Lets break this down

While I agree with some that Ashley does not sell players as soon as there is a bid but all of the exits seem to have been rejecting the offer but also letting them know what they will need to pay to get whoever. That just goes down to how much the other club is willing to pay instead of trying to keep players. I think this is what happened with Carroll and it may happen again. I don't disagree with selling Carroll but it could be Coloccini or Tiote next...

 

Don't get the negativity.

The revolution is here, the sleeping giant has awoken and we're back where we should be. We've all known we've underachieved for years, now we're not. Liverpool aren't all that & dodgey at the back, didn't see much from Spurs when we played them, we should have beat them & now Harry's got a dodgey ticker. Stoke will struggle with the extra games from the Europa, same for Fulham (both played nearly 20 games already).

Pardew has our lads playing well, got the defence drilled to ****, they know their job & each others. We have one of the best central midfield partnership in the league, don't see why we can't push on from a good start and challenge for Europe.

 

Everton without doubt will be challenging for 6th/7th position this year. Moyes is a very astute manager and even though they don't have a massive depth of players to call upon and their strikers seem to be made of balsa wood; they have players that compete and can collect points.

Villa is a conundrum but history shows they will be in top 10 and therefore we should expect a challenge from them for a higher league position.

Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs will be high up the table. There is no denying this.

Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Livepool should make up the top 6 come the end of the season and the likes of us, Everton, Villa and Sunderland/Stoke will be battling it out for the 7th spot place.

We are currently the best placed to date to claim that but we'll see how we do after we play the next 5 matches. If we are still in a top 6 position with a positive GD then I'll be over the moon.

 

Watching the Chelsea-Arsenal game it was clear they're miles ahead of us in talent. But they're terrible defensively, both have awful discipline and organisation and they're not as resilient as us. If they keep pissing points away and we keep on doing what we're doing we could get fifth or sixth handed to us.

I think we need to spend a bit in January to hang on to the top six though (that's if we're still there abouts when the window opens), we really need a left back and another attacking threat.

 

Pieters (LB) and Maiga (ST) it would seem if the press are right that we've secured 3 targets already. Still wonder who 3rd will be? Perhaps Ridgewell as CB?

 

Hopefully Pieters, not keen on Maiga though, don't like his attitude and he's no better than/offers nothing different to what we have.

 

We will have a much clearer picture after the 5 games mentioned. We will have played 15 games including all the top teams apart from liverpool, and if we pick up another 5-6 points from these matches we should still be in a very high league position.

January could present a problem depending on injuries/suspensions combined with losing Tiote and Ba to the ACoN. All the games in this period are winnable and far more important than the Man City/Man Utd/Chelsea games.

I think the top 6 will be the usual suspects, with Everton favourites for 7th. Stoke seem to really struggle after European games and Villa, Fulham and Sunderland have been very hit and miss so far this season, so as long as the team keeps working hard and playing some decent football I am sure that we will be in the mix for a top 8 finish.

 

I'd be confident of 6/7th place even with injuries,suspensions,ACON but my main worry would be bids in Jan and don't forget we have Marveaux,Ben Arfa,Abeid,Santon,Gosling and Williamson to come in at some time and who knows those players could shine when they get a chance and then we would have a very strong squad all competing for places.We are a bit light up front but come Jan 1 or 2 will come in and we will be fine.

 

We can get at Chelsea like, definitely. Everton will be a tough game this weekend but I can see us getting something from the Chelsea game like. They look all over the shop at the back. As long as we keep Playing the way we have been I think we can match the majority of teams at SJP.

 

Same.

Or maybe scrape a draw at Man U OR Chelsea, would be very happy with that. 7 points would be excellent from these, but I think our squad is capable.

 

I tend not to worry about this to be honest, eventually everyone's a selling club at the right price, even Ronaldo could be bought from Man Utd. We're in a decent position to turn down naff bids, but I've faith in the club to reinvest the silly fee we'd receive. The better we get the less likely we'll get an Enrique actually pushing for a move.