It's that time of year when the teams at the top begin to wobble and the teams at the bottom wake up and smell the coffee. So, what sets Leicester and Burnley apart from the rest this season (with the exception of a resurgent Wigan of course). ? Forest, Derby and QPR were all in the automatic promotion mix not so long ago, and they all seem to have looked at the finish line and consequently loosened their bowels. It happened to us last year as well. What makes one team grow stronger, like City, or grind out the results as Burnley do, where others simply give it up as a bad job? Is it the steady nerve of their strikers, is it team spirit? I know one thing, either Forest or Reading will be giving their place up to Wigan before too long unless they pull their fingers out!
No-one does a crumble as well as we did last seasaon! Davies keeps chundering on about injuries, seems to say that he has 9 players out at the moment. QPR's age is catching up with them imo, with a squad as old as theirs, they aren't capable of 46 games plus cup matches, look at Brighton yesterday, just waited until the OAPs huffed and puffed, then scored twice against them. Derby seem shakey at the moment, but think they will still clinch a decent playoff place. I think both us and Burnley have been very lucky with injury situations, Burnley would be alot worse off if they had lost Ings or Vokes for say 6 weeks and we havn't really had too long without Vardy and Nuge as a front 2. Youngy was saying if we lost both of those, we'd still do ok, while i agree we'd be "ok" i personally think we would drop points, nothing against Wood, Phillips or GTF, but you can tell that defences would prefer to play against these 3 than getting constantly hassled by Vardys pace and Nuges constant workrate.
QPR had 21 shots last night with 8 on target Thats nearly triple the amount Brighton managed and yet it ended 2-0 to Brighton I think Harry need to buy some more strikers
A settled group of players with minimal team changes ... we seem to have the blend right this time around ... we've just won 3 games on the bounce 3-0 ... that suggests all departments functioning ... we can even afford Nuge's profligacy in front of goal ... apparently, missed another sitter last night ... the others (QPR especially) do not have that luxury ... in order to catch the top two they have to make every chance count ... was always going to be a herculean task IMHO ...
During this 15 match unbeaten run we have ground out some wins, got lucky here and there, but ultimately got ourselves in this position where we now simply brush teams aside. Both Barnsley and Charlton are in a relegation fight, but came up against us after both had important wins, so they must have been full of confidence. Yet City dismissed them with embarrassing ease. It's frankly quite weird to be in this position where all the tension is non-existent because City simply don't look like a team about to cave in. Even towards the end of the 02-03 season where we finished second on 90 odd points I can recall nervous times because Sheff U weren't too far behind us for a while. It gave it a bit of tension. Now, we are just waiting for the inevitable. I suppose now it's about ensuring we take the title ahead of Burnley
Its worth noting that we havn't really had too many complaints about refereeing decisions as we have in previous seasons. Previous seasons have seen 2 clubs at this stage leading the way, its usually only the one in second that has to worry about any form teams coming though and challenging, although if Burnley keep their form up, they won't be caught either.
We have probably had just as many calls go against us as other clubs it's just because we continue to win that they aren't raised. When you are loosing these things become much bigger decisions.
I think Vardy is a big reason - he cant really have bad games as he just works so hard and forces people into long balls and mistakes. Plus, i think this season we have almost forgotton how good Knockaert is and the way they mark him gives space for others. And DD is bloody brilliant
Burnley didn't hold their nerve very well tonight. Gave away the lead 3 times!!! Good result for us!!
