The Race For 4th

[lifeof...]

Its still a race, we have just made it much more difficult for ourselves than it was 3/4 games back...but isn't that the Spurs way?


If pool beat man c on Monday, it is in our hands again.....wanting pool to win, god that sticks in the throat...but like bad tasting medicine sometimes you have to take it.

Bolton and Eveton at home for city, not easy games

 

[ExpatFan]

Its still a race, we have just made it much more difficult for ourselves than it was 3/4 games back...but isn't that the Spurs way?


If pool beat man c on Monday, it is in our hands again.....wanting pool to win, god that sticks in the throat...but like bad tasting medicine sometimes you have to take it.

Bolton and Eveton at home for city, not easy games

Not quite - unless they lose 15-0!

They're actually away to Bolton and Everton - so even harder.

 

[lifeof...]

Not quite - unless they lose 15-0!

They're actually away to Bolton and Everton - so even harder.

no, if city lose to liverpool, they will be 3 points clear of us, but we will have a game in hand. We win our game in hand, beat city when we play them, plus get the same points from the other fixtures as city. We finish above them..Ergo, it would be in our hands. (to put it easy, City lose to pool, we win all of our remaining games we finish in the top 4)

and yes i meant Bolton and Everton were the home team, and city were visiting there

 

[Hot-Spur]

To many ifs and buts.

 

[antti19]

To many ifs and buts.

That´s what footballs about:wink:

 

[Yid-ol]

Its still a race, we have just made it much more difficult for ourselves than it was 3/4 games back...but isn't that the Spurs way?


If pool beat man c on Monday, it is in our hands again.....wanting pool to win, god that sticks in the throat...but like bad tasting medicine sometimes you have to take it.

Bolton and Eveton at home for city, not easy games

If liverpool do beat city, its still in city's hand also, if they beat us then they are in good position to get it :shrug: all we can do is win as many games as we can and hope other teams slip up.

i would rather be ahead with the games in hand, points on the board are better than games in hand

 

[Flightrisker]

It's not a race ye, we blew it.

Don't see why fans get away with this kind of attitude but if a players head drops they get crucified. We've made it harder for ourselves for sure but I'd really only say that drawing home to West Ham as the only really poor result in our run, and hat was a freak game where we didn't score for lack of trying.

Lots have lost away to Blackpool and points away to Wigan and Wolves who are fighting for survival aren't bad points and in fact those points are what is keeping us in it.

We'll have a clearer picture on Monday. City win and it's gonna take a very special run in (like last season) to do it. City lose and it's game on.

(Sorry if this comes across as my lecturing you on how to be a fan, just hate it when either the fans or the players give up when it's still possible.)

 

[Legacy]

]Don't see why fans get away with this kind of attitude but if a players head drops they get crucified.[/B]

Surely the difference is because a football player gets paid a fortune and actually have a major role to play in the success or the failure of the team, so if the players go out with a defeatist attitude, they're not going to give their all.

A fan can be as pessimistic as they want on a forum, because it influences nothing, as long as they give their all when they're in the stands during the match.

Not that I agree with cusop in any way, though.

But I think we're going to need to win 5 of our remaining 7 games if we're to overtake City, and one of them has got to come at the City of Manchester stadium.

West Brom, Blackpool and Birmingham have to be 9 points at this stage in the season, so we need to improve our form against these lower sides.

As I said, We have to beat City (a) for another 3 points, no exceptions.

Which leaves Arsenal (h), Chelsea and Liverpool (a)

I fancy us to pick up at least a draw against Arsenal. And hopefully Liverpool will have had to settle for 6th place by the time we play them, so they'll have taken their foot off the gas, leaving us to push hard for a win there.

Which would mean Chelsea (a) would be the only acceptable loss, as in the only game we could lose without blowing 4th place completely. But Chelsea have been far from convincing either, so who knows what could happen there.

We need to see City drop a bunch of points too. Hopefully they'll pick up 0 points from Liverpool and Spurs as well as surprise draw or two in their remaining games.

It's a long way from over, but it is an uphill climb now. And it's wounding to think that had we beaten West Ham and Wigan at home, we'd be gunning for 2nd place right now.

 

[Flightrisker]

Yeah I'm exaggerating the point a little, but I still think flippant "we've blown it" remarks on a forum are not what is needed right now. But anyway.

I agree with your breakdown of games. When was the last time we got 3 points at Anfield though, gonna be tough.

 

[AngerManagement]

I think we have become heavy under dogs in this race now and we will need to play out of our skins (and find our scoring boots) while City basically implode for us to win it now.

We simply have to beat them for starters, we really need Liverpool to beat them on Monday and as said their away games against Bolton and Everton will need them to drop points.

We have away games against Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea to contend with and we will need to get two wins and a draw from those in my opinion along with a positive result again against Arsenal!

I think City will beat the Gerrardless Liverpool on Monday and I think the race will go to the wire, possibly with our direct game against them being key. Damn that Joe Hart and his string of miracle saves on opening day!

 

[kishman]

I think we have become heavy under dogs in this race now and we will need to play out of our skins (and find our scoring boots) while City basically implode for us to win it now.

We simply have to beat them for starters, we really need Liverpool to beat them on Monday and as said their away games against Bolton and Everton will need them to drop points.

We have away games against Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea to contend with and we will need to get two wins and a draw from those in my opinion along with a positive result again against Arsenal!

I think City will beat the Gerrardless Liverpool on Monday and I think the race will go to the wire, possibly with our direct game against them being key. Damn that Joe Hart and his string of miracle saves on opening day!

That seems like ages ago. Defoe could've scored 3 or 4 goals that game and we could've seen a better Defoe this season.

 

[nailsy]

If Tevez picks up another injury City could really start to struggle. Unfortunately every one of our remaining games looks tough.

 

[PT]

While I think we are not out of the fourth place race by any means, given the number of points taken of the top four by other clubs this season, I personally don't think it would harm our progress to finish in fifth, if that is our destiny.

Our squad will dissect this season, with video and discussion and with another year of growth as a unit in the bank, can use the platform of the Europa League to really get to grips with facing the final stages of the competition and with a realistic chance of silverware.

Our key players are locked in to long term contracts and it will take a substantially large fee, as well as player desire to move before Levy will sanction a transfer out.

We will see exits but of the first team squad, they will be the known surplus players.

We will then bring in more core experience that will stand the squad in good stead - not A-Class players by any means, unless Levy can unearth another Modric nugget, but nevertheless a player who will provide leadership and voice in the dressing room.

I am confident that the last three years will not be wasted if we finish fifth - again.

 

[fortworthspur]

we're still in it. if City drops points Monday - quite possible, all we have to do is win our extra game and beat them, and match their results elsewhere. 4 of our final 7 are against top teams, but we have Hudd and Kaboul back and (probably) no Champions League to worry about. No room for error, though, at all.

 

[ItsBoris]

If Tevez picks up another injury City could really start to struggle. Unfortunately every one of our remaining games looks tough.

Huh? We have 3 home games against Blackpool, Birmingham, and West Brom. If we don't get 9 points from those we don't deserve 4th.

City have 2 such home games, against West Ham and Stoke.

I think people are underestimating having an extra home game. I personally would MUCH rather be playing Arsenal at home than Bolton or Everton away, as City have to. We also have 3 away games that we aren't supposed to win, but if we win all 4 remaining home games we'll have 65 point, then we should only need a win and a draw out of the three away games to make 4th. Tough but definitely not impossible.

 

[nailsy]

Huh? We have 3 home games against Blackpool, Birmingham, and West Brom. If we don't get 9 points from those we don't deserve 4th.

City have 2 such home games, against West Ham and Stoke.

I think people are underestimating having an extra home game. I personally would MUCH rather be playing Arsenal at home than Bolton or Everton away, as City have to. We also have 3 away games that we aren't supposed to win, but if we win all 4 remaining home games we'll have 65 point, then we should only need a win and a draw out of the three away games to make 4th. Tough but definitely not impossible.

West Brom are in great form since Hodgson joined them. We should win, but it won't be easy. Blackpool have beaten us once already this season but should be 3 points. Birmingham could be fighting to stay-up on the last day so I would expect them to put up a hell of fight. Hopefully they'll be safe by them and have nothing to fight for on the last day.

 

[lifeof...]

If liverpool do beat city, its still in city's hand also, if they beat us then they are in good position to get it :shrug: all we can do is win as many games as we can and hope other teams slip up.

i would rather be ahead with the games in hand, points on the board are better than games in hand

Yes, whilst the bold bit is also true, as it is for us, and the winner of the game between Spurs and City, is quiet possible the 4th place decider...(my prediction with about 15 to go) i was just pointing out that we are still in the race for 4th, If city do not beat Pool, I think its very unlikely if they do beat pool. We have made the prospect more difficult for ourselves, than it was 3/4 games back....our run in is tougher than theirs, but they have potential games where they can also drop points.

The stoke game was a must win to keep our hopes alive, a draw or loss for city at pool, increases that hope and adds a little more reality to it, as it does give our destiny back in our hands.

 

[ItsBoris]

West Brom are in great form since Hodgson joined them. We should win, but it won't be easy. Blackpool have beaten us once already this season but should be 3 points. Birmingham could be fighting to stay-up on the last day so I would expect them to put up a hell of fight. Hopefully they'll be safe by them and have nothing to fight for on the last day.

We dominated against Hodgson's liverpool and we should do the same against his West Brom. If we are talking about predictions it only makes sense to predict that we will win our home games against weaker teams. If we don't do that we can count ourselves out now.

What we should be thinking is that if we win every game from here in, the best City can do is tie. We have hard games in our run in for sure, but there is no game we can't win, especially given how crap Chelsea and Liverpool have been recently. Chelsea only beat Wigan at home because they fouled the goalkeeper and it didn't get called.

 

[nailsy]

We dominated against Hodgson's liverpool and we should do the same against his West Brom. If we are talking about predictions it only makes sense to predict that we will win our home games against weaker teams. If we don't do that we can count ourselves out now.

What we should be thinking is that if we win every game from here in, the best City can do is tie. We have hard games in our run in for sure, but there is no game we can't win, especially given how crap Chelsea and Liverpool have been recently. Chelsea only beat Wigan at home because they fouled the goalkeeper and it didn't get called.

I hope you're right . Hopefully Pav will get a few more games in the run in as I'm more confident about us scoring with him in the team.

 

[camaj]

To many ifs and buts.

Not really. If City lose tonight we've got a chance to catch them.