Race for top 4 | Finito.

kidbob said:
I'm much more worried about Brighton than Spurs.
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Yep think Brighton will go to Spurs and do a job on them. Spurs I reckon will lose most of their away games left so I think they'll struggle to reach 60 points and can't see any team being in serious contention for 4th if you're on 58-59 points so still plenty of work to do for all teams chasing or in position.

Newcastle got a run of three away games now so they could easily revert back to 1-1 draws and be stalled a bit.
 
FootballHQ said:
We must have a fair chance now, christ what an appointment Emery was after the fraud he replaced. :lol:

Brighton Brighton Brighton is the correct answer anyway. They can beat Man. United at home and win some of their tricky away games like Spurs so I reckon they can push past 60 points and they'll be very close with that points haul.
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Depends how far past 60 points, surely? Lower sixties is probably not enough for top four, though the way United and Spurs are shaping up, it's not out of the question.
 
joedirt87 said:
Forgot where I heard it, but after the Newcastle game this team is only 3 points ahead of where they were at the same time last season.
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That's surprising. You basically gave up under Rangnick from March last year.

I still think Man. United will finish around 65 points so should be pretty comfortable.

Talk of a title challenge in January was a little premature perhaps.....
 
I hope Brighton can do it, along with us of course. Though you get the feeling that they might not be able to give a fair reflection of themselves in the Champions League, due to several of their players being in demand come the summer.
 
Northstand said:
Depends how far past 60 points, surely? Lower sixties is probably not enough for top four, though the way United and Spurs are shaping up, it's not out of the question.
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I can see Spurs losing at all of us, Liverpool and Newcastle. May beat Leeds on final day if they're safe.

At home I think you can get a draw/win there and reckon Brighton will beat them. Over homes for them are Bournemouth, Brentford and Palace. Will give them two wins and a draw so I think they'll struggle to get much beyond 60 given they really didn't do much last night.

Newcastle got a better run in. Very strong at home so think they'll beat all of Spurs, Leicester and Southampton at home. Just needs a couple of away wins and they'll be in the CL.
 
FootballHQ said:
That's surprising. You basically gave up under Rangnick from March last year.

I still think Man. United will finish around 65 points so should be pretty comfortable.

Talk of a title challenge in January was a little premature perhaps.....
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We had a good start to the season and a good bounce under Rangnick. We were still in the top 4 in April last season. It was just so galling because we finished 2nd the season before.
Difference is we’re going for a cup treble this season. We should surge ahead now when we still have most of the bottom sides left to play.
 
Still not worried. Spurs are a mess and now we have 7 points more than Liverpool and game in hand.
Brighton? Nah...
 
cyberman said:
We had a good start to the season and a good bounce under Rangnick. We were still in the top 4 in May last season. It was just so falling because we finished 2nd the season before.
Difference is we’re going for a cup treble this season. We should surge ahead now when we still have most of the bottom sides left to play.
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Fatigue is an issue I think now with Rashford and Fernandes so crucial they never get subbed, never mind start every single game.

Could see from first 20 minutes you were a yard off the pace at Newcastle so can see similar issues at Brighton with their style although Casemiro will be back for that.

Tomorrow is pretty interesting and will say properly where Man. United are at. Brentford have lost five premier league games all season and just once since late October.

If that dosen't say this has been the strangest prem season since 15/16 I don't know what does.
 
FootballHQ said:
That's surprising. You basically gave up under Rangnick from March last year.

I still think Man. United will finish around 65 points so should be pretty comfortable.

Talk of a title challenge in January was a little premature perhaps.....
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We have 50 points from 27 games and a goal dif of only +4, after 27 games last season we had 47 points and a goal dif of plus 10 so league wise we havent really improved
 
4 points from the next two home games and I think things are looking pretty rosy again for us as far as top 4 is concerned. Given it’s Brentford and Everton 4 points should be the absolute minimum.
 
Brighton still have Spurs, United, City, Arsenal and Chelsea to play so they have some big games.

If we can keep up our home form I think we'll be fine.
 
FootballHQ said:
That's surprising. You basically gave up under Rangnick from March last year.

I still think Man. United will finish around 65 points so should be pretty comfortable.

Talk of a title challenge in January was a little premature perhaps.....
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Even if we continue our current trend of form we will finish with 66 points last 12 games 4 wins 4 Draws 4 defeats (1 already to Newcastle)

Tomorrow’s Game is incredibly tricky and now a must win, certainly a must not lose game but United should win 4 of the last 6 home games and away from home I think we will win 2 D1 L2, hope I’m wrong and we win 7 or 8 from last 11 but with Casemeiro, Eriksen, Martial back we should be able to get 14 points at home and 7 away which is 71 points can’t see Liverpool now winning 9 games and 1 draw, Spurs have 9 games and you have to think on current form they might win 5 Draw 2 Lose 2 at best which is 67 points, Brighton are the unknown quantity they have 11 games and have form so 6 wins 4 draws 1 defeat gives them 22 points or 68 to finish and Brentford and Villa just a little too far back I think. Newcastle should be nailed on now but they are capable of wining 4 drawing 6 losing 1 or Win 5 Draw 5 Lose 1, they probably make third on goal difference.

I say this knowing that Brentford could easily turn us over tomorrow and united season could then be in real turmoil. Plus when you’ve been to the Emirates and the Eithad and already have 4 points you don’t hold to much fear for misfiring Man United
 
FootballHQ said:
That's surprising. You basically gave up under Rangnick from March last year.

I still think Man. United will finish around 65 points so should be pretty comfortable.

Talk of a title challenge in January was a little premature perhaps.....
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3Chelsea FC27149452:232951
4Arsenal FC27153942:34848
5Tottenham Hotspur27153940:32848
6Manchester United27138644:341047
7West Ham United27136846:341245

Context: After this we still had many tough opponents ahead: Man City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Leicester. That's when the true downtooling occurred with Ragnick lost the dressing room. The fixture before that was much easier.

Final table reads
3Chelsea FC382111676:334374
4Tottenham Hotspur382251169:402971
5Arsenal FC382231361:481369
6Manchester United3816101257:57058
7West Ham United381681460:51956

So we only got 11 points in the next 11 games. -10 GD for this 11 game run after conceding extra 23 goals. That's where the disaster occurred.

Look at Chelsea, Arsenal, Chelsea of last season, it's a normal distance/tally between top 4 contenders at this stage. Some of our fans got carried away with a title challenge when we were about 3 point from Man City. This leads to another set of fans now use out of context stat for a dramatic reality check.

If adding 23 points like last season from now till the end of the season is enough to wrap up top 4, our fixture is very doable.
 
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Talk of a title challenge in January was premature?

Not sure if anyone seriously imagined that but when we had Case and Eriksen it wasn’t a ludicrous idea because we were starting to look the part. What we all knew, but perhaps some of us forgot, is that our other midfield options are terrible.
 
Woziak said:
Even if we continue our current trend of form we will finish with 66 points last 12 games 4 wins 4 Draws 4 defeats (1 already to Newcastle)

Tomorrow’s Game is incredibly tricky and now a must win, certainly a must not lose game but United should win 4 of the last 6 home games and away from home I think we will win 2 D1 L2, hope I’m wrong and we win 7 or 8 from last 11 but with Casemeiro, Eriksen, Martial back we should be able to get 14 points at home and 7 away which is 71 points can’t see Liverpool now winning 9 games and 1 draw, Spurs have 9 games and you have to think on current form they might win 5 Draw 2 Lose 2 at best which is 67 points, Brighton are the unknown quantity they have 11 games and have form so 6 wins 4 draws 1 defeat gives them 22 points or 68 to finish and Brentford and Villa just a little too far back I think. Newcastle should be nailed on now but they are capable of wining 4 drawing 6 losing 1 or Win 5 Draw 5 Lose 1, they probably make third on goal difference.

I say this knowing that Brentford could easily turn us over tomorrow and united season could then be in real turmoil. Plus when you’ve been to the Emirates and the Eithad and already have 4 points you don’t hold to much fear for misfiring Man United
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4 of Newcastles next 5 games are away from home. Their away form isn't much better than ours. It's a tricky few weeks for them. Plus their home game is V Spurs.
 
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OrcaFat said:
Talk of a title challenge in January was premature?

Not sure if anyone seriously imagined that but when we had Case and Eriksen it wasn’t a ludicrous idea because we were starting to look the part. What we all knew, but perhaps some of us forgot, is that our other midfield options are terrible.
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At this stage Casemiro will have only played 2/3 more league games than Eriksen has since his injury when both return. It’s crippling really
 
cyberman said:
At this stage Casemiro will have only played 2/3 more league games than Eriksen has since his injury when both return. It’s crippling really
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The peak of the "title challenge" was after we beat City and since then I think Casemiro and Eriksen have played one game together.

Plus Martial was missing from then until the last half hour vs Newcastle.

Massive blow to effectively lose Casemiro , Eriksen and Martial.
 
Losing Casemiro and Eriksen for so long has fukked us over, but despite their absence we're in pretty decent shape to make top four. No one should light their cigar quite yet, but keep the cigar and the match near the fireplace, as well as the Redbone Coonhound.
 
Brighton are more of a threat than Liverpool and Spurs for sure. 4 points behind us which is effectively 1 point as they will almost certainly beat us at home in May, their next two games will be crucial as they travel to Spurs and Chelsea. They have a nice run after that so if they can grab 4 points here they will have a great chance. Newcastle’s next 3 games are also quite tough so we may want to get some advantage over this period.
 
FootballHQ said:
We must have a fair chance now, christ what an appointment Emery was after the fraud he replaced. :lol:

Brighton Brighton Brighton is the correct answer anyway. They can beat Man. United at home and win some of their tricky away games like Spurs so I reckon they can push past 60 points and they'll be very close with that points haul.
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They will smash 60 points. They are on 46 with 33 to play for, I’d be very surprised if they can’t get another 18-20. They have also been in great form for the last few weeks and don’t have the worst calendar.
 
thegregster said:
4 of Newcastles next 5 games are away from home. Their away form isn't much better than ours. It's a tricky few weeks for them. Plus their home game is V Spurs.
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They Will beat spurs, but you could see them easily getting 5 wins 4 draws 2 defeats from last 11 games which is 69 points and may be enough for top 4, we need 6/7 wins simple and lose no more than 2 games ; Either W6 D3 L2 or W7 D2 L2 should basically guarantee top 4 or maybe third
 
Top two is done and dusted. United and Newcastle will complete the top four; the bookies are rarely wrong. Liverpool seem to have run out of steam and Spurs are inconsistent. There is nothing currently happening to suggest Brighton are going to go on such an incredible run and gatecrash the top four. Nothing against them, and would like to see them do it, but it just isnt going to happen.

Couple of things that I don’t see happening this season.... Arsenal winning the league and Liverpool getting top 4.
 
Getting our proper midfield back will save us, assuming we do actually get Case and Eriksen on the field together for 6-8 games. Otherwise I really do think we are shafted.
 
Phil Babb on Sky saying Newcastle have two games in hand on us. Seriously, somebody put the table in front of the daffy cnut.
 
TalkSPORT reporting that Cooper is set to be sacked by Forest and we’ve got them next Sunday. Can’t make it up :lol:
 
Cathy Ferguson said:
We should be in a good position if we win our next two games. But how do you win games without CM control? Rashford did not impress on Sunday.
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None of our forwards showed up on Sunday maybe due to service from midfield. Ten Hag has to get y
the midfield right for next few games until Casemiro and Eriksen are bac
Cathy Ferguson said:
We should be in a good position if we win our next two games. But how do you win games without CM control? Rashford did not impress on Sunday.
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Ten Hag has to get the midfield right for next few games,even if he has to use an extra man there. Try a 4-4-2 maybe.
 
spiriticon said:
How are we always ~20 points behind the leaders even when we have a decent season? It's so sickening.
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We only have three points more than we did after 27 games last season (and our GD is significantly worse). Remember, the appalling Solskjaer/Rangnick season that everyone hated - we're three points better than that.

The reason we are in with a chance of finishing top 4 is because this is one of the weakest top 4 races in years. Spurs' season has been so bad that even they (Spurs!) have sacked their manager and yet somehow they're currently 4th.
 
Infra-red said:
The reason we are in with a chance of finishing top 4 is because this is one of the weakest top 4 races in years.
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No, that's not true. It's a fairly typical top 4 race. At the same stage last season we still had every chance of finishing in the top 4 but then picked up 11 points out of the last 33...

For comparison, one of the strongest top 4 races of the last decade was 2016/17: Liverpool finished fourth with 76 points (for contrast, Solskjaer's United finished second with 74 in 2021). After 27 games, they had 52 points so they'd be two points ahead of us now.
 
Infra-red said:
We only have three points more than we did after 27 games last season (and our GD is significantly worse). Remember, the appalling Solskjaer/Rangnick season that everyone hated - we're three points better than that.

The reason we are in with a chance of finishing top 4 is because this is one of the weakest top 4 races in years. Spurs' season has been so bad that even they (Spurs!) have sacked their manager and yet somehow they're currently 4th.
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Spurs have sacked their manager for the last 4 seasons in a row.
 
If Villa win the next two games (Home against Forest and Newcastle) they could be in contention too!
 
I expected a top 4 finish (3rd or 4th doesn't matter) and a FA/EFL/Europa league trophy at the start of the season and I'm still expecting it. My standard is quite low for this season.
For the next it might change considerably though.
 
Infra-red said:
We only have three points more than we did after 27 games last season (and our GD is significantly worse). Remember, the appalling Solskjaer/Rangnick season that everyone hated - we're three points better than that.

The reason we are in with a chance of finishing top 4 is because this is one of the weakest top 4 races in years. Spurs' season has been so bad that even they (Spurs!) have sacked their manager and yet somehow they're currently 4th.
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After 27 games last season we still had to play each of the top 3. We already have those fixtures out of the way. Context matters.
 
acnumber9 said:
After 27 games last season we still had to play each of the top 3. We already have those fixtures out of the way. Context matters.
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Ultimately, it will be the points haul at the end of the season which should be the comparator if people are going to use Rangnick, but more importantly, the top four finish regardless of how bad the competition has been.
 
Infra-red said:
We only have three points more than we did after 27 games last season (and our GD is significantly worse). Remember, the appalling Solskjaer/Rangnick season that everyone hated - we're three points better than that.

The reason we are in with a chance of finishing top 4 is because this is one of the weakest top 4 races in years. Spurs' season has been so bad that even they (Spurs!) have sacked their manager and yet somehow they're currently 4th.
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As much as we have improved in some areas there are a lot of the major issues we saw last season that still havent been addressed by the management such as we still have De Gea in goal, we still dont have a striker, we still cant pass, we still cant cross, we are still disorganised in defence, we still dont do very much to try to win the ball back after giving it away, and we are still awful at taking set pieces.

Until these issues are fixed we are always going to struggle to compete with the top teams.
 
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Siorac said:
No, that's not true. It's a fairly typical top 4 race. At the same stage last season we still had every chance of finishing in the top 4 but then picked up 11 points out of the last 33...

For comparison, one of the strongest top 4 races of the last decade was 2016/17: Liverpool finished fourth with 76 points (for contrast, Solskjaer's United finished second with 74 in 2021). After 27 games, they had 52 points so they'd be two points ahead of us now.
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Exactly. If we picked up 11 points of our next 33, I can guarantee that we will finish outside the top 4. Drawing conclusions (either way) of how the season will pan out at this stage is futile. We have done well enough (could have been better, though have done better than expectations at the start of the season) to be where we are at this stage. How the season will be viewed depends on how we fair in the closing moments of the season.
 
Loon said:
Ultimately, it will be the points haul at the end of the season which should be the comparator if people are going to use Rangnick, but more importantly, the top four finish regardless of how bad the competition has been.
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Absolutely and there’s no way we won’t end up with a lot more points than last season. But if we must compare by game week we at least need to acknowledge the difficulty of the fixtures.
 
Safe to say newcastle aint going anywhere, what great timing for them to pick up form, I think they will be able to sustain it for the last 10 remaining games.

So for us its a battle for 4th. Out of spurs and brighton, i'm really worried about brighton and we still have to play both teams away right?? This will go down to the wire
 
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