the next 4 league games

[The Fat el Hombre]

Depends how spurs do as the Madrid games could put them off a little, but I think we're gonna need at least 8 points from these games if we're not gonna make it extremely hard for ourselves.

As long as we don't get any more injuries though I'm fairly confident we can pull it together for the rest of the season

 

[Marvin]

8 points will do me. Id take that now. I'd probably take 7

Yes, they are all winnable, but I wouldn't change anything about our approach

you would go to liverpool and play to defend a 0-0?

why?

You wouldn't, but at Arsenal and chelsea especially we were too tired, and crucially not good enough to hold on to the ball in midfield / up front so we ended up defending. We didn't plan to just defend the penalty box, but that's the way it ended up because we weren't good enough partly down to the opposition, partly down to our physical condition. (you might scoff, but check our rivals form in the midst of the European games - only chelsea have done well because they were out of the FA Cup and had a blank weekend. This has been accumulating for months for City)

Liverpool aren't as good as Chelsea and arsenal, but they will be a threat with suarez, Carroll and gerrard. Look what happened to utd at Liverpool. We need to be cautious

When we have won trophies and have established the team, we can afford your arrogance

-- Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:05 pm --

We went out at Stamford Bridge with the sole intention of not losing, rather than going out trying to win. 1 effort on target (IIRC) in the whole 90 minutes tells the tale.

i'm sorry i cant agree. we started well , we tried to play our football until the players started to pay for the 10 vs 11 played just 68 hours before the kickoff.

someone who understands their football

Europa League has been a killer<br /><br />-- Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:07 pm --<br /><br />

Depends how spurs do as the Madrid games could put them off a little, but I think we're gonna need at least 8 points from these games if we're not gonna make it extremely hard for ourselves.

As long as we don't get any more injuries though I'm fairly confident we can pull it together for the rest of the season

well we've already picked up an injury for Richards and Toure and Zabeleta are unavailable. Looks like a lot of city players will play in midweek so lets hope milner stays fit, because he can cover any number of positions

 

[LoveCity]

Zaba should be back soon surely? With this international break it adds another 2 weeks of compassionate leave on top of the 2 or so weeks before the break.

 

[Nelly's Left Foot]

We went out at Stamford Bridge with the sole intention of not losing, rather than going out trying to win. 1 effort on target (IIRC) in the whole 90 minutes tells the tale.

i'm sorry i cant agree. we started well , we tried to play our football until the players started to pay for the 10 vs 11 played just 68 hours before the kickoff.

Excuses excuses. Let's just see if we win the next 4 games as you say and then see what your excuses are when it doesn't quite happen.

 

[marcspurs]

4 games in April, including the Cup semi. Compare to Spurs who have 8, including Madrid x2 plus Chelsea and Arsenal, if we don't take advantage of this opportunity to put us out of sight before we face them (but that would be too easy, nothing is made easy at City!) then we're asking for trouble. I think we have some really tough fixtures left tbh, including two of our worst bogey teams of late (Everton and Stoke).

Minor detail really.... but we have 7 games in April....

Sat April 2nd: Wigwam (a)
Tue April 5th: R Madrid (a)
Sat April 9th: Stoke (h)
Wed April 13th: R Madrid (h)
Wed April 20th: Arse (h)
Sat April 23rd: WBA (h)
Sat April 30th: Chelsea (a)

Stoke at home a week before their Cup semi-final v Bolton and Pulis and Redknapp being old mates from their Bournemouth days is really helpful for us, Arsenal at home is always tough, but they have only won 2 of their last 12 PL visits to WHL.... I expect to lose at Chelsea (we always do) but it depends on the CL semi's by then...

Still too close to call..... but as I have been saying for the last couple of months, City are going to have to win possibly 2 of their remaining 4 games away from home.... when you are 3 months without an away win of any kind in any competition, that is a worry....

Madrid's next two games after the second leg are both against Barca..... maybe they will have one eye on those games too....

We have struggled the last few weeks having such big gaps between games, in the 60 odd days since the start of February we have played 7 games... 2 of those in the CL..... 7 games in 9 weeks.... compared to City's 13..... ideally you want to play 1 game a week with the odd midweek game.... we were less than a game a week... and it showed....

But now with all the main players fit, Bale, VDV, Modric, Lennon, Huddlestone, Kaboul, Corluka.... I think we will benefit from a "busy" April.... but I also think City will benefit from having less games.....

For me it will come down to points gained away from home.....

 

[leth]

Trying to be realistic i'd expect them to go something like this...

Sunderland (H) - Win
Liverpool (A) - Lose
Blackburn (A) - Draw
West Ham (H) - Win

Seven points over the four games should keep us safely in fourth place and anything more is a bonus. Who knows, maybe we'll rediscover some form and we can challenge Chelsea for third but at the moment we just need to keep ahead of Spurs. They should drop a few points too in the same period, maybe something like this...

Wigan (A) - Draw
Stoke (H) - Win
Arsenal (H) - Draw
West Brom (H) - Win
Chelsea (A) - Lose

...and we'd still be three points ahead going into the final four games.

In any case we should definitely be looking to win our home games, try to win at Blackburn but keep it tight at Anfield. Even before their recent improvement, they don't tend to give too much away at home so a draw would be a decent result.

 

[DSonBlue]

4 games in April, including the Cup semi. Compare to Spurs who have 8, including Madrid x2 plus Chelsea and Arsenal, if we don't take advantage of this opportunity to put us out of sight before we face them (but that would be too easy, nothing is made easy at City!) then we're asking for trouble. I think we have some really tough fixtures left tbh, including two of our worst bogey teams of late (Everton and Stoke).

Minor detail really.... but we have 7 games in April....

Sat April 2nd: Wigwam (a)
Tue April 5th: R Madrid (a)
Sat April 9th: Stoke (h)
Wed April 13th: R Madrid (h)
Wed April 20th: Arse (h)
Sat April 23rd: WBA (h)
Sat April 30th: Chelsea (a)

Stoke at home a week before their Cup semi-final v Bolton and Pulis and Redknapp being old mates from their Bournemouth days is really helpful for us, Arsenal at home is always tough, but they have only won 2 of their last 12 PL visits to WHL.... I expect to lose at Chelsea (we always do) but it depends on the CL semi's by then...

Still too close to call..... but as I have been saying for the last couple of months, City are going to have to win possibly 2 of their remaining 4 games away from home.... when you are 3 months without an away win of any kind in any competition, that is a worry....

Madrid's next two games after the second leg are both against Barca..... maybe they will have one eye on those games too....

We have struggled the last few weeks having such big gaps between games, in the 60 odd days since the start of February we have played 7 games... 2 of those in the CL..... 7 games in 9 weeks.... compared to City's 13..... ideally you want to play 1 game a week with the odd midweek game.... we were less than a game a week... and it showed....

But now with all the main players fit, Bale, VDV, Modric, Lennon, Huddlestone, Kaboul, Corluka.... I think we will benefit from a "busy" April.... but I also think City will benefit from having less games.....

For me it will come down to points gained away from home.....

Sensible post, and no wind up in sight - skills.

Let's face it - the showdown for 4th is likely to be the game at Eastlands.

Excitement mixed with dread springs to mind!

 

[Freestyler]

I think Liverpool is the only game there, where we can come unstuck.

the rest are not easy games, just realistically winnable.

 

[HellasLEAF]

I think the Liverpool match away will be difficult but I agree with the rest. We can sure beat them but I would be fine with a draw there. I'd happily take 10 points in those 4 matches.

 

[flipmode]

I'd take 9 points out of those. I can't see us winning at Anfield, as much as it would please me if we did.