a title run this season, and probably are still targeting some European competition. But, if the team can put together a strong run to January - perhaps that will loosen the purse strings for reinforcements in January. And that could lead to a strong finish to the season, and a longer cup run in the FA Cup.

 

[SPURSLIFE]

Brentford away isn't exactly an easy away day (we haven't won there since they were promoted), and same game last season they battered United 4-0. Speaking of United, we have a poor home record v them especially in the new ground. United finished 3rd last season and won the league cup, so to say we haven't played any of the top clubs yet is a bit disingenuous.

Bournmouth and Palace drew there. I still don't call them a top team and United aren't exactly playing that well at the moment. I will wait and see how we fare against Arsenal and Liverpool over the next few games as that will tell us a lot more than the games we have played so far.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

I can’t help but feel we might be in for a bit of a shock when we play a team with a competent attack. Defensively you can see there are weaknesses to be exploited. I also feel like our press is very disjointed currently. You can tell it isn’t yet second nature. Essentially when we come up against a team that is of a higher technical ability than those we have faced until now it could be a bit of an eye opener.

This is all to be expected of course, after all Rome wasn’t built in a day. But I think we as fans should try and keep our expectations in check somewhat. At least for the time being. It’s credit to Ange that we have looked as coherent as we have for large parts of our matches so far but I also think we are still a long way off. Ange seems to say the same when he’s asked and that alone is very encouraging. I’m sure he is under no illusions as to where we are as a unit regardless of the results.

Essentially for me it’s far too soon to be thinking about top 4 as we are still trying to figure out what exactly we are. It is only natural for any team this early in their development to suffer growing pains and I’m sure they will come.

Personally any finish within the top 6 would be a positive for me. Looking at the lack of depth in certain key positions coupled with the fact we still tactically have the training wheels on I think expecting anything more might be a little overly optimistic.

That being said Im sure the squad are aiming to finish as high as possible and Ange will certainly get them fighting for every point possible. Only one game a week until Christmas is also a huge help in regards to time spent on the training pitch finessing the tactics.

Im just going to enjoy the ride for what it is without having any expectations. At least for time being.

 

[wadewill]

What league were you watching? They had a massive dip at the end of the season.

At the halfway point Arsenal were 5 points clear of City with a game in hand.

Second half of the season Arsenal finished 3rd on 37 points, only 1 above Villa and 2 above Liverpool.

Their form across their last 10 league games (with no other competitions to play in at the time) would have had them finishing in 5th if applied across the rest of the season.

They got knocked out out both domestic cups pretty early on, round wise, and managed only 4 wins from their last 10 premier league games, suffering just as many (4) loses and getting 2 draws.

They came second. If our “dip” means we come second and are City’s only challengers then I’ll be pretty happy.

Not a bad dip as far as dips go

 

[DogsOfWar]

I think City are still a level above and would be surprised if they didn't win the league again.

As it stands i'd fancy us for fourth behind Arsenal and Liverpool as they are further along in their development.

But, if we stay injury free, keep on improving, and European games start to affect the top teams we could be in with a shout for second. I also think we will go back in for the likes of Kelly in the winter to fill the squad out which may help reduce the injury risk in the second half of the season.

 

[amathews3416]

Why not top 4?

City will run away with the league and I think Arsenal is the only other club you could confidently put up there.

Liverpool…yea, but they maybe losing Salah without replacing him if Saudi’s come in with 200 million.

Chelsea is so far off and to be frank look like they have bought a bunch of average footballers with potential.

United is in a bit of disarray and did they do enough to strengthen? I don’t think so.

Newcastle have already fallen early on and I just think them and Villa are going to find it difficult to navigate the league with Europe.

Brighton plays lovely stuff and could very well challenge.

If we can stay healthy at key positions I absolutely think we will make top 4.

 

[Snarfalicious]

I don’t know how consistent this group will be. I think we will have matches where it feels like the opponents convert all their chances and we drop points to teams we expect to get points off of. It’ll be part of the growing pains of this new style. I’m just happy that I look forward to watching us and actually want to watch replays of the matches again. Let’s enjoy the moment, hope it keeps going, but know that this is just the beginning. That’s good enough for me.

 

[jolsnogross]

We're over performing my initial expectations. Three away games, home one vs United, two clean sheets, and only 2 points dropped. Excellent stuff and we can't really comment on consistency as yet. But if you're not revising upwards, you probably had too-high expectations at the start of the season.

I still don't think we'll get into the top 4, But I'm less certain of it and initially thought we'd be 7th or 8th. But United, Chelsea, and Newcastle are not going well. I expect at least Newcastle among that trio to bounce back. Liverpool are carrying on where they left off last year and look good. City and Arsenal are still ahead of things I reckon.

But you can't ask for much more than we've gotten already. If Johnson slots in we've got 5 good options for the front 3. And every team is a key injury away from a downturn, so things are looking up. We'll know a good deal more after that tough double header after the Sheffield Utd game. Especially if we beat Sheffield heading in to it!

 

[easley91]

Bournmouth and Palace drew there. I still don't call them a top team and United aren't exactly playing that well at the moment. I will wait and see how we fare against Arsenal and Liverpool over the next few games as that will tell us a lot more than the games we have played so far.

My point is we have struggled in the same fixtures previously, yet this year have come through very well. 3 wins out of 4, 3 of the 4 being AWAY games. The goals conceded v Brentford were a penalty and a deflection.

I don't want to get carried away, but as starts go with a new manager and completely new style of play to adapt to it couldn't have gone much better. Plenty of teams struggled at Brentford last season and probably will this, United had a decent record v us no matter how poor they looked at times, they still managed to beat us more often than not. I have a feeling once Burnley get to grips with the league Turf Moore will be a tough assignment, and Bournemouth gave Liverpool a decent scare at Anfield.

Of course we have played City, Arsenal, Liverpool yet and they will be the acid tests, however we have passed the tests we have had so far and passed them with relative ease.

 

[Oh Teddy Teddy]

I can imagine we are going to take a thumping at some point, and unfortunately the timing of the Arsenal match could be exactly that moment. I know Arsenal haven't exactly been tearing it up yet, but in terms of them being settled into a way of playing, and with speed in their attacking play, it has the potential to be a car crash.

On the plus side, that's not really going to be a game that defines our season too much. Plenty of toys will be thrown from prams of course, but I would then be looking for us to respond against Liverpool. If we get a result in either of those matches I think it's a good sign.

I think the players have fit pretty seamlessly into the way Ange wants to play with the ball and attack. I do still have reservations about how we are defensively, particularly the full backs positionally (mainly Porro). I feel that if Martinelli and Saka click, they'll get an abundance of joy and space against us.

But I can also see Bissouma, Sarr and Maddison bossing their midfield if Havertz is still playing.

 

[djhotspur]

I think the players have fit pretty seamlessly into the way Ange wants to play with the ball and attack. I do still have reservations about how we are defensively, particularly the full backs positionally (mainly Porro). I feel that if Martinelli and Saka click, they'll get an abundance of joy and space against us.

But I can also see Bissouma, Sarr and Maddison bossing their midfield if Havertz is still playing.

Yeah theres plenty of key battles, bissouma beating their press and preventing ode from playing, sarr defensively against havertz, our fullbacks against their wingers, which could go very badly but i think udogie can comfortably do a job on an out of form saka, maddison vs rice, and I think a key part as well is our Rw vs Zinchenko, we all know he's bad defensively so put johnson on him and let him get in behind him all day.
Its clearly going to be a day for the big moments and if our players take their chances well have a chance if theirs do they'll win.
My worry is brentfords Cms also kept finding space to shoot against us at the weekend, if you give ode that space hell hurt you.
Plus the games against them last season their cms popped up with incredible goals, Partey and Ode and at least we have a CM who can do that in Maddison now.
It really could go either way bit I'm expecting to lose 3-1 as its at their place. I just hope we are bang up for it.

 

[SPURSLIFE]

My point is we have struggled in the same fixtures previously, yet this year have come through very well. 3 wins out of 4, 3 of the 4 being AWAY games. The goals conceded v Brentford were a penalty and a deflection.

I don't want to get carried away, but as starts go with a new manager and completely new style of play to adapt to it couldn't have gone much better. Plenty of teams struggled at Brentford last season and probably will this, United had a decent record v us no matter how poor they looked at times, they still managed to beat us more often than not. I have a feeling once Burnley get to grips with the league Turf Moore will be a tough assignment, and Bournemouth gave Liverpool a decent scare at Anfield.

Of course we have played City, Arsenal, Liverpool yet and they will be the acid tests, however we have passed the tests we have had so far and passed them with relative ease.

I remember how we started last season we were unbeaten in our first 7 games and look how that finished. We have a new manager and style, some new players it's all looking great but lets wait and see where we're at in say November.

 

[Fidget]

They are a very organised and difficult to play team. I'm not gonna get my hopes up because it's so long since we've turned up there and put in a cogent performance. It's an acid test for me. Not necessarily going there and getting a result, because they could still beat us even if we play well, I just wanna see something that tells me we're up for the fight this year.

Think we already know we’re up for the fight. Maybe Ange has some other stuff up his sleeve, don’t really know yet? I mean can you attack in the same way as so far and still have variations you can use against top teams? We still need to find out just how clever Ange can be tactically.

 

[danielneeds]

Think we already know we’re up for the fight. Maybe Ange has some other stuff up his sleeve, don’t really know yet? I mean can you attack in the same way as so far and still have variations you can use against top teams? We still need to find out just how clever Ange can be tactically.

There's the tactical stuff, we're two sides playing pretty similarly now, so it will come down to individual duels too. There's also just a belief that drains from us when we go there. Even our really good sides under Poch couldn't get over the line against worse Arsenal; sides.

 

[robin09]

Before the season, top 6 was the target I was happy with in a complete re-start year.

I think it's possible we get top 4 ahead of schedule, given how we've started. Title talk is a bit much. We'll know how good we are when we've played Arsenal and Liverpool. I'm worried about us defensively against teams who won't miss some of the chances we're giving up every game.