The Race For 4th

[felmani26]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are definitely not better than Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea or ManC.

I'm not saying we are fucked, but I think if the teams that play the best football finish 1,2,3 & 4, then we won't be playing CL football next year.

Audre est facre and all that, but just my honest assessment.

Fair enough, but without stating the same old rhetoric with regards to injuries but if you notice it's to not only key personnel but players who are fundamental to playing the attractive passing football we know and love.

I don't think there's been a single game this season where I've been impressed with City playing quality football from start to finish - organised, resourceful with sporadic brilliance from Tevez but playing quality football, I'm not so sure.

 

[StartingPrice]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are definitely not better than Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea or ManC.

I'm not saying we are fucked, but I think if the teams that play the best football finish 1,2,3 & 4, then we won't be playing CL football next year.

Audre est facre and all that, but just my honest assessment.

1) I disagree. United have been dire all season. Citeh play better football = yer 'avin' a larf. Chelsea never played better football anyway, as I pointed out repeatedly, at the start of the season when they were winning games by huge margins, they were hugely flattered by the scorelines, and IMHO overrated. ArseScum play better football, well, yeah, in patches, but only if you concede Whinger's dearest wish that football become a non-contact sport.

2) Not playing 'the best football' never harmed many a league winner's chances. In fact for huge periods of our dross the main problem was the urge to deliver 'the best football', so, even if you were correct (and I don't think you are), I can live with it. Funny though, how even arch Gooners have been publicly stating that we were the most entertaining attacking team this season - how do you account for this?

 

[Mr Pink]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are definitely not better than Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea or ManC.

I'm not saying we are fucked, but I think if the teams that play the best football finish 1,2,3 & 4, then we won't be playing CL football next year.

Audre est facre and all that, but just my honest assessment.

We may not be playing at our best at the moment but City dont play better football than us, they just dont.

They would never have done that to Inter....never, not in a million years. Mancini would of had 6 defensive midfielders on the pitch for a start.

 

[walworthyid]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are definitely not better than Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea or ManC.

I'm not saying we are fucked, but I think if the teams that play the best football finish 1,2,3 & 4, then we won't be playing CL football next year.

Audre est facre and all that, but just my honest assessment.

I totally disagree with that in a number of ways.

Firstly, all of those teams currently have all of their main players at their disposal which obviously allows you to play close to your best. Secondly, playing "good quality football" isn't the only factor which decides whether you are successful or not.

Looking at each team individually, Chelsea are not playing good football. They have no width, no pace, no creativity and against Liverpool, at home, they mustered one blocked shot on goal. Hence they are not winning football matches. They are like watching paint dry and unless they manage to get in front, they have no real plan to win games.

Man city play nice pretty football around the middle of the pitch and generally look quite comfortable but without Johnson they also have no real plan to win games. They basically stay solid and give it to Silva and Tevez. We have also played them off of the park for 3 successive games. We are also in better form than them.

Arsenal always play nice pretty football, yet they get beaten. They are better than us and will finish above us, but we have won the last 2 NLDs.

Man U are better than us and yet they were very grateful for a draw at ours and can't win a game away from home.

I'm sorry, but when our first 11/13 players are fit, we are a match for anybody both in terms of grit and fight, as well as sheer attacking flair and creativity. The teams that finish in the top 4 positions will be those who have found the right blend of qualities across a season of 38 games, currently we are one of those 4 teams and have been consistently now for well over a year.

We are there because we deserve to be.

 

[danielneeds]

Its quite hilarious to suggest that Citeh play better football than us. Get the tapes of the last three games between us.

They are a bunch or big, strong, negative grinders, who who are blessed with an outstanding striker, nothing more.

 

[TEESSIDE1]

We've been average in our last 3 games, yet we've picked up 9 pts.

I honestly believe that with Van der Vaart, Bale, Modric and co close to fitness that we can finish in the top 3.

We've a game in hand over City ... Blackpool away which we SHOULD win. Yes, we've got some tough games against Arsecum, City, Chelsea and Liverpool but other than that, all of our games are against the shite at the bottom.

If we can beat Arsecum, get draws at City and Liverpool ... there's no reason we can't make mince meat of Blackpool, Wolves, Wigan, Birmingham and co.

 

[soup]

Bar Arsenal, when we've got our best team out our football runs rings around most and we've not only been one of the best attacking teams in the league, we've also been the most talked about in the CL.

We still have patches where we can look a bit crap, but this for me has virtually always when the other team are actually playing pretty well! Take Sunderland, we were playing very well in the opening minutes, but then Sunderland, at home, started to dominate and looked threatening as they have against everyone else this year. We dropped off, looked a bit disjointed for a bit then came back to win.

There will definitely be times when we're not playing easy-on-the-eye, one touch football and there will definitely be times when the other team, god forbid, get thier own act together and play better than us for a bit, it happens and will continue to happen until we are twice as good as Barcelona currently are.

We're not sacrificing pretty football for what we're achieving right now and haven't resorted to rough house tactics either when playing the likes of Chelsea or Utd., we're generally outplaying them too.

A squad stuffed with true Tottenham attacking players, 4th in the league, gaining on the richest team on the planet, sitting above the 2nd richest team on the planet, playing some amazing football, grinding out tough away trips and playing AC on Tuesday night with 40-50m to spend in the summer.

Times are not that bad, are there are millions of football fans who'd love to have what we do right now.

 

[Coyboy]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are definitely not better than Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea or ManC.

I'm not saying we are fucked, but I think if the teams that play the best football finish 1,2,3 & 4, then we won't be playing CL football next year.

Audre est facre and all that, but just my honest assessment.

I see your illiteracy is not restricted to English.

 

[MilkyBarYid]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are definitely not better than Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea or ManC.

I'm not saying we are fucked, but I think if the teams that play the best football finish 1,2,3 & 4, then we won't be playing CL football next year.

Audre est facre and all that, but just my honest assessment.

You were onto a hiding tonothing after saying that.

 

[Gedi]

The Espn guys last night kept talking about whether or not we could beat Chelsea to 4th with complete disregard of the fact that City are hardly certain of it either. As has been mentioned we can go 3rd a week on Tuesday if we beat Blackpool. Hell Arsenal are only 6 ahead & we've to play them at home. Admittedly I think Arsenal could still win the league.

The panel also referred to some of the games in our end of season run-in:
Arsenal (h)
City (a)
Liverpool (a)
City (a)
again with disregard to the obviously far from walk in the park fixtures for the other contenders.

Iirc Chelsea have Utd (h&a) Us (h) & City (h)
City have Chelsea (a) Us (h) Liverpool (a)
Liverpool have Utd (h) City (h) Arsenal (a)
Arsenal have Liverpool (a) Us (a) Utd (h)
Utd have Chelsea (h&a) Liverpool (a) Arsenal (a)

And against the current bottom 5 I think we have 6 games Chelsea 4 & City 2.

 

[StartingPrice]

The Espn guys last night kept talking about whether or not we could beat Chelsea to 4th with complete disregard of the fact that City are hardly certain of it either. As has been mentioned we can go 3rd a week on Tuesday if we beat Blackpool. Hell Arsenal are only 6 ahead & we've to play them at home. Admittedly I think ArseScum are wank*ers.

The panel also referred to some of the games in our end of season run-in:
Arsenal (h)
City (a)
Liverpool (a)
City (a)
again with disregard to the obviously far from walk in the park fixtures for the other contenders.

Iirc Chelsea have Utd (h&a) Us (h) & City (h)
City have Chelsea (a) Us (h) Liverpool (a)
Liverpool have Utd (h) City (h) Arsenal (a)
Arsenal have Liverpool (a) Us (a) Utd (h)
Utd have Chelsea (h&a) Liverpool (a) Arsenal (a)

And against the current bottom 5 I think we have 6 games Chelsea 4 & City 2.

Largely, this.

Why do they persist in believing that ArseScum at the Lane is a tough game for us, but us at Stamford Bridge is a hard game for us:duh:

We are right in there, that is all. We are still more than capable of overhauling the ArseScum...the only team that looks out of reach is United - and even they could have an awful run of form, and they DO have some pretty tricky fixtures coming up themsleves.

Hell, by using their reasoning, but reversing the bias, we are nailed on for the title:grin:

 

[dvdhopeful]

Largely, this.

Why do they persist in believing that ArseScum at the Lane is a tough game for us, but us at Stamford Bridge is a hard game for us:duh:

We are right in there, that is all. We are still more than capable of overhauling the ArseScum...the only team that looks out of reach is United - and even they could have an awful run of form, and they DO have some pretty tricky fixtures coming up themsleves.

Hell, by using their reasoning, but reversing the bias, we are nailed on for the title:grin:

Thinking about it, if Chelsea beat Utd twice and we win the games which we play at the same time, Chelsea will still be level on points with us, but we'd also be 4 points behind Utd - title anyone? :lol:

 

[mabolsa_ritchey]

I have to be honest. Having watched all of our rivals recently, in terms of the quality of football we play, we are going to win the league

Thats better.

 

[cwy21]

We'll finish 3rd, 4th or 5th. Don't see us finishing ahead of Arsenal, but they might collapse like little bitches.

 

[StartingPrice]

Thinking about it, if Chelsea beat Utd twice and we win the games which we play at the same time, Chelsea will still be level on points with us, but we'd also be 4 points behind Utd - title anyone? :lol:

There are so many permutations. If Chelsea do the double over United, and Liverpool beat them, too (and the Scousers will be SO up for that game), but we beat the Chavs, Arsescum and Citeh, we will have gained 3 points on all of our immediate rivals, and be one point behind United.

As I said last week, we are, surley, outsiders for the title - I'm not disputing that - but we are certainly in a race for the title. To use an old, old cliché, there will be plenty more twists before the end of the season.

C'mon Full-Ham:hump:

 

[minimike]

I think when Huddlestone, Modric, VDV and Bale are all simultaneously fit we will be tearing teams apart, in the mean time: in Palacios we trust

 

[JollyHappy]

I know someone posted this in the run in last year, but what point totals have secured 4th place in the last 10 years?

 

[kishman]

I know someone posted this in the run in last year, but what point totals have secured 4th place in the last 10 years?

09/10 - 70 points
08/09 - 72 points
07/08 - 76 points
06/07 - 68 points
05/06 - 67 points
04/05 - 61 points
03/04 - 60 points
02/03 - 67 points
01/02 - 71 points
00/01 - 68 points, but in this season only the top 3 qualified for the CL, 69 points clinched you third place in that season.

I think we will need at least 70 points this season to finish in the top 4.

 

[brett.spurs]

Year : 4th 5th
09/10: 70 67
08/09: 72 63
07/08: 76 65
06/07: 68 60
05:06: 67 65
04/05: 61 58
03/04: 60 56
02/03: 67 64
01/02: 71 66
00/01: 68 66

 

[lol]

we will nick fourth. lets just win 13 games in a row. coys . live by fate, or live by faith