Race for top 4 | Finito.

honestly i'm shocked Newcastle have held on but it doesn't look like they are going away....going to come down to the wire for us, them and spurs for the 3rd and 4th spot
 
Hopefully that calms a few down a little.
Liverpool would need one hell of a turnaround from here. 10 points off with 4 to go. Plus they have 2 or 3 other teams in between anyway, And play arsenal next.
 
Brentford were passive and we controlled most of the game to claim 3 very important points. Most likely it will be us and Newcastle that claim 3rd and 4th. A win against Everton and Spurs to drop points against Brighton please.
 
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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Yep. It's infuriating when halfwits say stuff like on the same day last year we had 1 point more.
We'd played 3 fewer this year in the comparison!

Winning today puts us 2points ahead of last year's comparison with 2 games in hand.

Plus points aren't always the best comparison year on year anyway.
 
The Newcastle players come across quite arrogant. I hope they crash. Can't see it though
 
bosskeano said:
honestly i'm shocked Newcastle have held on but it doesn't look like they are going away....going to come down to the wire for us, them and spurs for the 3rd and 4th spot
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If you go by the underlying stats Newcastle have fairly comfortably been the best team of us, Spurs and themselves this season. I'd be very surprised if they dropped out now given it hasn't been a flukey overperforming run that has got them this far.

Spurs are the vulnerable ones. Could be six points behind us by the time they play next, then have to play both Brighton and Newcastle before they play us. If they're going into that game against us 6+ points behind then anything other than a win realistically ends their top four race.
 
Ayoba said:
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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They've got a much tougher run in than we have though. Spurs , Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle away plus City and Us at home. Even Villa away too which will be a hard fixture.
 
Us and Newcastle will finish in the top four, I suspect Newcastle will be in the Champions League for the foreseeable with the spending power they will provide this summer
 
Still think Newcastle will choke it. They’ve Brentford and Villa away next
 
It’s done. Utd and Newcastle will just pull away from the rest of the pack now.
 
We should only be careful about Tottenham getting some results. Newcastle over the course of the season are better, or maybe more stable team than us and I'm fine if we finish behind them. Hopefully we do some damage in one of the cups.
 
Newcastle have some tough fixtures but after today I'm pretty confident they'll get top 4. United as well. The last few games there won't be much of a race.

Liverpool have an easy fixture list but while they keep failing to win away, not much of a concern.
 
bosnian_red said:
Newcastle have some tough fixtures but after today I'm pretty confident they'll get top 4. United as well. The last few games there won't be much of a race.

Liverpool have an easy fixture list but while they keep failing to win away, not much of a concern.
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I wouldn’t say any fixtures are “easy” for any team from here. We’re going to have teams fighting to stay up and clubs like Brighton going for the European places.
 
Mr. Robot said:
I wouldn’t say any fixtures are “easy” for any team from here. We’re going to have teams fighting to stay up and clubs like Brighton going for the European places.
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Nah, home games are always easier and relegation fodder is always easier than teams fighting for Europe. Yes upsets can happen but over a group of games, a team with harder fixtures will just drop more points even if they aren't distributed how you'd expect. Like... Newcastle away, Liverpool away, brentford home and Southampton home. 6 points would've been pretty much par for those 4, we got 4 points, and yet people looked at it like a disaster. It evens out.
 
Barthez said:
Still think Newcastle will choke it. They’ve Brentford and Villa away next
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I'm an Arsenal supporter - Newcastle are so unlikeable I'm fully rooting for Spurs to get the Champions League spot in their place.
 
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Djemba-Djemba said:
They've got a much tougher run in than we have though. Spurs , Chelsea, Arsenal and Newcastle away plus City and Us at home. Even Villa away too which will be a hard fixture.
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Spurs have a tough run too. They got Brighton, Newcastle, us and Liverpool in their next five games.
 
Barthez said:
Still think Newcastle will choke it. They’ve Brentford and Villa away next
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Can’t see that now, they basically need 4 wins 4 draws lose 2 which would give them 69 points, I think both Newcastle and Man united both get 70 points or over but Everton on Saturday will not be easy.
 
Look at the fixture list after this game, Newcastle and us are favorite to finish top 4. Liverpool has less games against top half of the table but 10 points gap may prove to be too difficult to overcome.

Spurs and Brighton left over fixture is tougher in comparison to ours and Newcastle's. Just one of us or Newcastle not losing to Spurs in our head to head would be enough to keep them climb up the table.
 
It'll be the current top 4 Spurs are a mess. I'd fancy Brighton to finish closer to Spurs then Spurs will to top 4.
 
Newcastle's ability to keep a clean sheet has really been their main catalyst...pretty impressive on their part to be honest
 
Our goal difference is a concern with it being so tight around 4th. We could do with a big win soon and maybe Spurs getting best by 3/4 one week too.

Be horrible if we missed out on top 4 because we don't score enough goals.
 
If we miss out it'd be kinda criminal considering the fact both Liverpool and Chelsea are atrocious, that won't be the case every year. Spurs are their typical self no surprises there. But in a normal season there would be at least one more team somewhat keeping pace with the top two, and thus leaving only the 4th spot for the rest to fight for.
 
Looking at the remaining fixtures for each team.

For purposes of deciding top half/bottom half we're assuming Chelsea finish top half and Fulham finish bottom half, and the rest of the table is unchanged from how it is now.

United - 4 top half, 6 bottom half
Newcastle - 6 top half, 4 bottom half
Spurs - 6 top half, 3 bottom half
Brighton - 7 top half, 4 bottom half
Liverpool - 4 top half, 6 bottom half


Logically, we should see this out. But we have Europa and FA cup, and we make very hard work of every single game (even if we win), so we'll drop enough points to give other teams a chance, but they likely won't be good enough to take advantage given they have more difficult fixtures than us.

I know people will suggest playing relegation candidates can be worse late in the season but I'd rather play a shit team than a good one. Most of the top half are fighting for European places too so not like they're on holiday.

Included Liverpool just to be safe but they surely can't make up a 10 point gap, they'd need 27/30 points to get to the 70 point mark.
 
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Nou_Camp99 said:
Our goal difference is a concern with it being so tight around 4th. We could do with a big win soon and maybe Spurs getting best by 3/4 one week too.

Be horrible if we missed out on top 4 because we don't score enough goals.
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Won't come to goal differential, will be sorted with games to spare IMO. The fixture list for the others is very tough, while we have it pretty kind. Even assuming we lose to Brighton and Spurs, we'll still be fine provided we do as well in the other fixtures as we have all season, or even close to it. The others all have mostly top half games, ours are mostly bottom half. Makes a big difference. And we're more than 1 game clear of Spurs and Brighton as it is.
 
Buckie said:
I'm an Arsenal supporter - Newcastle are so unlikeable I'm fully rooting for Spurs to get the Champions League spot in their place.
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We never say anything like that ever again.
 
Think we’ll beat Everton and forest in the next 2 games. Spurs away will be tough and I’m worried we’re in for 1 more battering this season away to Brighton.
 
LawCharltonBest said:
It’ll be doom on here again Saturday afternoon
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Yep. Not even after our game, it’ll blow up with doom and gloom as soon as a rival picks up points as proven by certain posters quick to post here last night and not a peep from them after a United win
 
Win the next two and we'll be on 59 and more or less fine. We'd likely need another twelve points from eight games, which we will accomplish even with our congested fixture list. Everton on Saturday is crucial though, a Sean Dyche team fighting for their survival, having just taken a decent point off Tottenham, early kick-off and without Casemiro. Not worried about Forest, they are shit.
 
Normally I’d only be worried about United getting in the top four, but the cheerleading by the TV companies, having cameras in their dressing room, and the team, that cringe team pic, all after a single league game, would make a Newcastle fail sweet.
 
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Tbh, i don't know what i want in Newcastle's games. Because, in ideal scenario, their top 4 spot means that Liverpool and Spurs are without CL next year. Which is very important for us if we are in race for Harry Kane.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Tbh, i don't know what i want in Newcastle's games. Because, in ideal scenario, their top 4 spot means that Liverpool and Spurs are without CL next year. Which is very important for us if we are in race for Harry Kane.
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Liverpool being out of the CL next year would be glorious, especially after their hilarious quad failure in the last week of last season. They absolutely needed to be put back in their box. It also weakens their ability in the transfer market.
 
oates said:
We never say anything like that ever again.
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I realize it is sacrilege - I do love beating Spurs and St Totteringham's Day. However, the pragmatist in me sees Newcastle as the bigger threat - them missing CL could stall their evolution into another Man City. Also loathe their time wasting, manager, the way they play and the players in their side. Just a scummy side all around.
 
Buckie said:
I realize it is sacrilege - I do love beating Spurs and St Totteringham's Day. However, the pragmatist in me sees Newcastle as the bigger threat - them missing CL could stall their evolution into another Man City. Also loathe their time wasting, manager, the way they play and the players in their side. Just a scummy side all around.
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I've still got a tiny bit of hope for Brighton. They really are inoffensive, no-one minds them getting 4th surely?
 
Would be very surprised with the fixtures remaining if it wasn't Newcastle and ourselves. I think we will get 3rd as well.

Tottenham will have a say on final placings one way or another with Brighton, Newcastle Liverpool and ourselves in their next 5 games.
 
"We'll be lucky to get 1 point against Brentford and Everton"
Typical overreaction from the Caf.
Should be 6 points from 6 after this weekend and Casemiro and Eriksen back.
 
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