As The RDBD points out in another thread, we're halfway through the season now (gone quick!). I think now is a decent time to start making predictions for the second half... Tottenham's final position - 7th (reasons later). Premiership Winner - Man City for me - their squad depth is insane and their first XI tramples all over everyone else pretty much. Champions League spots (in order) - Chelsea to finish 2nd, Arsenal 3rd and Liverpool 4th (if Suarez stays fit), otherwise Everton. Arsenal will continue to do well against the "lower" teams, but they continue to struggle against the top sides (lost to Man City and Man Utd, dropped points to Chelsea and Everton). Chelsea are playing poor, by their standards, but they're just 'there' all the time. Liverpool rely heavily on Suarez - if he's not fit then I think the well rounded Everton will get 4th. Positions 5-7 (in order) - Liverpool/Everton (based on the above), Man Utd, Tottenham. Man Utd will be close to the top 4 but I think they'll fall just short, more because the teams above them are stronger than Man Utd being poor. Us? We know all about our gelling issues but again, I think we'll be close - hopefully it will be a wake up call for the club to maintain some stability into next season. Relegated teams - West Ham, Sunderland, Fulham - I was going to say Palace but Pulis seems to be resurrecting their season. The other 3 are all playing awful so it wasn't too difficult for me to pick them. What's your predictions?
Your predictions are based on a presumption that the first half of the season will be repeated in the second - not necessarily so. Utd had 35 points from 20 games in 2002/3 and won the league after Arsenal imploded. I'm not suggesting that will be repeated, but there will many twists and turns. Tottenham's final position 5th. You can finish above the defensively weak Liverpool and Everton whose squad will be found out. Premiership Winner Yes, City are the best and should win it. Aguerooooooooooooooooooooo CL spots 2. Chelsea 3. Arsenal 4. Utd - I can't see Utd's fightback having enough to overtake the top 3, but 2 & 3 points behind the Scousers is no big deal. Positions 5-7 5. Spurs 6. Liverpool 7. Everton - guesswork. Relegated Teams 18. Palace 19. Sunderland 20. Fulham - none of these have enough to a) score goals b) defend consistently well. Cardiff might just escape.
The Jan 1 stats say ... 1. The winner is most likely to be one of the Goons/Chelsky/Citeh (winner is highly likely to come from the top 3 as of now) . 2. All of those in 1 are near certain to be in the top 4 (top 3 as of now finish in the top 4 come the end) . Which leaves 4th place ... 3. The team in 4th now, often is not in the top 4 by the end. So with this in mind, I reckon Man Utd have sufficient "muscle memory" to go thru the motions and get 4th place.
Tottenham's final position - 4th. Premiership Winner - Man City - their forwards are the strongest in the league and will keep them ahead of Chelsea Champions League spots (in order) - Chelsea to finish 2nd, Arsenal 3rd and us 4th. Top 3 are clear now and just a case of whether Arsenal can keep ahead of Chelsea. Arsenal look a better team, but Chelsea's squad should see them second. The final place is up for grabs. A lot depends on the Jan window, but as things stand our squad in stronger than Liverpool, Utd or Everton and I think we could have a storming second half of the season. If Utd buy Reus then...... Positions 5-7 (in order) - Liverpool, Man Utd, Everton. Nothing between these teams and they could finish in any order Relegated teams Cardiff, Fulham, West Ham.
As usual, Arsenal's record v top sides is poor - 5 points v 5 games against top six. And they still have City (H), Chelsea (A), Liverpool (A), Everton (A), Utd (H)- not to mention Spurs and Soton away to play. Always their undoing - will be again.
Man City for the league. As to Spurs... the fandom of my wife and I is due for a bit of good luck. Let me explain: We follow Spurs fanatically, and the NFL's Steelers (me) and Cowboys (her, the Texan) enough to care a bit. Spurs ability to miss a CL spot at and past the last game the last couple of years we know. The Steelers and the Cowboys both barely missed the playoffs last year. Yesterday the following happened. The Steelers needed to win their game and have three other teams lose to make the playoffs and have a shot at the championship. Three of these games took place at 1 o'clock, and one at four. "Sods' luck is that all three of the early games will go well, and in the last game, the right result will seem all but certain, but there will be some kind of miraculous finish, or amazing **** up, that will cost the Steelers the playoffs." Of course it turned out exactly like that. The Cowboys, needing to score on their last drive, failed of course. No luck this brutal can continue indefinitely, so I think Spurs will either get a CL spot or win a cup... ...alright, alright, maybe not this year. Relegation: Fulham, Sunderland, Palace--which I'm picking because I hope none of them go down, and West Ham does. Palace for their fans, because I could hear them singing "Is this a library?" clear as a bell at Stamford Bridge.
RWAEB, didn't 5 coaches get sacked in the NFL yesterday? I'm sure i read that one club had a massive problem with a certain player, as well as an MRSA outbreak in the dressing room, yet the coach still lost his job! Unbelievable! No offence, but Am.Football is like a pantomime! Soon it'll be staged like the wrestling! Anyhoo, back to the predictions... City for the league. Chelsea, arsenal, Liverpool. 2nd 3rd 4th respectively. Everton spurs and united battling it out for 5th. - I have no idea what order. For me, it's all going to come down to what business the clubs do in January.
Unfortunately Luke, ours is worse. If you take the current top 9 sides (8 games we've played as we can't play ourselves obviously) , we have picked up 6 points out of 24!
Citeh should win it based on quality of football and depth of squad but they drop too many points away from home. I fear that the Chavs might just have enough to scrape across the line. They've been winning playing ugly and they have much room for improvement. Man U have RVP to return and although I don't think that they have enough to close the gap on the favourites, the lack of squad depth means that both the goons and mousers are catchable. I thik fourth will be between the goons and the mousers unless Everton or us go on a really good run. On top of the above I think Steve Bruce is doing a fantastic job at Hull, they beat the mousers, were unlucky to lose to Man U and gave us a good couple of games. So I'll go for this: Chavs £iteh Manure Goons Red Mousers Spurs Everton Hull EDIT: Forgot to state the relegation candidates, Fulham, look doomed, new owner without much of a clue. Wet Spam look like they got another yoyo for Christmas. Cardiff look rudderless and being run by an oriental Dick Dasterdly who knows very little about football or man management.
Man City Chelsea Man Utd Liverpool Arsenal Everton Tottenham Newcastle Southampton That's my prediction for top 9 as the league is now top 9 then the rest. Although I believe 3-7 will be extremely close and you could switch a few teams around. In the end Sherwood getting us top four is unlikely as other teams around us are settled whereas we're still trying to find what works best. Best game of the season. FA cup 3rd round away to Arsenal.
Premiership Winner - Man City Champions League spots (in order) - Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd Positions 5-7 (in order) - Liverpool, Everton, Spurs Relegated teams - Fulham, Cardiff, Norwich
Tottenham's final position - 4th Premiership Winner - City Champions League spots (in order) - City, Chelsea, United, Spurs Positions 5-7 (in order) - Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton Relegated teams - West Ham, Sunderland, Palace
Tottenham's final position - 4th Premiership Winner - City Champions League spots (in order) - City, Chelsea, United, Spurs Positions 5-7 (in order) - Everton, Liverpool, Arsenal Relegated teams - West Ham,Cardiff, Palace
I ended up putting a tiny bit later in the OP. "Us? We know all about our gelling issues but again, I think we'll be close - hopefully it will be a wake up call for the club to maintain some stability into next season."
Tim Sherwood to lead us into top four? There's optimism then delusion! But Spurf and YV are obviously optimistic!