The Race For The Top Four

[Kenny]

Brighton doing what i thought we were going to do after the 3 defeats.

Will this be 7 on the bounce for them? A few defeats when the players think they are safe can quickly turn into a horror run. Difficult for a manager to pull them out of on the beach mode.

 

[Tony Towner]

Spurs aren't a realistic target. It's West Ham and at a push Utd.

 

[Tony Towner]

Brighton doing what i thought we were going to do after the 3 defeats.

Will this be 7 on the bounce for them? A few defeats when the players think they are safe can quickly turn into a horror run. Difficult for a manager to pull them out of on the beach mode.

6

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Brighton haven't even had a shot on target with 10 to go.

 

[Kenny]

6

Should avoid the 7 then as I think Norwich are next up for them

 

[Alan]

How does Solly fuckin' March still get time for them??

 

[Sniffer]

Should avoid the 7 then as I think Norwich are next up for them

I don’t know as I’ve picked them in @Quirkafleeg s game.

 

[Carsy]

Brighton haven't even had a shot on target with 10 to go.

And here’s us moaning about how inept we are going forward!

 

[thisisgil]

Is anyone else mildly nervous about our remaining fixtures?

The way I see it, we have

2 free hits (Man City, Liverpool)
1 realistic loss (Chelsea)
3 banana skins (Leeds, Villa, Newcastle)
1 likely score draw (Burnley)
1 very winnable (Brighton)

Looking at squads and form etc, I think 14-15 points would be a reasonable expectation here. However, the last 40 years have conditioned me to expect 4 points.

Am I the only one here lacking confidence in our ability to finish above 8th?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Not nervous as there's essentially nothing at stake. We didn't expect Europe at the outset, if we make it then fantastic, as it is we've been totally unencumbered by relegation thoughts since November which will do for me.

 

[lemonjelly]

Not nervous h.ere. Excited maybe, but not nervous.
2 free hits (Man City, Liverpool) - close to drawing v liverpool at home. They are still immense, but they're not as free scoring as they were earlier in the season. City we have at home, so you have to retain hope.
1 realistic loss (Chelsea) Why? Chelsea aren't firing on all cylinders at the mo. Good team, excellent coach, but at the mo they're less than the sum of their parts imo.
3 banana skins (Leeds, Villa, Newcastle) newcastle the only in form team there. villa is a derby so could go either way. We have to be looking to beat leeds.
1 likely score draw (Burnley) give you that one.
1 very winnable (Brighton)

 

[sycophantia]

Nope I'm not nervous, if we finish lower than 7th from here, it'll be a slight disappointment but 8th would be a terrific achievement, especially after we plateaued a bit last season.

 

[Throbber3]

Is anyone else mildly nervous about our remaining fixtures?

The way I see it, we have

2 free hits (Man City, Liverpool)
1 realistic loss (Chelsea)
3 banana skins (Leeds, Villa, Newcastle)
1 likely score draw (Burnley)
1 very winnable (Brighton)

Looking at squads and form etc, I think 14-15 points would be a reasonable expectation here. However, the last 40 years have conditioned me to expect 4 points.

Am I the only one here lacking confidence in our ability to finish above 8th?

Have we met?

 

[Tredman]

Another account Cyber ?

 

[Throbber3]

Another account Cyber ?

exactly my thoughts lolz

 

[The Bion]

Unless we absolutely tank the rest of the season we should be comfortably top 10, minimum. On the surface you would say 8th is most likely given our shortage of goals, but we've proven that we can get over that if we play well. We've got nothing else going on so can just concentrate on the league, the fixtures are reasonably well spread out, and we don't have to play any of the teams around us who we're directly competing with - Spurs and West Ham literally play each other this weekend.

Man Utd and Spurs are wildly inconsistent, West Ham have been on a downturn (albeit might have put a stop on that) and are picking up injuries nearly every week. Arsenal are probably out of reach but they weren't playing well before our games and are noted bottlers, so no guarantees how they will respond after last night - Arteta is already getting his excuses about fixture congestion out.

I'm leaning towards don't expect anything and you won't be disappointed, but we have a shot. Really we probably need to have final position locked up after the Norwich game - similar to previously when we sealed it against Fulham in the last home game.

 

[Jinky]

I want 7th minimum and Conference League football next season. I'll be disappointed with 8th, but I suspect that's the most likely outcome.

West Ham will likely get knocked out of the Europa League tonight so they'll be able to just focus solely on the PL. I think they're the most likely side we can overtake as they have Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal & Man City left to play. But as always, there's little point in trying to predict results. The rest of their games look very winnable on paper.

Spurs have nice fixtures left - they'll pull away from us now. We've got an outside chance of catching Utd if their season nosedives after being knocked out of the CL. They've still got Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea to play. But realistically it's going to be 7th or 8th.

 

[AndyWolves]

If we could finish somewhere near our previous highest points totals of 57 & 59 points I'd be happy.

 

[The Bion]

I want 7th minimum and Conference League football next season. I'll be disappointed with 8th, but I suspect that's the most likely outcome.

West Ham will likely get knocked out of the Europa League tonight so they'll be able to just focus solely on the PL. I think they're the most likely side we can overtake as they have Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal & Man City left to play. But as always, there's little point in trying to predict results. The rest of their games look very winnable on paper.

Spurs have nice fixtures left - they'll pull away from us now. We've got an outside chance of catching Utd if their season nosedives after being knocked out of the CL. They've still got Liverpool, Arsenal & Chelsea to play. But realistically it's going to be 7th or 8th.

Even finishing 7th won't guarantee anything if I've understood the permutations correctly - Leicester might spoil the party if they win the UCL.

Just focus on us and it'll work itself out.

 

[Sniffer]

9 points from here should have us finishing 8th. I expect we'll need a couple more wins above that for a chance of a Euro place.