Let's just pause a moment. Get a battling win at Burnley. A solid home win to Everton and then go to Palace on Boxing Day for a very winnable (but tough - they all are) game..... oh hang on that's 9 points.... how rosy will the garden be then as we push on to the Chelsea game.
I really believe we are one of the best sides in the league if we avoid injuries. Based on ability alone we are top 4. However, we have to accept that we are still toddlers as far as the PL is concerned...it is a long season. It is essential (though difficult) to beat all the lower sides (and by that I mean about two-thirds of the League)...throw in some points against some higher sides and we will have had a great season. After the start we have had, it will be disappointing not to finish top 6.
I counted 3 times we had a player totally unmarked in the area but could not find the final pass, pretty sure they will be working on the final pass and finishing as the other 80% is pretty much in place
We're one of the best teams in the league on our day, I'll give you that. But there's a considerable class gap between us and Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City. Do we really have any players who are in the class of Van Persie, Aguero, Alexis Sanchez or Fabrigas? Maybe Pelle and Tadic (and maybe Clyne and Bertrand)can prove to be on the fringes that class, but those four clubs all have half a dozen world class players, whereas we might have one or two capable of making the step up. And sadly, Spurs and Liverpool also have more individual quality throughout their squads than us, but they aren't currently showing that on the pitch because those two clubs haven't turned their individuals into teams yet. Based on individual ability, even of our best 11, no, we're still a long way off top 4. But football's a team game and we have a great team spirit, which is why I think we can win a cup, and also why I think that's our best chance of European football next season.
Yes, we have a long way to go before we can truly compete at the top end of the Prem, and when you look at the recent lack of English winners of the Champions League, the gap between us and the Real Madrid's and Bayern Munich's is just too vast to get your head around. The thing is though, we are a growing business, as the stat the other day showed, and we could get there one day. If we can continue to fill the stadium by playing attractive football and staying in the top 6 or better, we could justify the expansion of the stadium in a phased process. That would eventually give us the income stream to increase our wage bill and accommodate more world class players, including hanging on to the next equivalents of Gareth Bale and Luke Shaw. It's a long drawn out process, but we're moving in the right direction. And yes, winning a cup is exactly what we need to do to kickstart the process.
