Whisper it quietly. AT the beginning of the season, I thought that City, Utd and Chelsea would be challenging for the EPL's top 3 positions, with Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool challenging for 4th - 6th. Now?? I believe that City will win the league - yes, even this early on - but 2nd, 3rd and 4th are definitely up for grabs for the remaining 5 teams. Utd are not what they were and while you can never, ever discount them, I just think that they are as frail as i've seen them in recent years. Having said that, they are still second, having had a horrendous injury list and I wonder what many of the teams below them would give for that type of 'frailty'!! Chelsea are a team in transition; AVB is changing the way they play and that takes time and personnel change, they're still strong but are no longer a given for top 4. Whatever happens, I do hope that Roman gives this young manager time.... Spurs have responded amazingly to their early season drubbings at the hands of the Manchester teams.....Scott Parker has been a revelation for them and they have picked up the habit of winning games when they, perhaps, haven't deserved it.....I guess the only question remaining is; can they keep it up? Who knows! Liverpool have been a little bit of an enigma; with the exception of two games (Spurs & Swansea) should have won their games handsomely given the chances created.....but have failed to put the ball into the back of the net when required....and this has cost them dearly....having said this, if they do begin to finish their chances efficiently, expect them to move up the table stealthily....if they don't, it will be 5th - 7th for the redmen I'm afraid. Arsenal have gone about their recovery professionally and the new (not so young this year) recruits are starting to click. Vermaelen's return has been a big boost but they are still over reliant on one man scoring machine Van Persie......He's usually quite fragile so I'm guessing that every gooner in the land is keeping their fingers crossed that he stays fit....if he does, there is no question that they'll be there and there about. So any of Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs for 2nd, 3rd and 4th. No joke! Newcastle? More likely to Challenge for 5/6/7th imo. Just being realistic, sorry, but there's no fairy-tale here for me! Even then, you'd have to don your hat to Pardew; I'd guess that the FA will adding his name to their list of possible England managers other than Harry Redknap.....who they do not want in the job at all if they can help it. Other variables: 1) CL football: I watched as City visibly tired in the final 30 minutes of yesterdays game......they may be 2 deep with quality in every position but it doesn't help them when they're knackered.......all CL teams will suffer in similar ways.....expect Liverpool and Spurs, the latter don't seem to be taking the Europa league too seriously just yet, to gain ground during the final third of the season? 2) African Nations Cup: I'm unsure who will be affected by this, Chelsea, Arsenal, City & Spurs perhaps.......comments here welcome. 3) Injuries: Every team will suffer from them, it will be more critical to some clubs; imagine Liverpool without Suarez, Arsenal without Van Persie for example......nothing new here. Having said all of the this, what do I predict? I think that CL football (and possibly Africa Nations) will hurt both Arsenal and Chelsea more than most and I think that Liverpool and Spurs are well positioned to profit from it......but both will have to take their chances when they come.....If City are weakened by the Africa Nations Cup, It may get very interesting indeed....but I still think they'll win it!
There is always a chance - whilst the results have not gone our way, the performances have suggested that we deserve to be higher and should be pushing for 4th if not higher. However, we need to start getting the results and we need to go on a good run to build momentum.
Chelsea fans use the excuse that they are in a 'transition' too freely. They lost to QPR, Arsenal and us. QPR have a completely new squad and are playing in a different league to last season so you can say they are in a transition, Arsenal seem a different outfit from the start of the season and could be considered in a transition. Then there is us, we are still gelling and this was still visible after poor draws at home vs Norwich and Swansea so you can say we are in transition. So that cancels out Chelsea's excuse that they are in transition in all those games. Utd...we have all been saying they are not that great since the start of last season and somehow they just get the job done. Sickening. Spurs have made me eat my words from the start of the season, I think I fear them the most as potential rivals go. I pretty much agree with all of what you said though. African Nations will probably affect Arsenal and Chelsea quite a bit. Newcastle will certainly miss Tiote and Ba. 4th is still a big ask in the current condition of the top 6/7 teams, we are in a better position for it now than last season at least.
Spurs fan in peace. Good article, I disagree slightly with your comments on us mind, the only win which I think may have been undeserving was against Fulham. I hear a lot of people saying we were fortunate Saturday but we had 23 attempts at goal with 10 corners to West Broms 1. We are playing some great football and i honestly believe this is the best Spurs side in generations. I think we will finish no higher than 3rd but if we keep playing like this who knows!
Please do not forget, Manchester United are always good during the second half of the season, also that Manchester City have not got the experience of Chelsea or Arsenal.After Christmas things are going to become more clearer.Is the bubble going to bust for City.?
i think the following city to win the league by <3 points utd to finish 2nd. chelsea to stroll 3rd. An almighty pile up between spurs, arsenal and liverpool for 4th-6th. I still believe that 4th is the ebst we can do.
Top 4 this year City, United, Chelsea, Spurs. Sad but true. Chelsea will recover, they always do, if not they'll just buy a new team in January. Arsenal will splutter come the new year and with persie inevitably injured will lack a real match winner. Spurs will continue to play well and will win games that we usually draw. We will have a good run of results but will then squander it by no doubt drawing to teams like Wigan and Wolves. That's the way I see it unless we sign a clinical striker come January. Feel free to bookmark!
I think it all depends if we can start scoring more goals, If we can before christmas then i'd say 2-4 is possible if not then 5-7 is an inevitability. I would like to see a striker or winger signed in Jan to take that extra step up, but if not then carroll/bellamy and Suarez all need work on there goal scoring if we are to have any hope of getting into the CL. To me becoming an established CL side again is extreamly important, as i believe that when the fair play rules come in we will see the top 4 break away from the pack again and we dont want to be left behind.
I think you can get third but little or no chance at second. United have been average and had a bad injury list and are still 2nd. Plus they always come good second half. Manchester will be top 2. Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs to battle for the next 4 places. With
Spurs' African contingent is Assou-Ekotto, Bassong, Pienaar and Adebayor, with Khumalo out on loan at Reading. Cameroon, South Africa and Togo all failed to qualify for the ANC this year.
I didn't know that. Fantastic news! How did Cameroon not qualify? BAE has been quality this season so far.
Because they had two managers in about a year and made some terrible team selections, from what I could see. I think Assou-Ekotto was even left out of the squad for their last qualification games, bizarrely.
Hasn't Adebayor retired from International football anhway? Quite shocked those teams have failed though.
He did, but he's recently announced that he's rejoining the national side. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15745699.stm South Africa's exit was quite controversial. They thought that they'd gone through, but the qualification was decided on head-to-head rather than goal difference or something. They weren't happy.
Quite lucky for you then, you will benefit from them not going away in Jan. What about Moderic? Do you guys feel that he will stay at Spurs in Jan considering Harry and Levy did a good job of it over the summer? Not to mention your current form also.
Can't see Modric being allowed to leave in January. There's talk of him agreeing to a new deal, but it supposedly depends upon him being given guarantees that Redknapp will definitely still be the manager. He missed the win over WBA because of a virus, but he's been playing very well since the transfer window closed. If he keeps it up, then we'll have to deal with more clubs trying to get to him in the summer.
I think it's a fairy tale that we're even thinking about Newcastle for 6th really. I'm a Newcastle fan, and I've got my heart set on 7th really. I know winning matches is the important thing, but in terms of quality, we really lack squad depth compared to the other 6 teams in the top 7. We've got a great starting 11 but apart from that we lack depth in critical areas.
