So would Arsenal and City. There's not a great deal between the squad's competing for 4th but being 4 points behind is obviously a disadvantage. I'd personally feel more confident if we were closer to a team like Liverpool who aren't perennial 4th place finishers. Because arsenal crumble when the stakes are high, they seem to excel at winning 4th.
There's nothing much between Arsenal Spurs and us, and those are the two we need to out perform for 4th it seems. City are looking a bit average but they have a much better manager than arsenal do which should see them through.
What I'm beginning to think.
Last season's result means little especially when you factor in half the team and the manager are going to be different. We are not effectively 4 point behind you. And the gap could be even less when we've played equivalent teams or it could be more. That's yet to be told. I'll worry about goal difference when we've less than 21 games left to play. You were talking shite about our respective fixture lists and you're glossing over it.
In fairness, this isn't that far from reality, but we could also apply this logic to Arsenal, Spurs, City and Liverpool. These teams have performed better than us to date, hence the league table looking like it does. Spurs, Arsenal and City in particular have moments of brilliance, but then go in to spates of dross. You only have to look at Arsenal in the United, Everton and City games. City were not much better in their games. As for players, all the top teams probably have 1 or 2 good players, world class is maybe stretching it. It is only our own bias, and yours, that see something different from reality.
It's not 4 points. Don't listen to that nonsense.
I'm not sure how that's a contentious opinion. Last season you guys played probably the best football in the league and were arguably the most complete side.
Makes it even worse for them as it is 3 points
How the feck have you survived nearly 10 years on here?
Think Chelsea and Liverpool are completely safe with the styles they play and not having European football.
I have that feeling as well, I expect City to to get more stable with time even despite Pep holding them back with his tactics. But Arsenal just look weak and unstructured, they don't look like a top team to me.
I think you're pretty safe so it's a 5 horse race for 3 places.Quick reminder..
United only 4 points off 3rd. Any of the top 6 are comfortably in the race for a top 4 finish.
Conte is huge into nutrition, sports science, and specific training methods that prevent injuries. Being a former player really helps in this regards, he's said so himself numerous times.
True. We also don't seem to buy softies who get injured often but rather big, strong players who can take punishment. Even our flair players like Hazard and Willian are solid and sturdy and very rarely get injured.
If I'm not completely off my rocker this has been going on for longer than Conte though. It seems to be ages ago that we've had anything close to an injury crisis or anything of the like. Big injuries seem fairly rare - before Zouma the only major injuries I can recall are Azpilicueta damaging a ligament in his knee, and before that perhaps one of Essien's knee injuries. We've been great at the injury bit for a long time. Might be a specific type of grass at Cobham that is easy on the knees or something!
