Serious relegation fears

[alekaras]

You know what really catches my eye when looking at Spurs at 5th in the PL table tonight? It's the +10 point goal differential.

I can't remember when our GD has been that high, even when our place in the table has been. I could be wrong, it could be my failing memory. And I know its down to a few lopsided results, but also to some strong defensive performances. But whatever the table looks like at the end of the season, I'd love to see that stat stay in or near positive double digits.

Not only that, but this early in the season too. It's much easier to have a double digit goal differential in March than early November.

 

[BucurestiSpur]

I absolutely love these threads each season. My favourite part is when most of us have basically given up with about 10games to go, then there is a few lucky results and around 6-7 games to go we feel we have an outside chance maybe....before being crushed again



..............

 

[Pandy]

I agree... if we keep accumulating points as we have for the first eleven games of the season we would be on about 69 points. We need to accumulate an average of 2.03 points a game to hit the 75 mark so we need to improve a tad, but 75 points would be an excellent target

2PPG is 76 points. Oh wait I just realised you mean from now until the end of the season.

But yeah, I normally consider 2PPG as the target for CL qualification. I cannot imagine a scenario in which that wouldn't get us CL.

Beat the filth on Sunday and we are on track!!

 

[parklane1]

Lets just focus on the next game which I am sure is how Poch sees it as well.

 

[Modric THFC]

I agree... if we keep accumulating points as we have for the first eleven games of the season we would be on about 69 points. We need to accumulate an average of 2.03 points a game to hit the 75 mark so we need to improve a tad, but 75 points would be an excellent target

75 points?

65 would have got 4th last season.
73 the 2 seasons before.
66 in 11/12
63 in 10/11
68 in 09/10
64 in 08/09
66 in 07/08
61 in 06/07

If anything this year should be a low points total to get 4th with so many teams struggling.

 

[P.D.]

But we dont just want CL, we want to get a good points total and show progress from the prior season. 75 may even get 3rd and automatic entry to the group stages.

 

[inkpenspur]

75 points?

65 would have got 4th last season.
73 the 2 seasons before.
66 in 11/12
63 in 10/11
68 in 09/10
64 in 08/09
66 in 07/08
61 in 06/07

If anything this year should be a low points total to get 4th with so many teams struggling.

That's the point, I think if we can get 75 points we'll be more than pushing 3rd

 

[AdamB]

Just to remind everyone, if English teams don't do well in Europe this year, but Italian teams do, England might only end up with three CL teams next year not four.....so 4th might not be enough!!!

 

[milo]

Just to remind everyone, if English teams don't do well in Europe this year, but Italian teams do, England might only end up with three CL teams next year not four.....so 4th might not be enough!!!

4th is enough this season. It would be next season that we would only have three qualifying places from the league

 

[Lost Mango]

4th is enough this season. It would be next season that we would only have three qualifying places from the league

And the co-efficient shift would still have to fairly big even then.

 

[glorygloryeze]

We're 5th. A point off 4th and 4th out of the clubs expected to fight for a CL spot to the end. We're on a 10 game unbeaten run without having been particularly lucky or had a particularly soft fixture list.

Why shouldn't we talk about top 4? I understand that it's partly in jest, but it just seems to belittle us to say that we can't talk about it as if it will jinx us because we're such super underdogs.

Happy to talk about it, as we always do. However, when have we actually started a "race for the top 4" thread after only about 10-12 games? Don't think we've ever done that before - and we've had MUCH better starts in the past (as good as ours is currently, it's not as good as 2009/10, 2011/12 or maybe even 2005/06).

We should not start sucking our own d!cks just yet..

 

[SteveAWOL]

Just to remind everyone, if English teams don't do well in Europe this year, but Italian teams do, England might only end up with three CL teams next year not four.....so 4th might not be enough!!!

Or if English clubs do really well in Europe and win both trophies this season (should Chavski fluke another CL plus Scousers / Goons win EL) then 4th could end up being a Europa spot again!

 

[Jordinho]

England increased their lead again today and are now 3.6 ahead of Italy. Next summer England will lose 3.9 points more than Italy and a couple more each of the following seasons, so we need the other teams (especially those in the CL) to do well.

 

[SteveAWOL]

You know what really catches my eye when looking at Spurs at 5th in the PL table tonight? It's the +10 point goal differential.

I can't remember when our GD has been that high, even when our place in the table has been. I could be wrong, it could be my failing memory. And I know its down to a few lopsided results, but also to some strong defensive performances. But whatever the table looks like at the end of the season, I'd love to see that stat stay in or near positive double digits.

If we still have positive goal diff in double figures at the end of the season, it will be for only the sixth time since 1990!

 

[SpursLodge]

I really expected Chelsea to have got their act together by now, but the longer The special one keeps getting it wrong the more I'm beginning to believe that we could pinch a top 4 spot. I fully expect Leicester to slip away in the next couple of months which means that we'd be in prime place to win the 4th place trophy and that's without Kane scoring for most of the season so far!

Anyone else starting to believe or are we going to do a Tottenham and rooster it up at some point?

 

[alekaras]

I really expected Chel53a to have got their act together by now, but the longer The special one keeps getting it wrong the more I'm beginning to believe that we could pinch a top 4 spot. I fully expect Leicester to slip away in the next couple of months which means that we'd be in prime place to win the 4th place trophy and that's without Kane scoring for most of the season so far!

Anyone else starting to believe or are we going to do a Tottenham and rooster it up at some point?

I think the one reason we may rooster it up is if fatigue catches up with us and we lose our consistency. We were unlucky in a number of the early games and dropped at least 4-6 points that we now need to make up. This means that the rest of the season may be more of a sprint than a marathon with all the side effects this could have. Of course other contenders may rooster it up too, giving us more of a path to top four, but that's not what we should be relying on. We should be relying on our own performances and the rest will take care of itself.

 

[Spur of the moment]

I really expected Chel53a to have got their act together by now, but the longer The special one keeps getting it wrong the more I'm beginning to believe that we could pinch a top 4 spot. I fully expect Leicester to slip away in the next couple of months which means that we'd be in prime place to win the 4th place trophy and that's without Kane scoring for most of the season so far!

Anyone else starting to believe or are we going to do a Tottenham and rooster it up at some point?

Way way WAY too early to start building hopes. It's still only November and Chelsea are still only 13 pts off fourth, dammit. Never forget the season A'nal came back to knock us out of CL when they were 13 pts behind as late as something like February. We've had too many crushing crashes at the death to even begin hoping at this early stage.

 

[braineclipse]

I really expected Chel53a to have got their act together by now, but the longer The special one keeps getting it wrong the more I'm beginning to believe that we could pinch a top 4 spot. I fully expect Leicester to slip away in the next couple of months which means that we'd be in prime place to win the 4th place trophy and that's without Kane scoring for most of the season so far!

Anyone else starting to believe or are we going to do a Tottenham and rooster it up at some point?

Ghod I'm tired of this trope, along with the "sexy" one.

We've consistently overperformed compared to our financial situation for years and years and apparently it's seen as a failure because we've sometimes failed to overperformed by enough somehow.

We're putting ourselves in the mix for a top 4 spot, that's our ambition. Somehow not quite getting there would be a "typical failure". I would much rather be us than some of the teams that have only had one of those "fudge ups" and then returned to not even being close to being in a position to not quite reach an aim set high.

Way way WAY too early to start building hopes. It's still only November and Chel53a are still only 13 pts off fourth, dammit. Never forget the season A'nal came back to knock us out of CL when they were 13 pts behind as late as something like February. We've had too many crushing crashes at the death to even begin hoping at this early stage.

Come on. Live a little.

Allow yourself to perhaps get disappointed. Won't kill you, I (kinda) promise.

 

[nayenezgani]

Merson thinks we can finish third! The clam is trying to jinx us.

 

[parklane1]

Ghod I'm tired of this trope, along with the "sexy" one.

We've consistently overperformed compared to our financial situation for years and years and apparently it's seen as a failure because we've sometimes failed to overperformed by enough somehow.

Amen brother, as you say its gonad*s.