Top 4 Race 19/20 | duffer: "We [Chelsea] are getting 3rd. Despite what the lunatics in here think, Man United are not all that."

Definitely. Its not just their defense but they also struggle against lowblocks. Without willian they lack that penetrative edge. Pulisic is good but he isn't a deadball specialist/winger like willian. If willian was injured earlier in the season they would be neck and neck with arsenal. Strange that he is a free agent this summer.
And yet people are still overrating Chelsea and still rating them to finish third while they think we could still blow it :lol:

The chances of us dropping more points than Chelsea are close to none especially given our respective fixtures and form right now. Not to mention we are genuinely a top side that is brushing away weaker teams while Chelsea still have question marks in that regard.

Third place is guaranteed. I don't even know why some people are being shy to say it out loud and want to take a pessimistic stance on our chances
 
One thing I took from the Leicester vs Everton game is that Rodgers looked very nervous, he had to throw on Maddison, Perez, Gray and Iheanacho on to try and salvage something from somewhere and failed.

Our performances are definitely rattling a few cages, it's great to see, hopefully our players smell blood and keep going for it.
 
Uhm, wow. For the last time, the team that has more points than us is the definition of "having it in their own hands".
Its not about us winning all, or whatever else. It's about the phrase, in our hands.
They too can say, it's in their hands, all they have to do win all their games, or make sure they not on level points come last day, and they don't lose their spot ahead of us...

Yes, it is both in our and Leicester's hands, at the same time.

Leicester will beat us by winning all their games, and potentially even by losing to us but parking the bus to let in just a goal or two. So in that sense it is in their hands if they deliver.

But it's still in our hands (as well) because as long as we deliver in every game from here on we will take the spot from them.
 
Literally this, the mental gymnastics in this thread is staggering.

I’m loving the positivity, and I think we will get top 4 now but to say it’s in our hands is factually wrong.
Exactly!
Driving me nuts :lol:
I'm ecstatic, cause we definitely have all the momentum on our side, and do believe we will and can take 3rd place. I still think we can have a slip up here or there, but our rivals will slip up more than us I believe.
 
It's close enough. If you win all your games you'll get top 4. There's no way Chelsea and Leicester will win all their games as well.
Oh yeah I agree, but I’m just saying factually speaking Chelsea win theirs and Leicester do too and even lose to us we finish 5th.
 
Leicester:
Palace (H)
Arsenal (A)
Bournemouth (A)
Sheff United (H)
Tottenham (A)
United (H)

Chelsea:
Watford (H)
Palace (A)
Sheff United (A)
Norwhich (H)
Liverpool (A)
Wolves (H)

United:
Bournemouth (H)
Villa (A)
Southampton (H)
Palace (A)
West Ham (H)
Leicester (A)

Wolves:
Arsenal (H)
Sheff United (A)
Everton (H)
Burnley (A)
Palace (H)
Chelsea (A)

I struggle to see how we finish anything but 3rd.
Top 4 is guaranteed for me
The fact all our rivals play eachother and we have Leicester last game, I would tend to agree. United have the best run in and are in immense for currently. Add to this we have possibly the best squad outside the top 2 then my confidence is rock solid.

Ole will hopefully shut all doubters up.
 
Oh feck, Clearly it's not the last time.
But I will paste what I just said:

The team that has more points than us is the definition of "having it in their own hands".
Its not about us winning all, or whatever else. It's about the phrase, in our hands.
They too can say, it's in their hands, because literally ALL they have to do win all their games too like we so bravely and optimistically think will happen for us, but they cant, or make sure they not on level points come last day, and they don't lose their spot ahead of us.

So in closing. The only thing that's in our hands, is winning all our games.
But we are STILL dependent on Leicester and Chelsea losing in our for it to be fully in our hands....

Make sense...i hope so.
We bloody play Leicester though so It’s in our hands to beat them by the required score!!! Jesus are you on the wind up?
 
"In our hands" definition: "Under one's control or influence; in one's possession."
Outscore and have a better GD and win all our games. But if Leicester win all there games, which is NOT, I repeat, not, in our control, and it matters not if we win all our games or have a better GD.

Now, we know that LCFC are Shite for form and will drop points, but that's assuming we won't. All we have in our hands is our own point tally, it's in Leicesters hands since they have 3 points advantage over us. When they feck it up by losing enough matches and we have more points than then, then it is totally..."in our hands."

If you don't understand the phrase in our hands after that, then it's fine, carry on.
It is on our hands to outscore Leicester in every game that is left. There is no limit to the amount of goals we are able to score.
What you are saying is that we are unable to do that which is patently wrong.
 
Yes, it is both in our and Leicester's hands, at the same time.

Leicester will beat us by winning all their games, and potentially even by losing to us but parking the bus to let in just a goal or two. So in that sense it is in their hands if they deliver.

But it's still in our hands (as well) because as long as we deliver in every game from here on we will take the spot from them.
This man understands! Thank you! Two clubs can have it ‘in their hands’ so to speak
 
It goes to show how difficult it is to judge team's run ins . City was always an easier match for Chelsea as they had nothing to play for and were focused on the cup game against Newcastle .

However West Ham are scrapping for their lives and that proved decisive .

People think United have an easier run in because they are playing teams fighting relegation are being foolish .

It is always harder playing teams that have so much to play for none of these games against the bottom teams will be easy
Agreed
 
It's close enough. If you win all your games you'll get top 4. There's no way Chelsea and Leicester will win all their games as well.
If tonight is anything to put a reality check on people, it's you guys losing to West Ham.
This is football, bloody hell. Upsets happen all the time.
Hell if I'm going to be so positive to think it's nailed on we will all our remaining matches. Do I want that to happen? Feck yes, is it possible, of course. But is us dropping points also very possible, most certainly.
The only confidence I have is that our rivals, Chelsea, Leicester and Wolves will drop more points than us, enough to make us take 3rd place.
That could be us lose 2 games, but all 3 other teams losing 3 games and drawing 1 or something like that.
 
Oh I completely agree they won’t, however it’s not about whether I think they will, it’s in their hands to do so.

I take your point too.

Glad to hear that, regardless of what happens I think we can both agree that one way or another, United are likely to be playing Champions League football next season.
 
Literally this, the mental gymnastics in this thread is staggering.

I’m loving the positivity, and I think we will get top 4 now but to say it’s in our hands is factually wrong.

It's not factually wrong if you believe smashing Leicester 10-0 or something keeps it in our hands
 
You are wrong I’m afraid

Ultimately we are dependant on Leicester or Chelsea doing worse than we do whether that be them scoring less goals than us, or dropping more points. Those 2 are not. That’s a fact regardless, therefore it is in their hands.

I will repeat though I think we will do it!
 
I struggle to see how we finish anything but 3rd.
Top 4 is guaranteed for me

Only danger for me is that we'll need to be more than 3 points ahead of Leicester come the final day head-to-head, to make sure they can't finish ahead of us if they somehow sneak the win.
 
If Wolves win their remaining games they go above Chelsea.
If they go into that game on the necessary rin of form then theyll finish above Wolves imo
 
Definitely. Its not just their defense but they also struggle against lowblocks. Without willian they lack that penetrative edge. Pulisic is good but he isn't a deadball specialist/winger like willian. If willian was injured earlier in the season they would be neck and neck with arsenal. Strange that he is a free agent this summer.

I wouldn't mind United taking a cheeky punt on Willian if Sancho's price is too high. Personally, I would love Greenwood to become a Mo Salah like goalscoring inside right. So I ain't that bothered about getting Sancho. Willian knows the league, he's very good on his day and like Ighalo he's of an age where he won't be a long term obstacle to Mason.

As for Chelsea I agree with you. They play some nice looking stuff at times but unlike their great sides they have a soft underbelly. City's bottle job doesn't cover that up. Also none of the signings they've made will address that. They seem to be stockpiling style but not steel.
 
It is in our hands.

Wait, are we talking about penises?
 
We bloody play Leicester though so It’s in our hands to beat them by the required score!!! Jesus are you on the wind up?
They are 3 points ahead with 9 goal difference.
If they win all their games just like us till last day, since we have no clue what the GD will be by then, cause it's all based on hopes and prayers, where in history has a team won on by 10 goals to get the GD needed to pass someone on points. So as of now, it's more in Leicesters hands than ours...
Are you on a slow down?
 
We bloody play Leicester though so It’s in our hands to beat them by the required score!!! Jesus are you on the wind up?
So you think that when city beat us to the title by GD and if we won our game by some absurd scoreline, think it was like 7-0 or something the title was in our hands?
 
This man understands! Thank you! Two clubs can have it ‘in their hands’ so to speak
No.

We can win all of our matches and still not finish above Leicester or Chelsea, therefore it is most certainly not in our hands.

We can score as many as we want but we have no control over how many Leicester score (outside of the final game) so again, not in our hands.
 
And yet people are still overrating Chelsea and still rating them to finish third while they think we could still blow it :lol:

The chances of us dropping more points than Chelsea are close to none especially given our respective fixtures and form right now. Not to mention we are genuinely a top side that is brushing away weaker teams while Chelsea still have question marks in that regard.

Third place is guaranteed. I don't even know why some people are being shy to say it out loud and want to take a pessimistic stance on our chances

If this isn't satire it's pretty ridiculous overhyped stuff that suggests you haven't learnt anything from both watching us and general football over the years!
 
Big chance now if we keep our performance level up. Leicester taking just 2pts out of 9 has been a major boost. Chelsea result tonight shows anything can happen and could just as easily happen to us though.
 
It goes to show how difficult it is to judge team's run ins . City was always an easier match for Chelsea as they had nothing to play for and were focused on the cup game against Newcastle .

However West Ham are scrapping for their lives and that proved decisive .

People think United have an easier run in because they are playing teams fighting relegation are being foolish .

It is always harder playing teams that have so much to play for none of these games against the bottom teams will be easy
True, but generally throwing in the difficult games means it's probably easier to average out how a team will do. Chelsea I expected to lose 2 games between the restart and the last day - to City and Liverpool. They beat City but lost to West Ham instead (local derby, tough away game). It's not always about individual game predictions, but more how many from a set of fixtures. United have a set of fixtures before the last game that from the restart, I thought we'd win all but 1 or 2 games (drawing to Spurs and probably Palace). We drew to Spurs, still think we'll likely drop points in one more fixture before Leicester but it's possible we win them all. Point is that it was a set of 8 fixtures where I was guessing we would gain 20 of an available 24 points, leading up to the last day, whereas Leicester and Chelsea had more games where they would drop points in (and losses vs draws). They might not happen where you expect it to, but it's still safe to guess it will happen as an offset elsewhere.
 
It's also fecking dumb they way we going about as if we have won the rest of our games already.
My point is I believe our rivals will drop sufficient points for us to pip them to 3rd place, however that looks.
 
It's not factually wrong if you believe smashing Leicester 10-0 or something keeps it in our hands
Why 10 nil? 5 nil would do it as it stands now...but let's us not forget we could out score them a goal here and there leading up that game. 2 nil might be enough then
 
Why 10 nil? 5 nil would do it as it stands now...but let's us not forget we could out score them a goal here and there leading up that game. 2 nil might be enough then
And they could outscore us until our last match and lose against us but still have the better GD.
Its all hopes and what ifs, right now, but it's clear that they don't have it in them to win all games till us, and we have a better chance at winning all games, but as tonight clearly reminds us, it's never a guarantee.
So confident but not better by house on it.