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Next Month - The Race For Europe

diego_maradona said:
Ok so out of the games left and those we have against the teams around us or above, we have:

Southampton away
Man United away
Emirates Marketing Project home

having played Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal twice already.

Liverpool still have to play:
Southampton (a)
Emirates Marketing Project (h)
Man Utd (h)
Arsenal (a)
Chelsea (a)

Arsenal have:
Chelsea (h)
Liverpool (h)
Man Utd (a)

Man Utd:
Spurs (h)
Liverpool (a)
City (h)
Chelsea (a)
Arsenal (h)

Southampton:
Liverpool (h)
Chelsea (a)
Spurs (h)
City (a)

Delicately poised. 5 won't go into 2, but us and Arsenal have less game against the teams competing with us (or above)

Have to say Arsenal's fixture list looks ok. Think they'll coast top 4 unfortunately.
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Assuming a draw in all the games between each other in the games above and a win in the remaining fixtures (yes i know that is highly unlikely) the end result would be:

Chelsea
Emirates Marketing Project
Soton - 79pts
Arsenal - 78pts
Man Utd - 76pts
Spurs - 76pts
Liverpool - 74pts
 
the dza said:
I think we can be happy that we are, at least, in the hunt for a Top 4 spot. 6th would be par imo.
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There or thereabouts fighting for a top 4 spot at the end of the season was my aim for the season at least.

All in all we're doing very well this season, with plenty of promise of improvements to come.

glorygloryeze said:
I think yesterday's game for me means we will finish outside of the top 6; we seemed to not have the knowhow to just make sure we didn't lose what would have been a hard-fought point.

We've allowed Pool to get within a point of us and built up their momemtum whilst simultatenously destroying ours.

That tinklees me off big-time as I will lose a £100 bet with a roostery Gooner who said we'd finish no higher than 7th this season.

Ah well; Gooners have given me good cash in recent years
Hopefully we can somehow beat Chelski again to claim the League Cup; that will soften the blow for me.

I think the top 8 will be like this:

1. Emirates Marketing Project (still feel Chelski have an implosion in them)
2. Chelski
3. Manure
4. Arsenal
5. Soton
6. Liverpool
7. Spurs
8. West Ham
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We did have the knowhow to come from behind and beat both Chelsea and Arsenal. The knowhow to not only hold on for an important point against Arsenal, but grab the late winner and deservedly beat them.

I think people very regularly read way too much into individual results. So many things could have made yesterday's game swing one way or the other, we went away to a good team and made it a fairly close game despite not being at our best. This time the result didn't swing our way, but that's more swings and roundabouts and the natural variance of football than a systemic shortage on our part. For me at least.

The amount of points we've won in the dying minutes of games, and the amount of games where we have kept a lead to go on to win, and then we lose one to a 80-ish minute winner after a close game and we don't have the knowhow?
 
braineclipse said:
There or thereabouts fighting for a top 4 spot at the end of the season was my aim for the season at least.

All in all we're doing very well this season, with plenty of promise of improvements to come.



We did have the knowhow to come from behind and beat both Chelsea and Arsenal. The knowhow to not only hold on for an important point against Arsenal, but grab the late winner and deservedly beat them.

I think people very regularly read way too much into individual results. So many things could have made yesterday's game swing one way or the other, we went away to a good team and made it a fairly close game despite not being at our best. This time the result didn't swing our way, but that's more swings and roundabouts and the natural variance of football than a systemic shortage on our part. For me at least.

The amount of points we've won in the dying minutes of games, and the amount of games where we have kept a lead to go on to win, and then we lose one to a 80-ish minute winner after a close game and we don't have the knowhow?
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It's one thing to do what we did to Chelski and L'Arse at home (no mean feats) but yesterday was similar to when we went away to Crystal Palace and couldn't hold onto a point there.
The wins vs Chelski and Arsenal start to really become less of a 'blip' and REALLY show knowhow when we follow those up wuth results against direct challengers. A late win at home vs a challenger followed by a laste loss against another is straight back to square one at this stage for me. Two steps forward, two steps back.

Bare in mind that by losing yesterday we have opened up the race for 4th and allowed Liverpool to build up momentum.

Hopefully the team can prove me wrong but I think we've blown 6th personally looking at the remanining games, the pressure involved now, our poor GD, our squad sub options and the fact that EL starts soon, not to mention the LC final.

I Have still enjoyed it though! :)
 
glorygloryeze said:
It's one thing to do what we did to Chelski and L'Arse at home (no mean feats) but yesterday was similar to when we went away to Crystal Palace and couldn't hold onto a point there.
The wins vs Chelski and Arsenal start to really become less of a 'blip' and REALLY show knowhow when we follow those up wuth results against direct challengers. A late win at home vs a challenger followed by a laste loss against another is straight back to square one at this stage for me. Two steps forward, two steps back.

Bare in mind that by losing yesterday we have opened up the race for 4th and allowed Liverpool to build up momentum.

Hopefully the team can prove me wrong but I think we've blown 6th personally looking at the remanining games, the pressure involved now, our poor GD, our squad sub options and the fact that EL starts soon, not to mention the LC final.

I Have still enjoyed it though! :)
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6 points from Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool is above, below, or at expectation for you? Steps forwards or steps backwards?

The simple fact is that Liverpool is a pretty good side, particularly at home. Expecting us to beat Arsenal and get a result away to Liverpool is asking an awful lot. And making judgements about a perceived lack of ability based on not reaching that very high bar seems entirely unfair. Particularly when we did do enough to at least make it a close fought game that just happened to tip their way.

Depending on results today we'll be no more than 4 points off 4th after this round of games. Having just been through a fairly tough run of games including Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in our last 6 games.

This is the time for continued optimism.
 
braineclipse said:
6 points from Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool is above, below, or at expectation for you? Steps forwards or steps backwards?

The simple fact is that Liverpool is a pretty good side, particularly at home. Expecting us to beat Arsenal and get a result away to Liverpool is asking an awful lot. And making judgements about a perceived lack of ability based on not reaching that very high bar seems entirely unfair. Particularly when we did do enough to at least make it a close fought game that just happened to tip their way.

Depending on results today we'll be no more than 4 points off 4th after this round of games. Having just been through a fairly tough run of games including Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in our last 6 games.

This is the time for continued optimism.
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First of all i was not expecting us to beat Arsenal neccesarily, but when we did for me to feel confident of getting top 6 or pushing for 4th it was imperative that we didn't lose to Liverpool. It's about momentum for me at this stage and we are not the only ones competing for the top 6/top 4.

As i say, i'm happy but i simply do not think we will make top 6 that's all
 
braineclipse said:
I think people very regularly read way too much into individual results. So many things could have made yesterday's game swing one way or the other, we went away to a good team and made it a fairly close game despite not being at our best. This time the result didn't swing our way, but that's more swings and roundabouts and the natural variance of football than a systemic shortage on our part. For me at least.
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Its not so much the result itself there is a slight naivety in the way in which we allow the momentum to slip from our grasp in some of these games. Its the next stage in this team's development. As already mentioned we allowed a winning position at Palace, a solid point at Anfield and almost a place at Wembley slip from our grasp.

Looking at those games we have got ourselves into a comfortable position but then lost a goal and lost all cohesion/structure to our play. In particular at Bramall Lane we were in a commanding position but we let the concession of a goal get to us far too much. A 2nd goal followed and they could've had a 3rd in that dizzy 15 min period. At Palace we weren't playing great but when you score the first goal in the 2nd half of the match you should not lose the game from that point. Even at West Brom there was a period before HT where they carved out 3 great chances to score. There's a feeling that we lose grip of games and allow the opposition to come charging at us and build up steam. We don't know how to kill a game when in front, make it easy for ourselves. You wouldn't see Chelsea doing that on a regular basis - maybe a one off but not regularly.

Anfield last night was slightly different in that we made too many individual errors which cost goals and maybe wasn't so much a structural issue. That said, there was always the nagging feeling that we would gift them another chance in the last 10 mins and sure enough we served it up on a plate.

Iron out these deficiencies and we really could go somewhere with this team.
 
Gutter Boy said:
Almost every season the teams like this drop away in the final dozen matches. In recent seasons it has been the likes of Swansea, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Villa and Everton etc.

It's simply that they don't have the squads to get through the business end. The same as 1 or 2 newly promoted teams always tend to plummet from mid-table to the relegations during this same period.

7th won't be EL unless Arsenal or Liverpool win the FA Cup, so we've got to get 6th (although win the LC and we can relax)
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Or Man U win the FA Cup
or Liverpool finish 5th/6th and win the EL
or, GHod forbid, Arsenal finish 5th/6th and win the CL
 
Jordinho said:
Wouldn't that just give 4th place a EL spot?
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I don't believe so - it would give England 5 places in CL.

If Arsenal & Liverpool win CL & EL and both finish outside top 4, then 4th place would become an EL spot. If that happens it'll be us that finishes 4th!
 
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I just wanted a better way to visualise the upcoming fixture build up. If we count the first leg of the Fiorentina match as day 1 you will see we have a minimum of 8 games in 31 days. Should we squeeze past Fiorentina that will be a truly daunting 10 games in ~32 days.

If I have messed up the really rather basic counting I did to work this all out please forgive me.



1 Fiorentina 1-1

2

3

4 West Ham

5

6

7

8 Fiorentina

9

10

11 Chelsea (Cup Final)

12

13

14 Swansea

15

16

17 QPR

18

19

20

21

22 Europa League Round of 16*

23

24

25 Manchester United

26

27

28

29 Europa League Round of 16*

30

31 Leicester (tbc)**

32

*Should we progress past Fiorentina.

** Leicester is currently listed as on the Saturday. It would be moved should we play Celtic or Inter on the Thursday prior.

Mods, not sure if this deserved it's own thread but please tack it onto whatever you want if you don't think it does.
 
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7percent said:
*Should we progress past Fiorentina our opponents will be Celtic or Inter Milan. It appears to me as if the first leg would be at WHL. Celtic v Inter first leg ended 3-3
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How do you know that, because according uefa OS, the draw will be held on 27 February 2015.
 
I really don't think we have much chance of 4th now with the way Arsenal and Liverpool are starting to pull away. Emirates Marketing Project look to have got their brick together as well.
 
Modric THFC said:
I really don't think we have much chance of 4th now with the way Arsenal and Liverpool are starting to pull away. Emirates Marketing Project look to have got their crud together as well.
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Emirates Marketing Project were always going to pull away once they got Toure back from ANC (as well as Bony also coming in after the completion of that competition and Aguero coming back to fitness after a considerable spell out).

Arsenal were always going to pull away again after the game against us due to having a nice easy run of fixtures.

Liverpool are only a point ahead of us (although now seem to be hitting some form... that being said they were reasonably lucky against us and very lucky against Southampton yesterday).

Man Utd are also only 3 points ahead of us.

There are still plenty of twists and turns left in the race for the CL places. The Swansea and QPR games are now critical. If we can get two wins there then we'll be in with a shout again.
 
Modric THFC said:
I really don't think we have much chance of 4th now with the way Arsenal and Liverpool are starting to pull away. Emirates Marketing Project look to have got their crud together as well.
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Liverpool "starting to pull away" being one point ahead of us being on what has easily been their best run of form for that last couple of months...

Finney Is Back said:
Emirates Marketing Project were always going to pull away once they got Toure back from ANC (as well as Bony also coming in after the completion of that competition and Aguero coming back to fitness after a considerable spell out).

Arsenal were always going to pull away again after the game against us due to having a nice easy run of fixtures.

Liverpool are only a point ahead of us (although now seem to be hitting some form... that being said they were reasonably lucky against us and very lucky against Southampton yesterday).

Man Utd are also only 3 points ahead of us.

There are still plenty of twists and turns left in the race for the CL places. The Swansea and QPR games are now critical. If we can get two wins there then we'll be in with a shout again.
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Agreed. Still a lot left to play for and happen.
 
It will be between Us, Liverpool and Man Utd for 4th I think and tbh I don't expect us to win that race. I think that we will finish 5th overall just from Liverpool. Either way 5th/6th its been a good first season for Pochettino, especially if we win Sunday.

Arsenal were always going to finish top 4 and we dont need to concern ourselves with their progress or lack of. We just need to keep building and pushing onwards over the next 2-3 season whilst we await the new ground.
 
Libero said:
It will be between Us, Liverpool and Man Utd for 4th I think and tbh I don't expect us to win that race. I think that we will finish 5th overall just from Liverpool. Either way 5th/6th its been a good first season for Pochettino, especially if we win Sunday.

Arsenal were always going to finish top 4 and we dont need to concern ourselves with their progress or lack of. We just need to keep building and pushing onwards over the next 2-3 season whilst we await the new ground.
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Agreed thats why we should put a strong team out on thursday and why we misses a trick last thursday.
 
Agreed with putting out strong team. We have as much chance losing on Sunday whether we play strong or not.
 
Modric THFC said:
Agreed thats why we should put a strong team out on thursday and why we misses a trick last thursday.
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Couldn't agree more. Strongest side in both fixtures tbh. I actually think that the result last Thursday could be a blessing in disguise. Whoever plays for us will have to go out and give it a right go because we have to score and win on the night really. Whilst I would have liked a 2-0 or 3-1 type first leg I think knowing our club the way I do we would have gone out to Florence and thought it was ok to just soak everything up and then wondered why we had lost 3-0. It will be difficult to progress but if we score first then I would really fancy us.
 
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