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Race for the Top 4 - 2018/19

Where will we finish in the league ?


  • Total voters
    423
  • Poll closed .

SirHarryHotspur

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2017
5,005
7,421
Away from top 4 , live on BT Sport TV this Wednesday 11 am, under 19's in UEFA youth league away to Porto , maybe they can cheer us all up.
 

freeeki

Arsehole.
Aug 5, 2008
11,836
69,426
Absolutely unbelievable that we've managed to get ourselves into this position.

I got laughed at on here a couple of weeks ago for saying we'd lost more games this season than Manchester City had in the previous two full seasons, because on a technicality when you look back to the end of 2016/17 I wasn't quite right.

We've now taken 1 point from 4 games.

Those who were adamant our record was acceptable seem to have gone quiet... can't think why...
 
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hughy

I'm SUPER cereal.
Nov 18, 2007
31,842
56,935
Absolutely unbelievable that we've managed to get ourselves into this position.

I got laughed at on here a couple of weeks ago for saying we'd lost more games this season than Manchester City had in the previous two full seasons, because on a technicality when you look back to the end of 2016/17 I wasn't quite right.

We've now taken 1 point from 4 games.

Those who were adamant our record was acceptable seem to have gone quiet... can't think why...

Our record was acceptable. In recent weeks it hasn't been.


It's mad when you put it in to perspective. We're on the same amount of points after 30 games as we were last season, it just seems a lot worse because of our recent form. From there our record was 5 wins, 2 losses, and 1 defeat.
 

Seafordian Spurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
2,157
4,141
Poch made a comment after Southampton along the lines of 'We're where we signed up to be'. By that he means in a scrap for Top 4 and fighting in the Champions League.

Apart from City and 'pool, the rest of the top 6's season has been characterised by massive inconsistencies due to external factors - us because we're still homeless and haven't been able to buy any one and the rest due to new managers. I guess my point is where we are is probably about right. City and 'pool have been assembled with the expressed intention of winning the league this season. We haven't. That cushion we had was necessary to keep us within touching distance at the business end of the season which starts in earnest in a couple of weeks. We're still there and if we end up dropping into Europa then we deserve it.

But it's not yet May and I still feel the inconsistencies of Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea - perhaps exacerbated by European cup runs - will play a part in deciding who falls where.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,355
87,826
https://www.football365.com/news/premier-league-winners-and-losers-arsenal-solskjaer

Tottenham, in a battle for a top-four place
The cockerels are coming home to roost. Some Tottenham supporters won’t appreciate Mauricio Pochttino’s post-match assessment, but their last four league games really have hammered home where this Spurs side really belongs. Potential title challenge has become top-four battle.

It is to easy to just blame fatigue, because that excuses some particularly poor performances over the last four games and an inability to cope with Southampton’s response on Saturday. But weariness and the lack of game-changing options in reserve are the themes that underline every Tottenham problem.

Harry Kane is showing his true self in glimpses but has been rushed back from injury again. The same seems to be true of Dele Alli. Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-Min are both just knackered, while Moussa Sissoko’s workload and responsibility over the last four months has been extraordinary. Lucas Moura has tailed off badly since the start of the season, and Fernando Llorente will never be fit for Tottenham’s needs. That’s their fault as much as his; he should be way down the pecking order.

It isn’t going to get easier. Tottenham must surely now be considered outsiders to finish in the top four, given that they still have to travel to the Etihad and Anfield and given that the Champions League must surely now become the priority having reached the quarter-finals. The time has arrived when energy levels dictate that Tottenham simply cannot fight on both fronts effectively. And Pochettino should be bloody angry with Daniel Levy.
 

Haddock

Captain
Oct 16, 2017
2,025
6,357
The only positive with our demise these last few matches is that Pochettino and the players will have the knife against their throats in every single match for the remainder of the season. When it has mattered the most in the CL, notably Barcelona away and both Dortmund legs, the players stepped up and got the results needed. It's a travesty that we've gone from sitting safely at third to fighting for a top four spot. But if it's motivation they need it has been served.

I don't buy this "It's out of our hands narrative" because it's in fact all in our hands. We've still 1 point ahead Arsenal and three points ahead United. It's our point advantage to lose despite opposition. We shoud be able to go to Anfield and get a result. We have as much as play for as them, even more to be honest. This must be the mindset that Pochettino and the players have for the remainder of the season.
 

King of Otters

Well-Known Member
Jun 11, 2012
10,751
36,093
Absolutely unbelievable that we've managed to get ourselves into this position.

I got laughed at on here a couple of weeks ago for saying we'd lost more games this season than Manchester City had in the previous two full seasons, because on a technicality when you look back to the end of 2016/17 I wasn't quite right.

We've now taken 1 point from 4 games.

Those who were adamant our record was acceptable seem to have gone quiet... can't think why...

I have no idea what you're referring to here, but nevertheless I'd like to nominate this for Worst Told You So Of The Year.

"You all laughed at me for using facts that I admit were complete nonsense, but who's laughing now?"
 

shelfboy68

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2008
14,566
19,651
The only positive with our demise these last few matches is that Pochettino and the players will have the knife against their throats in every single match for the remainder of the season. When it has mattered the most in the CL, notably Barcelona away and both Dortmund legs, the players stepped up and got the results needed. It's a travesty that we've gone from sitting safely at third to fighting for a top four spot. But if it's motivation they need it has been served.

I don't buy this "It's out of our hands narrative" because it's in fact all in our hands. We've still 1 point ahead Arsenal and three points ahead United. It's our point advantage to lose despite opposition. We shoud be able to go to Anfield and get a result. We have as much as play for as them, even more to be honest. This must be the mindset that Pochettino and the players have for the remainder of the season.
Looking at the team for the past 3 weeks they don't appear to have that mindset I still think there is another 2/3 defeats left in us.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
I have no idea what you're referring to here, but nevertheless I'd like to nominate this for Worst Told You So Of The Year.

"You all laughed at me for using facts that I admit were complete nonsense, but who's laughing now?"

He has previous, I remember he made an incredibly arrogant and smug post claiming Liverpool to be Champions in January in some sort of desperate attempt to vindicate his point about Liverpool being more successful than us or something stupid like that so I'm not surprised.
 

Kingellesar

This is the way
May 2, 2005
8,706
9,209
I have said since the Burnley game, we need to win 6 games. Still very obtainable if you discounted the two tough away games. The positive for us is that we do have 5 home games. The toughest being West Ham who will be up for it....but come on, if we can't beat West Ham at home we don't deserve top 4. It's going to be extremely tough but it is still in our hands, we get a draw or win at Anfield....that would be huge, probaby our best away result in the league under Poch if they pulled it off. Time for the players to step up and for the manager. Nothing Levy can do, his time will be the summer. We either back Poch financially or face slipping into a team who flirts with the top 4.

I am gutted we have a 3 week wait but having seen us play the past couple weeks perhaps it isn't a bad thing. Get the players rested up, refreshed and ready to have the toughest end to a season we have had under Poch. Still in the CL and got a huge job to do in the league. We need to fight for every damn point now and we need the big players to step up. I was fuming all weekend but I am a bit better today, at the end of the day we haven't looked right since boxing day, we have had a couple very good performances but mostly it has been awful to watch. We are not a good team to watch at the moment, it's some very negative play that we have adopted but hey if we get the results required to finish top 4 then I don't care how we play. This season we just need to get through it, hopefully finish top 4 and maybe push further in the CL.

I think the thing that is most frustrating is the fact we are all going to lose a few years of our life expectancy over the next 2 months:unsure:
 

homer hotspur

Well-Known Member
Dec 7, 2014
2,868
4,637
I was one of the pessimistic 75 people who voted for 5th in the poll. It was a close call for 6th actually, but I hoped very much that it was unlikely that BOTH Chelsea and Arsenal would sufficiently progress their transitions in one season to come past us. I simply couldn't see us finishing ahead of the 2 Manchester clubs and Liverpool. My lack of confidence entirely stemmed from the failure to make any improvements to the squad.

In the event , I was pleasantly surprised to find that we seemed to have somehow managed to make things work aided by the disasterous Mourinho effect at Man Utd and continuing problems at both Chelsea and Arsenal BUT it's a long old season and now we can see that we are roughly where we deserve to be, probably battling it out with the other 2 London clubs for one place in my opinion. The fact that we are even in this position has been massively aided by one of the most remarkable transformations I have ever seen in a player -Moussa Sissoko - and the welcome progress of Harry Winks( unfortunately now at risk of a chronic type injury it seems). Without these 2 , I doubt we would be anywhere near and out of Europe.

As we are now in the ' shake up', we have a 'fighters chance' of making it and I think a lot will depend on the ' extra' games for each team ( FA CUP, Europa cup and CL) and the effect this has on the league games. We may be about to have a 3 week break but then there is going to be a hectic end to the season.
Next summer will be massive for the club as we seek to remain relevant as a potential top 4 side. We won't be able to 'wing it' again.
 

JW72

Well-Known Member
Jan 29, 2011
707
3,209
... we haven't looked right since boxing day.
This. Dortmund aside, we seem to have been repeating the Wolves home game over and over - getting away with a few late wins but looking like we are really struggling for ideas. Are we prepping differently for the ECL?
 

TottenhamMattSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
10,925
16,007
So I take it no one is looking out our recent run of dismal performances and losses/draws and are instead choosing to looking at others to gain comfort?

We haven't been unlucky in many cases, we've been completely impotent at times.
I sincerely hope the enforced rest period helps, but our squad looks like it's been running on empty for weeks now. What was an un-reachable lead has, in a matter of weeks, been reduced to us shitting the bed. The danger is real. The mental capacity for Spurs to fuck up when there seems to be no way of doing so is real.
Lets not forget how many times this happened before Poch arrived and, even since he arrived we've dropped off in the last few games of a few of his seasons.
 

Kingellesar

This is the way
May 2, 2005
8,706
9,209
This. Dortmund aside, we seem to have been repeating the Wolves home game over and over - getting away with a few late wins but looking like we are really struggling for ideas. Are we prepping differently for the ECL?

This. There must be a different mentality. Having said this, Dortmund have been similar to us in 2019....they have just blown a huge lead in the league and are now 2nd I believe. So both teams have been poor, we just seemed to outplay them in both legs.
 

freeeki

Arsehole.
Aug 5, 2008
11,836
69,426
I have no idea what you're referring to here, but nevertheless I'd like to nominate this for Worst Told You So Of The Year.

"You all laughed at me for using facts that I admit were complete nonsense, but who's laughing now?"

Not quite what I said, fucko :ROFLMAO:
 

TottenhamMattSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
10,925
16,007
Our record was acceptable. In recent weeks it hasn't been.


It's mad when you put it in to perspective. We're on the same amount of points after 30 games as we were last season, it just seems a lot worse because of our recent form. From there our record was 5 wins, 2 losses, and 1 defeat.
What's the difference between a loss and a defeat? Is one more honorable than the other?
 

SargeantMeatCurtains

Your least favourite poster
Jan 5, 2013
11,764
61,758
This. There must be a different mentality. Having said this, Dortmund have been similar to us in 2019....they have just blown a huge lead in the league and are now 2nd I believe. So both teams have been poor, we just seemed to outplay them in both legs.
Yeah i've said this before. Ironically, we need to replicate our performance away to Dortmund at Liverpool if we want anything from the game. We just can't seem to do that in the league.
 
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