Forest more likely than either Chelsea and Arsenal at the minute. They at least put a 7 match winning streak together.
Premier League 14/1/25 - 20/1/25
- Thread starter SilentWitness
- Start date
I've said this often this season and I'll say it again, I think its foolish to right Arsenal off as yet. Sure, they're not close to their best this season but they're still within 7 points and they've proven in the last two years that they can go on long winning runs. Yes, they have Saka out and look out of form but despite all of that, Liverpool keep giving them hope with the constant dropping of points. There's a very long way to go in this race.
Unfortunately seems like Liverpool will run away with it
Surely you don’t mean forest? They finished 17th last season and surely this is going to be one of them one season wonders which Leicester had a few years ago and other teams have had.
Big strong lad this Forest keeper
It ’s not like all teams are ganging up against one team and happy to lose to the other, regardless of what paranoid fans may think.
Just read Forest are bottom of the league possession wise and 19th in number of attacks.
Some achievement to do this well then. Bit like FC Utrecht this season who are shite every match and also win most of them.
Some achievement to do this well then. Bit like FC Utrecht this season who are shite every match and also win most of them.
Liverpool have been fortunate, the main three title contenders with City- tired midfield & missing Rodri, Arsenal- can’t score and Chelsea -keeper/defensive issues, all looking fatigued and making mistakes every week. Just goes to show with a bit of effort a team like Forest can muscle into the top three. All in all it’s not been a great season in terms of quality though.
Chelsea are without a win in last 5 games (3 draws, 2 defeats). Arsenal are the best bet but unless they get a striker (and maybe winger) they have no chance. Liverpool don't look that good but are better than the rest.
It will be more interesting about top 4/5 race. There's Forest as they're still up there though I think they'll fall at some point to 6th-7th, Arsenal who may fall into that race if they don't strengthen, Chelsea who will fight for top 4, City that I believe are capable of finishing as high as 2nd with right signings, Newcastle with best form in country. Obviously Bournemouth, Villa and Fulham with outside chance and those 3 likely to finish behind these teams as table already shows. Will be interesting to see how much Spurs improve when their defence is back but they'll still have multiple defeats in them as that's how they do under Ange it seems. Hope we can finish higher than currently and something like 10th place finish wouldn't be disaster.
Yea once CL participation kicks in, they’ll struggle.
The next five league games will be telling. Liverpool play mostly bottom half teams, but they do have the FA Cup game which Arsenal don't and the Everton game. Arsenal have a tougher run including the derby tomorrow, Villa and City.
If Liverpool manage to step up and beat all those teams and Arsenal slip up then you'd think that the gaps just too big for them to make up later on.
Well they’ve almost perfected the low block Mourinho(esq) style, which is enough to get them through games without conceding and frustrating the likes of Liverpool and Newcastle
We thought Arsenal perfected corner routines not too long ago and Liverpool controlled games so well that they rarely concede while Salah was unstoppable.
Things change when one or two players become unavailable or out of form.
Honestly, they'll beat Ipswich at Anfield but none of their away games to Brentford, Bournemouth, or Everton will be easy. I'd not be surprised if they drop points in two of these four games. That being said, you can't even trust Arsenal to go on any sort of run presently even though Spurs, Villa and City home, given their respective forms this year, should be wins for Arsenal.
Ye but city won’t be this bad next season so they’ll automatically take forest place. Also you’d imagine Chelsea and Arsenal will be stronger. As will we.
Although they have a cup game it's against Plymouth so they will rest most of their big names and they are through to the last eight in the CL so they can rest players there too.
If they were up against City they'd struggle but I can't see Arsenal making up enough ground, especially as they still have to go to Anfield too.
Newcastle look really good at the moment but are probably too far behind.
Not foolish to write off a Arsenal side managed by the Lego Pep lets be honest.
How much did Forest pay for Murillo again? And he is only 22 years old. Maybe we could do with some of Forrest's scouts
With Jesus also out, Arsneal need reinforcements in January to have any chance. Alternatively, Liverpool capitulate but that doesn’t look likely.
Better result for Liverpool than?
For Arsenal to even stand a chance, we need at least 1 forward this window, we need to win the next few games, we need Liverpool to drop points Vs the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth, and probably most important of all, we need a Dubai trip now we're out the FA Cup.
Forest. The only other title contender.
Interesting results so far that just show the strenght of the league I think. What we saw in this round is for example Brentford, Bournemouth, Forrest already took points of City, Chelsea, Liverpool, we could also add Wolverhampton to this list of teams that are either good or raising game type of teams as they played like it is their last game of their lives when playing United. As United lost points recently to those teams that they would be expected to beat automatically and comfortably 10 years ago. But now with amount of money available to Premier league teams there are a lot of teams that can go toe to toe with anyone, training is optimized, nutrition is optimized the margins between teams are getting smaller, form fluctuates. Liverpool that looked invincible a few weeks back are looking vulnerable again, City that looked hopeless are picking up some form and I feel United is also getting some structure, form and belief back and we should go on a little run of our own.
Aye, you're right that all of those away games are tricky for anyone and in particular the Goodison one is for Liverpool as they don't have a great record there recently.
True, that isn't a tough cup game. Villa will be tough for Arsenal, and City will probably be at their best against Arsenal too.
I had heard Forest were not a great watch, but yesterday they played really impressive football until they tired and then things became disjointed.
Granted it’s only one game, but my takeaway from it was that if they had a deeper squad, they would be able to better maintain the quality aspects of their game.
Yeah, they had little trouble defending until the equaliser. Liverpool have been looking flat though. And Salah especially hasn't been all that impressive lately.
Looks to me like they're having a season where they are overperforming by quite a bit rather than this being the norm for the side. I think they'll be fine going forward with Nuno and won't be worried by relegation in future but wouldn't expect to see the same results next season.
Forest of course. Who else were they playing?
A draw between Liverpool and Forest is never a better result for Forest.
I don’t watch them nearly enough to be certain, but if that’s how they play in general, they are a difficult proposition for anyone in the league because the athleticism is high, they are well organised, and the biggest surprise to me was the technical level - they move the ball rapidly and hit pockets of space that force the opposition to meet them, then play out of said space into massive openings their skill has then opened up. Wasn’t expecting all that, tbh.
You’re right about Liverpool… long may it continue!
Think they’ll be asset stripped and renewing the team by end of summer, imo. Murillo, Gibbs-White, Sels (if he’s capable of repeating that level even semi frequently), Milenkovic, Anderson, Aina - reminds me of how nothing was left of teams like: Brighton, Leicester, Southampton etc. when they were on the up. The age profile on quite a few of those is also very appealing for suitors. Problem is that they [Forest] can’t match the wages those players will have put in front of them and even then keeping players is likely to see their form and attitude be affected unless they get a renegotiation with clauses that let them go if a future offer comes in over X amount or suits whatever established conditions.
I think I will tune into more games of theirs now though; was particularly taken by Gibbs-White and Murillo. Definitely worth keeping tabs on. Guess I’ll also get a better idea of how many times they are capable of playing like they did yesterday, too.
In terms of title challenging this was a better result for Liverpool.
I don’t watch them nearly enough to be certain, but if that’s how they play in general, they are a difficult proposition for anyone in the league because the athleticism is high, they are well organised, and the biggest surprise to me was the technical level - they move the ball rapidly and hit pockets of space that force the opposition to meet them, then play out of said space into massive openings their skill has then opened up. Wasn’t expecting all that, tbh.
You’re right about Liverpool… long may it continue!
Think they’ll be asset stripped and renewing the team by end of summer, imo. Murillo, Gibbs-White, Sels (if he’s capable of repeating that level even semi frequently), Milenkovic, Anderson, Aina - reminds me of how nothing was left of teams like: Brighton, Leicester, Southampton etc. when they were on the up. The age profile on quite a few of those is also very appealing for suitors. Problem is that they [Forest] can’t match the wages those players will have put in front of them and even then keeping players is likely to see their form and attitude be affected unless they get a renegotiation with clauses that let them go if a future offer comes in over X amount or suits whatever established conditions.
I think I will tune into more games of theirs now though; was particularly taken by Gibbs-White and Murillo. Definitely worth keeping tabs on. Guess I’ll also get a better idea of how many times they are capable of playing like they did yesterday, too.
I think Sels will probably stay. His PSxG is above average this season but last season was really poor (Second worst in the league). He's also 32. If bigger clubs are targeting a keeper this summer they should be going for Hermansen from Leicester or Kelleher.
Aina I think will go, he's 28 and having a really good season so will probably want to capitalise on that and get his big money move this late into his career.
Murillo has 3 years left on his deal and Gibbs-White has two. Think they'd probably want to keep one of those and only let one go. I wouldn't be surprised if they did what we have with Branthwaite and say pay this or we won't sell and we will take the risk of selling them next summer.
Arsenal will finish ahead of forrest