Sunderland (A) Stoke (A) Crystal Palace (H) We should be beating Palace at home but the other two will be tricky to negotiate. Both managers ex-Chelsea and under pressure. Sunderland away historically has been a banker for us but I don't see it that way anymore. Of the two I'm more worried about Sunderland than Stoke despite the league positions but both teams struggle for goals and if we can produce the goods up front the defence should take care of itself. I wanted us to be within 4 points of 1st by NYE and so far were on course to do so. Have to be beating these teams though. Let's hope the boys can follow today up with a win, not like after the win against City where we played poorly at a North East team after and lost.
DL, all three are relegation fodder. We shouldn't have any issues. however, goons are having Hull & Everton at Emirates and City away. Hopefully we would be above goons when we visit Emirates and then extend our lead over the Manchester teams.
I reckon the Goons will win draw and lose before we meet them. Hope we can get three on the bounce to make for a cracking contest.
I see a win and two draws here, i honestly believe they could be the first and only team to take a point at the council house this season.
Can see us winning those 3 and them dropping 2 or 3 points at the Ethihad which will make for a mouthwatering pre Christmas face off. However as i posted a good few weeks back i think City are the main threat. Just as well their away form has been so poor or they could be 6 or 7 points clear by now and disappearing over the hill ! P.S. because i can't sleep and i love quirky statistics like Spurs letting 6 in last week(as many as they had let in all season up to that) i came up with another quirky one after todays game. After 10 mins of the second half today Southampton had conceded 7 goals in 1,135 mins of football until we hit them for 3 in 35 mins. As a former great striker of ours once said...football is a funny old game !!!
We'd have to drop points to either Everton or Hull and lose to City for that to happen and you would have to win all three of your matches.
All we can do is win our matches,which we should be able to do. However......... we seem to rise to the good teams and sink to the lower ones, something we have been a bit prone to the last few seasons. Arsenal are looking like a bloody good team to me, boy I wish we'd got Mesut Ozil what a great player he is.
In a one off game I'd still have City, Chelsea and United above Arsenal but to their credit, they are the only ones beating the teams they should every week. I doubt Arsenal will come out top in a head to head table between these 4 clubs but if they keep winning all the other games then they will be there or there abouts come the end. However they normally falter in the run in and their run in is about as hard as you can get. Really hope they qualify for the knockouts of the C.L as they struggle to juggle multiple comps at the business end and have a small squad. Realistically City are the main threat if they get any sort of form on the road. United are nearly out of it for my money being 9 points off now and a lot of other teams between them and the top.
We played well 2nd half against a very good side but it was looking worrying for a while. We need to start kicking into some form whilst we have a relatively easy patch. It'd be just like us to lose mid week now!!
guess CP has a positive. we are good against better teams like Goons and bad against lesser teams like Moanu!! But CP, believe the old adage - Goons have a better fade away than Kobe! and Mihaela, IMHO you would drop points against all three - positively losing to both Everton & City!! This might sound improbable but definitely possible.
I already did !! We played very well, especially second half.Cahill looked better JT looked like 5 years ago. Jose showed he is on top of things by changing formation, so our talented players could get a look in against a very strong defence. Now lets do it twice in a row. Oh, by the way, there's a 20 year old Nigerian CD, qualified for the world cup who needs a run in our team. I'm not one to lavish praise that's not been earned, nor run down other teams because they are the "enemy", and I still think we are not using our talent as we should. That we are where we are, is a testament to our players and their work ethic. When everything aligns, we will take some stopping.
The Arsenal back up players are their weakness, and when it gets muddy and wet and injuries and tiredness kick in late January, they might struggle as they usually do. Right now they are going like a train. Can't wait to have a go at them, it will be a six point match for us, and I definitely think we can take them down.
Course it's possible, no game is ever decided on current form and each individual match requires 100 % commitment and 100 % concentration for 90 minutes. For now though, I'm just enjoying the view from the top of the table however long that may last. I predicted we'd beat Hull, worst case scenario draw with Everton and lose to City. Provided you win all of your matches (slipping up is not impossible either) we'd be on equal points by the time we play at the Emirates, I think.
On paper, almost everyone would say we should get 9 points out of the next 3 games! Thats a prediction that bothers me bigtime , simply because history time and again always has a bogey lurking in the mix that ensures some totally unexpected result bombs us in the next 2 weeks! I pray it wont happen! Happy Christmas Blues!
Ultimately both Arsenal and Chelsea are just as likely to lose all three as they are to win all three. Really dont think anything is a given. One at a time for now.
I'd actually be shocked if we won all 3. We are struggling to string results together and we have been historically ropey around Nov/Dec time in the last few seasons. Looking at the fixtures, we at least have to be closer to Arsenal come our game with them - ideally going above with a win!! But this is the team that lost to Newcastle and dropped points at home to West Brom in the last few weeks, so nothing is a given.
I can see us winning all 3 tbh but bit nervous about the two away games especially Stoke. It's a tough place to go on a summers day in August let alone a freezing one in December! If we win all 3 then the game at the Emirates will be huge... It's my first game since being back the Arsenal one and got a ticket for it in the away end... Buzzing is an understatement. Biggest game of the season so far
Every result is possible. However, us getting 9 points is far more likely than goons getting 4 points from the next 3 matches! Will get answer in few hours where a third of the matches will be over.
