Top 4 race 2016/17

Typical Spurs and typical Liverpool was probably the nicest thing I said regarding the result. Wasn't expecting Arsenal to continue losing and couldn't see Hull keeping up their recent good run of form. Can't see City not taking all 3 points tonight either.
 
The same Spurs who thumped City and Chelsea at home? I'd be surprised.

Arsenal, maybe, but City? I'd say a draw is our best shout, and Chelsea, well we're at home but they're a level above everyone.

I reckon we'll get 6 points out of 12 which will leave us too far behind the others.

Yes I think we'll take a point at Spurs and beat Arsenal.
What you're missing is that all those teams have tough games coming up between now and April/May, they all play each other etc. Especially Arsenal and Liverpool.
I think we are a very tough team to beat this season tbh, our issue is putting teams away. If we can rack up the points between now and the Chelsea game we're in with a very good shout.
 
City beat Swansea, West Ham and Palace and suddenly they're guaranteed top four? I don't think so, they're as likely as any team to drop out of top 4. No team is safe, I genuinely believe we're the best team now after Chelsea and think we'll make top 4 because of it. The only reason we're not second is because of the start of the season, we've played well and picked up a lot of points since October - I think the league table at the end of the season will show that.
 
City beat Swansea, West Ham and Palace and suddenly they're guaranteed top four? I don't think so, they're as likely as any team to drop out of top 4. No team is safe, I genuinely believe we're the best team now after Chelsea and think we'll make top 4 because of it. The only reason we're not second is because of the start of the season, we've played well and picked up a lot of points since October - I think the league table at the end of the season will show that.

We've picked up the most points after Chelsea since October. Mainly because we are very tough to beat. We do need to obviously start converting more draws to wins though
 
We've picked up the most points after Chelsea since October. Mainly because we are very tough to beat. We do need to obviously start converting more draws to wins though
We do, and agree with what your saying about us being tough to beat, which is even more surprising that some think we may lose every other game. I wouldn't be surprised to see us lose every now and again but nowhere near as frequently as has been implied in here.
 
Yes I think we'll take a point at Spurs and beat Arsenal.
What you're missing is that all those teams have tough games coming up between now and April/May, they all play each other etc. Especially Arsenal and Liverpool.
I think we are a very tough team to beat this season tbh, our issue is putting teams away. If we can rack up the points between now and the Chelsea game we're in with a very good shout.
Liverpool have Arsenal away and City at home.
Arsenal have us, Liverpool, and City at home, Spurs away.
Spurs have us and Arsenal at home.
City have Liverpool, us at home, and Chelsea, Arsenal away.

In order of difficulty we are clearly at the top, followed by City/Arsenal, then Liverpool and Spurs have a far easier run-in.

We also likely will have more games than anyone else given we're still in all the cups.

Add to that we still have less points (albeit not many) than the others and it has to be said, top four is a very difficult task for us. I can't see it happening unless we massively improve performances in big games, learn to take chances, keep the squad fully fit, get some big slices of luck, and 2 or 3 of the other teams somehow capitulate.
 
We're going to have to correct our record against the top teams eventually. Might as well do it during the run in
 
I think Liverpool beating Spurs is a good result for us, it really tightens up the the 5 teams. Leaves us rueing the lost 6 points from those 3 draws even more though. We should be in 2nd and only 6 points behind :mad: :(
 
I think we are definitely in with a shout for top 4 but it will be tough especially the longer we are in the cups. Since we have not had penalties given to us this year I cannot expect it to change much and the way Arsenal's get majority of decisions they will get in top 4. I think 4th spot will be between us Liverpool and Spurs. City and the FA sponsored Arsenal's will get top 3.

Man thats crazy, we have been given 1 pentalty all season and 3 against, along with Zlatan's dissalowed goal against Boro which was a goal, Mata's offside goal which wasn't offside and a few more incidents, we really have had some atrocious decisions go against us this year,

City and Spurs are joint 1st for having had most penalties this season so far with 7 penalties and 2 against them
Liverpool with 6 and 5 against
Arsenal with 5 and 7 against plus a million other things go for them

I can't remember a season where there's been so many shocking ref mistakes and decisions with nearly every game, even last game Zlatan was in on goal twice and the that 80 year old linesman flagged him offside which was wrong, so frustrating
 
Man thats crazy, we have been given 1 pentalty all season and 3 against, along with Zlatan's dissalowed goal against Boro which was a goal, Mata's offside goal which wasn't offside and a few more incidents, we really have had some atrocious decisions go against us this year,

City and Spurs are joint 1st for having had most penalties this season so far with 7 penalties and 2 against them
Liverpool with 6 and 5 against
Arsenal with 5 and 7 against plus a million other things go for them

I can't remember a season where there's been so many shocking ref mistakes and decisions with nearly every game, even last game Zlatan was in on goal twice and the that 80 year old linesman flagged him offside which was wrong, so frustrating

In fairness this season the standard of refereeing has been shocking all around. We've had more than a few 'what the actual feck?!' moments from referees too.
 
I think liverpool will pick the pace up again now. They have no game for 2 weeks and from then on they have one game a week, which frankly speaking is a very very big advantage. Also think city and spurs might drop some points now. Arsenal keep on getting points with handballgoals andstrokes of luck . It seems not only are we up against 5 other teams but also against luck. I think it will be very very difficult for us and we may have to rue the draws.
 
If we beat Bayern we could just focus on the Champions League for once. It would change everything in the top 4 race.
 
In fairness this season the standard of refereeing has been shocking all around. We've had more than a few 'what the actual feck?!' moments from referees too.

Yeah I agree, sorry thats what I mean't when I said every game, not just our's but the majority, the time has come for technology to come in and help ref's out more, goal line technology was a success and these day's it's so tight even a wrongly given offside decision can impact a team winning the league or not, "cough" Drogba "cough"
 
This is just my gut feeling,

1.Chelsea.
2.Tottenham Spurs.
3.Manchester United.
4.Manchester City.
 
Man thats crazy, we have been given 1 pentalty all season and 3 against, along with Zlatan's dissalowed goal against Boro which was a goal, Mata's offside goal which wasn't offside and a few more incidents, we really have had some atrocious decisions go against us this year,

City and Spurs are joint 1st for having had most penalties this season so far with 7 penalties and 2 against them
Liverpool with 6 and 5 against
Arsenal with 5 and 7 against plus a million other things go for them

I can't remember a season where there's been so many shocking ref mistakes and decisions with nearly every game, even last game Zlatan was in on goal twice and the that 80 year old linesman flagged him offside which was wrong, so frustrating
It's a bit one-eyed to have a go at refs. Fans focus on the supposed injustices rather than favourable decisions. What about a few fruity Rojo tackles that went without a red, Mata on Vardy, the offside in the build up to United's equaliser against Liverpool, the wrongful (immediately rescinded) red for West Ham? There's just a few I can remember.

Of course there are terrible decisions that go against you but it's not such a one-sided injustice. In truth, it's pretty normal.
 
Yeah I agree, sorry thats what I mean't when I said every game, not just our's but the majority, the time has come for technology to come in and help ref's out more, goal line technology was a success and these day's it's so tight even a wrongly given offside decision can impact a team winning the league or not, "cough" Drogba "cough"

I'm all for more technology. The old adage about refs being an essential part of the game means nothing to me. If technology can ensure the right calls are being made, you could get rid of refs altogether for all I care (I realize that's a long way off).
 
This is a really exciting battle now, super competitive.

Will Arsenal's luck run out? Will Spurs 'do a Spurs'? Can we maintain our form? Will Jesus save City's season? Will Liverpool run out of gas?

It's crazy that on our run we still haven't made our way into the top four. I guess it is partly in our hands with the matches against the contenders to come. We need to step up in those matches and maintain our scoring form against the smaller teams, all whilst having Europa and FA Cup matches to deal with. It's a stretch but we are capable.
 
You can only really start judging this after our game with Chelski in mid-April.

At the moment we're on a great unbeaten run, have few injuries and our next games are Bournemouth (H), Southampton (A), Middlesbrough (A), WBA (H), Everton (H), Sunderland (A).

There's 6 games we should be looking to get max points from and if we go near to that and then get something out of the Renties we'll be in the mix.

As long as the fixture pile-up isn't too severe, those last few games against top-4 rivals at the business-end of the season will mostly come down to momentum and confidence.

Personally, I think Jose will get us into the CL places and win us at least one bit of silverware this season...

Urgh, another bunch of GRC's like their neighbours.
 
I've a feeling we will end up playing city in a rescheduled game right at the end to pip them to fourth.

I read on here that the possible dates are march 1st, march 8th and april 26th - depending on cup replays and wether you beat St. Etienne. It was posted without a source tho. If its true I'm hoping its april 26th - would Utd fans prefer it earlier?
 
Going to be an interesting race for top 4 from now. If we don't focus on other teams, and just concentrate on our own games, 1 game at a time then we can't go wrong.

I just hope that we get top 4, and to be honest i can see us getting 3rd at this rate. Playing fluid attacking football while staying solid as a rock at the back. Can only bring in good results!
 
Going to be an interesting race for top 4 from now. If we don't focus on other teams, and just concentrate on our own games, 1 game at a time then we can't go wrong.

I just hope that we get top 4, and to be honest i can see us getting 3rd at this rate. Playing fluid attacking football while staying solid as a rock at the back. Can only bring in good results!

Unfortunately that usually ends up as a draw. Just wish Utd would continue the urgency after scoring a goal, they just seem to drop off momentum.
Tottenham could drop points if they progress in the Europa League, Arsenal will hopefully have a mini implosion before they go full terminator end of season mode and Liverpool don't get back to beginning of the season form after winning the Tottenham Cup final.
 
Rumours for the Derby:
  • 1st March if there's no FA cup replays
  • 8th March if either side is involved in a replay but United go out the EL
  • 26th April if there's a replay and United go through

8th is a CL gameweek, will Uefa allow the FA to play such a big game on the same date as Dortmund vs Benfica and Barca vs PSG?

There's no way it gets scheduled on the midweek (1 March) after the League Cup final, it's too soon. Although that midweek is the only time it could be scheduled until the 26th of April if we go through the rounds in the EL, don't even consider possible FA Cup replays at this point. And don't forget that if we beat Blackburn our away game at Southampton will automatically be postponed as well so it could be scheduled to be played even before the City game. As things stand, and we continue hypothetically to the EL final, there are only two days where those two PL fixtures (City away and Southampton away) could be rescheduled to, either the midweek of the 26th of April, or the midweek of the 17th of May.

Keeping with the assumption that we get to the EL final, if we beat Blackburn in the cup, go to the 6th round and then draw and have to play a replay of the quarter-final, the FA are truly fecked. There's no possible date they could reschedule that to, unless they're going to make us play Saturday/Tuesday/Thursday on one of the weeks.
 
Last edited:
Aye, but we've absolutely obliterated the gap between 6th and 2nd in the past couple of months @Suedesi

Week 11:
Liverpool: 26 POINTS
Chelsea: 25
Man City: 24
Arsenal: 24
Spurs: 21
Man Utd: 18

Week 25:
Chelsea: 60 POINTS
Man City 52
Spurs 50
Arsenal 50
Liverpool 49
Man Utd 48

We have gone from -6 points off Top4 to -2. However, we still have to play City, Asnl, Spurs away and Chelsea at home. Not easy!
 
I don't see how we are going to get into the top 4. Liverpool have an advantage of few games, so they can easily get in. City have found themselves since dropping Bravo. That leaves Spurs and Arsenal. Spurs have the easy run in. Unless Kane or Alli gets injured they will keep it up and its going to be close between Arse and spurs.

We have too many games, difficult run in and we are due a little bit of a bad run.
 
This is such a weird and funny league. Only just a few weeks ago, there were doubts if City could even make top 4 and now they are 2nd, 8 points off Chelsea. :lol:
 
Week 11:
Liverpool: 26 POINTS
Chelsea: 25
Man City: 24
Arsenal: 24
Spurs: 21
Man Utd: 18

Week 25:
Chelsea: 60 POINTS
Man City 52
Spurs 50
Arsenal 50
Liverpool 49
Man Utd 48

We have gone from -6 points off Top4 to -2. However, we still have to play City, Asnl, Spurs away and Chelsea at home. Not easy!

Why take week 11 though @Suedesi

On 5th Dec we were a massive 9 points behind top 4 and 10 points off second.
 
This is such a weird and funny league. Only just a few weeks ago, there were doubts if City could even make top 4 and now they are 2nd, 8 points off Chelsea. :lol:
Football is fickle. It wouldn't surprise me if that changed again in the coming month; Citys next five fixtures are quite a tough run. Sunderland A, Stoke H, Liverpool H, Arsenal A, Chelsea A. We could easily drop out after that, although our run-in the the final day of the season is then pretty generous, with just a home game with United to reschedule in.
 
I feel our lack of killer instinct in front of goal will hurt us in the end like it has so far especially at the business end but I seriously hope I'm wrong. It feels like the season started 2 months too early for us IMO so we have been playing catch-up for a while and inopportunely failed to put away teams during weekends when our rivals dropped points too which is why while we have clawed back some distance on them our table position has not changed. Our run-in at the end of the season if we go far in the cups won't help us either, especially if one of our key players picks up an injury.
 
We have gone from -6 points off Top4 to -2. However, we still have to play City, Asnl, Spurs away and Chelsea at home. Not easy!

I feel like the most difficult game among these will be the one against Spurs...
 
Man thats crazy, we have been given 1 pentalty all season and 3 against, along with Zlatan's dissalowed goal against Boro which was a goal, Mata's offside goal which wasn't offside and a few more incidents, we really have had some atrocious decisions go against us this year,

City and Spurs are joint 1st for having had most penalties this season so far with 7 penalties and 2 against them
Liverpool with 6 and 5 against
Arsenal with 5 and 7 against plus a million other things go for them

I can't remember a season where there's been so many shocking ref mistakes and decisions with nearly every game, even last game Zlatan was in on goal twice and the that 80 year old linesman flagged him offside which was wrong, so frustrating
Arsenal have conceded 7 penalties. That is quite extreme. That's one every few games. I am surprised Pool's pens are evenly balanced as it appeared they were lucky with pens.