Spurs don’t have a chance now! The team to watch are Brighton who can go two points clear of Spurs if the win both of their games in hand! They do have a ridiculously hard run in though and although I could see them turning a couple of the big teams over- it would be very difficult to sustain great results!
Race for top 4 | Finito.
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
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Correct, I think since top 3 and top 4 are basically the same, it's more important to see Spurs fall away. Regardless, beating Forest today was massive, can't afford to drop silly points. Now we're probably safe for top 4 I think since really any result in the Newcastle-Spurs match helps our odds.
Yeah, no longer worried now. We won't bottle this. Even if we lose away to Brighton and Spurs I'm confident we'll make it.
We are playing Spurs away next in the league yes?
Brighton only have one game in hand over us, win that they go 7 points behind, I wouldn't consider them a threat.
Yes.
Hopefully people will stop pissing their pants about it now 
Great weekend for us.
Our next 3 league games are Spurs (A), Villa (H) and Brighton (A) so all against top 4 contenders.
Newcastle-Tottenham game next weekend is big one. Draw would be the best for us probably, keeps Spurs far and it'd mean Newcastle dropping 2 points.
Our next 3 league games are Spurs (A), Villa (H) and Brighton (A) so all against top 4 contenders.
Newcastle-Tottenham game next weekend is big one. Draw would be the best for us probably, keeps Spurs far and it'd mean Newcastle dropping 2 points.
Spurs next 3:
Newcastle (a)
United (h)
Liverpool (a)
They’ll do well to get 4 points from that.
Newcastle (a)
United (h)
Liverpool (a)
They’ll do well to get 4 points from that.
6 points out of the next three games should do it
They'll probably get 1 at best.
Going to go out on a limb and say they'll only lose to Liverpool. This season just has a habit of keeping everything competitive. I'm convinced place 3 and 4 will be in play come the final day.
We need 10 more points total methinks. 3 home wins against Fulham, Chelsea and Wolves + a draw to Bournemouth should do it. Initially thought we need 15 for 71 pts total but the kind of form Spurs are in and the fixtures they have left, incredibly hard to see them picking up 16/21 to reach 69 pts and overtake us on GD.
I can hear the Champions League anthem already 
United's next three league games.
Tottenham [A] Aston Villa [H] Brighton [A]
Nothing easy there, thankfully a 6 point gap to 5th, avoid defeat to Tottenham,Brighton and should be ok.
Tottenham [A] Aston Villa [H] Brighton [A]
Nothing easy there, thankfully a 6 point gap to 5th, avoid defeat to Tottenham,Brighton and should be ok.
15 more is correct, that means spurs winning all remaining games to catch us. That would be some run for Spurs! As you say, three wins and a draw should be enough for us. The sooner that is on the board the better we don't need the breathing down our necks.
Great to have some breathing space as we have been so poor away from home this season against the better sides, and we have Spurs and Brighton to come. Much more worried about Brighton to be honest, they're a better team than Spurs and will cause us more issues, especially with Lindelof and Maguire who will struggle with Brighton's off the ball movement.
Today was definitely huge. Instantly following the direct rivals losing, and getting through a game without Rashy, Varane and Shaw who will be back soon enough.
I think if we can get a draw away to spurs we should be fine for top4. Hopefully both Rashford and shaw are back by then.
Brighton and Villa a bigger threat than Pool & Chelsea. Odds on that before the season would have been considerable
We need 12 pts to wrap it up I think. Tough few weeks ahead, but we should be able to do it.
The next few league games for Spurs don't make for good reading for them. As others have said, Brighton might actually be a stronger contender.
Atm I’m mostly worried about Brighton I have to say. They’re on 49 points yes but should win their next two games vs Forest and Wolves and then would be closer to us and Newcastle. It’s why I think our games against Spurs and Villa could be most important - to make sure things don’t get complicated in later May.
3rd vs 4th is irrelevant to us as we get CL either way.
We can only blow top 4 if two teams overtake us, so our best bet is for every team 5th and below to drop as many points as possible.
I'd take a draw right now to guarantee dropped points for both, but Newcastle win is far far better than a Spurs win.
Being scared of Brighton overtaking us is just baffling.
They’ve averaged 1.69 ppg this season. If they get 20/27 (2.22 ppg) from their remaining fixtures, which includes us, City, Arsenal, Villa (away), they end up on 69 pts. Meanwhile, 12 pts from our last 8 (1.5 ppg, down from the current 1.97 ppg) get us to 71. So literally a run verging on title challenging form for Brighton would still see them falling short of a massively underperforming Utd, while having the far more difficult fixture list.
If Spurs win against the Barcodes, they have a tiny chance of sneaking it, especially if they also beat us. For Brighton, being fecked by the ref against Spurs all but put them out of top 4 contention.
They’ve averaged 1.69 ppg this season. If they get 20/27 (2.22 ppg) from their remaining fixtures, which includes us, City, Arsenal, Villa (away), they end up on 69 pts. Meanwhile, 12 pts from our last 8 (1.5 ppg, down from the current 1.97 ppg) get us to 71. So literally a run verging on title challenging form for Brighton would still see them falling short of a massively underperforming Utd, while having the far more difficult fixture list.
If Spurs win against the Barcodes, they have a tiny chance of sneaking it, especially if they also beat us. For Brighton, being fecked by the ref against Spurs all but put them out of top 4 contention.
Top 4 has been very doable for a while now.
But thinking to next year if Liverpool and Chelsea finish outside the Europa places, it will make Top 4 very very difficult next season.
But let’s worry about that next year.
But thinking to next year if Liverpool and Chelsea finish outside the Europa places, it will make Top 4 very very difficult next season.
But let’s worry about that next year.
Already moving onto worrying about making top 4 next season ?
It's fecking Spurs, they'll bottle it anyway.
I also want us to finish as high in the table as possible, which means beating Newcastle to 3rd.
Brighton game in hand on us is vs City, even if they win they're still 7 points behind us.
Already moving onto worrying about making top 4 next season ?
Of course! Some on here legit can't ever not whinge and worry. Pointlessly negative.
So from the remaining games we need 4 wins, 4 losses. Or 3 wins, 3 draws, and 2 losses.
Games are
Spurs away
Villa home
Brighton away
West Ham away
Wolves home
Bournemouth away
Fulham home
Chelsea home
The next 4 games are tough man, 3 top half teams and 1 bottom half, 3 away games and 1 home game.
The last 4 games are much easier with 3 bottom half teams and 1 top half, 3 home games and 1 away game.
Though we don't actually know when the Chelsea game will be scheduled yet, or how tough that game is on paper. They're dreadful but can't shake the feeling that they've still got good players and they might decide to show up for once to spite us.
I'd love to see us wrap it up early so we can focus on winning the cups if we're still in them, but worried we'll be going into the last 4 games with a little bit of panic setting in as we'll still need 2 or 3 more wins.
Realistically we probably won't even need 12 points though given how bad everyone else is.
Tottenham's next match against Newcastle could pretty much seal the deal for us. They've been in pretty shaky form and anything less than a win would affect their confidence even further.
They'd be under greater pressure when they meet us, and Tottenham doesn't tend to do well when all the pressure is on them.
They'd be under greater pressure when they meet us, and Tottenham doesn't tend to do well when all the pressure is on them.
3 points.
Agree - we have some very tough games - Villa, Brighton, but we should be good.
AmenHopefully people will stop pissing their pants about it now
It's more than doable it's basically a cert this season 1/16 on with most bookies.
Where teams finish this year doesn't really matter, some teams will perform better next year some worse we should be looking to mount a title challenge.
Suspect it will be more clear by Thursday. With Chelsea seemingly out of the CL this week and if we don't progress in EL, they will fit it in mid week pretty soon.
However, if we do progress in both cups this week and continue to do so through the next round in each, it's going to put a tight squeeze on our schedule going into the end of the season.
To be honest people say this every year, yet it seems like every year at least one big top 4 contender shits the bed - like us last season or Chelsea + Liverpool this season. And every year there's a big surprise team in the mix - like Leicester, West Ham or Brighton. Even Fulham were flirting with top 4 this season.
It definitely has become more competitive over the years but I doubt it's going to be more than the usual 3-4 teams fighting it out. It's just too difficult to predict what happens next season.
If we win on Thursday, our fixture list is just going to be insane until the end of the season. It will be something like:
20/4 Sevilla (a)
23/4 Brighton (n)
27/4 Spurs (a)
30/4 Villa (h)
4/5 Brighton (a)
7/5 West Ham (a)
11/5 EL SF Leg 1
14/5 Wolves (h)
18/5 EL SF Leg 2
21/5 Bournemouth (a)
25/5 Chelsea (h)
28/5 Fulham (h)
31/5 EL Final
3/6 FA Cup Final
That’s 14 matches in 45 days, averaging one every 3 days, with no gaps longer than 4 days.
To put it into perspective, Arsenal’s last 14 games of the season will have taken place over a 79 day period, at an average of about 1 every 6 days, including one gap of 13 days.
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Really no bad scenarios...
Newcastle win:
3. Newcastle - 59pts / 31 games
4. MUFC - 59pts / 30 games
5. Spurs - 53pts / 32 games
Draw:
3. MUFC - 59pts / 30 games
4. Newcastle - 57pts / 31 games
5. Spurs - 54pts / 32 games
Spurs win:
3. MUFC - 59pts / 30 games
4. Newcastle - 56pts / 31 games
5. Spurs - 56pts / 32 games
Newcastle win:
3. Newcastle - 59pts / 31 games
4. MUFC - 59pts / 30 games
5. Spurs - 53pts / 32 games
Draw:
3. MUFC - 59pts / 30 games
4. Newcastle - 57pts / 31 games
5. Spurs - 54pts / 32 games
Spurs win:
3. MUFC - 59pts / 30 games
4. Newcastle - 56pts / 31 games
5. Spurs - 56pts / 32 games
Yeah I think it's over. There's only 8 games left and we realistically need to win no more than 4 of them to make it. We will get there.
If Spurs fail to win against Newcastle and us we should be in good shape. If they get 2 draws we can drop points against Brighton and Villa. Rashford and Shaw will be back soon.