Past results where we've underperformed... Watford 3-1 United United 1 - 1 Stoke United 0 -0 Burnley United 1-1 West Ham Everton 1-1 United Stoke 1 - 1 United United 0-0 Hull United 1-1 Bournemouth Results against the current top 5 clubs.... United 1-2 City Livpl 0-0 United Chelsea 4-0 United United 1-1 Arsenal United 1-0 Spurs United 1-1 Livpl SO bearing that in mind, what are realistic expectations in our remaining PL fixtures.... Middlesborough away West Brom home Everton home Sunderland away Chelsea home Burnley away Swansea home Arsenal away Spurs away Crystal Palace home Man City away Southampton away
Arsenal, Spurs and City all away at the end fo the season looks extremely daunting. We really should go all out for Europa league. Which itself adds to the problems in the league. Losing to Chelsea in the FA cup might not be a bad thing, sad as it is to say.
It is so difficult to predict because intertwined with form are the other factors such as fixture congestion etc. Conservatively, I can see us picking up 18 or so points from those games.
Middlesborough away - Draw West Brom home - Win Everton home - Win Sunderland away - Win Chelsea home - Draw Burnley away - Draw Swansea home - Win Arsenal away - Draw Spurs away - Lose Crystal Palace home - Win Man City away - Lose Southampton away - Draw Total of 20 points from our last 12 games imo. We will need to turn at least two of the predicted draws, ideally three, into wins if we are to have a chance of top 4. Boro and Burnley are good opportunities, but the Arsenal game could be massive if we are to pip them to fourth spot, with Chelsea, City and Spurs likely to get top three.
Palace is the last game so it will also depend on when we play City. That date hasn't been confirmed yet. I see no real reason why Burnley, Boro and Southampton couldn't be wins instead of draws and also we could easily not lose to both City and Spurs. Not winning today was criminal though and has hit us hard.
Just win the Europa league and it's job done. Teams left in that apart from Roma are average to say the least.
Watford 3-1 United United 1 - 1 Stoke United 0 -0 Burnley United 1-1 West Ham Everton 1-1 United Stoke 1 - 1 United United 0-0 Hull United 1-1 Bournemouth How many of those were average to say the least, fella? It really is a disservice to show this much disrespect to some of the other teams in the Europy especially when we can't even get past this lot in our own league. I really don't understand where this sort of hubris comes from.
It's a different competition though, we're not playing English teams fighting for their lives against relegation or for top four. What ever way you look at it, it isn't the same and so far we've looked fairly comfortable in Europe. Not that I'm as dismissive of the teams left in as he is. It won't be a piece of cake by any means. It WILL be more straightforward than having to beat the likes of Chelsea, Spurs and City in the league though.
Much as it will be nice to win a couple of cups I think the midweek games will ultimately trip us up chasing fourth. I think Arsenal aren't getting 4th this year, it's between us and Liverpool, but they're more or less out of Europe now so have that advantage over us. I think they're ****ed for fourth though, they're not good enough and the Wenger situation isn't helping. Liverpool have **** all bar the league left. Not checked their fixtures but hopefully they have as many tough ones as us left. We're in a crazy stick or twist situation as persuing Europa league heaps a **** load more games on us and will lead to major congestion trying to squeeze the City and Saints games in. It's all massively in Liverpool's favour. Rewarded for being ****e in effect.
Difference is that any of those games could have been recovered in a second leg. Easier to win a two legged cup as you can always recover from a poor performance in the first leg. It won't be a pushover, but given our current form and the fact we are drawing so many we are probably better positioned to win the EL than guarantee fourth spot. Although the Liverpool result is a big plus imo, as unlike Chief I think Liverpool are the ones who will be most likely to fall short in the CL race. I reckon it's us or Arsenal for 4th spot, and with them being out of the CL they have the edge, so the game against them could be crucial.
Yep, that is why I was rooting for the scousers to hang on for the win today. We can catch them with some ease but Arsenal will be a bit harder.
Not necessarily which is where I disagree with you and Chief. The reason we're drawing games is because we're struggling to score enough goals, which is an inherent problem in our game that won't change over 2 legs any more than 1. I agree we are probably better positioned to win the EL but could so easily be knocked out, but that's the nature of cup comps and it can go either way so easily. We can still get Top 4 but it could be anyone the way we're all (United, Arsenal, Liverpool) are playing and the inconsistencies all are showing. The trouble for us is we've not actually found ourselves in the top 4 yet. I'd be interested to see IF we managed to leap frog both Liverpool and Arsenal into 4th how important that would be for us mentally for the rest of the season.
It seems we have a psychological block about 4th. Once we are near we seem to ****ing mess up. We have 2 possible ways into the CL. For me, the league is still the way to do it. The Europa is really unpredictable like most cup competitions. Anything can happen but United have shown themselves this season to be better in Cups than in the league where draws **** you up. In Cups a draw can still be retrieved either at home or even away. Fingers crossed. We never should have drawn against Bournemouth especially playing against ten men. ****ing waste of points. And Zlatan will now be suspended. But according to stats (these ****ing liars !!) we got more points without him than with. Once weve dropped 2 points, the best outcome was for the 4th placed team to lose. In a way, we maintain that striking distance, that we've had for the last 10 weeks. The RS don't have anymore gullible top 6 teams to play. Only the bottom teams who **** them up with their mass defending One thing is now certain: not only do we need to win our matches against the non top 6 sides, we have to BEAT our rivals or we can forget about CL via top 4.