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Race for the Top 4 - 2018/19

Where will we finish in the league ?


  • Total voters
    423
  • Poll closed .

fluffybunnyuk

Well-Known Member
Oct 16, 2017
2,210
2,473
I went back and looked at the 2016/17 season when we scored record pts (premier league cos the previours 100 years of football doesnt exist apparently)
After 26 games that season we had 53 points. We won 11 out of 12 in the run in. Yup spam was the fly in the ointment.

Right now we have 60 points... So we're playing the most effective we ever have. By a 7 point margin. In most other years it'd be either title winning or challenging form.
 

Cavehillspur

Well-Known Member
Jan 28, 2011
13,967
18,271
Beat Burnley in a couple of weeks and pressure is on Liverpool at Old Trafford, really would be incredible if we are within 2 points of the top after 27 games given our current situation. Who knows Kane and Alli back fresh for the run in and stranger things have happened, its unlikely but one game at a time etc
 

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
46,680
104,956
For the next 13 games I couldn’t care less about ‘performances’ and ‘winning by 3 goals’. Just 3 points each time will do me.

We should have learned from previous years, you don’t win the league just by being the most pleasing on the eye, or playing the right way - you need to win ugly and grind out results.

We have taken monumental leaps forwards in that regard. The performances will take care of themselves.

Yep I agree. I said before the Leicester game I'd of taken a boring one nil win. We got the complete opposite though.

Its all about results.
 

Primativ

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2017
3,229
12,486
The importance thing is belief and I believe we can do it and I’m sure so do Poch and the players.

We have done exactly what we needed to do in Kane and Alli’s absence.

City are looking very very good but they are beatable. Kane needs to step up and do what Aguero is doing for City at the minute. Which is basically firing them to a title again. That is what the very best players and strikers in the world do. They deliver when it really matters.

Can Kane be the difference in the games at Anfield and Etihad? It’s a team game of course but these games will be tight and this is where the special players write their own history.

The opportunity is there. We are in with a chance. If we win all of our remaining games we can win the league. It will require a mammoth effort and large dollops of fortune but it is possible and that’s really all we can ask for!

When I stop dreaming for a second though, I look at our performances and we really can’t play any worse. Trippier can’t defend to save his life and we just look so exposed defensively. We need a proper DM in the team.
 

thebenjamin

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2008
12,164
38,545
How quickly everyone forgets league losses to Palace and Newcastle.

It's precisely because those freak losses are out of the way that I can see them getting maximum points from here on. There's clearly been a reaction since then, their minds are focused, and De Bruyne has returned to full capacity.

Even fixture congestion can't really hurt them, unless they got injuries to 7 or 8 key players, given their depth.
 

SpartanSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2011
12,552
43,063
It's precisely because those freak losses are out of the way that I can see them getting maximum points from here on. There's clearly been a reaction since then, their minds are focused, and De Bruyne has returned to full capacity.

Even fixture congestion can't really hurt them, unless they got injuries to 7 or 8 key players, given their depth.

The only thing that probably stops City now IMHO is if they go deep in the CL. It's so important to the club that they might take their eye off of their league form late on.
 

brendanb50

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2005
4,483
3,890
How quickly everyone forgets league losses to Palace and Newcastle.

100% this. Everyone in the mix has some fallibility. The key for Liverpool is whether they can keep things up, especially if they have a bad injury or a bad couple of games.

I'd love us to stay in the mix for now, not sure we have the squad to push it much closer than we are at the minute but i live in hope - Kane and Alli back will be a shot in the arm at a key time. Fingers crossed it gets us a little nearer.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
For the next 13 games I couldn’t care less about ‘performances’ and ‘winning by 3 goals’. Just 3 points each time will do me.

We should have learned from previous years, you don’t win the league just by being the most pleasing on the eye, or playing the right way - you need to win ugly and grind out results.

We have taken monumental leaps forwards in that regard. The performances will take care of themselves.
I agree with you to an extent, but I think there's a fine line between grinding out tight wins ("the sign of champions") and simply being lucky. While we've generally been slightly better than the opposition in recent weeks, some of them, Fulham and Leicester in particular, have largely been won due to terrible finishing from our opponents. It's not like we've forced them into missing with our incredible strength of character - they've just missed chances they should've probably scored. Usually this kind of stuff averages out over a season but, Watford and Utd aside, every coin toss has come up Spurs.

I think Poch deserves huge credit for instilling such belief and character in the team, but I really think that unless our performances improve quickly we'll come unstuck before long.
 

brendanb50

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2005
4,483
3,890
I agree with you to an extent, but I think there's a fine line between grinding out tight wins ("the sign of champions") and simply being lucky. While we've generally been slightly better than the opposition in recent weeks, some of them, Fulham and Leicester in particular, have largely been won due to terrible finishing from our opponents. It's not like we've forced them into missing with our incredible strength of character - they've just missed chances they should've probably scored. Usually this kind of stuff averages out over a season but, Watford and Utd aside, every coin toss has come up Spurs.

I think Poch deserves huge credit for instilling such belief and character in the team, but I really think that unless our performances improve quickly we'll come unstuck before long.

If only we had the defensive unit we had a couple of years back - Walker and Rose as FBs with Toby & Jan in the middle - they were unbeatable on their day.

I think one of the bigger issues we've had defensively in some of our games this year has come from our DM rather than our backline though. Not saying our FBs have been perfect but i think that shield in front of them has been sorely needed at times and we've not had it.

That said, i do think we need a bit of a re-jig to get more stability out of our defence. Either with some much needed reinforcements in midfield or a change up at FB.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,770
99,330
I agree with you to an extent, but I think there's a fine line between grinding out tight wins ("the sign of champions") and simply being lucky. While we've generally been slightly better than the opposition in recent weeks, some of them, Fulham and Leicester in particular, have largely been won due to terrible finishing from our opponents. It's not like we've forced them into missing with our incredible strength of character - they've just missed chances they should've probably scored. Usually this kind of stuff averages out over a season but, Watford and Utd aside, every coin toss has come up Spurs.

I think Poch deserves huge credit for instilling such belief and character in the team, but I really think that unless our performances improve quickly we'll come unstuck before long.

Yes we were fortunate against Fulham and Leicester in that respect, but we were incredibly unfortunate not to beat United, that was far more one sided than the two aforementioned examples.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
Yes we were fortunate against Fulham and Leicester in that respect, but we were incredibly unfortunate not to beat United, that was far more one sided than the two aforementioned examples.
Yeah you're right actually. Utd was a bad example as we definitely deserved to win that one.
 

hughy

I'm SUPER cereal.
Nov 18, 2007
31,840
56,924
As it stands, just another 25 points from 12 games guarantees us top 4. I'd still rather see Chelsea come back and draw, though.
Do we really live in a world where we need to accumulate 85 points to only get top 4? Fuck me this league is ridiculously tough now.

Not sure how anyone can disagree it's the best in the world.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
Do we really live in a world where we need to accumulate 85 points to only get top 4? Fuck me this league is ridiculously tough now.

Not sure how anyone can disagree it's the best in the world.
It's a bit like how Andy Murray was in the same generation as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Had he been born 10 years earlier he would've hoovered up grand slams.

Surely we have the record points tally for a 3rd place team at this stage in the season, a points tally that would usually have us comfortably top of the league.
 

fluffybunnyuk

Well-Known Member
Oct 16, 2017
2,210
2,473
Arsenal or chelsea arnt going to win 10 out of the 12 remaining games. If they did (watches helium pig balloon flying away) it'd still only be 80 points.
I'd say 76 points will be enough for top 4. More than likely the points record for finishing 2nd will go. Thats 89 points or winning 8 of 12 for liverpool and man city. Thats feasible for both of them. Where that leaves spurs is anyones guess. That means as little as 6 wins will get top 4 for us. To get 90 points for us means winning 10 out of 12 which probably wont be enough for the title this year.
 

fluffybunnyuk

Well-Known Member
Oct 16, 2017
2,210
2,473
So in summary we could lose to chelski,dippers, and city, and it wouldnt make the slightest difference to us finishing top 4. Naturally if spurs won all 12 it'd be seriously epic.
So i'll skip the meltdown if we lose to any of them because it means little in gaining top 4. Any points we do take from them will only secure us top 4.
 
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