Race for top 4 | Finito.

el3mel said:
It's not a title race when you need them to lose at least 3 games while you not losing points for you to catch up. When this actually happens we can consider ourselves in the title race, otherwise it's not. Way too big of a gap to make up. We need them to collapse and us to go an unbeaten run to catch up.
Click to expand...
It is not even about collapse. Arse is good but on who would you bet in their two games vs City? I would on City. That is 6 points.
20 games in PL is a lot. You saw today. One bad day, one mistake or cirner or free kick and you lose points against any club.
 
We're fine for top 4. Let's not lose our heads here
 
Remember the geese said:
We could have gone into the game with Arsenal 6 points behind them. Win that and it's 3 points, having played a game more. Even if it remained at 6 points following the Arsenal game, there would still be everything to play for. Being in a race doesn't mean being guaranteed or favourites to win it.
Click to expand...

Catching up such gap isn't as easy as you are making it sound to be.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
It is not even about collapse. Arse is good but on who would you bet in their two games vs City? I would on City. That is 6 points.
20 games in PL is a lot. You saw today. One bad day, one mistake or cirner or free kick and you lose points against any club.
Click to expand...

Why not? City aren't having a very good season. We defeated them, why wouldn't they?
 
The only struggle I see is us scoring goals. Especially away from home. Lack of options upfront is a real concern. Even scoring 2 goals seems to be a struggle.
 
Leftback99 said:
Yeah the way we performed tonight it's difficult to see us getting much from Liverpool, Newcastle, Spurs, Brighton. Also Leeds and West Ham. We're banking on the home games for top 4.

Going out the Europa to Barcelona would probably help us.
Click to expand...
I was trying to remember the last comfortable win United had away from home with me watching the TV. We’ve only won away from home by multiple goals once under ETH: Sheriff. It is nearly a year since we beat Leeds and Brentford by a couple of goals in the league.

I feel as comfortable as ever post-Ferguson walking to Old Trafford nowadays, but away from home I’m not confident in front of the TV.
 
Remember the geese said:
Not saying it would have been easy, but it's good to have aspirations.
Click to expand...

No one is arguing you shouldn't aspire to challenge for the title but you should be reasonable and not get yourself worked up for something you weren't expecting from the start. The current United side is just not good enough to challenge for the league. This run was good but it's a 5 games winning run. We made 6 games winning run in previous seasons while challenging for nothing.

When United is good enough to go on a 8 or 9 winning strike we can consider ourselves a worthy title challenger.
 
TMDaines said:
I was trying to remember the last comfortable win United had away from home with me watching the TV. We’ve only won away from home by multiple goals once under ETH: Sheriff. It is nearly a year since we beat Leeds and Brentford by a couple of goals in the league.

I feel as comfortable as ever post-Ferguson walking to Old Trafford nowadays, but away from home I’m not confident in front of the TV.
Click to expand...
I'm the same. Never understand the confidence on here for away games.
 
el3mel said:
No one is arguing you shouldn't aspire to challenge for the title but you should be reasonable and not get yourself worked up for something you weren't expecting from the start. The current United side is just not good enough to challenge for the league. This run was good but it's a 5 games winning run. We made 6 games winning run in previous seasons while challenging for nothing.

When United is good enough to go on a 8 or 9 winning strike we can consider ourselves a worthy title challenger.
Click to expand...
I agree that it isn't something getting worked up over as we are ahead of schedule. Yeah, it has only been a 5 game winning run (in the Prem), but a 5 game winning run is only a 5 game winning run until it becomes 6, 7, 8, etc. Who was to know that it would end tonight? We may have had longer winning runs in the recent past, but not with a side or a manager as good as this.

I agree that we aren't there yet and still very much a work in progress, but the team had momentum and it wasn't unrealistic to think that we could have won tonight and got some sort of result against Arsenal.
 
Leftback99 said:
I'm the same. Never understand the confidence on here for away games.
Click to expand...
Yeah. ETH has made Old Trafford feel like home again, but we’re yet to get a statement win away under him. Fulham are in 6th and everyone else we have beaten are 15th or below. We were desperately wanting at Sociedad too with one of our worst second halves since forever. We couldn’t get a shot off when we had to score!
 
CM10 said:
We're fine for top 4. Let's not lose our heads here
Click to expand...
More likely than not but far from certain.

We're not even at the busiest stage of the season yet and we already looked incredibly leggy tonight against a lower half team in dreadful form. We'll have a lot more games like this in the 2nd half of the season. We end up holding on for dear life to a scrappy 1 goal lead in most games, we're asking to drop points if we can't start scoring more.

Our biggest positive is Chelsea Liverpool and Spurs are so bad they're unlikely to put a long winning run together.
 
Remember the geese said:
I agree that it isn't something getting worked up over as we are ahead of schedule. Yeah, it has only been a 5 game winning run (in the Prem), but a 5 game winning run is only a 5 game winning run until it becomes 6, 7, 8, etc. Who was to know that it would end tonight? We may have had longer winning runs in the recent past, but not with a side or a manager as good as this.

I agree that we aren't there yet and still very much a work in progress, but the team had momentum and it wasn't unrealistic to think that we could have won tonight and got some sort of result against Arsenal.
Click to expand...

No one knew it's going to end tonight but the point is we shouldn't get carried away after winning 5 games in a row. Wait till we extend the strike to 7 or 8 to start getting hyped for a title challenge. The current team is good and improving gradually, game by game, and it's clear we are on the right track, however it's clear the team is not as good as a title challenger yet. If anything this game is probably a wake up call to the team, both players and manager, that we aren't here yet and shouldn't get complacent as we did in the 2nd half when the players tool the win today for granted. We aren't there yet and we need to work harder to keep winning.
 
A quick look online shows bookies odds of 5/18 of us finishing in the top four, which is an implied probability of around 78%.

Spurs also play City in two of their next three league games.

Not certain of a top four place, but it's very likely.
 
Dominos said:
More likely than not but far from certain.

We're not even at the busiest stage of the season yet and we already looked incredibly leggy tonight against a lower half team in dreadful form. We'll have a lot more games like this in the 2nd half of the season. We end up holding on for dear life to a scrappy 1 goal lead in most games, we're asking to drop points if we can't start scoring more.

Our biggest positive is Chelsea Liverpool and Spurs are so bad they're unlikely to put a long winning run together.
Click to expand...
Nothing is certain in football but we're in a strong position. 6 point buffer to Spurs in 5th, could be more if they drop points to City tomorrow night.

Palace at Selhurst Park is never an easy fixture. They're a tough side to break down and we've been playing loads of games recently. Obviously there are loads more to come but tonight felt like more of a blip to me than anything to be hugely concerned by.
 
Reddevildans said:
The only struggle I see is us scoring goals. Especially away from home. Lack of options upfront is a real concern. Even scoring 2 goals seems to be a struggle.
Click to expand...
Yeah, i thought we played well tonight and most of the team were good but the front three were mostly poor. I'm really happy with the defence and midfield most of the time, it's just killing games where we sometimes struggle. We've been getting better at it recently but an 8 goal difference compared to City and Arsenal kind of indicates where the problem is. Also of the top ten teams in the league only Chelsea have scored less.

Rashford has been carrying the attack for weeks and if he drops in form or Martial stays injured we might be fecked. I'm hoping Sancho and Antony come into some goal scoring form and fast.
 
Newcastle aren't going away and Liverpool are probably going to be 8 points behind with a game in hand after Sunday. They are the main danger at this point.
 
el3mel said:
No one knew it's going to end tonight but the point is we shouldn't get carried away after winning 5 games in a row. Wait till we extend the strike to 7 or 8 to start getting hyped for a title challenge. The current team is good and improving gradually, game by game, and it's clear we are on the right track, however it's clear the team is not as good as a title challenger yet. If anything this game is probably a wake up call to the team, both players and manager, that we aren't here yet and shouldn't get complacent as we did in the 2nd half when the players tool the win today for granted. We aren't there yet and we need to work harder to keep winning.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't have recommended getting carried away, but I do believe that we were positioning ourselves nicely and it was great to feel a bit of optimism building. It is disappointing that the bubble has burst tonight and the current weaknesses in the side were on show. I just hope that we can have one more high quality window because that should do it.
 
TheRedHearted said:
So how is city in the race with one point above us?
Click to expand...
They haven't played Arsenal. 8 points gap is still reachable for them but I doubt it. Pep already threw the towel plus FA making sure Arsenal winning it with fixtures they have.
There's no "title race" this year.
 
Dominos said:
More likely than not but far from certain.

We're not even at the busiest stage of the season yet and we already looked incredibly leggy tonight against a lower half team in dreadful form. We'll have a lot more games like this in the 2nd half of the season. We end up holding on for dear life to a scrappy 1 goal lead in most games, we're asking to drop points if we can't start scoring more.

Our biggest positive is Chelsea Liverpool and Spurs are so bad they're unlikely to put a long winning run together.
Click to expand...

I had a nagging feeling all day that tonight was going to end in dropped points and with Liverpool finally putting in a decent performance in the cup vs Wolves and United going away to Arsenal on Sunday, this whole week feels like a bit a momentum shift. We're in good form and I don't expect us to suddenly plummet out of the top 4, but I do think that the race for the Champions League places will likely end up being very tight between United, Liverpool and Newcastle.
 
I still think it comes down to City. Arsenal and their hot head manager have a collapse in them this Spring; just my gut feeling.
 
Mainoldo said:
There not this season.
Click to expand...
Well they're above us in the league table having played a game less, and even further ahead in other performance metrics like xPTS and xG. They have +28 goal difference and we have a +8. They've also proven in previous seasons they're top quality.

Don't see a realistic scenario where we finish above them. I'd take 4th and a trophy now if you offered it to me.

We're being a bit overrated on here, we don't score goals and don't kill games off. Large majority of our wins are a whisker away from us dropping points as we hold onto a narrow lead, and we paid the price tonight.
 
People who talk about arsenal will have a bad run, are just looking at former seasons.
They are a completely different animal this season and I just had a look at their London derbies this season. Played 6 and won 6 with away wins at Spurs, Chelsea, and Brentford. Only Key injuries to Partey and Ødegaard can stop them I reckon. The scariest thing about them is the average age of the starting 11. Only Xhaka and Partey are older than 26!
 
A top 4 finish is ours to throw away. If I were a betting man I'd put money on us coming 3rd. But I'm not.
 
sullydnl said:
A quick look online shows bookies odds of 5/18 of us finishing in the top four, which is an implied probability of around 78%.

Spurs also play City in two of their next three league games.

Not certain of a top four place, but it's very likely.
Click to expand...

Yep, we're in a great position for a top four finish. I'm sure most of us would have killed to be in this position after the first two matches of the season. The lack of depth, particularly in midfield, makes it unlikely that it'll be entirely smooth sailing, but then none of the big teams below us look capable of putting together the sort of streak it would take to overtake us.
 
AltiUn said:
We could've been, yes. Had we won tonight and against Arsenal then we were 100% in the title race.
Click to expand...

Can't believe we just carelessly threw away the result with a dreadful second half,now we are back just playing for top 4 again
 
TheRedHearted said:
So how is city in the race with one point above us?
Click to expand...
Because they have the squad quality and historical backing that shows if it clicks for them, they can literally go on a 19 league game winning run. They are a team that regularly puts up over 90 points. They're the top scorers this season...

Put it this way. If City were top by 8 points and Arsenal or United were in 2nd, nobody would be calling it a title race but it would be a 1 horse walk to the title.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.