The battle for 4th place

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Exeter Blue I am here said:
The team I fear catching us is neither the rags nor West Ham, but the candle bearers. The rags and the Hammers both have one or two tricky fixtures left, but the dippers run-in is a piece of piss. Not a single game against any of the top 9, and 4 of their remaining 7 at Klanfield. I could easily see them bagging 19 points from their remaining fixtures, which would leave us needing 10
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God what a terrifying prospect. I'd have to top myself if the victims pipped us to 4th. Anything but that, please.
 
To be pretty certain we need 12 points, which means four wins. The rags could possibly get 16 points due to their run in.

It would be nice to get the win on Saturday as it would really dishearten the chasing pack.
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
The team I fear catching us is neither the rags nor West Ham, but the candle bearers. The rags and the Hammers both have one or two tricky fixtures left, but the dippers run-in is a piece of piss. Not a single game against any of the top 9, and 4 of their remaining 7 at Klanfield. I could easily see them bagging 19 points from their remaining fixtures, which would leave us needing 10
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Bournemouth away and then Everton at home, hardly a piece of piss, plus they may well progress in the Europa or collapse if they get knocked out
 
Exeter Blue I am here said:
The team I fear catching us is neither the rags nor West Ham, but the candle bearers. The rags and the Hammers both have one or two tricky fixtures left, but the dippers run-in is a piece of piss. Not a single game against any of the top 9, and 4 of their remaining 7 at Klanfield. I could easily see them bagging 19 points from their remaining fixtures, which would leave us needing 10
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plenty of tricky games for them. Merseyside derby, home to Chelsea, away to West Brom, away to an improving Swansea. And away to Bournemouth aint a gimme either. I'd give them 15pts max. If we fail to get 6pts in our remaining 6 games, we have no business being in the CL.
 
I am not cacking it about the dippers but when i saw the table and they have a match in hand you have to say they could be a factor/have a say.

That said if we can manage to take care of business just a little bit we will be fine and it won't matter what they do.
 
stablemcfc said:
Probably jinx it here but Mangala usually has Costa in his pocket. Hoping for more of the same. If they play the kids like they have been doing then they'll certainly be up for it but hopefully lacking the quality.
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My favorite part of the the first game was when Mangala ran up so he could be right beside Dinho as Costa came up at halftime trying to start shit.
 
If anyone drops out of the top 4 it will be arsenal in my opinion they are in free fall currently
 
Chippy_boy said:
Whether we win tomorrow night or not, has a huge bearing on our chances IMHO.

Win it, and PellegrinI will play weakend sides prior to the next CL games for sure.

Edit : Bloody predictive text. I tried to say "weakened side". First it changed it to "weekend side", then "weakneed side" and finally "weakend side".

Take your pick!
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Perhaps that is a sign :-)
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
You can't see us losing another game? Fuck me, what gives anyone such confidence. Even with KDB and Yaya coming on to save the day at the weekend, we squeaked home.

Much more realistic to assume that Chelsea put out a scratch team at Swansea (not sure the circumstances) but will be fresher and can certainly claim to be favourites, being at home.

Newcastle could actually be going into our game knowing a defeat could send them down, and that will be an absolute bear pit.

Even Stoke could be pulling teeth, although I see a win.

As for Southampton away, Arsenal and Swansea, again, all too difficult to call.

We have put ourselves in this mess. Spurs did us a massive favour and we have to hope Leicester are going to United to win it there on the day. Only then, will West Ham's home game come seriously into the equation.
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We have missed back to back wins in the prem since Oct/Nov i think it is. We have been poor, however, despite Pellegrini's best effort to disable us with manic tactics and team selection, I think our recent results, (West Brom, PSG and Bournmouth, and I believe we will win tonight) will start to breathe belief back into the players. Its an infectious state of mind. The ref and linesman were terrible on Sat and we could of won by more, but we did what we needed to. We will go through tonight and it might not be pretty on Sat evening, but I think we will just start pulling results in now. We slowly get our big game players back, KdB, Yaya, Vinny and Silva and we will crawl over the line in 3rd
 
I think that tonight's match will have a huge bearing on our league form. If we go through it will give the club a huge lift and that bounce should be enough to take a top 4 spot. We go out and the mood darkens and the whole perspective on the season changes.
 
Can anyone clear this up for me....IF (big if) we win the Champions League and Finish 4th, we would be taking up 2 qualifying spots, so would the 5th place in the premier league get the other Champions league spot??
 
Invisible Man Fan said:
Can anyone clear this up for me....IF (big if) we win the Champions League and Finish 4th, we would be taking up 2 qualifying spots, so would the 5th place in the premier league get the other Champions league spot??
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No. We'd get two pot 1 slots though.
 
Malty said:
If anyone drops out of the top 4 it will be arsenal in my opinion they are in free fall currently
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Two wins and a draw from their last three games. Four home games to finish the season all of those are pretty easy.
 
City have 2 at home and 4 away, United have the opposite. Beat Chelsea and Newcastle over a four day period and it should be nailed on, however...
 
As I said a few pages ago United have two easy home games next so we need to stay ahead of them with minimum 4 points from the coming two. Because they now have a cup semi and no league game the weekend we play Stoke at home. Their game (West Ham away) had already been rearranged for the final week as one of United or West Ham had to be awol that weekend - so they will have a game in hand over us from when we play Stoke to the last few days of the season.

We have to stay 4 points clear of them going into that so the final Sunday stays in our own hands. Last thing we need is that game in hand giving them the chance to overtake us and then they go into Bournemouth at home with top 4 in their hands not ours.

Unless Arsenal implode and we can overtake them too.
 
Healdplace said:
As I said a few pages ago United have two easy home games next so we need to stay ahead of them with minimum 4 points from the coming two. Because they now have a cup semi and no league game the weekend we play Stoke at home. Their game (West Ham away) had already been rearranged for the final week as one of United or West Ham had to be awol that weekend - so they will have a game in hand over us from when we play Stoke to the last few days of the season.

We have to stay 4 points clear of them going into that so the final Sunday stays in our own hands. Last thing we need is that game in hand giving them the chance to overtake us and then they go into Bournemouth at home with top 4 in their hands not ours.

Unless Arsenal implode and we can overtake them too.
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great summarisation of the state of affairs. The Newcastle game is a big one for me. win that then we can think about pulling away. As many have said, getting through the other night will have a huge psychological bearing with regards to end of season momentum. It feels like it's all starting to come together at just at the right time. I'm quietly confident we will beat Cheslea. It's the Stoke game that has fuck up etched all over it.

I have a suspicion we will finish like last season and finish a comfortable third and wonder what all the panic was about.
 
With six games left and with a four point advantage over the rags, and five over WHU, it's time to look at GDiff. We are heavily in credit against both and they have to win two of their six games just to creep past us. It puts a lot of pressure on them and if we win three games of our own, especially the Arsenal game, the others may just as well pack up for the season.
 
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