Sorry, but it's got to be Arsenal 5th for me. They had a poor start, but all round they're much better than Liverpool IMO.
I still wonder if he's going to risk Gallas going to Russia, PNP. As long as King looks good early next week, I hope Harry gambles, as I'd love us to give Rubin a really good game, and a win qualifies us from the group.
While I'd agree with your sentiment Lidls, I think that we have a squad that can maintain decent form for the whole season. If we picked a side from players not involved in today's first XI, then we'd have players like Cudicini, Gomes, Dawson, Gallas, Bassong, Sandro, Corluka, Pienaar, Huddlestone, Kranjcar and Defoe available. If you look at some of those that are competing for 4th place with us (in my opinion), then I think that their squads are clearly weaker.
They are over reliant on Van Persie, though Liverpool rely a lot on Suarez for their goals, and their defence is weaker than Liverpool's.
Throwing Gallas into a Premier League game straight after an injury might actually be a bigger risk. Rubin Kazan are a good team, but most European sides don't play with the pace that's almost universal in the Premier League.
Fair comments PNP, I just wonder whether Harry will take the 'Russian risk'. I hope he does, but only if King looks good on the day the team fly out.
You're stating the obvious but also placing too much on the amount of games left. Like it or not(I'm guessing not) we're a quater of the way through the season and the table has taken shape.
Oh come on. We know that Tevez has been adequetly replaced, City can rotate their squad and still get results(In the League atleast) and they've been by far the most consistent performers. You can't really talk about form when they've got 10 games only dropping 2 points averaging wins of 3 goals, including a clinical display against your lot. With regards to Spurs we've shown that Modric will can still perform at his best, VDV can play behind the striker without us having to lump it up to Crouch AND crucially we can dick all over Liverpool and Arsenal Liverpool have shown that Carroll is nowhere near good enough. United have shown that they're riding their luck in midfield and will struggle to win the league again with an average central partnership.
If King had been injury free for the last 5 years I can't imagine we would have been able to keep hold of him to be honest. As much as i'd love to think he would have always been a one club man, that's a very rare thing these days if you're not winning trophies. In my opinion he could play for any side in the world, and is possible our one true 'world class' player.
My top 10 prediction: Man Utd Man City Chelsea Spurs Arsenal Liverpool Aston Villa Stoke Everton Newcastle
Whilst it is probably true that Arsenal are showing better form than 'Pool at the moment, let's not forget that Arsenal still have yet to collapse during the last quarter of their season. In the past, this hasn't been too much of a problem for them, because they've usually been comfortably ahead of the teams likely to challenge for 5th spot, so have always had a good margin for claiming 4th spot (although we have pushed them very close in recent seasons). But this season, of course, they are not going to be in the top 4 come the last quarter of the season. I still think they will struggle to finish inside the top 7 this season.
Good point HiaG, but I'm finding it very difficult to predict Arsenal this season: on paper they are quite a bit weaker than last season, but they've ground out a few wins and seem to have a lot of confidence. If all their players stay fit and confident they will be in the top four mix, but they could easily have a very bad run at any time and finish mid-table.
The teams around us are all playing each other in the next few games so we now have a great opportunity to make some breathing space by the time we play Chelsea
If AVB insists on taking non-defending midfields to away games, it's not unfeasible to see Spurs nick third from them - and Arsenal fourth. Which would be ****ing hilarious!
AVB does seem to be trying a different system at Chelsea which won't work until he replaces some of the older players.They just don't have the speed to play the formation he wants,so lets hope he continues to do so,thus giving 3rd spot to us.
I'm wondering how long it'll be before their mates at the Mail will be tapping-up Tiote for them, as they don't have any cover for Essien at present - Mikel simply isn't up to the task, and never was, whilst Romeu is a spectator who gets the occasional cameo. The real problem, though, is wanting Bosingwa and Cole to play as auxiliary wingers - nobody can break up play in midfield, and Terry is too slow and too limited to do anything in the face a of a counter attack (other than fall flat on his face, that is...), yet MOTD are quick to pin the blame on Luiz/Alex/Ivanovic instead of the clear tactical naivety of Villash-Boash or the fact Terry is unsuited to playing in this system.
I think that Romeu (wherefore art thou Romeu?) is a good player, but Chelsea's deal with Barca has totally ****ed them. If he plays and does well, then the Catalans will buy him back on the cheap. If he does badly or doesn't play, then Chelsea are stuck with him. What twat agreed to that? Not sure how Mereiles got left out of the side. You'd have thought that picking Alex at centre-half and shifting Ivanovic over into Bosingwa's role would've made more sense, too. Did anyone notice Chelsea's ironically named back-up keeper? Apparently Terry's not a fan...
Take your pick: Abramovich, Villas-Boas, Di Matteo - it's worth asking if they actually went through with appointing Avram Grant as a DoF in the summer...
