Top 6 mini league 17/18

What this tells you is Liverpool are shit and Arsenal are steaming, stinking shit. We should be battering Arsenal next weekend. The "super league" is really only the top 4.

Funny isn't it? For years you knew that the Top 4 at the end of the season would be Liverpool, Rags, Chelsea and Arsenal in any order. And you knew what Top 4 meant.

Then Wee Davey took over at the rags and all of a sudden, the Top 7 was born from nowhere. And, just as quickly, it sank without trace as soon as the rags seemed to have found 6th as their natural finish. And so the 'Top Six' was born. If the rags were in a relegation fight you wouldn't be surprised to hear about the Top 17.

That said, I do think that any of the other five can beat or at least get a result against each other on any given day, depending on whether they are home or away, injuries, form and lucky breaks. Spurs beat Liverpool, but Liverpool beat Arsenal, Arsenal drew away at Chelsea but Chelsea beat Spurs. I'm not suggesting that we will beat all 5 of them home and away by any means, but so far it does seem to be us head and shoulders above the other 5, and the other five with not that much between them, to be honest.
 
Updated table...

City........3-3-0-0...pts...9
Chelsea...4-2-1-1...pts...7
Utd........3-1-1-1...pts...4
Liverpool 4-1-1-2...pts...4
Spurs......3-1-0-2...pts...3
Arsenal...3-0-1-2....pts...1
 
Updated table...

City........3-3-0-0...pts...9
Chelsea...4-2-1-1...pts...7
Utd........3-1-1-1...pts...4
Liverpool 4-1-1-2...pts...4
Spurs......3-1-0-2...pts...3
Arsenal...3-0-1-2....pts...1

The Tarquins record so far is truly shocking. Saw a stat yesterday suggesting they have only taken 6 out of 45 points available.

Could you incorporate GD too as it will be important for The Rags? ;-)
 
Updated table...

City........3-3-0-0...pts...9
Chelsea...4-2-1-1...pts...7
Utd........3-1-1-1...pts...4
Liverpool 4-1-1-2...pts...4
Spurs......3-1-0-2...pts...3
Arsenal...3-0-1-2....pts...1


Nice reading that, especially after the last 2 seasons. Out of the rest, only Chelsea have done well. Interesting that Liverpool are 4th in the list which they topped last year.
 
Not *entirely* relevant to the thread, but this makes nice reading too. This is "the special one" not being very special at all:

26/04/15 Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0
16/08/15 City 3 Chelsea 0
29/11/15 Spurs 0 Chelsea 0
17/10/16 Liverpool 0 United 0
23/10/16 Chelsea 4 United 0
27/04/17 City 0 United 0
07/05/17 Arsenal 2 United 0
14/05/17 Spurs 2 United 1
14/10/17 Liverpool 0 United 0
05/11/17 Chelsea 1 United 0

That's Mourinho's last 10 away games against the top 6.

P10 W0, D4, L6, GF1, GA12, GD -11

One goal in 10 games. Very special.
 
Not *entirely* relevant to the thread, but this makes nice reading too. This is "the special one" not being very special at all:

26/04/15 Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0
16/08/15 City 3 Chelsea 0
29/11/15 Spurs 0 Chelsea 0
17/10/16 Liverpool 0 United 0
23/10/16 Chelsea 4 United 0
27/04/17 City 0 United 0
07/05/17 Arsenal 2 United 0
14/05/17 Spurs 2 United 1
14/10/17 Liverpool 0 United 0
05/11/17 Chelsea 1 United 0

That's Mourinho's last 10 away games against the top 6.

P10 W0, D4, L6, GF1, GA12, GD -11

One goal in 10 games. Very special.

If those results related to a City manager, I think the press would be describing him as a Flat Track Bully.
 
Not *entirely* relevant to the thread, but this makes nice reading too. This is "the special one" not being very special at all:

26/04/15 Arsenal 0 Chelsea 0
16/08/15 City 3 Chelsea 0
29/11/15 Spurs 0 Chelsea 0
17/10/16 Liverpool 0 United 0
23/10/16 Chelsea 4 United 0
27/04/17 City 0 United 0
07/05/17 Arsenal 2 United 0
14/05/17 Spurs 2 United 1
14/10/17 Liverpool 0 United 0
05/11/17 Chelsea 1 United 0

That's Mourinho's last 10 away games against the top 6.

P10 W0, D4, L6, GF1, GA12, GD -11

One goal in 10 games. Very special.

Great reading. So so negative even at home. Those tactics worked when he was at Chelsea first time around because no one really looked at the "top 4" in such detail as it was always a two horse race to win the league really whereas even if thats the case now the media look at the wider picture more. He won all other games normally thrashing the opposition and buying the best players from other teams every transfer window and ruining the majority of them.
 
So that's why they call it Super Sunday :)

Anyway, the results of games between the top 6 teams are as follows:

Spurs 1 v 2 Chelsea
Liverpool 4 v 0 Arsenal
City 5 v 0 Liverpool
Chelsea 0 v 0 Arsenal
Chelsea 0 v 1 City
Liverpool 0 v 0 Rags
Spurs 4 v 1 Liverpool
Rags 1 v 0 Spurs
City 3 v 1 Arsenal
Chelsea 1 v 0 Rags

These then are the standings - with added goal difference :)

1 City played 3 points 9 GD 31
2 Chelsea played 4 points 7 GD 9
3 Rags played 3 points 4 GD 18
3 Liverpool played 4 points 4 GD 4
5 Spurs played 3 points 3 GD 13
6 Arsenal played 3 points 1 GD 4

Generally speaking, all of the top 6 teams have played at least 3 games now against other opposition and out of 10 games in total it is enough to see some meaningful patterns emerge. For instance the games involving Chelsea have all been low scoring affairs. Arsenal have scored one goal in three games against top 6 opposition albeit they haven't played top 6 opposition at home yet. The rags have scored one goal in three games against top 6 opposition even though they have played at home. Spurs have a great team, but also a bad habit (if you are Spurs) of simply not turning up in big games, especially if missing Harry Kane. Aggregate scores are becoming interesting: our aggregate score against top 6 opposition is 9-1. Compare that to Chelsea (3-2), Rags (1-1), Liverpool (5-9) Spurs (5-4) and Arsenal (1-7).

Also, some direct comparisons can now be made. Chelsea have played both us and the rags at home, and the results are chalk and cheese. We played Chelsea off the park, and keeping it to 1-0 rather flattered them, whereas yesterday they were definitely the better team, and again 1-0 flattered the rags. Spurs gave Liverpool a good hiding at Wembley but were beaten by Chelsea at the same ground. The pecking order amongst the top 6 has been clearly established; and whilst the mini league table doesn't exactly mirror the actual league table, the pattern of the results and performances does: we are streets ahead, then there is a cluster of rags, Spurs and Chelsea, then Arsenal and Liverpool are some way behind again.

As to the win over Arsenal, I was a bit surprised by the regular references before the game to only having beaten them once in 9 recently, because City have had some good wins against Arsenal in recent years especially at home: we beat them 3-0 immediately after the takeover, we had the Adebayor game, the 6-3 win a few years ago and a couple of narrow wins in there also. That said, yesterday's win was IMHO by a distance the easiest of them all. That was an Arsenal side that had a weeks rest (as they played a reserve team against Red Star) whereas we had been away to Naples. Even so if we had been as clinical as we usually are it would have ended up 5 or 6. They had some bad luck with the offside call but should have conceded a penalty when the score was 0-0 so they got one in their favour they shouldn't have got, and got one against that they shouldn't have got. As pep said, the better team won and I don't think even when talking himself into a disrepute charge the myopic M Wenger has disputed that.

We've had a couple of wins recently without finding top gear. Whilst its encouraging that we can win without being at our best, it's not encouraging that we've been below our best a few times recently - Wolves (okay, several team changes), West Brom and Sunday spring to mind. But after the almost perfect performance in Naples, I suppose some sort of come-down was inevitable. We may now have the luxury of resting and rotating our squad through the next couple of champions league games, as well as the League cup trip to Leicester.

As to the rags, a few things we talked about earlier in the season are ringing true. When they were getting giddy, it was pointed out that they hadn't played anyone yet. Now they have, their true level is becoming increasingly clear: they are capable of beating most mid-lower table teams (with a few stumbles along the way) and will be a tough nut even for top 6 teams to crack, but they are nowhere near as good as us. When you look at the teams they have beaten at home, Spurs apart they are all bottom half teams. Away from home they have beaten Swansea (19th) and Southampton (13th), drawn at Stoke (14th) and Liverpool (5th) and lost at Huddersfield (10th) and Chelsea (4th). 8 points from 18 is not the form of potential champions, and even at Southampton they were under the cosh for long periods.

This strikes me as significant: you can win the league by holding your own/not doing spectacularly well against top 6 opposition provided you are consistently ruthless against mid-table/bottom half ; and you can survive a few wobbles against mid-low league opposition if you are consistently getting the better of your closest rivals. But if you are dropping points against mid table sides your competitors are beating, and you are not reeling them in in the head-to head fixtures, you will not win the league. I remain confident that Spurs will be our closest challengers come May. I expect the rags to finish in the top 4 - probably 4th in fact - but wouldn't be wholly surprised if Liverpool put together some sort of run and end up catching them.
 

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