Race for The Top 10

[ShaunL84]

Leicester will drop points soon

Leicester are finished. They have to come to our place, Arsenal (who are on form) and Bournemouth (who are fighting for their lives). They also have United at home. That's four losses.

 

[arunspurs]

Leicester are finished. They have to come to our place, Arsenal (who are on form) and Bournemouth (who are fighting for their lives). They also have United at home.

Leicester are not yet finished - they can still turn it around. But whats encouraging is they have to play Arsenal Sheffield United other than us.

 

[ILS]

You said you think we would be lucky to have one player - GLS - who would start for Chelsea, didn't you? (Or was that the other poster - apologies I don't remember exactly who said it).

In any case, no it doesn't mean everything of course. But given we played West Ham a week apart, I would say it decently indicates current form. I definitely think our defense is superior to Chelsea's though (and in fact the stats this season even support that). Had our defense played that badly against West Ham we'd have people lining up guillotines.

No it wasn't me who said that. So based on your impulsive interpretation of how football works Sheff Utd and Crystal Palace have better defenders then us because they have conceded less goals or do you think it is the way specific teams are set up?

Also why does it indicate form? If you remember West Ham had a couple of chances in the first half against us. Bowen hit the post in the second half. One long ball over the top exposed Dier and luckily Antonia smashed it wildly over. If any of them went in, the game changes but that is the fine margins in football from one match to another.

Let's see how the next 10 days go before we all get too excited.

 

[Beni]

Man U and us on paper have the easier run in. Win tomorrow night and that’s a big IF, we’re 7 points behind 3rd place Leicester , who on paper are have the most difficult run in.

 

[Shadydan]

So based on your simple assessment of how football matches work...we drew 0-0 with Watford..Liverpool lost 3-0 Watford ...that makes us better then Liverpool???

Also you don't understand that Chelsea set up more offensively from defensive point of view with both full backs going forward therefore leaving their centre halves more exposed down the channels. Unlike ourselves who allows just one full back to go forward therefore should make a better defensive unit. If Chelsea set up the same way then defensively and individually apart from the Keepers as clearly Hugo currently is better then Kepa they are just as good as us.

Also I'm not being negative about us...I'm offering a balance argument that is not prejudiced by my hatred for a rival club. I'm quite positive to what I have seen especially from a defensive perspective but let's not get carried away after two games. We smash Sheff Utd tomorrow and I will be jumping on the bandwagon.

By that logic, Villa should have the best defence in the league seeing as they leave 5 at the back when they attack, or at least a better defensive record than both us and Chelsea...not sure it works like that. The defence isn't just about the back four it's about how the whole team defend as a unit, If Chelsea set up more offensively that means they are leaving gaps at the back for other teams to exploit hence probably the reason why they've conceded a lot of goals.

Currently Spurs do have a better defence than Chelsea, the stats don't like, although Chelsea have played one more match than us, the only way to work it out if you're comparing the two teams is to wait until the end of the season.

 

[buckley]

what I find annoying is Moyes going on about VAR he talks as if it cost them the match against us when the reality is we have as much reason to moan about VAR for the Son goal that was disallowed also it was not one nil to us we won by two goals and the probability is that even if our first goal against West Ham was disallowed we still scored another goal . Also I felt in that game the second half we were completely in control and if required could have gone up a gear . Getting back to VAR I have seen since the United game at least three similar tackles to the Dier tackle that have been called " no penalty " with the commentator saying " not enough in it for me to call penalty " but the same VAR calls the Dier tackle a penalty . So as say if anybody has a reason to moan about VAR its us . But we all have to stop wihinging about VAR because like it or not its here to stay and we all must take the rough with the smooth .

 

[ILS]

Leicester are finished. They have to come to our place, Arsenal (who are on form) and Bournemouth (who are fighting for their lives). They also have United at home. That's four losses.

After watching Bournemouth today...fighting for their lives wouldn't be the terminology I would be using. They are all over the shop.

 

[ILS]

By that logic, Villa should have the best defence in the league seeing as they leave 5 at the back when they attack, or at least a better defensive record than both us and Chelsea...not sure it works like that. The defence isn't just about the back four it's about how the whole team defend as a unit, If Chelsea set up more offensively that means they are leaving gaps at the back for other teams to exploit hence probably the reason why they've conceded a lot of goals.

Currently Spurs do have a better defence than Chelsea, the stats don't like, although Chelsea have played one more match than us, the only way to work it out if you're comparing the two teams is to wait until the end of the season.

Completely agree with you. It is about how he team sets up defensively. If you read my original point last week I was talking about the ability of specific individuals.

Post from last week....

Nothing better then when you overrate your own team players. I generally cannot see how you can rate Sanchez better then Christansen because he cost more? Sanchez can be a very good defender but I want to see consistency and a serious improvement with the ball at his feet before we can start bigging him up. Dier is not as good as defender as Rudiger. Can he be yes.. if he nails down the position but there is a way go yet.

As for the other two they are only getting worse. I would not be against Selling Toby this transfer window now we have him on a three year contract and we will get more money.


Where during that quote have I said Chelsea are better defensively then us.

 

[dirtyh]

After watching Bournemouth today...fighting for their lives wouldn't be the terminology I would be using. They are all over the shop.

And the shop in question went out of business years ago, is derelict and stinks of piss

 

[WiganSpur]

Just done a quick prediction for a bit of fun. Best we can do is 66 points.

By my prediction I have Chelsea in 3rd on 71, United 4th on 70, Leicester 67, Wolves 66 and Spurs 61.

If this is going to happen some of our competitors need to drop points to some terrible teams and fast. Going by this, and looking at our fixtures, our best chance will come from both Leicester and Wolves slipping up in 'easy' matches.

Unexpected results, just what we needed.

I'm now going for United on 70, Chelsea 68, Wolves 66, Leicester 64, Spurs 61.

 

[rossdapep]

Well, I believe we have the best coach in the world for these kind of scenarios. He will strategise the hell out of our run and he will start the mind games against the others.

 

[arunspurs]

Most important fixtures for other teams, are in later half of this run in. So, Next 3 games in 6 days will define our mini-season. If...If...If we win all 3, then we will be making it extremely uncomfortable for few teams above us. Saying 3 out of 3 is easy

Its hard to do - after all, we have not been having those winning runs for atleast 1.5 years now.
Fuck the style - dont care about it, I hope we can go on a mini-run and cause chaos in the table.

 

[H-SF]

Win 6/7 of our remaining games and we’ll do it

 

[WiganSpur]

Fucking hell, Leicester playing Man Utd and Chelsea playing Wolves on the last day of the season.

We really need United to win that since I can't see us coming close to catching them anyway.

 

[spud]

what I find annoying is Moyes going on about VAR he talks as if it cost them the match against us when the reality is we have as much reason to moan about VAR for the Son goal that was disallowed also it was not one nil to us we won by two goals and the probability is that even if our first goal against West Ham was disallowed we still scored another goal . Also I felt in that game the second half we were completely in control and if required could have gone up a gear . Getting back to VAR I have seen since the United game at least three similar tackles to the Dier tackle that have been called " no penalty " with the commentator saying " not enough in it for me to call penalty " but the same VAR calls the Dier tackle a penalty . So as say if anybody has a reason to moan about VAR its us . But we all have to stop wihinging about VAR because like it or not its here to stay and we all must take the rough with the smooth .

That's because - apart from the ridiculous 'draw the lines on the pitch and decide by a millimetre' offside decisions - VAR is being used as a mechanism to affirm the ref's decision; and only a horrendous ('clear and obvious') error by the ref will ever be overturned. So if the ref decides that an innocuous charge is a penalty, the VAR will agree. If he decides that it isn't, the VAR will agree. Unfortunately Jon Moss wanted to give Manu a penalty.

 

[SUIYHA]

Well, I believe we have the best coach in the world for these kind of scenarios. He will strategise the hell out of our run and he will start the mind games against the others.

This got me thinking - has Mourinho EVER come out on top in a "squeaky bum time" race for anything? Yes he's won plenty of titles but unless I've forgotten some, these have all been when his team has built up a big lead early in the season - has there ever been a time when he was in a race for the title, Champions League qualification or anything like that where it went down to the wire and he came out on top? I remember Chelsea bottling the title in 2007 and 2014 when they got into pole position in the latter stages of the season, and he bottled the race for the top four with Man Utd in 2017 (but got CL by winning the Europa). I certainly can't remember him overhauling a deficit in the final few months of the season...

 

[Shadydan]

This got me thinking - has Mourinho EVER come out on top in a "squeaky bum time" race for anything? Yes he's won plenty of titles but unless I've forgotten some, these have all been when his team has built up a big lead early in the season - has there ever been a time when he was in a race for the title, Champions League qualification or anything like that where it went down to the wire and he came out on top? I remember Chelsea bottling the title in 2007 and 2014 when they got into pole position in the latter stages of the season, and he bottled the race for the top four with Man Utd in 2017 (but got CL by winning the Europa). I certainly can't remember him overhauling a deficit in the final few months of the season...

Wouldn't say Utd bottled top 4, they just prioritised the EL

 

[SUIYHA]

Wouldn't say Utd bottled top 4, they just prioritised the EL

Easy to say with hindsight after they have won the trophy. Think they were only about a point off 4th with a month to go but then dropped points in practically all of their remaining games - including against rivals in the race for the CL spot.

 

[Shadydan]

Easy to say with hindsight after they have won the trophy. Think they were only about a point off 4th with a month to go but then dropped points in practically all of their remaining games - including against rivals in the race for the CL spot.

Yeah so they didn't bottle it, you cannot bottle something you don't have an interest in obtaining. They rested players for the league matches to focus on the EL, now if they didn't win the EL then they would have bottled that.

 

[Stamford]

Leicester are finished. They have to come to our place, Arsenal (who are on form) and Bournemouth (who are fighting for their lives). They also have United at home. That's four losses.

Sorry this was a 2016 joke