So is it all over?

[Mr Ed (The Stables)]

If the rags lose even just 1 game + the derby, we will pip them by 1 point if we do what we need to do.

If they draw 1 game and we win ours, it will come to goal difference.

Exactly!

So they are losing 2 games? No chance.

 

[Jumanji]

If the rags lose even just 1 game + the derby, we will pip them by 1 point if we do what we need to do.

If they draw 1 game and we win ours, it will come to goal difference.

Exactly!

So they are losing 2 games? No chance.

It's not at all inconceivable that the rags will lose a game. They lost just six match days ago.

Even if they don't lose, they could draw against 2 teams which would be worse than losing a match.

 

[TFC]

What I needed from today was some belief that we can overhaul the scum, and if I'm honest, the last 5 minutes gave me just a smidge. Unfortunately the preceding 85 minutes was enough to convince me that this wont be our year.

Dont get me wrong, I want to believe we can do it and sincerely hope we do, but after hearing the players trotting out the 'we will fight to the bitter end' stuff in the press, and then watching that listless, uninterested display with not a whole lot of fight in it at all, its really hard for me to imagine us lifting that trophy at the moment.

Next week is as important a game as we will play this season.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

It is not inconceivable that the rags will drop points as someone has pointed out.

However it is almost a certainty that we will playing like we are.

Does anyone confidently expect us to take 21 out o 21 ?

 

[lionheart]

Let us be realistic. We are currently playing like a mid-table team, at best. Our star players (especially Silva) are not performing for a variety of reasons. The only silver lining is that the Rags are facing teams in a relegation dogfight, so a dropped point here or there may still occur. The problem is that we are not playing well enough to take advantage. Quite frankly I expect us to get tonked by Arsenal and by the Rags, so the season is effectively over for me. We need some new blood in the summer, preferably one or two electrifying wingers a la Tueart and Barnes. Finishing as runners-up still represents an excellent year.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Let us be realistic. We are currently playing like a mid-table team, at best. Our star players (especially Silva) are not performing for a variety of reasons. The only silver lining is that the Rags are facing teams in a relegation dogfight, so a dropped point here or there may still occur. The problem is that we are not playing well enough to take advantage. Quite frankly I expect us to get tonked by Arsenal and by the Rags, so the season is effectively over for me. We need some new blood in the summer, preferably one or two electrifying wingers a la Tueart and Barnes. Finishing as runners-up still represents an excellent year.

Problem is its the last games that stick in the memory.

Look at last season. Fa cup win and 4 games out of 4 to snatch 3rd place from arsenal. Everyone on a high with hopes high.

Unless we sort ourselves out then we will fizzle out and it's that that will stick in the memory.

We are still 3 players short and that shouldn't be the case after the money we have spent.

 

[VibbyUTD]

The probability of Barca winning the La Liga is about twice as much the probability of City winning the EPL according to the bookies, despite a 2 point + game in hand for us, and a 6 pt favour to Real, and both the 'favourites' to play their respective teams away from home.

Simply said, you guys have to win at the Etihad to stand a chance; we have the harder fixtures after the derby though, and anything can happen there - I wouldn't be pleased if we only have a 1 pt lead after the derby, which is a distinct possibility.

With Arsenal losing to QPR, it's not a terrible time to play them either, esp as their backs are against the walls and they'll be pressured as well - Chelsea and Tottenham are back to breathing down their necks for that spot, and Le Arse have always bottled it.

I reckon you guys are playing too fluid and need to be playing someone who can distribute the ball to the players, instead of just passing it around the box and then eventually getting a Kolarov cross in. Even without O'shea, Brown etc, and a makeshift LB, their defence looked solid because you didn't open them up. You need to drag the players out of position, and having just 2 full backs to provide width, and taking so much time around the box means your attacks are much weaker. It's fine for De Jong to take time on the ball - every deep lying playmaker / DM does it, Carrick, Busquets and Scholes, but when we distribute it we get it into a good position (Valencia) and stretch the defence. Barcelona take an age to get it up field sometimes - The opposing team has 10 men behind the ball before it's past the half way line, and they don't possess great width, and your technical skill isn't TOO FAR behind the likes of Xavi etc, but with Barca they have Messi/Xavi/Iniesta to really speed up the play in the final 1/3. This means that even if the defence is in position, it becomes stretched. They take as long as they want to get it into that final 1/3, and even move it back from good positions in the final 1/3, but when they want to hurt you, their one touch passing in the final 1/3 means you've to be running covering their runs and their brilliant vision. Sunderland were almost static because no one was trying to make those runs in behind the defence, and that meant that you guys were pretty much relying on either a) Kolarov's crosses (albeit under little no pressure as he had no full back closing him down), or b) Someone to collect the ball around the box and then shoot/run into the box and shoot. Noone made any runs into the box and got a weighed pass.

Basically, it was fine when Silva was getting all those delicate through balls to almost any one, and it was shown by Tevez/Nasri combining to get that goal against Chelsea, but no one did it against Sunderland and then you're just relying on full back crosses and distance shooting and individual brilliance.

 

[Helmet Cole]

Automatic CL qualification - i.e. no worries at any point this season will do for me. That's progress after it seemed a close thing for most of last season, and it was only after easter that top 4 started to look nailed on.
Even after ending last season on a high I think most of us would have expected comfy top 4 rather than winning the league to be a good target, and we only (justifiably) started getting giddy about the title after the great start and being top for so long.

 

[city51]

Over

 

[YaYa's Left Peg]

I don't post here very often but here goes.

Some people on here need to sort their heads out. thinking we have the god given right to win every game, every trophy, and when we don't get what we want theirs some right fuckwits rushing to post how shit (Dzeko, Balo, Milner, Nasri, Mancini) are. How about you actually get behind the team that is SECOND in one of if not the hardest football league, in the world. Chasing a team that, yeah, are fucking scum, but also possess players that have been here year in year out and a manager that is probably, unfortunately, the greatest to have ever managed the game.

From where we've come from to where we are now has been more than a 10 game run in. It's been a 10 year hell, and even if we do finish 2nd to those Red cunts, it's been a season where we've played Champions League football for the first time and progressed even higher over a 38 game season. Bedding in players like Sergio and Samir.

It's a project. It always has been. And year on year we're progressing to that next step, Khaldoon has already said the Prem was the Year 5 target, and we're still on course for that. Look where we're going, look where we're going to be in 5 years time, nevermind 10. These players will learn from this season, as will Mancini and take it into the next.

If this season is over, then we can take a lot of positives from it and yes a few negatives, but there's more negativity from our fans than there is on that pitch.

It's coming, it really is, all thats needed is patience. And people need to realise there is no longer any ''easy'' games in the Premier League.

Come on Blackburn! Keep the faith Blues.

CTID

+1. You should post more often.

Have to agree with this.