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Lawro the Twunt says...

Emirates Marketing Project v Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday, 13:30 GMT)

After Tuesday's draw with Ajax, Emirates Marketing Project are almost certainly out of the Champions League and, although nobody at the club would probably ever admit it, I don't think they would mind finishing fourth in their group and going out of the Europa League too.

Being knocked out of Europe would definitely do their Premier League title hopes some good, because they can concentrate on retaining their trophy.

Questions are being asked about whether Roberto Mancini can deliver in the Champions League but, if he wins the title again, then it will be a case of 'pressure, what pressure?'.

And, for all of City's struggles in Europe, they remain unbeaten in the Premier League.

There are a few reasons why they are not playing as well as they did last season - for starters, after you win the league for the first time it is always very difficult to recapture that form.

I also think one or two of their players are resting on their laurels a little bit, and defensively they are making mistakes in every game - Vincent Kompany does not look anything like the player he was last season.

But the other factor is that David Silva is proving to be more of a miss at the moment than he would be normally.

Silva is such a good player at spotting gaps in defences and probing away and they don't seem to have anyone else who can do that - they try to get their full-backs forward well but there is not much creativity out wide either, and they look very narrow coming forward to me.

But I still fancy them to beat most teams in the Premier League. They are definitely good enough to beat Tottenham because, with Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez up front, you would back them against the Spurs defence.

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas is still trying to work his team out and it looks like he is trying to shoe-horn Emmanuel Adebayor in at the moment.

Jermain Defoe has started the season extremely well so the question for Villas-Boas is, does he shoehorn Adebayor in with Defoe up front or without him?

This is going to be a frustrating season for Tottenham, and their fans will need to show some patience when they lose games.

Prediction: Emirates Marketing Project 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur


Lawro's 2012-13 Premier League Predictions & how the Table would look like if all his forecasts were correct...

http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Mark_Lawrensons_Predictions_2012-13.html
 
And there from the shadows emerged a man, a man with a voice, a man who had jokes aplenty.. only problem, he isn't funny and he's an absolute TWUNT!!!!
 
Emirates Marketing Project v Tottenham Hotspur (Sunday, 13:30 GMT)

After Tuesday's draw with Ajax, Emirates Marketing Project are almost certainly out of the Champions League and, although nobody at the club would probably ever admit it, I don't think they would mind finishing fourth in their group and going out of the Europa League too.

Being knocked out of Europe would definitely do their Premier League title hopes some good, because they can concentrate on retaining their trophy.

Questions are being asked about whether Roberto Mancini can deliver in the Champions League but, if he wins the title again, then it will be a case of 'pressure, what pressure?'.

And, for all of City's struggles in Europe, they remain unbeaten in the Premier League.

There are a few reasons why they are not playing as well as they did last season - for starters, after you win the league for the first time it is always very difficult to recapture that form.

I also think one or two of their players are resting on their laurels a little bit, and defensively they are making mistakes in every game - Vincent Kompany does not look anything like the player he was last season.

But the other factor is that David Silva is proving to be more of a miss at the moment than he would be normally.

Silva is such a good player at spotting gaps in defences and probing away and they don't seem to have anyone else who can do that - they try to get their full-backs forward well but there is not much creativity out wide either, and they look very narrow coming forward to me.

But I still fancy them to beat most teams in the Premier League. They are definitely good enough to beat Tottenham because, with Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez up front, you would back them against the Spurs defence.

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas is still trying to work his team out and it looks like he is trying to shoe-horn Emmanuel Adebayor in at the moment.

Jermain Defoe has started the season extremely well so the question for Villas-Boas is, does he shoehorn Adebayor in with Defoe up front or without him?

This is going to be a frustrating season for Tottenham, and their fans will need to show some patience when they lose games.


I have never posted in the Lawro thread before, but that summary is on the button.
 
Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur (12:45 GMT)

In this fixture last season, Arsenal came back from 2-0 down to beat Spurs 5-2.

That win at the end of February was seen as a turning point in their season and what Gunners fans should remember is that, although they are going through a sticky patch now, it is nothing to the way they began the last campaign, when Arsene Wenger was getting all sorts of grief.

When I look at their team I see lots of quality, and they are capable of going on another good run, especially now Jack Wheelchair is getting back to full fitness after returning from a long-term lay-off.

Arsenal's problem is that they do not seem able to win when they play badly, which is the difference between them and the current top three.

But they would still be my tip to finish fourth because they are still better than the rest of the Premier League, and Wenger is their manager.

I'm not convinced by Tottenham - when they are under pressure their defence is creaking a bit - we saw it when they lost to Chelsea and last weekend when they were beaten by Emirates Marketing Project.

They were ahead in both of those games but it just seems that, when teams really come at them, they buckle.

We know from seeing Wenger's teams before that Arsenal will bounce back from their loss of form but we don't know if Spurs will. I don't think their manager Andre Villas-Boas knows his best team yet.

Tottenham supporters need to remember Villas-Boas has only been in charge for a matter of months and they need to be patient.

Hopefully his chairman Daniel Levy is the same and I don't think there is any need for them to worry - I know they would love to finish fourth, which might be beyond them, but I think they will finish in the top six at the very least which would be a decent achievement.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur


Lawro's 2012-13 Premier League predictions & how the Table would look like if he was correct...

Lawro's Predictions
 
How can 6th be a decent achievement if the last manager got sacked for finishing 4th instead of 3rd?
 
How can 6th be a decent achievement if the last manager got sacked for finishing 4th instead of 3rd?

This is where the negativity towards AVB is coming from..... unrealistic expectations!

Decent achievement - So nothing outstanding, bit like a PAR on a hole in golf.

As mentioned by a couple of others, we lost probably our best 2 players, certainly our most creative, we have a new coach with new ideas, trying to play a completely different system. Not to mention a club who finished below us is buying every top player we set our eyes on and more!!

So with all that in mind, for AVB to get a 'Decent achievement' you still expect us to finish higher than last year!?? PAH!!
 
This is where the negativity towards AVB is coming from..... unrealistic expectations!

Decent achievement - So nothing outstanding, bit like a PAR on a hole in golf.

As mentioned by a couple of others, we lost probably our best 2 players, certainly our most creative, we have a new coach with new ideas, trying to play a completely different system. Not to mention a club who finished below us is buying every top player we set our eyes on and more!!

So with all that in mind, for AVB to get a 'Decent achievement' you still expect us to finish higher than last year!?? PAH!!



This
 
This is where the negativity towards AVB is coming from..... unrealistic expectations!

Decent achievement - So nothing outstanding, bit like a PAR on a hole in golf.

As mentioned by a couple of others, we lost probably our best 2 players, certainly our most creative, we have a new coach with new ideas, trying to play a completely different system. Not to mention a club who finished below us is buying every top player we set our eyes on and more!!

So with all that in mind, for AVB to get a 'Decent achievement' you still expect us to finish higher than last year!?? PAH!!

Indeed.
 
This is where the negativity towards AVB is coming from..... unrealistic expectations!

Decent achievement - So nothing outstanding, bit like a PAR on a hole in golf.

As mentioned by a couple of others, we lost probably our best 2 players, certainly our most creative, we have a new coach with new ideas, trying to play a completely different system. Not to mention a club who finished below us is buying every top player we set our eyes on and more!!

So with all that in mind, for AVB to get a 'Decent achievement' you still expect us to finish higher than last year!?? PAH!!

No the negativity comes from our poor performances. Plus the fact AVB has previous for taking a good squad and struggling.

This losing Modric excuse is getting ridiculous. Arsenal lost RVP as well, so their squad is weaker. Clubs lose a best player all the time, it gives others a chance to shine. Man Utd had the biggest loss of a player ever when they lost Ronaldo but it didn't stop them maintaining their position. The top 2 were always ahead, Chelsea strengthened (and AVB is a big part of why they came 6th anyway) and Arsenal have got worse while Saudi Sportswashing Machine have reverted back to their rightful place. The rest of the PL were nowhere near our squad and no one has done anything to close this gap in the summer.

So, someone explain to me again why we can't expect 4th place as a realistic target? With or without Modric we are still top 5 at least in terms of squad. We are weaker without Modric, but arsenal are weaker as well. We are ahead of the rest still?
 
No the negativity comes from our poor performances. Plus the fact AVB has previous for taking a good squad and struggling.

This losing Modric excuse is getting ridiculous. Arsenal lost RVP as well, so their squad is weaker. Clubs lose a best player all the time, it gives others a chance to shine. Man Utd had the biggest loss of a player ever when they lost Ronaldo but it didn't stop them maintaining their position. The top 2 were always ahead, Chelsea strengthened (and AVB is a big part of why they came 6th anyway) and Arsenal have got worse while Saudi Sportswashing Machine have reverted back to their rightful place. The rest of the PL were nowhere near our squad and no one has done anything to close this gap in the summer.

So, someone explain to me again why we can't expect 4th place as a realistic target? With or without Modric we are still top 5 at least in terms of squad. We are weaker without Modric, but arsenal are weaker as well. We are ahead of the rest still?

I am not sure we could ever expect 4th place. We have got 4th place two out of the last three seasons against expectations. I don't see why this season 4th place should be expected and I think it is unfair to expect it when to achieve it the last two times we did so by exceeding expectations.
 
I think its a little different when United lose an important player. They are still one of the biggest draws in football and can afford to pay players what they want. For us, its impossible to sign a player like Modric in his prime. We can't get a like-for-like replacement.

The same applies to the clubs we get our players from. Wigan have to deal with this all the time (e.g. Palacios), we took Dembele from Fulham, etc (clearly us taking Dempsey and them signing Berbatov upsets this theory a bit).
 
I think its a little different when United lose an important player. They are still one of the biggest draws in football and can afford to pay players what they want. For us, its impossible to sign a player like Modric in his prime. We can't get a like-for-like replacement.

The same applies to the clubs we get our players from. Wigan have to deal with this all the time (e.g. Palacios), we took Dembele from Fulham, etc (clearly us taking Dempsey and them signing Berbatov upsets this theory a bit).

If Fulham finish above us this season, which I think he is a realistic possibility, that also upsets that theory a bit!
 
If Fulham finish above us this season, which I think he is a realistic possibility, that also upsets that theory a bit!

Not really, it would just indicate that they are better at finding players and developing them than us. When we have lost important players - Carrick, Berbatov, Modric - we have struggled to replace them adequately.
 
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