Race for top 4 | Finito.

Pogue Mahone said:
Are you sure about that? Newcastle, Arsenal and City certainly don’t. Liverpool and Chelsea maybe do? Although neither of them have as obvious a gap in their squad as we do up top.
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I don’t think the top 3 are our top 4 rivals though because there’s a spot below them. Saying that I dont think Newcastle will last the pace anyway because the quality of their squad is bound to let them down eventually. Even now they’re below us if we win our game in hand and they’re having a great season.
liverpools midfield is a massive gap but they, as well as Chelsea who have Havertz and Aubamayang up top, are every bit worse than we are in the 9 position. Chelsea CB is amongst the worst in the top half and their RB without the permacrock James is abysmal.
Surely that’s not better than moving Rashford inside and having Gernacho / Sancho out wide as Martial cover?
It’s only a few weeks ago when we were saying we looked excellent with Rashford as a 9 and Ronaldo on the bench with the intensity, pace and pressing that front line brought.
 
charlenefan said:
Today was the start of a new GW but yes been some good results for us
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You're right. Wasnt as great since Liverpool won last game.

But this new one goings to be great, we'll win. Arsenal faces Newcastle and City faces Chelsea so they'll inevitably drop points, and hopefully Spurs awful form will continue and Palace can take something from them.

We just need to fecking win tomorrow.
 
I think we should be aiming for 1st/2nd. Don’t laugh, but have a feeling arsenal will have a bad patch, City will take advantage. But if we do too, that could make for a beautiful run in and finish.
 
I'm pretty confident we will make top 4. We have 8 games left at home against bottom half teams - by far the most of any of the teams we are fighting (Spurs, Liverpool, Newcastle 4 each, Chelsea 6). We really should be looking to win all of those, 7 at the absolute minimum. If we do we would only need another 5 or 6 wins from the remaining 14 which is easily doable despite the fact we have some tough aways left.
 
AlPistacho said:
I think we should be aiming for 1st/2nd. Don’t laugh, but have a feeling arsenal will have a bad patch, City will take advantage. But if we do too, that could make for a beautiful run in and finish.
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I think we should always be aiming high but I think we have to be realistic, top 4 has to be the expectation this season and that isn't a guarantee.

If we get the results against City and Arsenal after Bournemouth then maybe, I'd still be realistic on the title front and without a striker we'll fall short.
 
Suddenly everyone stopped laughing at us. What a difference an actual manager and a couple of good signings manage to make.

WE ARE (at the beginning of a long process that will hopefully take us) BACK (to where we rightfully belong).
 
sepulturite said:
That's a sentence that doesn't surprise me in the slightest :lol:
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Oddly he's not one of these one eyed buffoons either, he's a second clubber, who primarily supports Liverpool.

It's just baffling to be so certain when they're having such a poor season. I wonder how far into the season he realises it isn't happening this year.
 
We'll be 3rd at the halfway stage and we'll finish no lower than 3rd.

Although it's highly unlikely, if we were to get a top striker in January, I still think we could win it.
 
Yeah im thinking Arsenal will probably drop off. Their advantage is that they have no European games, out of the League Cup and easy early FA Cup game. So they will be playing less games than most others up there. But, I dont think they have as much depth even as us so who knows if they get a few injuries?
 
Sandikan said:
Oddly he's not one of these one eyed buffoons either, he's a second clubber, who primarily supports Liverpool.

It's just baffling to be so certain when they're having such a poor season. I wonder how far into the season he realises it isn't happening this year.
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Oh really? Who's the second club?!

Yeh I've met a few Liverpool fans like that too, they're everywhere unfortunately! Delusional bunch.
 
GMoore23 said:
We'll be 3rd at the halfway stage and we'll finish no lower than 3rd.

Although it's highly unlikely, if we were to get a top striker in January, I still think we could win it.
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Nah I think 2nd is as high as we'll go. I think either city will go on a run and win it, or arsenal will keep up their impressive form mostly and win it. I think 3rd is the most likely outcome though.

I think our squad is to thin in places to challenge for the title, especially if casemiro is out for even a couple of games.
 
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LordSpud said:
Yeah im thinking Arsenal will probably drop off. Their advantage is that they have no European games, out of the League Cup and easy early FA Cup game. So they will be playing less games than most others up there. But, I dont think they have as much depth even as us so who knows if they get a few injuries?
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They're in the last 16 of the Europa, they will play 2 less games than us provided we get past Barcelona.

They exited the League Cup early fair enough and the FA Cup hasn't started for either yet.
 
Sandikan said:
My Pool pal is adamant they'll finish above us.
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My pool father out law thinks the same. Convinced we are still shite and sue a bad run of results and them the opposite.
 
Remember the geese said:
I'm not so sure they were ever clear favourites really. Barely even favourites.
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They were 2/5 for top 4 yesterday. After losing to Brentford they’ve now drifted out to 4/6.

Check it out, the market is very fluid with odds changing every game.
 
So gameweek 19:

Brentford 3-1 Liverpool
Arsenal-Newcastle
United-Bournemouth
Palace-Spurs
Chelsea-City

Liverpool lost and at least another 2 of our rivals are about to drop points so game vs Bournemouth is really important in terms of capitalising on those results, just like Wolves game was.

Palace could perhaps hurt Spurs, they haven't lost to them at home since 18/19 season, though it's absolutely must win for Tottenham with the kind of fixtures they'll have from 15th January until March.

As bad as Chelsea have been this season, City don't look unbeatable either and it's at Bridge - they should at least give it a go and not surrender from the start.
 
Wilt said:
They were 2/5 for top 4 yesterday. After losing to Brentford they’ve now drifted out to 4/6.

Check it out, the market is very fluid with odds changing every game.
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I’m not a betting man, but laying against them making top 4 should still offer a good return if they fail.

Should 6/4 so 2.5 for them not to make top 4.
 
AlPistacho said:
I’m not a betting man, but laying against them making top 4 should still offer a good return if they fail.

Should 6/4 so 2.5 for them not to make top 4.
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ODDSCHECKER top 4 market….(PaddyPower)

City 1/200
Arsenal 1/50
Utd 4/6
Liverpool 4/6
Newcastle 10/11
Spurs 3/1
Chelsea 4/1

Amazingly bookies still rate City stronger favourites than Arsenal for top 4
 
Really interesting race this year, wide open at the moment.

Potential for an amazing round of results for us if we capitalise. At this stage every point potentially dropped is incredibly damaging. Keep focused, thankfully our defence is shipping far less silly goals now.
 
Last few days are the first time I've started to feel confident of top 4. My worry was we could have a decent season but the points haul needed for 4th would be much higher than usual this year but the rest of the contenders don't look good at all.

If we win tomorrow we've got a decent lead over Liverpool/Chelsea/Spurs and we should overtake Newcastle at some point before the end of the season.
 
Since we lost those two games, we're in essentially title-winning form and it's only Arsenal's 100-points-per-season form keeping them so far ahead.

We won't maintain this until May imho because of fixture congestion but still a very impressive turn-around, both results-wise and in playing performances.

Tl; dr: ten Hag is God.
 
From now until the end of the season we will not have many breaks in between. We are still in 4 competition and we don't have squad depth. ETH is known to prefer playing almost the same team week in week out. This maybe something he needs to learn that EPL intensity will not allow that. Rotation is the key. ETH almost run the team to the ground before the WC break.

Top 4 race will have many twist and turn when the games come thick and fast.
 
Wilt said:
ODDSCHECKER top 4 market….(PaddyPower)

City 1/200
Arsenal 1/50
Utd 4/6
Liverpool 4/6
Newcastle 10/11
Spurs 3/1
Chelsea 4/1

Amazingly bookies still rate City stronger favourites than Arsenal for top 4
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Not that amazing. Arsenal went from 1st in January 2014 to 5th in April 2014. They have a history of falling off a cliff.
 
Wilt said:
ODDSCHECKER top 4 market….(PaddyPower)

City 1/200
Arsenal 1/50
Utd 4/6
Liverpool 4/6
Newcastle 10/11
Spurs 3/1
Chelsea 4/1

Amazingly bookies still rate City stronger favourites than Arsenal for top 4
Click to expand...
And we are still only equal with Liverpool, despite potentially going 7 points clear of them tomorrow night.
 
Wilt said:
ODDSCHECKER top 4 market….(PaddyPower)

City 1/200
Arsenal 1/50
Utd 4/6
Liverpool 4/6
Newcastle 10/11
Spurs 3/1
Chelsea 4/1

Amazingly bookies still rate City stronger favourites than Arsenal for top 4
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Yeah Arsenal still have the “chocking” rep.
 
Remember the geese said:
And we are still only equal with Liverpool, despite potentially going 7 points clear of them tomorrow night.
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Not surprised, Liverpool being plagued with injuries. When Jota Diaz Firmino and others return I think they’ll start looking dangerous.
 
cyberman said:
I don’t think the top 3 are our top 4 rivals though because there’s a spot below them. Saying that I dont think Newcastle will last the pace anyway because the quality of their squad is bound to let them down eventually. Even now they’re below us if we win our game in hand and they’re having a great season.
liverpools midfield is a massive gap but they, as well as Chelsea who have Havertz and Aubamayang up top, are every bit worse than we are in the 9 position. Chelsea CB is amongst the worst in the top half and their RB without the permacrock James is abysmal.
Surely that’s not better than moving Rashford inside and having Gernacho / Sancho out wide as Martial cover?
It’s only a few weeks ago when we were saying we looked excellent with Rashford as a 9 and Ronaldo on the bench with the intensity, pace and pressing that front line brought.
Click to expand...

the problem with Rashford is finishing. He really presses very well, but when it comes to kicking, it's either in the goalkeeper or out of the goal. We saw a lot of that in the Europa League. I hope he gets back to his form before Queen Elizabeth dies.
 
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