After the 23 game of the premier league season (all bar one game complete) we have explioted the teams above us slipping up unlike last week. The following stick out in my mind. We are now 6 points from the magic 40 points and premiership safety. We are only 3 points off 5th place in the table, though everton have the game in hand. We are 5 points above 10th which is further than we've been all year. Spurs are now 7 points away, and of course so is 4th place. i'm not going to put a poll after the flurry of superfluous polls over the past week. I have expressed a view that place is won by approx 70 points every year and we need championship winning form to get there i nthe games remaining so i think its kighly unlikely. Despite us picking up points now the next two games are hard. I also expressed a veiw that out of the present group of 4 games(utd,nrowich, arsenal and city) we would do well to get 6 points. We have 3 so we're on track especially looking at arsneal as a winnable game if we play well enough. Nothings changed in my opinion despite the good win, I think we are on for the europa but what about you guys? Do you think we are in any different a situation now than before last weekend?
edit... oh and i forgot to add ouf GD looks far better and we are on the same tallys for goals and conceeded as spurs!
We still have Spurs, Chelsea and Everton all to play at home - 2 of them are must wins, personally I'd be happy with a top 6 finish, the league is the most competitive it's ever been. We're improving with every passing week, we now look like a good team and if we can grab a win at either Arsenal or City it'll stand us in good stead. We definitely need to get the 'haven't beat a top 10 team' monkey of our back. Hopefully that'll come in the next couple of games. For now, enjoy the ride
For me, the old adage applies - take it game by game. We should be aiming at 4th (it's the only SMART target we can set) and see how we go from there. Let's see how we go in the FA Cup before setting targets for that and let the Europa ties take care of themselves.
I never give up on anything until it's mathematically impossible, but realistically I don't see us making fourth. I'd be happy if we show more consistency from now on and win the games we dominate. As you say, the GD is looking much better and though it's early days, Sturridge does seem to be the type of goal poacher we've missed. Sixth will do for me given the starting point we've had, strengthen in the summer and at least be in the mix for top four next season.
I think we might compete for 5th.... have not even thought about the cups. theres a lot of luck involved in all cups due to the draws. I fully expect us to go to round 5 and after that its all down to the draw isn't it? Europa is a buster flush really hard to win not much point in winning cos the prize moeny is not there.
MITO, you have to look at the Europa in a different way. OK so the prize money isn't anywhere near as good as CL. But it does have a standing in Europe and winning it will help attract talent presently playing there. Also it gets coverage in the US which by association may help keep raising our profile and loosen FSC's purse-strings!
Does no harm winning the EL. Look at Athketico... Not doing to badly this year after winning it. Helped them to attract some talent.
I don't think we should give up until it is mathematically impossible and I agree that our minimum aim is top four. We have to take each game as it comes However, I am 100% with MITO on this too We've gained 34 points in 23 games (1.48 points per game), to get CL football you need to be aiming for 70 points. That means we need 36 points from 15 games (2.4ppg). If we got 2.4ppg for an entire season, it would give us 91 points, hence championship form. To add to that, we have to play Arsenal (A), Man City (A), Tottenham (H), Chelsea (H) and Everton (H) in five of those fifteen games and, in all likeliness, we won't win all ten of the other games either!
Stranger things have happened! That's the beauty of football, most things are possible. Under King Kenny in his first season back we went on a similar run of form, and we need it if we're assuming the 70 point mark will get us a CL spot. It's all about momentum, and slowly but surely it's building. If we can get some positive results against City and Arsenal we stand as good a chance as anyone. Also, if you look at our squad there are plenty of players with CL experience, including a fair few who were in our squad when we regularly qualified. And the possibility of adding to our squad in the coming week could be key. Really, considering our start to the season it's nice to be even talking about this. If we can convert some of them 'should of won' games in to wins, I'll be quietly optimistic.
IMO, that is the key. If we can somehow get points from both games with at least one win then I may change my opinion slightly You're absolutely right but I'd say little faith rather than none. This is simply because we are yet to beat a top half team yet people think there is a chance we can go on a championship run of form gathering 2.4ppg when we have to play Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Everton within our last fifteen games!
this is a decent point on the europa. i think you have to go far in it for it to really count for much though. it does help with our quoteint though you are right on that one. What i mean by not wrth winning is there is not the same threshold between being in it andwinning it as per the CL. if you get into the CL its 20mil or so no matter what. in the eruopa if we win it we will get 7mil total. and prize money fomr the tv pool only kicks in properly after the next round, i nthe cl its group stage..... cl winners can take 35mil... a club dropping from the cl into the europa can win it and claim neary 30mil as tehy get a slice of the tv money from the europa! bascially we play in the cup group stages and some other team who crapped out in the cl benefits. I think sure if you win it you get some kudos btu thats like hodgson going to the final and getting the lfc job.. i guess if winning it retains all our playing staff (that we want) for next year that'd be good)
I think we're clicking better mate and expect us to have a better 2nd half to the season, starting with Arsenal away in the league What does your signature mean by the way? You said that after KK said it?
re gerrez and magic. 1. Gerrez posted my calculation precisely. I like to break it into gorups of 4 games. so its nice and easy to udnerstand. 2.4 points per game is like 9/6 points out of 12 or 10 points out of 12... that means either 4th is taken by much fewer points or we win 3 and draw 1 for all of the remainder of the season. this si why i said before chrsitmas that 6 point sout of 12 was the best i saw us coming out of utd, norwich, arsenal and city... If we beat arsenal i think we will have 6. Can't see us doing over city yet. 2. magic is right as stranger things have indeed happened. If we were talking about team no 1 and no 2 in the league then i would be saying that if you are with 6 points with 10 games to go its on... right now we are 7 off with 15 to go... but thats off 4th. that suggest our season has already been very inconsistent doesn't it? now what's changed? tactics? formation? a new strike partnership? gerrard getting fitter? lucas and henderson doing his running? Perhaps all of these. Sure if we ignore winnig the next two and instead make it we'll match spurs next two results somehow and come out 7 points way with 13 to go you have to start thinking a wee push might just come off. however while spurs have 2 away days its norwich and west brom and no matter what west brom have been doing i think we can still be thinking 4 or 6 points out of 6... thus we come upon the nub of the issue. Its more likely we will fall too far behind by the time our easier fixtures arrive. west brom H Swansea H Wigan A Tottenham H this will be a nice set of 4 games to look at. We owe all 4 a good thrashing IMO. I'd predict 7 points here. Southampton (a) villa (a) west ham (H) Reading (a) Very winnable games but 3 are away. I could see 9points here with one game sapre that we could pick up more. Chelsea H Newcastle A Everton H Fulham a Again where do we see the 9 pounts of f these games.. everton will be a cup tie, newcastle are so far in the mire now its a relegation fight but we owe them form last year... big time... and fulham won't be bothered last day. then rafa comes to anfield.. that'll be interesting I think 7 out of 12 here. 7+7+9 = 23 add 34 and we get to 57 points. so this means the city and arsenal games take on extra meaning. we've got to beat two top 4 clubs just to get to 63points... then pick up even more points than predicted say those 7's become nines.. that'll push us to 67 points. but you know... its down to those clubs above us Chelsea 23 45 Tottenham 23 41 Everton 22 37 Arsenal 22 34 Liverpool 23 34 i think chelsea have too much about them even if RA goes mad again. I can't see them not being 3rd or even better if they improve a bit. that leaves 4th and spurs, and everton and even arsenal... Spurs did implode last year. one injury to defoe and they could be in serious trouble. on the other hand there's everton who've been reasonably consistent but conceeding a few more than i thought they would. They could be on 40 points by tomorrow....
