Spread betting points odds show us to be fourth: Man City 85 - 86.5 Man Utd 83.5 - 85 Chelsea 80 - 81.5 Spurs 69 - 70.5 Liverpool 67 - 68.5 Arsenal 64 - 65.5 I'm surprised Chelsea are so far above us tbh but the rest seem pretty fair
Not for me, as I'm still concentrating on 4th, but if people realistically think we can get above Chelsea then I can see that. But I want Arsenal beaten, and us well clear from them after we have, hopefully, beaten QPR.
Cheers PS, I predicted before the Blackburn game that we'd be faves for fourth spot on Monday morning if we won that game. Therefore, I'm pleased that my prediction has come true it seems. Not that it matters in one way, but it is a bit annoying that clearly, to me anyway, we are currently better than Pool or Arsenal, so to have one of them 'ranked' above us seemed strange. I'm not surprised at all about Chelsea's odds, I don't get this wave of optimism that we will finish above them. They have dominated the Prem with Utd for years now, and have finished above us something like 17 seasons in a row. It'll take more than losing away to QPR with 9 men for me to change my view on that. Should Arsenal turn them over at home, now that would be different.
Yes, I'd rather Chelsea beat the Gooners, and then rely on us beating Chelsea to contend for 3rd spot. Let's make 4th ours, as a fail-safe position.
I'm not so sure about overcoming Chelski after this weekend. They were really good with 9 men and could easily have gotten a point out of that match. They played more as a team than I would have expected.
Hey! You can't start a thread called "Spurs go joint top of Prem..." and then expect us not to get a little giddy!
While I think Chelsea are still a little stronger than us, their nine games have been a lot easier than our eight. They've yet to face City, Arsenal and Liverpool. So their record so far is probably worse than ours.
Fair enough Ensil, I was taking it over 38 games, but I'm not arguing about what is a hypothetical scenario.
Fair comments PS, it's just that Chelsea have been there and done it soooooo many times, while we have never finished top 3 in the Prem, hence my caution. If I simply looked at results and personnel, I'd probably get more optimistic than I am, but I also look at track record too. We'll know so much more by this time next week. We finally get a rest and so should play more energetically, Chelsea have a real toughie..
We should go with 16 / 8 x 38 = 76. Would settle for that now. In the shake up for 3rd with that. Cue the stats that 76 points will not be enough!
Hi HD, 76 is always good enough for 4th, and I'd settle for that total and position no danger. But, there is a real point to just looking at the last 6 games, because those have been the games 'post-window'. While it's true we may have lost to City and Utd if we had Ade, Parker and a settled Luka, we may well have scraped at least a point from the two games.
I'd still love Chelsea to absolutely destroy Arsenal, at the moment. 4th is very much the position that I've got in mind and I'd like to see Arsenal's mini-revival put to bed right now.
I want Arsenal to lose to City by the biggest score ever recorded in EPL history. Not that I have anything against Gooners, you understand
I want Citeh to lose every game. Yes (shudder) this also means that they have to lose to Ars too. There's never been a level playing field, and you could argue that teams have been "bought" before, but its never been like this. This is not competition as we know it.
Damn you, every single striker of ours who kept aiming shots directly at the opposition keeper when one-on-one!!!
The way $ity have gone about splashing their cash makes even Chelsea's early buying days look ordinary. They have just thrown money in every direction possible trying to buy every player they can and Mancini is saying he is short of players? Ridiculous Obviously their fans are over the moon because they never looked like a club that were going to win anything for a long while Money can buy you success but it cannot buy you respect. I do wonder whether we would of broke the top 4 sooner if Abramovich never happened...
