Top 4 race / race abandoned (or maybe not) / Leicester & Chelsea in the process of bottling it

Focusmate said:
Think we will finish second tbh.
Everyone bar City is dropping points.
I guess it is progress from last season but i cant help looking back at the failed time under Mourinho where we came 2nd with 82 points. If it was failure then it really should be now too, especially as we won 2 trophies too.
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I think this season is contextually massively different to the Mou second place finish. We had enjoyed a level of investment in that squad that put us on near enough an even footing with City.
 
Focusmate said:
Think we will finish second tbh.
Everyone bar City is dropping points.
I guess it is progress from last season but i cant help looking back at the failed time under Mourinho where we came 2nd with 82 points. If it was failure then it really should be now too, especially as we won 2 trophies too.
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We won 2 trophies in the season we finished 6th.
 
I think Utd is already too far ahead of the rest (bar Leicester) to be caught, especially since no team is really performing on a consistent basis. Can see West Ham and Leicester stumble a bit more than the rest, and I think Everton are here to stay in the top 4 battle until the end of the season. Spurs and Chelsea will also remain in the mix as will Liverpool hopefully. Gonna be a tight one this year.
 
I did the predictor a couple of weeks back and have us finishing second. Points total about 10+ from last season which is definite progress.

This Summer needs some decent investment and then we're done with any excuses, although a tonne of people will still continue to do so I'm sure. If we can't manage a genuine title challenge next season we need to be looking for someone else to take us on.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
I did the predictor a couple of weeks back and have us finishing second. Points total about 10+ from last season which is definite progress.

This Summer needs some decent investment and then we're done with any excuses, although a tonne of people will still continue to do so I'm sure. If we can't manage a genuine title challenge next season we need to be looking for someone else to take us on.
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100%. We look like narrowing the gap this year, which is fine. There's only so much more to improve from this point though. If we don't seriously challenge for the title next year it will either be because the manager isn't good enough or because we botched the transfer window.
 
City
United
Chelsea
Pool

Leicester will fade away as usual. Injuries are going to kill them again. Besides Rodgers is a serial bottler when it comes to the business end of the season. Vardy has stopped scoring, 1 goal since Christmas which was gifted to him by Alisson.

WH will do incredibly well to get Europa Conference League (or whatever the new C level tournament is called). They have some really rough games in the next 6-7.

Everton are Everton.
 
If we can get through Liverpool, Everton and Leeds without any major hiccups, we have quite a favourable run of 5 games before a really tough run in.
 
I expect both Leicester and West Ham to fall away in the end and allow Liverpool and Chelsea in
 
Feed Me said:
I think this season is contextually massively different to the Mou second place finish. We had enjoyed a level of investment in that squad that put us on near enough an even footing with City.
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It was never enough to compete with City,.
 
City are locked in, and we are a few points in terms of points margin to 5th from being nailed on as well. Chelsea will make it because they have excellent depth and a manager who I rate very highly, who has already got them going. That’s 3 likely teams.

Of the other candidates, think Pool will (hope so anyway) because the CBs and Firmino will undermine any good run. Leicester have an excellent first XI but poor depth. Luck in relation to injuries will determine whether they make it this season. If they had Maddison, Barnes for the full game, Fofana and Justin yesterday, they’d have battered Arsenal. Justin’s out until November, but they’re going to need the former 3 back ASAP. Spurs only have two more big 6 teams to play, one of which includes Arsenal, and Leicester. Whatever you think of Mourinho, Kane, Son and a fully fit Bale can drag a team to anything. They’re quite far behind atm though.

On to the dark horses. Everton are just bottlejobs. They’re in the driving seat now but they’ll probably come 6th or 7th after losing their final 4 games of the season having got themselves into 4th in GW34. West Ham are playing very well and their team has a lovely balance between defence and attack, but their main and only striker Antonio, while a fantastic striker, is injury prone. Lingard/Bowen, exciting players that they are, will not cut it upfront if Antonio unfortunately gets injured. Moyes or the players won’t lose out on top 4, their board will for selling Haller.

As for the final league table, I’ll go for:

1) City - 90
2) United - 74
3) Chelsea - 72
4) Leicester - 67
5) Spurs - 66
6) Pool - 65
7) Everton - 65
8) West Ham - 64

It’ll be extremely tight between 4th to 8th. I’m giving Leicester the benefit of the doubt simply because of the gap they have now. Even with that though, they proved last season that they’re a team who injuries can have a catastrophic effect on.
 
Feed Me said:
I think this season is contextually massively different to the Mou second place finish. We had enjoyed a level of investment in that squad that put us on near enough an even footing with City.
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Do you expect Citeh to not spend for a few transfer windows so everyone else can ‘catch up’?
 
At the very least we won't need to go on an outstanding run like we did at the end of last season to sneak into the top 4.
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
At the very least we won't need to go on an outstanding run like we did at the end of last season to sneak into the top 4.
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I'm not sure we did did we? Seems the last couple of seasons it's just those who are the least shite that crawl into the top 4. Our points buffer was important as I don't see us going on a massive winning run between now and the end of the season
 
charlenefan said:
I'm not sure we did did we? Seems the last couple of seasons it's just those who are the least shite that crawl into the top 4. Our points buffer was important as I don't see us going on a massive winning run between now and the end of the season
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We went unbeaten for the last 14 games of the season.

We made up something like 15 points on Leicester.
 
I agree that you're most likely to finish second. After that it's incredibly tough to say. Liverpool and Chelsea seem most likely, and I don't expect Leicester to make it given their injuries, last season's drop-off and just how poor their last two performances were. I couldn't believe how poor they were against us yesterday.

I then genuinely think we have a shot - we've been dreadful for spells this season, but finally have a line-up that looks like it can consistently create chances alongside a solid defence. If we didn't have those 4-5 games where we were shot ourselves in the foot with idiotic red cards, we'd be around the top six now. 6-9 points from the next three and it looks achievable...
 
RashyForPM said:
If they had Maddison, Barnes for the full game, Fofana and Justin yesterday, they’d have battered Arsenal
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Not sure how you can say that with any certainty. Remember, we left out Saka, Partey, Auba, Bellerin, Gabriel & Partey from the starting XI as well.

ThierryHenry said:
I then genuinely think we have a shot - we've been dreadful for spells this season, but finally have a line-up that looks like it can consistently create chances alongside a solid defence. If we didn't have those 4-5 games where we were shot ourselves in the foot with idiotic red cards, we'd be around the top six now. 6-9 points from the next three and it looks achievable...
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Can't see it now, the Wolves & Villa results killed us, which were incredibly frustrating, we've left ourselves too much to do.

However, we will have a bearing on who does finish top 4 as we have Spurs, Everton & Liverpool to play at The Emirates, & Chelsea & West Ham away as well.
 
If Villa and Everton can win their games in hand they'll both be right up there.

Hopefully it stays tight until near the end of the season as we need some sort of interest leading to the last few games.
 
Our form is quite poor - two wins in our last seven games, eleven points dropped during that period.

If any side in the top 10 can put a decent run together, they will have a good chance of making it.
 
Siorac said:
You're not sure we went on an outstanding run at the end of last season? 9-5-0 in the last 14 games.
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Im not sure you can class the last 14 games of a season the end of the season, that's more like the entire second half of a season. If you just look at the last month it read 4 wins and 2 draws and we only got into the top 4 in the second from last game (which was one of those draws)
 
I still fancy Leicester to get there. They had a bad day yesterday but they'd no doubt have taken 6 pts from 9 out of Liverpool, Villa & Arsenal if it was offered to them beforehand, and they have some kind fixtures ahead of them in March, and a 5 point cushion.

Looking at 6th through 10th in the table the form of those sides is pretty awful and I think only Liverpool have the level required to break that win some-lose some cycle enough to challenge. City, United, Leicester are there IMO, and its a straight fight between Chelsea and Liverpool for the last spot.
 
charlenefan said:
Im not sure you can class the last 14 games of a season the end of the season, that's more like the entire second half of a season. If you just look at the last month it read 4 wins and 2 draws and we only got into the top 4 in the second from last game (which was one of those draws)
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The point is that we did go on an outstanding run to secure top 4 when it looked all but hopeless. It's something we don't need to do this time.
 
We've dropped a lot of points since the end of January but we're still sat in 2nd. I think we'll be alright.

Leicester losing Barnes is a blow for them, and that's multiplied for any matches they miss Maddison for too. They really looked insipid after Barnes went off yesterday.

You'd hope we've built up enough of a buffer to the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool that we won't allow them to overtake us.
 
Bilbo said:
I still fancy Leicester to get there. They had a bad day yesterday but they'd no doubt have taken 6 pts from 9 out of Liverpool, Villa & Arsenal if it was offered to them beforehand, and they have some kind fixtures ahead of them in March, and a 5 point cushion.

Looking at 6th through 10th in the table the form of those sides is pretty awful and I think only Liverpool have the level required to break that win some-lose some cycle enough to challenge. City, United, Leicester are there IMO, and its a straight fight between Chelsea and Liverpool for the last spot.
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Leicester's injuries are coming at the worst time though. I don't believe they're safe.
 
Siorac said:
Leicester's injuries are coming at the worst time though. I don't believe they're safe.
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For sure, but then again I also don't feel that United are there yet either.

Going out of Europa has left them with a pretty comfortable March now in terms of fixture congestion. They have 'only' Burney (A), Brighton (A), Sheff Utd (H) to get through and should get a few players back out of the treatment room by then.
 
GoonerBear said:
Not sure how you can say that with any certainty. Remember, we left out Saka, Partey, Auba, Bellerin, Gabriel & Partey from the starting XI as well.
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Because they always do you over at the King Power (Emirates as well sometimes). 3-1, 3-0 and an easy 2-0 last season. You don’t have as good a strongest XI as Leicester. All those players lost to them at the Emirates the last time you played them.
 
RashyForPM said:
Because they always do you over at the King Power (Emirates as well sometimes). 3-1, 3-0 and an easy 2-0 last season. You don’t have as good a strongest XI as Leicester. All those players lost to them at the Emirates the last time you played them.
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It's a shame football doesn't work like that though, & what makes football so unpredictable. Otherwise we'd just play out games on past results then?
 
Judas said:
Anything less than 2nd given our current position and the form of the chasing pack would be massively massively underwhelming.
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Completely agree, in fact, I'd go as far as to say if we don't manage second from here then there's little prospect of us kicking on to title winners next year under Ole and his job, could/should be under threat. Ole has done very well up to now, but you have to see continual progress to back a manager.
 
GoonerBear said:
It's a shame football doesn't work like that though, & what makes football so unpredictable. Otherwise we'd just play out games on past results then?
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I based my prediction that their strongest XI would have done you over yesterday because they have history of doing so and are better players than yours. Just a prediction, not that hard to understand.
 
RashyForPM said:
I based my prediction that their strongest XI would have done you over yesterday because they have history of doing so and are better players than yours. Just a prediction, not that hard to understand.
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Fair do's, no point in arguing about it anyway as we won't know either way. All I'll say is I looked at our team we put out & thought we would get beat, from a Leicester team that on paper still looked really strong, & we rested our most in form players, & we ended up pretty dominant apart from the first 10 minutes.
 
GoonerBear said:
Fair do's, no point in arguing about it anyway as we won't know either way. All I'll say is I looked at our team we put out & thought we would get beat, from a Leicester team that on paper still looked really strong, & we rested our most in form players, & we ended up pretty dominant apart from the first 10 minutes.
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Fair enough, that means we agree. As I said, I predicted you would lose but I won’t argue that you deserved to win because it was comprehensive. Why would I tbf. Supported Arsenal yesterday to get Leicester off our backs. Anyway, it looks like the injuries will derail Leicester’s season again. Champions League XI but a midtable level squad.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
Completely agree, in fact, I'd go as far as to say if we don't manage second from here then there's little prospect of us kicking on to title winners next year under Ole and his job, could/should be under threat. Ole has done very well up to now, but you have to see continual progress to back a manager.
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All depends if top 4 is mathmatically done and Ole decides to rest players if Utd reach the latter stages of the cup competitions. Then finishing 2nd or 4th won't matter.
 
Feed Me said:
I think this season is contextually massively different to the Mou second place finish. We had enjoyed a level of investment in that squad that put us on near enough an even footing with City.
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Didn't our investment in the Ole years far exceeded City's investment in the same timeframe? We invested more now yet performed worse than when we invested less.
 
Hailee said:
Didn't our investment in the Ole years far exceeded City's investment in the same timeframe? We invested more now yet performed worse than when we invested less.
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United have spent slightly more than City, in Gross and Nett terms, over last 6 windows, City spent slightly more when it was Pep v Jose though Jose spent significantly more than OGS (I think) can't recall when Jose's last transfer window was.
 
Leicester have had some pretty bad injuries lately which might ruin their next few weeks.

Harvey Barnes needing a knee op especially is a big blow for them.
 
Adam-Utd said:
Leicester have had some pretty bad injuries lately which might ruin their next few weeks.

Harvey Barnes needing a knee op especially is a big blow for them.
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Last season's history repeating itself looks like. Maddison's hip injury is worrisome too as apparently it dates to last season and seems to be some sort of chronic issue.
 
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