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

[philll]

I can't think of a single instance that even comes close of the handbrake being pulled on so sharply on a team's season. Had we held it together against Chelsea we'd probably be 5 points clear at the top of the table right now.

We've seen how well we can play, we'll be fine for the second half of the season (any further injuries notwithstanding) and I'm sure we'll be there or thereabouts re: top 4/5 but bloody hell... it feels like every time we play we get kicked in the face in new and inventive ways at the moment and I fear the next month at least is going to be miserable in terms of results.

 

[13VanDerBale13]

By the time the year ends, I think we’ll be 7th

 

[CookieYiddo]

Its looking rough in the immediate but when we get back up to full strength we are still good enough to push for CL.

 

[Tucker]

Its looking rough in the immediate but when we get back up to full strength we are still good enough to push for CL.

I’ve a feeling we may be too far adrift by the time we get our key players back.

We all just need to suck it up and get on with it though. Shit happens and this isn’t the manager or indeed the players fault.

11 first team players out of 25 injured. That’s insane.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

By the time the year ends, I think we’ll be 7th

And given how competitive the league is and with the injuries and suspensions we’ve had tbh 7th would be about right but I’d like to hope we can push for anything from 3rd-6th especially top 5 if 5x CL places this season.

As the season drags on I do expect Newcastle, Villa, Brighton etc to slow down a bit due to European commitments. I think City, Arsenal and Liverpool will be too strong for us this season but beyond that if we make some signings in Jan and get our players back quickly enough then anything 4th-8th could happen.

Meh just enjoy the ride this season, it’s mostly about building towards next season anyway as Ange had a heck of a lot to sort out this summer.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I’ve a feeling we may be too far adrift by the time we get our key players back.

We all just need to suck it up and get on with it though. Shit happens and this isn’t the manager or indeed the players fault.

11 first team players out of 25 injured. That’s insane.

Yep as you say if we are too far adrift then so be it, then we still focus on the process under Ange and building towards a really really strong 2nd season under him.

 

[bubble07]

By the time the year ends, I think we’ll be 7th

Think we could win the conference league

 

[hughy]

I think we're becoming victims of our unbelievable start to the season. Had our three defeats and 2 draws been spread out evenly across the 13 games we'd all still be saying we're having an amazing season when you consider where our squad was 5/6 months ago, and the injuries we've picked up.

I'm not writing off the City game, but I'm certainly not expecting anything from it. If we can stumble through to West Ham when we'll have Bissouma, Romero and hopefully Sarr back things will start looking a bit better I'm sure.

 

[Yantino]

Nothing has changed for me since pre-season. I wanted to see exciting, attacking, possession based football and aim to finish top4 this season.

Still the case and most of those boxes have been ticked.

 

[Rosco1984]

totally. and give the arse a 4 point lead at the same time

and go level on points with the best team in the world last season with 5 key players and a similar amount of first choice rotation players missing. Who cares about Arsenal they will implode at some point lets be around when it happens. Second half of this season is going to be something special once Ange's style of football has even more embedded itself and the top quality players are back from injury we will wipe the floor with teams.

 

[nicdic]

I think we're becoming victims of our unbelievable start to the season. Had our three defeats and 2 draws been spread out evenly across the 13 games we'd all still be saying we're having an amazing season when you consider where our squad was 5/6 months ago, and the injuries we've picked up.

I'm not writing off the City game, but I'm certainly not expecting anything from it. If we can stumble through to West Ham when we'll have Bissouma, Romero and hopefully Sarr back things will start looking a bit better I'm sure.

We might be stumbling in terms of the points from the past three games, but the performances against Chelsea and Villa showed more than enough for us to know that we're heading in the right direction. We've had a shitter in terms of the injuries and suspensions. Just the injuries and we'd be looking at a completely different situation. City will be a tough game, for sure, but we still have enough to give them a game. Romero back against Newcastle will be a big boost. Very unlikely that we challenge for the title, but we're still way ahead of our wildest dreams from pre-season.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

We might be stumbling in terms of the points from the past three games, but the performances against Chelsea and Villa showed more than enough for us to know that we're heading in the right direction. We've had a shitter in terms of the injuries and suspensions. Just the injuries and we'd be looking at a completely different situation. City will be a tough game, for sure, but we still have enough to give them a game. Romero back against Newcastle will be a big boost. Very unlikely that we challenge for the title, but we're still way ahead of our wildest dreams from pre-season.

Don’t think we were ever challenging for the title. Good story for the press but we could all see what a few injuries would do.

 

[spurs mental]

Don’t think we were ever challenging for the title. Good story for the press but we could all see what a few injuries would do.

Majority called it when the window closed that injuries to either of the 2 or the 2 suspended would be a hard thing to cope with.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

Every chance of 5 champ lge places next season . If we got that it would be a great effort by Ange.
He’s walked in, never brought any training entourage with him(Conte had 7), never mentioned needing 2 or 3 transfer windows, no mention of not being his players.
After the first couple of games, started playing brilliant attacking football .
We have the making of a very good team. By next season hope to have cleared out the usual suspects and got 5 or 6 new players in. Then we will be ready to go.
Took Arteta 4 years and 600m to mount a proper challenge last season.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Majority called it when the window closed that injuries to either of the 2 or the 2 suspended would be a hard thing to cope with.

And here in lies the problem we've had over the years, we're always left short in one way or another.

 

[Rosco1984]

Majority called it when the window closed that injuries to either of the 2 or the 2 suspended would be a hard thing to cope with.

It's a huge if but if we pulled a shock win on sunday we would be level on points with the champions after 3 games missing all but one of our most vital players. If that happens we are in a title race. We won't last the pace without additions but we are in it at that stage and crazy things happen.

 

[dude573]

It is such a depressing state of affairs right now. All of Ange's and the squads hard work has literally been kicked away from them. You expect injuries and of course we should have signed an extra CB in the Summer. But to be this depleted not even half way into the season is crushing. Due to the injuries we could well finish outside of the top 7 again.

All of our momentum has been ripped away from us in such unfortunate circumstances.

 

[13VanDerBale13]

The Race For Avoiding Injuries

 

[jackson]

The Race For Avoiding Injuries

More of a hobble than a race now surely...

 

[fish5871]

we only 2 league games in January and two fa cup weekends and a winter break weekend. That’s quite fortunate for us.