Looking at everyone else, I think you'd put your money on us making it. We're playing better than Spurs, Chelsea, and Liverpool and have a decent points advantage. I also highly doubt that Newcastle will be able to maintain their performance, I don't think their squad is good enough. Injuries could ruin our season though.
Race for top 4 | Finito.
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
- Start date
Don't forget most of the team today have played 3 games in 8 days!...plus Casemiro/Martial were missing!
4 points from City/Palace/Arsenal is not great but luckily over the same period Spurs/Chelsea/Liverpool have also dropped points.
But there is no rest and only a few days to wait until United are playing again so lets just enjoy the ride.
4 points from City/Palace/Arsenal is not great but luckily over the same period Spurs/Chelsea/Liverpool have also dropped points.
But there is no rest and only a few days to wait until United are playing again so lets just enjoy the ride.
A couple of decent signings and this wouldn't even be a debate.
Feck the Fecking Glazer leeches.
Feck the Fecking Glazer leeches.
I’m asking you what some of the toughest away games are and you have yet again failed to answer. I’ve asked you plenty of questions in my post but ignore them all you want because it doesn’t suit your agenda
But here’s you way back in October mid way through a fecking game
https://www.redcafe.net/matches/chelsea-vs-manchester-united.471/page-51#post-29624859
See if you can find your post. You’re on a wind up.
Only recently City hammered Chelsea with Haaland sitting on the bench watching on. Arsenal have decent strength in depth now and their latest signing (Trossard) i believe will be a good one.
I literally answered that in the first post you replied to
. The rest of your last post was rambling about imaginary scenarios. We can all dig up old posts you know if you want me to show how wrong you usually are.
Yeah but Chelsea are rubbish this year. They wouldn't be able to mount any meaningful title challenge if he were to go down now.
I’m showing a constant thread here, you’re on a miserable wind up and it’s relentlessI literally answered that in the first post you replied to
We can all dig up old posts you know if you want me to show how wrong you usually are.
Here again back in November, out of nowhere
https://www.redcafe.net/matches/fulham-vs-manchester-united.477/page-49#post-29710630
Must be all those tough away games you researched before the Fulham game to come to that conclusion. Either that or you’re talking shit now. There is no consistency in your argument. It’s whatever you can think of at the time to justify being miserable.
I’ll ask again. If you agree that the first half of the seasons away games is tougher than the second half, and we already sit joint second in away points won, what justifies any of your concerns or points you made about our away form going into these games? And why did you include West Ham and Leeds, where we have great records at, who sit near the relegation zone anyway? What made you add those to buff up a weak point?
Please explain.
Edit your old posts are shocking as I look at them. Not one post saying looks good for too 4 etc. it’s just constantly telling others we won’t get it or how likely it is we’ll fail. Just enjoy football man!
The current 5th placed team (Spurs) are tracking for 63 points over the season at their current rate.
Now, I expect whoever gets 5th may well get more than that but say around 70 points has very good chance of getting 4th this season.
That would mean we need 31 more points in 18 games. 9 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses would probably still get us top 4.
Our main issue is we're not very good and therefore it shouldn't surprise anyone if we hit a bad slump. And we're going to have the worst fixture congestion of all teams, extra European round and likely 3 more league cup games. Our players are going to be so run into the ground it's possible we start dropping points in games that should be bankers.
On the other hand, we're in the best position of the top 4 contenders when you take into account current points and that we have played City/Arsenal twice so we have the easiest fixture list left. We also have 10 home games and 8 away games which is also in our favour.
Now, I expect whoever gets 5th may well get more than that but say around 70 points has very good chance of getting 4th this season.
That would mean we need 31 more points in 18 games. 9 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses would probably still get us top 4.
Our main issue is we're not very good and therefore it shouldn't surprise anyone if we hit a bad slump. And we're going to have the worst fixture congestion of all teams, extra European round and likely 3 more league cup games. Our players are going to be so run into the ground it's possible we start dropping points in games that should be bankers.
On the other hand, we're in the best position of the top 4 contenders when you take into account current points and that we have played City/Arsenal twice so we have the easiest fixture list left. We also have 10 home games and 8 away games which is also in our favour.
Last edited:
A 'relentless windup' after trawling through to find a post from a November match day.
If you don't understand why an away game at Leeds might be tough you don't know anything about the club and its rivalries. Wouldn't surprise me reading through your posts though.
We have 10 home games left having played all the top teams bar Chelsea - provided our home form continues as it has I think we’ll get 80 points and finish 3rd.
They are 13th, 14th & 15th in the home form table.
Similar to Palace and Villa then?
If people like souness and all the sky sports people think Liverpool are still in the race for top 4 then why is no one mentioning Brighton or Fulham? Fulham go 5th with a win tonight.
Brighton are definitely outsiders for it. Given a 22% chance at 538.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/premier-league/
Ye, my point was if you’re still counting Liverpool then the teams above them have to get a mention. They would still say Liverpool would be in the race for top 4 if they was in the bottom 3. Don’t get all this loving for the scousers.
I do get it though - as bad as Liverpool have been, it's a team that had lot of success in recent years so it's not impossible for them to go on a good winning run at some point. Their last 8 PL games look quite easy (on paper) so lot of it depends on their results until then against tougher opponents.
We have 10’home games and 8 away games remaining, we have already played the top teams except Chelsea. We are on a good position and I think we will finish third or even second if city drop points. Stop being so negative!
Fulham's drastically overperformed their xG this season. They have the most pens for them with 5, and 5 teams have gotten a red card against them (next highest is multiple teams on just 1). They're gonna fall down to earth but so far everything has gone well for them.
Keep stacking up wins and we should be good. Palace at home next. That should be a comfortable win.
The good thing is we’ve played the 2 teams above us twice. The away games to Newcastle and spurs will be crucial. The toughest games we have remaining are Liverpool away, spurs away, Brighton away and Newcastle away. Everything els we should be picking up wins.
We'd gladly take top 4 at the start of the season. No reason to think otherwise midway through. Let's just hope the right profiles become available in the summer and we also get to offload more mediocre players then. This season could be our 05/06 equivalent.
Souness was outed before for his consistent over predictions around Liverpool. I remember reading somewhere last year that when you looked back at his match predictions over years in Liverpool games he predicted 100s of wins, a few draws and maybe 1 or 2 defeat. He had nothing similar for any other side, even City at their height. Point is he is a deluded optimistic fan rather than a serious pundit.
Spurs refuse to go away. I was hoping Fulham would take points away from them but not to be.
Need to keep winning home games and we should be good though. We still have to go Brighton, Spuds and Liverpool away but generally the hard away games are done.
Need to keep winning home games and we should be good though. We still have to go Brighton, Spuds and Liverpool away but generally the hard away games are done.
Yeah need to find takers for McTominay & Maguire in the summer,also Martial but doubt anyone is interested in him AGAIN
Newcastle too
Think we’ll see of spurs. They can’t keep grinding out results, they’re playing awful and still picking up points. The 3 games you mentioned plus Newcastle away are our toughest games left.
I think your mixing up Souness with Lawrenson.
Hopefully City beat Spurs again in their next fixture, if we beat Palace we're six points clear with a a game in hand.
I don't fear Spurs at all. They lost at home to Villa three weeks ago. Kane is almost single handily keeping them in the top four race at the moment. if he gets injured or drops off a bit they will have close to zero percent chance of making it.
Our top four chance are uncomfortably dependent on Casemiro and Rashford both staying fit and in form. Seems a bit of a big risk.
We’ve been lucky really that none of them are injury prone or have got injured. Rashford seems to be over his injury and playing with confidence. Is dodgy though when we’re relying on 2 players. A big club like us shouldn’t be in that situation.
Well it's two more brilliant players than we had last season so it's going the right way. Top four is a bit of a reach but not impossible at all. Helped hugely by Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs all being a bit rubbish this year. That won't happen often.
That’s all we’ll hear at the end of the season if we get top 4. It’s because Chelsea and Liverpool have been rubbish, but what about the run we’ve. Been on. Obviously it helps that we’ve less competition with them other teams being useless this season but if we get top 4 then it’s because we’ve been good also. We’ve beaten all the top teams this season.
Well it's both, obviously.
Isn't that the case for everyone bar City ? Partey/Odegaard, Kane, Liverpool and Chelsea is already suffering because of Key injuries.
Yeah I guess. Seems we can't compete without both those two though. And Rashford's purple patch won't last forever, fun as it is to troll the 85%-ers in the sell Rashford thread.
Newcastle dropping points makes that nervy finish even more important for us today. 3 x very winnable games coming up even without Casemiro and Eriksen. 9 points please.
If we can get at least 7 from the next 3, we should be well on our way but with Casemiro missing, it'll be challenging