Let Chelsea win it over the others.
2016/2017 Title race
- Thread starter Adisa
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Liverpool were at home v a team who were bottom of the league. Stoke away has always been tough.
You can't win every game, deal with it.
And yet even with Clyne returning, they managed to win by putting 3 past Liverpool. When we played them they had an inexperienced kid, no Matip and we only managed a single goal, which should have been ruled offside anyway.
Don't know how you can't see the problem with that. With the money we spent, the players and manager we have, Stoke, home or away, should be a walk in the park.
I don't expect us to win every game, that expectation has long been gone, but I expect us to beat cannon fodder when we are full strength. This was a great opportunity to make up some space on our rivals who have faltered, yet we continue to make things even more difficult for ourselves.
This doesn't even have anything to do with performances, we've been much better this season under Jose, it's the fact that ever since SAF has left, no matter who we recruit our players seem to have a fetish for handing out draws/losses because they refuse to be clinical. You'd think someone would have figured this out and worked on their finishing. If it wasn't for Ibra, who has also squandered quite a few chances earlier on in the season, we'd be mid table.
All this money spent and we can't seem to score enough goals to win games, yep, certainly no problem with that.
It's one of the London clubs. I don't rate City or Liverpool (or us that much at the moment, to be honest).
After watching City yesterday I can see them being Chelsea's main challengers, they should have won comfortably. Sane looks to be settling in now and that pace is very destructive, Jesus looks to have a lot about him as well and if they can avoid injuries to Sterling, Aguero, Silva and De Bruyne that is the best attacking lineup in the league. Still look a little dodgy at the back but they have enough about them to compensate. The CL could throw that prediction out of the window though.
Liverpool will be helped by returning to the team and formation that has already brought them so many good results this season (Mane, Coutinho, Matip and Lallana dropping into Midfield to push Can out of the side), an easier schedule than most of the other Top 6 and no Euro football, ditto Chelsea with the later.
Spurs could be stymied by the CL, ditto United and their lack of fire-power having caused them issues all season. Arsenal could soon be out of the Cl but maybe this is their season to overcome Bayern who may be topping the BL but are not the force they have been in recent years.
Lots of games to play and there will be lots and lots of twists and turns but it doesn't need a soothsayer to say the title is Chelsea's to lose.
Liverpool will be helped by returning to the team and formation that has already brought them so many good results this season (Mane, Coutinho, Matip and Lallana dropping into Midfield to push Can out of the side), an easier schedule than most of the other Top 6 and no Euro football, ditto Chelsea with the later.
Spurs could be stymied by the CL, ditto United and their lack of fire-power having caused them issues all season. Arsenal could soon be out of the Cl but maybe this is their season to overcome Bayern who may be topping the BL but are not the force they have been in recent years.
Lots of games to play and there will be lots and lots of twists and turns but it doesn't need a soothsayer to say the title is Chelsea's to lose.
I was given a lot of flak for criticising Liverpool's defence - I consider myself fully vindicated now. I cannot believe that so many people actually thought that Liverpool's defending wasn't a problem. They defended like a pub team, it was suicidal defending. And Klopp's tactics have definitely caused them to be tired. Conceding 3 goals at home to Swansea is an absolute joke, I think the myth of Klopp's messianic qualities has now been well and truly shattered. He is getting unhinged and clearly has not been enjoying the past month or so. What is it now - winless in 5 games? So much for them being champions-elect. You don't win titles by defending like drunkards.
Liverpool's last Premier League win has come against City.
Indeed, friendly, geeky Jurgen doesn't even know where his next win is going to come from. It feels like a long time since they won any game, let alone played the swashbuckling football that people thought would put every team in the PL to the sword. Not looking like such a tactical genius now, is he? His abysmal defence has been proven to be Liverpool's Achilles heel. Can't even beat Sunderland and Swansea lol. Klopp has been thoroughly exposed. In fact I am totally baffled as to how we didn't beat them. We have only ourselves (namely our finishing) to blame, plus the fact that the refs seem hell bent to help Liverpool and screw over UTD.
Ah that old chestnut, score a late equaliser from a goal that should have been disallowed but it's still all down to the officials being against you.
Time to accept that the rub goes both ways.
How are the champions-elect from Anfield doing? Are they already planning an open-top bus parade and a victory march? Will Liverpool seal the title in April or May? Will it just be the title or will it be a league and cup double? How about the PFA team of the year? I guess the only question is - how many non Liverpool players will be selected? I'm guessing not more than 2 out of 11? In particular, the entire defence should be comprised of Liverpool players. Clearly the most outstanding defence in England, Europe and quite possibly the world?
What an odd rant, but don't ask me about their plans for open-top bus parades, I'm not that interested because I don't support Liverpool.
Problem is City conceded so easily with so few chances against them. Against Tottenham, it's the game where City had the ideal opponent who build up from the back, trying to play fancy by going at the other team with similar tactic.
Tottenham was relegated to Europa
I got your pointOther than that, I agree with the rest of your points here.
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After seeing the last 2 months, i am definitely sure City won't challenge us for the title. They concede goals for fun. All teams should apply the shoot at sight policy vs Bravo. Infact, I think City are the favourites for me to finish out of top 4 from the rest 5 teams.
Think I'll give it a miss thanks.
Really, why?
Their defence is a massive concern, however Liverpool and City are the best 2 teams we've played. We could have had a real drubbing yesterday and Liverpool were much better than us at the Lane, the good side for us is that we've managed draws from being behind in both games, which I think says a lot about our overall spirit.
Regarding the top 4, I would say Arsebal simply have to keep Sanchez fit, if they lose him for any length of time I would say they are very vulnerable.
Offside.
City will be 12 points behind Chelsea if they beat Hull today, which I would expect them to do comfortably. With 16 games to go it could still be closed but a very slim chance of that happening. City have really not been that good, however I fully expect Pep to get it right next season and that's when they will challenge.
Sorry not yesterday, I was replying to a post about the Utd Liverpool game.
Yesterday's goal was an absolute beauty and worthy of breaking the record.
The title race will be between Chelsea, UTD and Spurs, with Arsenal probably filling out the top four. This is based on quality of the Football and other overall factors. Liverpool and City are out, they will be 5th and 6th. Guardiola has already conceded the title race. Horrible football and comical defending.
Chelsea in the driving seat.
Tottenham have improved since the Euro fixtures stopped. Didn't deserve anything yesterday though. Probably not quite good enough.
It's obvious that City have very badly missed Vincent Kompany and should have kept Hart. Otherwise, they'd be right in it IMO.
Arsenal will Arsenal. Can't take these seriously as title contenders. Too soft mentally. Will probably sulk after being dumped out of the CL.
Liverpool still won't have a better chance as they will almost certainly be playing European football next season and they do not have the finances to compete with United, Chelsea & City. Signs they are running out of steam though.
United still in with a real shout for top 4 if we can start scoring & stop fecking about.
Tottenham have improved since the Euro fixtures stopped. Didn't deserve anything yesterday though. Probably not quite good enough.
It's obvious that City have very badly missed Vincent Kompany and should have kept Hart. Otherwise, they'd be right in it IMO.
Arsenal will Arsenal. Can't take these seriously as title contenders. Too soft mentally. Will probably sulk after being dumped out of the CL.
Liverpool still won't have a better chance as they will almost certainly be playing European football next season and they do not have the finances to compete with United, Chelsea & City. Signs they are running out of steam though.
United still in with a real shout for top 4 if we can start scoring & stop fecking about.
Think he meant to liverpool game?
Anyways, city aren't going to challenge chelsea for the title, both city and united are already out of the title race. They are simply too far. Spurs, liverpool and especially arsenal still have a very small chance of catching chelsea, but they won't. Chelsea will finish on 90 points(unless they won't need to)
Anyways, city aren't going to challenge chelsea for the title, both city and united are already out of the title race. They are simply too far. Spurs, liverpool and especially arsenal still have a very small chance of catching chelsea, but they won't. Chelsea will finish on 90 points(unless they won't need to)
So has Mourinho. You're out, even if you win all 16 games left, you'll still finish behind chelsea
Well you cannot judge the quality of the team depending on just the games played vs Spurs only. You never win the title performing vs the other title contenders. You always win the title by swashing away the smaller teams which is what Conte is doing this season.
Blimey.
Regardless of what players Liverpool had or didn't have, our game was totally different. Yet another poster who expects games to be won on paper / team with the most expensive players.
Stoke away has never been easy, in fact no away game is.
Your point on Ibra is a fair one, but you could say that about any team in the league, everyone is over reliant on their best player. Sunderland would be down without Defoe, Liverpool look weak without Mane, pretty much every pundit said Chelsea wouldn't win league without Costa - could go on and on.
90 points? In a league this competitive? I do not think so. Whoever wins the league will do so with 82-85 points this season.
Chelsea are by no means guaranteed the title. Their squad depth is going from bad to worse and they have no backups for their key players. If this Costa fiasco carries on, who will get them the goals? Hazard and Pedro as false 9s won't cut it against the more physical sides. Who will they sign as back up? Llorente? He is a legend for what he did against the Scousers but he isn't good enough to play for a title winning side.
90 points is actually quite doable for us. 38 points from 17 games is not a great number. In fact will be 35 from 16 after today. And you do not need squad depth to win the league when you are not in Europe. Leicester last season had 0 squad depth too and they won it. And Hazard and Pedro are as capable false no.9 s are u can get in any other team. Llorente might probably be signed and he is a very decent backup for Costa atleast vs weaker defenses.
You run the risk of being 14 points behind Chelsea today, while we could remain "only" 8 points behind them. We are not gonna win the league, but you can't say we aren't in the mix.
League is only giving illusion of a title race as there are so many teams clustered behind the leader If Chelsea do the business today they would be at worst 8 points ahead of their closest challenger. Only reason Chelsea won't get 90 points is because they could afford to ease off and still cruise to title. Once Chelsea hit 80 points title is done and dusted for them.
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Do you have an official quote from Mourinho where he conceded the title race? I may have missed it. Disappointing from him, if true
C'mon guys, 14 points behind, with 16 games to go is just too much.
It's Chelsea's to lose, let's see how the league looks after their next three games though (liverpool and Arsenal). If they start feeling the other teams get close and that they have something to lose, pressure may come.
Just before boxing day i think
As for the league being competitive...chelsea have 52 points in 21 games. That's 11 points lost, in total. 9 of which came in losses against liverpool, arsenal and spurs. Against teams outside the top six, they dropped 2 points. They have 13 games left against teams outside the top six. That's 32 points minimum. Worst case scenario, that's 84 points. Beat arsenal at home, and it's 87. More likely, we're looking at 34 points against non-top 6 sides, a win against arsenal and a drae against either city or united(both very likely) and that's 90. Just because united can't finish to save their lives and have a penchant for shooting themselves in the foot doesn't mean those games are difficult for chelsea. They aren't
I can't believe many people would have thought that either, given that most of this forum has spent the entire season pointing out how shit Liverpools defense is.
Yup it's shambolic. Yet the resident scousers have hilariously been in complete denial about it.
The issue is that we have a good defence when at full strength (Matip's record of 9 goals conceded in 11 games proof enough) but too often injuries have hurt us and when we aren't at full strength the replacements are simply not good enough (Klavan, Lucas, Moreno ... I'm exempting AA as he is only 18 and only played in 2 games, yet still looks the best backup FB we have). TBF to Klavan he's had some excellent games too but his distribution is limited to say the least and he was horrenhous yesterday.
Wow if Chelsea can win today this really has been a superb weekend for them. Title all but theirs in January.
Not sure the league is so competitive as you say, just consider how Ranieri won last year with Leicester and how Conte, a noob in this competition with still a lot to prove at international level, is keeping all opponents in his pocket just now. Also, the best recent result in the CL has been City semis last year, not much for the supposed best league around, is it? PL has the physicality, great ambient all around and a lot of hype, not even a good national team. I mean, it is not a way to look down on the many strengths of PL at all, just saying it is not as good overall as many say.