Spurs fan? Even better. Your defence can't keep carrying you for long. Better pray Kane returns quickly & firing.
2016/2017 Title race
- Thread starter Adisa
- Start date
Better than Arsenal despite your complete drubbing there, get real they are miles better than you in every department.
Actually one of the newspapers ran an article on this. It seems being in the EL, on average, helped the teams in it achieve an average league position higher than the season before. That it's detrimental is bit of an Urban Myth perhaps. Though it may be detrimental to actually winning the PL.
Do you have a link for this? I'm tired of seeing that myth being peddled.
Sorry it was in the Summer and I don't think I kept a link. Google is your friend
Except they're not, as you'd know perfectly well if you weren't a Spurs fan and therefore at least 75% deluded about all things related to football.
This thread has become a playground for opposition fans.
Except they're not, as you'd know perfectly well if you weren't a Spurs fan and therefore at least 75% deluded about all things related to football.
Seeing as I have us down for a 5th place finish this season I would say delusion isn't something I'm suffering from.
As much as I don't like to admit it Arsenal look a good side and they completely schooled you the other week. Your best hope is 4th but I can't see that as realistic, if you do better than 6th I'll be impressed.
I still can't see anybody stopping City, Liverpool and Arsenal look best placed for the next to places and then there will be a scrap for 4th.
You are nowhere near as amazing as you think. I reckon you will finish 5th/6th. City, Arsenal and Liverpool have all looked considerably better than you this season and there's a good chance that one of United and Tottenham will also finish above you.
Leicester and current United are hardly excellent teams either.
Win a couple of games and they think they are suddenly great. In all honesty Utd played so poorly on Sunday they pretty much handed the game to them.
The old chestnut does make me giggle.
Someone in the newbs was so obsessed with it he started a thread on hiw many ECs would Fergie have won in the old format? He was laughed at someone corrently pointed out United would not have even qualified in some seasons and the away goal rule in the group stages would have seen them get knocked out.
Exactly. Leicester have been abysmal in big games this season too, lost 4-1 to both us and Liverpool as well, beating them 3-0 is no big deal honestly. This is the same Chelsea team that were handed a heavy loss by Arsenal and outplayed by Liverpool at Bridge. They have huge advantage of not being in Europe which will probably win them a few points but personnel wise that team is really not that good.
I don't know why for the last 10 years or so people have found it so difficult to rate Chelsea accurately. They've been perceived as amazing team even when they were struggling a lot and did not win the title between 2010 and 2015.
So much hope and excitement when I started this thread.
I'm fecking depressed.
I'm fecking depressed.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the recent victories although that's further established the stance which I've maintained in this same very thread since September
Arsenal will collapse in typical Arsenal fashion very soon while Liverpool aren't all that.
There's nothing to support this Chelsea team being better than Liverpool or Spurs, absolutely nothing. You were both saying this shite about Arsenal before you went to the Emirates too.
I'll happily make a bet with you or Kentonio that Chelsea will finish below Arsenal this season. £50 to the caf, £50 to the winner?
Jesus, we're 9 games in and opposition fans are saying we're better and we'll finish above this, that and the other. Truth is we don't know as its far too early to have a Scooby do!
Some teams have a little form and some don't but come on.
And fecking pool fans get the deluded "it's our year" tag. Give me a fecking break.
Some teams have a little form and some don't but come on.
And fecking pool fans get the deluded "it's our year" tag. Give me a fecking break.
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So... it's not a myth? In average, teams finish 2.6 places lower than they did without EL?Its certainly a myth in regards to the premier league.
My bad, meant to say it's not a myth.
Take the Chelsea game, we spend Tuesday-Thurs prepping for Fenerbahce so we only had 2 days to prep for Chelsea where they had a whole week.
Yeah yeah, I think it makes perfect sense, and I was surprised when @Rafateria said earlier that it was a myth, my overall impression was that it hurt times in a very real manner.
Actually you are missing the point - which it does in fact prove that for top teams, playing in the EL doesn't hinder them, though it doesn't help them kick on either. Look at the changes for only what we would call top teams (City, Liverpool, & Spurs) the net for them is Zero, so basically no affect at all. In fact bar Spurs' poor performance in 2007/8 it would have been a clear net gain. In fact looking at individual teams (again only City, Liverpool and Spurs) in five seasons the teams gained and only lost ground in three.Its certainly not a myth in regards to the premier league.
But if you start putting in conditions you could say City spent 200m in the season they gained a place or whatever factor helps your case. The simple fact is the average shows its detrimental.
One can see very clearly that it hurts only those with small or inferior squads who can't cope with the added burden. There is of course one other possibility, and that is that those teams (City, Liverpool & Spurs) may have gone on to win/challenge for the title without this added burden, the facts of course are simply black & white and each of us can surmise what we will from them.
Not however the average for City & Liverpool. Which just proves my point, it doesn't hurt the more affluent teams with more money to build bigger squads.
It hurt you last season would you agree? And it's certainly hurting us this season.
It's debatable in both cases. Just noticed however that the table is missing quite a few teams from the past two seasons !
The other factor here is that its always easier to go down than up for smaller teams finishing 5th-7th. The way the league was structured for a long time, these teams simply were very unlikely to break into the top four. So if the likes of Fulham, Everton, Portsmouth, or Villa had a great season and finished 5th or 6th, there was really one direction they were likely to go the next season, whether they had Europa League or not. This will make statistics like this look like there is a tendency for the Europa League teams to fall the next season when it could just be that there was a tendency for whoever finished 5th to fall (rather than rise), irrespective of European play.
Do you think it was an advantage for us to have a game on Thursday when Chelsea didn't?
We don't know if that affected your play or not. We do know there was a confidence boost and that you didn't have to travel, on the other hand tiredness may have been a factor. Impossible to say.
The tiredness is one thing but a small factor for me. The big disadvantage is the preparation or lack of it. For example how do deal with the other teams threats and tactics.
So far Liverpool and Tottenham have performed above my expectations. I expected them to be good, but Liverpool have made a big improvement from last season and Tottenham are showing no signs of having a thin squad even with Kane in a bit of a slump.
Manchester City have performed roughly as I expected them to, but even better in the early games, while Manchester United have underperformed in comparison with where I expected them to be (i.e. maybe a little behind Manchester City). Still, they're not far off.
After a tiny wobble Chelsea look confident, happy and like a team with direction.
Arsenal look very good. The last few seasons have seen a big change in the team, which made last season's drop in form all the more disappointing - but I'm feeling pretty hopeful now. It doesn't mean they're going to win, but the lean years are definitely over.
It's been fun so far. Manchester City are probably still favourites, but no-one's out in front.
p.s. Also, Everton have been very impressive. Outside the title race for this season, but maybe at the start of returning there in future seasons.
Manchester City have performed roughly as I expected them to, but even better in the early games, while Manchester United have underperformed in comparison with where I expected them to be (i.e. maybe a little behind Manchester City). Still, they're not far off.
After a tiny wobble Chelsea look confident, happy and like a team with direction.
Arsenal look very good. The last few seasons have seen a big change in the team, which made last season's drop in form all the more disappointing - but I'm feeling pretty hopeful now. It doesn't mean they're going to win, but the lean years are definitely over.
It's been fun so far. Manchester City are probably still favourites, but no-one's out in front.
p.s. Also, Everton have been very impressive. Outside the title race for this season, but maybe at the start of returning there in future seasons.
2 games later and we're already ahead of Arsenal, Spurs & City and quickly closing down on Liverpool. Keep underrating this Chelsea team at your own peril.
Like I've said this is the same team that won the title two years ago and has improved with the additions of Kante, Alonso, Moses, Luiz & Batshuayi. And we have two talisman in Hazard & Costa who the entire team absolutely feed off of who went missing last year for very different reasons.
Hazard has been the best player in the league along with Coutinho & still has another gear to go while Costa at his best is up there with Aguero in terms of strikers.
The only team in the League absolutely 100% better than us are City but playing once a week could be a major difference maker in the title race.
You won't win the league and you are nowhere near as astonishingly great as you think you are.
You're playing the best football at the moment as are we but that doesn't make either of us the best side in the league, or even second/third best. We're only 11 games in and it could all look very different in a few weeks.
I do think no European football has given both Liverpool and Chelsea a big advantage so far though, and may continue to do so as the season progresses.
Never said we would. Just certain we'll finish above Arsenal who are nothing special & will eventually bottle as always.
Never said we were the best team in the League just certain we'll finish ahead of Arsenal. I think City will win it easily in the end.
Top of the League after City already won it 3 games in. After we were a midtable team post Arsenal away.
Doubt it'll be the same after the next 2 games though.
Chelsea: Tottenham (H), Man City (A)
Liverpool: Sunderland (H), Bournemouth (A)
Manchester City: Burnley (A), Chelsea (H)
Arsenal: Bournemouth (H), West Ham (A)
Tottenham: Chelsea (A), Swansea (H)
Manchester United: West Ham (H), Everton (A)
Think we'll beat Tottenham quite comfortably but City away will be a massive challenge.
Doubt it'll be the same after the next 2 games though.
Chelsea: Tottenham (H), Man City (A)
Liverpool: Sunderland (H), Bournemouth (A)
Manchester City: Burnley (A), Chelsea (H)
Arsenal: Bournemouth (H), West Ham (A)
Tottenham: Chelsea (A), Swansea (H)
Manchester United: West Ham (H), Everton (A)
Think we'll beat Tottenham quite comfortably but City away will be a massive challenge.
We are out of it, so I hope it's Chelsea who win.