Top four finish?

[worcestersauce]

Can we please stop worrying about Manchester United now.

 

[Chinaspur]

We have Villa and Bournemouth left in March. Wet Spam have a resurgent Chelsea and Man U have Man City.

It's not unlikely that we will finish March 12 points ahead of 5th and 14 points ahead of 6th.

If that happens I will upgrade from 'nervous belief' to 'relaxed confidence' and only be thinking about the title.

 

[hughy]

We have Villa and Bournemouth left in March. Wet Spam have a resurgent Chelsea and Man U have Man City.

It's not unlikely that we will finish March 12 points ahead of 5th and 14 points ahead of 6th.

If that happens I will upgrade from 'nervous belief' to 'relaxed confidence' and only be thinking about the title.

Villa away next weekend worries me for some reason. They've shipped 15 goals in their last 4 league games, scoring 2. The run of awful results has to come to an end at sometime doesn't it?! As much as it seems like a "gimme", we have to treat them with some respect. Bournemouth have been in good form too recently, but their style of football plays in to our hands so I'm confident of 3 points against them.

Win our next 2 games and I'm certain we'll get top 4.

 

[kaz Hirai]

Can we please stop worrying about Manchester United now.

No

We've still got play pool and Chelsea away, and man u will come to us needing a win
It's definitely still a top 4 battle, I half expect ham to fade away and bottle it but wouldn't dismiss them entirely either

 

[kaz Hirai]

Villa away next weekend worries me for some reason. They've shipped 15 goals in their last 4 league games, scoring 2. The run of awful results has to come to an end at sometime doesn't it?! As much as it seems like a "gimme", we have to treat them with some respect. Bournemouth have been in good form too recently, but their style of football plays in to our hands so I'm confident of 3 points against them.

Win our next 2 games and I'm certain we'll get top 4.

Wouldn't that just be pure 100% distilled bottled Tottenham hotspur.
Losing to one of the worse uninterested sides in premier league history.
That team gave up playing football around Christmas, to not beat them would be unthinkable

 

[Spursidol]

ManU losing to WBA (a lower/mid table team) kind of puts our week's results against 3rd and 5th placed teams a bit more into perspective.

We are now ahead of Wham by 6 points with 9 games to play, and 8 points of ManU, again with 9 games to play, plus of course a much better GD than either.

They are too close for us to be complacent, so we just need to carry on picking up the average 2 pts a game that we have, and its likely they will not trouble us. But that does mean we need to ensure we focus on PL with our best available team and not be too distracted by EL - sadly. The PL is a tougher league than our EL opponents need to deal with, which is why we need to focus more on the league than they do

.

 

[Spursidol]

Villa away next weekend worries me for some reason. They've shipped 15 goals in their last 4 league games, scoring 2. The run of awful results has to come to an end at sometime doesn't it?! As much as it seems like a "gimme", we have to treat them with some respect. Bournemouth have been in good form too recently, but their style of football plays in to our hands so I'm confident of 3 points against them.

Win our next 2 games and I'm certain we'll get top 4.

Its a good start, but these are probably the easiest of the 9 remaining games for us.

After those rounds of matches, there will still be another 21 points left to play for both for us and our closest opponents, so I certainly will not be certain we get top 4 even if we beat Villa and Bournemouth.

 

[Mr Pink]

Villa away next weekend worries me for some reason. They've shipped 15 goals in their last 4 league games, scoring 2. The run of awful results has to come to an end at sometime doesn't it?! As much as it seems like a "gimme", we have to treat them with some respect. Bournemouth have been in good form too recently, but their style of football plays in to our hands so I'm confident of 3 points against them.

Win our next 2 games and I'm certain we'll get top 4.

We must not show any complacency against Villa. If we don't there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't win. Being honest, they've been horrific and Villa Park has been a happy hunting ground for us in recent years, and that's been against sides a lot better than this current one.

Its a big pitch and they'll have to go for broke now, drawing games are no good for them - they're totally cut adrift.

It should be a nice open game and providing we work hard enough our quality should definitely prevail.

 

[worcestersauce]

No

We've still got play pool and Chelsea away, and man u will come to us needing a win
It's definitely still a top 4 battle, I half expect ham to fade away and bottle it but wouldn't dismiss them entirely either

So if Utd win seven of their last nine games they will have thirteen points more than we have got now so we need to win four of our nine and draw one and we will stay above them, is it really likely they will win seven out of nine?

 

[thinktank]

That's a brillaint result against manure. Thought WB were gonna fuck it up but they pulled it off. Huge, huge, huge result.

Perked me up no end.

Crystal palace need all of their balls chopped off, especially Bolasie for not taking it into the corner.

 

[thinktank]

We must not show any complacency against Villa. If we don't there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't win. Being honest, they've been horrific and Villa Park has been a happy hunting ground for us in recent years, and that's been against sides a lot better than this current one.

Its a big pitch and they'll have to go for broke now, drawing games are no good for them - they're totally cut adrift.

It should be a nice open game and providing we work hard enough our quality should definitely prevail.

We get the first goal and they'll crumble and the flood gates will open.

 

[Spursidol]

So if Utd win seven of their last nine games they will have thirteen points more than we have got now so we need to win four of our nine and draw one and we will stay above them, is it really likely they will win seven out of nine?

Was it likely that having agreed the fee and wages was it likely that Willian would leave half way through a medical to join Chelsea ?

Chickens and hatched come to mind.

Lets concentrate until we know we can be assured of getting 4th place - they've gained 2 points on us over the last week so nothing is assured at the moment.

 

[Metalhead]

I am massively deflated not because of the result, but because of the performance.

I'm a great believer in sticking to your original mandate, irrespective of what happens around you. I didn't expect top four this season, so we've over achieved (or more realistically other teams around us have under achieved) if we get that top four and it's still a great season. But because Leicester are very likely to win the league, it's frustrating.

I'm also frustrated with myself to buying into the hype a bit. The thing is other than the City game (and City are as erratic as us) the run of winning games wasn't really that impressive considering the opposition.

Bottom line is title contenders should beat everyone at home or at least outplay everyone at home even if they fail to beat them. XI vs XI I thought Arsenal were better than us. We got a break when they went down to 10 men and took an underserved lead. It looked like we were going to capitalise on it. Then they equalised and from that point on 10 men Arsenal were better than 11 men Spurs at WHL. And it was a weakened Arsenal side where we were only missing Vertonghen. And Arsenal have an easier run in than us.

We've had four tests in the last 8 games. And failed 3 of them. It's a good learning experience for the team and hopefully they'll learn from it. But we are definitely outsiders in the title race AFAIC and we need WBA to do us a massive favour today because I am still not comfortable top four is a given.

Well at least WBA did the favour.

 

[Mr Pink]

That's a brillaint result against manure. Thought WB were gonna fuck it up but they pulled it off. Huge, huge, huge result.

Perked me up no end.

Crystal palace need all of their balls chopped off, especially Bolasie for not taking it into the corner.

Very annoying that the Dippers won that today because had they even drawn the game I would of ruled out any threat to catch us. its still very unlikely but I guess they have a small slice of hope after winning earlier.

That said it was much more important that United dropped points than Liverpool.

 

[Spurger King]

We get the first goal and they'll crumble and the food gates will open.

Ah, the 'food gates'. Huddlestone never could get past them (or through them).

Just seen Liverpool's fixture list. Jinkies! That's a pretty easy run-in, with the exception of us and an away game to Southampton.

 

[thinktank]

Very annoying that the Dippers won that today because had they even drawn the game I would of ruled out any threat to catch us. its still very unlikely but I guess they have a small slice of hope after winning earlier.

That said it was much more important that United dropped points than Liverpool.

If we beat villa and b'mouth and get soething from anfiled then I think we'll be ok.

Can't help feeling that we're gonna a good seeing to at liverpool though. They are really at it right now and have sky high confidence.

Hopefully S'ton can get something at home to them on 20th and knock them back a bit before we play them.

Our enemy, now, is not being clinical enough and not responding too well when it is put well and truly up us.

Liverpool will go ham on us like spam did so we have to be totally mentally ready for a proper battle and take our chances.

I think that game is absolutely crucial.

 

[Mr Pink]

If we beat villa and b'mouth and get soething from anfiled then I think we'll be ok.

Can't help feeling that we're gonna a good seeing to at liverpool though. They are really at it right now and have sky high confidence.

Hopefully S'ton can get something at home to them on 20th and knock them back a bit before we play them.

Our enemy, now, is not being clinical enough and not responding too well when it is put well and truly up us.

Liverpool will go ham on us like spam did so we have to be totally mentally ready for a proper battle and take our chances.

I think that game is absolutely crucial.

Once Dembele gets back into the groove and gets a run of games going I think we'll be back looking good. Dembele plays at Anfield and I fancy us to get some sort of result.

We need to respond to the latest setback of this week though. Win the next two, a draw at Anfield and a win against United would be lovely.

But we need a response one way or another.

 

[thinktank]

Ah, the 'food gates'. Huddlestone never could get past them (or through them).

Just seen Liverpool's fixture list. Jinkies! That's a pretty easy run-in, with the exception of us and an away game to Southampton.

Chelsea
S'ton
Stoke
B'mouth
Swansea
Watford

Could all cause them problems.

It's going to be a phenomenally intense - and extremely interesting - run-in imo. Loads of twists and turns yet to come.

We are now having to learn to raise our mental toughness that one level higher to deal with pressure right at the top with hounds all around you snapping at your heels.

If we come through it with a CL place I think it may well be the start of us gracing that comp. and being in the mix for the title for years to come, with that invaluable experience in our pockets.

 

[thinktank]

Once Dembele gets back into the groove and gets a run of games going I think we'll be back looking good. Dembele plays at Anfield and I fancy us to get some sort of result.

We need to respond to the latest setback of this week though. Win the next two, a draw at Anfield and a win against United would be lovely.

But we need a response one way or another.

We really should be looking to thunder rape villa and boost our GD by as much a possible.

City have Norwich next and will get +2/3 more.

We must maintain that advantage.

 

[Mr Pink]

We really should be looking to thunder rape villa and boost our GD by as much a possible.

City have Norwich next and will get +2/3 more.

We must maintain that advantage.

I know no game is a given and if this season has taught us anything you don't assume anything. But regardless of what happens in Dormtund, or who plays for that matter, I think we're going to rip Villa a new one after our frustration this week.