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The glorious march to CL qualification

Well, wherever their game plan came from it worked a treat. Mahrez and Kante were the best two players in the league that year. Step toe was on fire. It's small-hearted to attribute all of it to luck.
 
I guess if Leicester isn’t used as some evidence of failure on our part, as opposed to the 5 wealthier teams with title winning experience it would be easier to be appreciative of the fairy story.

There were some superb performances from individuals mentioned already, but it was also a perfect storm where every team in the league continued to play them like they were struggling against relegation, right into their counter attacking hands. No injuries, no Europe and then almost everyone involved in the game seemingly wanting them to win are luxuries a title chasing team is ever likely to have.
 
Ok it's time. I've taken on the dreaded results predictor between now and end of season.

Only looked at the top six. I have Liverpool and City to runaway and us to be fairly solid in 3rd place for majority of the run in. Not close enough to ever really challenge the top two but far enough away from 4th - 6th for most of it.

There's a couple of weekends (end of March / early April) where things get a little tight for us...
We have LIV (a) on the same weekend Chelsea are away at Cardiff, which closed the gap to 2 points (assuming a loss for us).
Then when we face City away, Chelsea are home to Burnley.

Fortunately for us Chelsea are away to both Liverpool and Man Utd the weekends immediately after those above, when we in turn are home to Huddersfield and then West Ham.

Allowing for an inevitable drop of points at home in a draw somewhere (probably against West Ham), I have the table as follows going into the last day of the season...

Liverpool 96pts
Emirates Marketing Project 93pts
SPURS 78pts
Chelsea 78pts
--------------------
Man Utd 76pts
Arsenal 75pts

Goal difference not factored in, as I literally just do 1-0 wins to tally up the 3 points. But I've got it as any of 3rd - 6th can still get top 4 on final day of season. :eek:


Final day fixtures:

Liverpool v Wolves
Brighton v Emirates Marketing Project
SPURS
v Everton
Leicester v Chelsea
Burnley v Arsenal

All of those look winnable for those that need them tbh. Wolves, Brighton, Everton and Leicester will probably be on their hols by then.

Overall, there are still far too many massive fixtures between these clubs to call too much.
Arsenal face United at Emirates. Manchester derby. NLD. Chelsea v Spurs. Liverpool v Chelsea. United v Chelsea. United v Liverpool. City v Spurs.
Arsenal actually have the least games left against the top 6 so could still be in with a sniff if they get their act together.
 
Just to add, I think our bad week could be coming up soon, 26/27th Feb midweek fixtures -

Emirates Marketing Project v West Ham - home win
Arsenal v Bournemouth - home win
C.Palace v Man Utd - away win
Chelsea v Spurs - home win :eek:(
Liverpool v Watford - home win
 
Ok it's time. I've taken on the dreaded results predictor between now and end of season.

Only looked at the top six. I have Liverpool and City to runaway and us to be fairly solid in 3rd place for majority of the run in. Not close enough to ever really challenge the top two but far enough away from 4th - 6th for most of it.

There's a couple of weekends (end of March / early April) where things get a little tight for us...
We have LIV (a) on the same weekend Chelsea are away at Cardiff, which closed the gap to 2 points (assuming a loss for us).
Then when we face City away, Chelsea are home to Burnley.

Fortunately for us Chelsea are away to both Liverpool and Man Utd the weekends immediately after those above, when we in turn are home to Huddersfield and then West Ham.

Allowing for an inevitable drop of points at home in a draw somewhere (probably against West Ham), I have the table as follows going into the last day of the season...

Liverpool 96pts
Emirates Marketing Project 93pts
SPURS 78pts
Chelsea 78pts
--------------------
Man Utd 76pts
Arsenal 75pts

Goal difference not factored in, as I literally just do 1-0 wins to tally up the 3 points. But I've got it as any of 3rd - 6th can still get top 4 on final day of season. :eek:


Final day fixtures:

Liverpool v Wolves
Brighton v Emirates Marketing Project
SPURS
v Everton
Leicester v Chelsea
Burnley v Arsenal

All of those look winnable for those that need them tbh. Wolves, Brighton, Everton and Leicester will probably be on their hols by then.

Overall, there are still far too many massive fixtures between these clubs to call too much.
Arsenal face United at Emirates. Manchester derby. NLD. Chelsea v Spurs. Liverpool v Chelsea. United v Chelsea. United v Liverpool. City v Spurs.
Arsenal actually have the least games left against the top 6 so could still be in with a sniff if they get their act together.
Never bother with game by game predictions as there are too many odd results in our league. Agree with your overall assessment of positions for top 3 but think we will be a little closer to the top 2 than that. It seems like many on here point out games where they could see Liverpool/City slipping up but then say we have the potential to 'go on a run' despite having the hardest fixtures. We will come unstuck in some games too, but should finish a solid third and no one would have argued with that at the start of the season.....
 
Ok it's time. I've taken on the dreaded results predictor between now and end of season.

Only looked at the top six. I have Liverpool and City to runaway and us to be fairly solid in 3rd place for majority of the run in. Not close enough to ever really challenge the top two but far enough away from 4th - 6th for most of it.

There's a couple of weekends (end of March / early April) where things get a little tight for us...
We have LIV (a) on the same weekend Chelsea are away at Cardiff, which closed the gap to 2 points (assuming a loss for us).
Then when we face City away, Chelsea are home to Burnley.

Fortunately for us Chelsea are away to both Liverpool and Man Utd the weekends immediately after those above, when we in turn are home to Huddersfield and then West Ham.

Allowing for an inevitable drop of points at home in a draw somewhere (probably against West Ham), I have the table as follows going into the last day of the season...

Liverpool 96pts
Emirates Marketing Project 93pts
SPURS 78pts
Chelsea 78pts
--------------------
Man Utd 76pts
Arsenal 75pts

Goal difference not factored in, as I literally just do 1-0 wins to tally up the 3 points. But I've got it as any of 3rd - 6th can still get top 4 on final day of season. :eek:


Final day fixtures:

Liverpool v Wolves
Brighton v Emirates Marketing Project
SPURS
v Everton
Leicester v Chelsea
Burnley v Arsenal

All of those look winnable for those that need them tbh. Wolves, Brighton, Everton and Leicester will probably be on their hols by then.

Overall, there are still far too many massive fixtures between these clubs to call too much.
Arsenal face United at Emirates. Manchester derby. NLD. Chelsea v Spurs. Liverpool v Chelsea. United v Chelsea. United v Liverpool. City v Spurs.
Arsenal actually have the least games left against the top 6 so could still be in with a sniff if they get their act together.

Just looking at the next few games, by 03/03/19 I have
City - 71
Liverpool - 69
Spurs - 66

And at that point, literally anything can happen. Liverpool could go into full on collapse, we could be building momentum to try and reel City in, City could just run away with it having got ahead...
 
Ok it's time. I've taken on the dreaded results predictor between now and end of season.

Only looked at the top six. I have Liverpool and City to runaway and us to be fairly solid in 3rd place for majority of the run in. Not close enough to ever really challenge the top two but far enough away from 4th - 6th for most of it.

There's a couple of weekends (end of March / early April) where things get a little tight for us...
We have LIV (a) on the same weekend Chelsea are away at Cardiff, which closed the gap to 2 points (assuming a loss for us).
Then when we face City away, Chelsea are home to Burnley.

Fortunately for us Chelsea are away to both Liverpool and Man Utd the weekends immediately after those above, when we in turn are home to Huddersfield and then West Ham.

Allowing for an inevitable drop of points at home in a draw somewhere (probably against West Ham), I have the table as follows going into the last day of the season...

Liverpool 96pts
Emirates Marketing Project 93pts
SPURS 78pts
Chelsea 78pts
--------------------
Man Utd 76pts
Arsenal 75pts

Goal difference not factored in, as I literally just do 1-0 wins to tally up the 3 points. But I've got it as any of 3rd - 6th can still get top 4 on final day of season. :eek:


Final day fixtures:

Liverpool v Wolves
Brighton v Emirates Marketing Project
SPURS
v Everton
Leicester v Chelsea
Burnley v Arsenal

All of those look winnable for those that need them tbh. Wolves, Brighton, Everton and Leicester will probably be on their hols by then.

Overall, there are still far too many massive fixtures between these clubs to call too much.
Arsenal face United at Emirates. Manchester derby. NLD. Chelsea v Spurs. Liverpool v Chelsea. United v Chelsea. United v Liverpool. City v Spurs.
Arsenal actually have the least games left against the top 6 so could still be in with a sniff if they get their act together.
Lol, you must have put some really pessimistic results in for us. I had us more around the low 80's points wise.
 
Ok it's time. I've taken on the dreaded results predictor between now and end of season.

Only looked at the top six. I have Liverpool and City to runaway and us to be fairly solid in 3rd place for majority of the run in. Not close enough to ever really challenge the top two but far enough away from 4th - 6th for most of it.

There's a couple of weekends (end of March / early April) where things get a little tight for us...
We have LIV (a) on the same weekend Chelsea are away at Cardiff, which closed the gap to 2 points (assuming a loss for us).
Then when we face City away, Chelsea are home to Burnley.

Fortunately for us Chelsea are away to both Liverpool and Man Utd the weekends immediately after those above, when we in turn are home to Huddersfield and then West Ham.

Allowing for an inevitable drop of points at home in a draw somewhere (probably against West Ham), I have the table as follows going into the last day of the season...

Liverpool 96pts
Emirates Marketing Project 93pts
SPURS 78pts
Chelsea 78pts
--------------------
Man Utd 76pts
Arsenal 75pts

Goal difference not factored in, as I literally just do 1-0 wins to tally up the 3 points. But I've got it as any of 3rd - 6th can still get top 4 on final day of season. :eek:


Final day fixtures:

Liverpool v Wolves
Brighton v Emirates Marketing Project
SPURS
v Everton
Leicester v Chelsea
Burnley v Arsenal

All of those look winnable for those that need them tbh. Wolves, Brighton, Everton and Leicester will probably be on their hols by then.

Overall, there are still far too many massive fixtures between these clubs to call too much.
Arsenal face United at Emirates. Manchester derby. NLD. Chelsea v Spurs. Liverpool v Chelsea. United v Chelsea. United v Liverpool. City v Spurs.
Arsenal actually have the least games left against the top 6 so could still be in with a sniff if they get their act together.

I think this would likely be the scariest last-day scenario in Poch's tenure..:eek:
 
This is how I've predicted the league finishing this year.

Emirates Marketing Project - 98
Liverpool - 93
Tottenham - 88
Chelsea - 78
Man Utd - 76
Arsenal - 74

Oh GHod the scoucers will be unbareable.
 
Lol, you must have put some really pessimistic results in for us. I had us more around the low 80's points wise.

I'd like to think I was fairly realistic tbh, taking into account injuries, current form, recent history etc etc.

Think it was along the lines of the following...

Burnley (a) - W
Arsenal (h) - W
C.Palace (h) - W
Brighton (h) - W
Huddersfield (h) - W
Bournemouth (a) - W
Everton (h) - W

Leicester (h) - D
Southampton (a) - D
West Ham (h) - D

Chelsea (a) - L
Liverpool (a) - L
Emirates Marketing Project (a) - L

Granted, the So'ton and West Ham results are dubious. But we're going to drop points somewhere and the latter have been known to raise themselves for a cup final!
We could also get a point out of one of those (L) games. But then it also wouldn't be unprecedented to only draw at home to Arsenal.
 
I'd like to think I was fairly realistic tbh, taking into account injuries, current form, recent history etc etc.

Think it was along the lines of the following...

Burnley (a) - W
Arsenal (h) - W
C.Palace (h) - W
Brighton (h) - W
Huddersfield (h) - W
Bournemouth (a) - W
Everton (h) - W

Leicester (h) - D
Southampton (a) - D
West Ham (h) - D

Chelsea (a) - L
Liverpool (a) - L
Emirates Marketing Project (a) - L

Granted, the So'ton and West Ham results are dubious. But we're going to drop points somewhere and the latter have been known to raise themselves for a cup final!
We could also get a point out of one of those (L) games. But then it also wouldn't be unprecedented to only draw at home to Arsenal.
Have you been living under a rock!? We don't do draws.;)
 
This is how I've predicted the league finishing this year.

Emirates Marketing Project - 98
Liverpool - 93
Tottenham - 88
Chelsea - 78
Man Utd - 76
Arsenal - 74

Oh GHod the scoucers will be unbareable.


I don't know how anyone hasn't seen this yet (RAWK meltdown incoming)

- We get to last game, Spurs has been on a tear, all we have to do is match Pool's result on last game to win the league
- Everton turns up and rolls over, we smash them, Pool misses out because Everton are brick … hahaha .. the years of salt ...
 
I'd like to think I was fairly realistic tbh, taking into account injuries, current form, recent history etc etc.

Think it was along the lines of the following...

Burnley (a) - W
Arsenal (h) - W
C.Palace (h) - W
Brighton (h) - W
Huddersfield (h) - W
Bournemouth (a) - W
Everton (h) - W

Leicester (h) - D
Southampton (a) - D
West Ham (h) - D

Chelsea (a) - L
Liverpool (a) - L
Emirates Marketing Project (a) - L

Granted, the So'ton and West Ham results are dubious. But we're going to drop points somewhere and the latter have been known to raise themselves for a cup final!
We could also get a point out of one of those (L) games. But then it also wouldn't be unprecedented to only draw at home to Arsenal.

The point I was trying to make above is that you really cant forecast too far ahead because we dont now how the intangibles like pressure count.

Some teams thrive on it, others fold. I think that City are the former, Pool are the latter. With us who knows?

So from that point of the Merseyside derby, things really are unpredictable and anything could happen.

With Liverpool folding under pressure - we might beat them at theirs, for example.

If they go 4 or 5 games into a slump, theyll drop behind us and then what?

Best we can do, at this point, is look a few games at a time IMO.
 
This is how I've predicted the league finishing this year.

Emirates Marketing Project - 98
Liverpool - 93
Tottenham - 88
Chelsea - 78
Man Utd - 76
Arsenal - 74

Oh GHod the scoucers will be unbareable.

this is how i think the ending table positions would look like (can't be bothered with the points) - great to be top 3 - an achievement considering no spend, audere est facere!
 
The point I was trying to make above is that you really cant forecast too far ahead because we dont now how the intangibles like pressure count.

Some teams thrive on it, others fold. I think that City are the former, Pool are the latter. With us who knows?

So from that point of the Merseyside derby, things really are unpredictable and anything could happen.

With Liverpool folding under pressure - we might beat them at theirs, for example.

If they go 4 or 5 games into a slump, theyll drop behind us and then what?

Best we can do, at this point, is look a few games at a time IMO.

Totally agree. At this stage, one result can affect another and I doubt many of us would have predicted 2 points from 6 for Liverpool's last couple of games, had we tried to predict the results a few weeks ago.
 
Totally agree. At this stage, one result can affect another and I doubt many of us would have predicted 2 points from 6 for Liverpool's last couple of games, had we tried to predict the results a few weeks ago.

The flip side of my example is the pressure really galvanises Liverpool and both they and City pull away from us.

Its just so uncertain!
 
The point I was trying to make above is that you really cant forecast too far ahead because we dont now how the intangibles like pressure count.

Some teams thrive on it, others fold. I think that City are the former, Pool are the latter. With us who knows?

So from that point of the Merseyside derby, things really are unpredictable and anything could happen.

With Liverpool folding under pressure - we might beat them at theirs, for example.

If they go 4 or 5 games into a slump, theyll drop behind us and then what?

Best we can do, at this point, is look a few games at a time IMO.

Don't disagree at all. The predictor is just a bit of fun tbh, and if anything, only serves to reenforce what I already know...that it's gonna be a tough ride yet! haha.

Only time I really take much solace from predictors is if, even with a good degree of pessimism, I manage to place us several points clear with only a couple of games to go. And therefore even allowing for inaccuracy and the "odd unknown", we are still likely to be in a good place.
 
The point I was trying to make above is that you really cant forecast too far ahead because we dont now how the intangibles like pressure count.

Some teams thrive on it, others fold. I think that City are the former, Pool are the latter. With us who knows?

So from that point of the Merseyside derby, things really are unpredictable and anything could happen.

With Liverpool folding under pressure - we might beat them at theirs, for example.

If they go 4 or 5 games into a slump, theyll drop behind us and then what?

Best we can do, at this point, is look a few games at a time IMO.

I don’t think either us or Liverpool particularly thrive or play well under pressure. We clawed ourselves to within a few points of Liverpool then lost at home to Wolves. People wrote us off then we won 3 in a row when the pressure was off. Now we’re back in the title race again and will be interesting to see how we react. We tend to play better when under the radar or no one is looking. Similar to Arsenal as well actually but to a higher standard.
 
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