Is a top four finish achievable or a pipe dream?

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Miles Away said:
I am very excited to see how badly we lose at Selhurst.
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Hodgson always seems to have our number, I remember the celebrations when we beat them in our title winning season. Hopefully we win at Selhurst and carry the good form into the Arsenal fixture, interestingly Liverpool are due to play the likes of Spurs (who can lift their game) and Man City over the next few weeks. If we can continue to win and draw games we should begin to pull away from the mid table pack by the end of December.
 
Liverpool have a tough month of fixtures ahead and have Spurs this weekend and a game against Man City looming two draws will be enough to see us close the gap on both of them. A win at Palace and a home win against the gooners will do nicely going into the increasingly frustrating international break.

The bookies are slashing our odds of a top 6 finish and the same for a top 4 spot.
 
Okay does this thread need revising after December? Looking at our fixture list we have a real possibility of going two points behind Liverpool ( if we beat Man City and Liverpool at the end of the month).

Barring Man City I feel we have the best all round squad to compete (No Europe) in the league and a cup.
 
TommyK said:
You think we have a better squad than Liverpool?
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You will notice that I stated we have no Europe Liverpool do. They have the world club champs the EFL the FA cup etc. My point is, if this were Man City they have the squad capable of competing on all fronts Liverpool do not. They will try to compete in every comp going that will be their downfall, imo.
 
I was just thinking about our fixtures.

We've had the toughest first half of the season because we're the only side to play Liverpool twice by the 19 game point.

We'll have also have played Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd away in the first half of the season.

So there is an argument that we ought to get stronger in the second half of the season.
 
Brown Nose said:
I was just thinking about our fixtures.

We've had the toughest first half of the season because we're the only side to play Liverpool twice by the 19 game point.

We'll have also have played Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd away in the first half of the season.

So there is an argument that we ought to get stronger in the second half of the season.
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Slightly strange/meaningless analysis though when two of those fixtures are still to be played and we *could* lose both...

Also, Chelsea and Man City have both had better away form than they have at home so far this season.

Not that I like to dismiss a rare moment of BN optimism...
 
big_mac4824 said:
You will notice that I stated we have no Europe Liverpool do. They have the world club champs the EFL the FA cup etc. My point is, if this were Man City they have the squad capable of competing on all fronts Liverpool do not. They will try to compete in every comp going that will be their downfall, imo.
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In theory this is correct, but in practice Liverpool will prioritise competitions. If they prioritise like they did last night then all these matches won't affect them like it would otherwise. They'll be efficient in using their energy also - foot on the gas, score a goal, foot off the gas, keep possession and keep it simple. They won't win by a lot across this month and it won't be pretty but they've got the correct players to get it done. They'll do just fine and they'll win the league IMO.

They're also in the fantastic position of being 10 points ahead of us and 14 ahead of Man City - they can afford to slip up - even two losses would keep them five points ahead of us and 9 against Man City assuming we win those matches. I suspect that as soon as they started to keep momentum in terms of wins, they planned accordingly for this period. They've got that grit about them. They've also got a real fear factor as well, but I'm sure we can beat them. Mind over matter and all that.
 
Well that was my theory blown out of the water lol, at least Chelsea and Spurs remain inconsistent I am still of the opinion we are a glass half full, a top four finish will be an amazing achievement and it is still very much on.
 
This season is turning out to be an extraordinary one.

The gap at halfway (not even that for Liverpool) between the leaders and the champions (in 3rd) is the same as the gap between 4th place and 18th. It's perfectly possible that two non-big six sides could finish in the top four and a team currently in the top half could be relegated.

We can forget any hope now of winning the title. It is simply beyond credibility to see both us put together and extraordinary run and Liverpool completely crashing.

So our mission must be to ensure that we finish in the top four. We are 8 points clear in those positions as it stands. It seems to me that the main threats to the sides currently in the top four are Wolves, Spurs and Man Utd. I cannot see any of those sides getting 70 points though. So that should be our aim - another 31 points from 19 games (something like W9 D4 L6).

To achieve this, we need to get our act together again pretty fast. We have 5 very winnable league games before the end of January and also 3 or 4 cup ties we'll be expected to progress in - so the fixture list is incredibly demanding. We'll need a couple of quality signings in January to help us.

We then start February with matches against Chelsea, Wolves and Man City. We could really do with being in a strong position for those games. We finish with three potentially tough games too - Sheff Utd, Spurs and Man Utd.
 
Brown Nose said:
This season is turning out to be an extraordinary one.

The gap at halfway (not even that for Liverpool) between the leaders and the champions (in 3rd) is the same as the gap between 4th place and 18th. It's perfectly possible that two non-big six sides could finish in the top four and a team currently in the top half could be relegated.

We can forget any hope now of winning the title. It is simply beyond credibility to see both us put together and extraordinary run and Liverpool completely crashing.

So our mission must be to ensure that we finish in the top four. We are 8 points clear in those positions as it stands. It seems to me that the main threats to the sides currently in the top four are Wolves, Spurs and Man Utd. I cannot see any of those sides getting 70 points though. So that should be our aim - another 31 points from 19 games (something like W9 D4 L6).

To achieve this, we need to get our act together again pretty fast. We have 5 very winnable league games before the end of January and also 3 or 4 cup ties we'll be expected to progress in - so the fixture list is incredibly demanding. We'll need a couple of quality signings in January to help us.

We then start February with matches against Chelsea, Wolves and Man City. We could really do with being in a strong position for those games. We finish with three potentially tough games too - Sheff Utd, Spurs and Man Utd.
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thankfully Spurs,Man City and Man Utd are at home, as long as we are aggressive and brave I am confident we will do extremely well. To think the majority were saying a top six finish would be a huge achievement at the beginning of the season has shown how far we have grown as a team
 
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