Rio Ferdinand/Joe Cole were spot on last night on BT Sport (funnily enough, they were talking about Spurs at the time) when they said whoever puts together the most consistent second half of the season will finish 4th. They were saying that none of Utd, Spurs, Arsenal are consistent enough to pull away from this little mini-league - and you have to say ourselves & West Ham are pretty solid and absolutely deserve to be in the discussion.
The obvious reason we'll miss out is our lack of goals, but we're there on merit and there's definitely an argument that'll score more in the second half of the season with Neto returning. I don't see any reason why we'd suddenly start hemorrhaging goals at the other end of the pitch, so in fairness, I genuinely think we could be on for a top 6 finish. We'll know whether we're serious contenders for European football next season after this month. I'd snap your hand off for European Conference league football next season and anything above that is an added bonus.
I don't mind saying I'd be disappointed if we drifted away and finished between 8th-10th now, given our form, the position we're in now and the fact we have games in hand on teams above us. Credit to Bruno and the team for a cracking first half to the season.