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Race for the Top 4 - 2018/19

Where will we finish in the league ?


  • Total voters
    423
  • Poll closed .

Everlasting Seconds

Well-Known Member
Jan 9, 2014
14,914
26,616
Was just watching that as well, we were fucking awesome that year though. I still think we had become a better team than Chelsea by the end of that season but we were too far behind by January..
You are quite right. Chelsea had the consistency from the start, but Tottenham were the best team by the end. It was just not enough.
 

Marty

Audere est farce
Mar 10, 2005
39,885
62,549
Just saw a list of minutes played and travel distance for the big six over the international break. Makes for interesting/depressing reading. I love that we have great players but it's a massive bellyache when they play so much for their countries.

Travel distance:
1. Liverpool - 83 800 km
2. Tottenham - 66 300 km
3. Arsenal - 63 800 km
4. Manchester City - 50 709 km
5. Manchester United - 41 800 km
6. Chelsea - 29 100 km

Minutes played:
1. Tottenham - 1452 min
2. Liverpool - 1220 min
3. Chelsea - 1159 min
4. Arsenal - 1019 min
5. Manchester City - 1009 min
6. Manchester United - 832 min
 

Spurslove

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2012
6,627
9,281
Just saw a list of minutes played and travel distance for the big six over the international break. Makes for interesting/depressing reading. I love that we have great players but it's a massive bellyache when they play so much for their countries.

Travel distance:
1. Liverpool - 83 800 km
2. Tottenham - 66 300 km
3. Arsenal - 63 800 km
4. Manchester City - 50 709 km
5. Manchester United - 41 800 km
6. Chelsea - 29 100 km

Minutes played:
1. Tottenham - 1452 min
2. Liverpool - 1220 min
3. Chelsea - 1159 min
4. Arsenal - 1019 min
5. Manchester City - 1009 min
6. Manchester United - 832 min

It's a good point, but these days, all the top players and their clubs understand how important it is to get the right amount of rest between games and make special allowances for travelling times and jet lag etc. All the top clubs have the very best medical, dietary and psychological support teams who know and understand this problem, and from the players point of view, playing for their countries is the highest honour of all, so they accept the downsides involved in global travel whilst at the same time producing their best on the field.

It's also good that all the top teams have very similar stats (as shown) this means nobody has a distinct advantage or disadvantage.

.
 

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
46,680
104,956
Just saw a list of minutes played and travel distance for the big six over the international break. Makes for interesting/depressing reading. I love that we have great players but it's a massive bellyache when they play so much for their countries.

Travel distance:
1. Liverpool - 83 800 km
2. Tottenham - 66 300 km
3. Arsenal - 63 800 km
4. Manchester City - 50 709 km
5. Manchester United - 41 800 km
6. Chelsea - 29 100 km

Minutes played:
1. Tottenham - 1452 min
2. Liverpool - 1220 min
3. Chelsea - 1159 min
4. Arsenal - 1019 min
5. Manchester City - 1009 min
6. Manchester United - 832 min

Southgate actually mentioned us by name too before these internationals as being the club most effected by the short time between the World Cup and the start of the season and yet still played all our players, two of them for 180 minutes.

Southgate is part of the problem and typical of him and his PR spin around his role as England manager.
 

Marty

Audere est farce
Mar 10, 2005
39,885
62,549
It's also good that all the top teams have very similar stats (as shown) this means nobody has a distinct advantage or disadvantage.
I largely agree with your first paragraph but surely the stats here show that the teams haven't been affected similarly? United players played almost half as many minutes as our players and Chelsea players travelled a third of the distance Liverpool players did, right before they play each other. Those are big differences.
 

nicdic

Official SC Padre
Admin
May 8, 2005
41,857
25,919
Southgate actually mentioned us by name too before these internationals as being the club most effected by the short time between the World Cup and the start of the season and yet still played all our players, two of them for 180 minutes.

Southgate is part of the problem and typical of him and his PR spin around his role as England manager.
Southgate's in a difficult position though now that these games are competitive. If they had been friendlies, I'm sure he'd have used them more sparingly, but his job is going to be marked by results, and he needs to play his best options.
 

Saoirse

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
6,143
15,550
Southgate is no more interested in resting our players so they're fit for club matches than we are in resting them so they're fit for internationals.
 

Spurslove

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2012
6,627
9,281
I largely agree with your first paragraph but surely the stats here show that the teams haven't been affected similarly? United players played almost half as many minutes as our players and Chelsea players travelled a third of the distance Liverpool players did, right before they play each other. Those are big differences.

I get your point and you may be right, but I don't believe a player's game is affected twice as much just because he's travelled twice the distance of another player. I don't think you can quantify such things. Let's not forget each of us reacts differently to travelling. Some players might actually prefer to travel for longer periods than others because they can get more sleep on the plane as far as we know.

All I'm saying is that there are more variables involved in this than can be quantified. We're not all the same and we're not all machines that can be assessed by the same statistical boundaries.

.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
Southgate's in a difficult position though now that these games are competitive. If they had been friendlies, I'm sure he'd have used them more sparingly, but his job is going to be marked by results, and he needs to play his best options.
Agree that all managers
judged by results.
His problem is the limited options
at his disposal.
 

Spurslove

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2012
6,627
9,281
See, people ask me why I hate West Ham so much and I often find it hard to explain it properly, but there it is, right there. I will never be able to express the unhealthy feelings I feel towards them when they beat us, which thankfully isn't very often. It's as if they'd just become European Champions and World Cup winners in one match. It wouldn't surprise me one little bit if they organise street parties on these occasions, and dance around with their thumbs under their armpits like the demented cretins they are, and I haven't even started on the scenes many of us can remember with them infesting a corner of our sacred White Hart Lane making Nazi salutes and making hissing sounds to imitate the gas chambers of the death camps. As a Jewish man, that is something I will never forget, but that's a subject for another thread perhaps (Chelsea and Leeds are no better and I have similar feelings towards both of them too...).

And then there's the last game of the 2005/6 season which even now I find hard to talk about. Lasagne Gate. Scenes of demented celebration and mockery which unfortunately will stay with me until the day I die.

And then there's their board of Directors with Miss Piggy...

I wonder if any clubs really hate us and everything we stand for, as much as West Ham and Chelsea but I doubt it and sadly, my hatred for them has evolved steadily over the years as a defence mechanism.

So getting beaten by a team like West Ham, for whom I have no respect always feels like I've had my guts ripped out through my mouth.

Sorry, I went off on one there.

.


Here is one old man in ecstasy tonight. Beating them is one of the truly great pleasures left in my life. Tottenham, I love you! :happy:

.
 

coys200

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2017
8,436
17,403
If we could get in stadium for Burnley that really could see us in very good shape. It would coincide with a run of 7 out 10 home games. While this season we already have 15 away points in the bag.

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worcestersauce

"I'm no optimist I'm just a prisoner of hope
Jan 23, 2006
26,891
45,039
We're a bit like a bad smell aren't we, I caught sky's three horse race reports the other week and the radio today was praising Arsenal and their six game premier league winning run, which is fair enough I guess, but knowing they are all playing such fantastic football, they must look round and wonder how we are right there with them when we've apparently been so poor.
 

bubble07

Well-Known Member
Dec 27, 2004
22,959
29,895
Mad to think if we beat city we go above them with over a quarter of the season played
 
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