Final Four and Finishing Place Predictions

[Villa Lew]

Spurs match is the biggie, if we can win that can see us finishing with 9 points and 6th, which would be an amazing season.

[eamonn]

It's not an outside chance, it's in our own hands.

Being in our own hands doesn't affect the likelihood though.

That's only if you think Spurs and Brighton are going to beat us 

I expect Emery to have a Newcastle-type "statement win" planned for at least one of those games.

[aj2k77]

4 points and 8th position but an extremely encouraging start to Emery's reign and a summer of hope.

[Clark W Griswold]

8th for me too, I did think that after the Brentford game. It’ll be a real achievement considering where we were after Fulham away. Get the right players in and as pointed out we really have to have a good chance of Europa league qualification next season.

[Percy McCarthy]

I think we needed more than one point from our last two fixtures and to be honest we have been poor in both.

We got 3. Tone down the doom a bit eh?

[Skerra]

I think 7th is our most realistic target given our squad is so thin just now.

[Rigadon]

I think the top 4 is almost certainly the top 4 now, barring a complete meltdown at Man Utd.  It's difficult to call it after that.  If I were a betting person, I'd have Liverpool in 5th and Brighton in 6th, with 7th a toss up between us a Spurs. 

To finish higher than 8th we will likely need another crazy run, starting with a win against Wolves.  They will be massively fired up, especially after getting humiliated by Brighton, so that won't be easy.

Anyway, 6th, 7th or 8th, it's an impressive end to a season where we looked (after a quarter of it) that we could be down *there* again.

[ChicagoLion]

Beat Wolves and it’s on.

[Toronto Villa]

Defeat fucks Emery off no end so I expect him to spend hours finding ways to put 10 past Wolves next weekend before thrashing Spurs.

[darren woolley]

Wolves - W
Spurs - W
Liverpool - L
Brighton - D

61pts  7th position

[chrisw1]

4 points, 8th.

Still an excellent turnaround by Emery and a position most of us would have been delighted with when he took over.  A superb launching point for next season wherever we finish now.

But, even so, regretting the lack of activity in Jan.  I know there's an argument we may not have had the brilliant run we have with different players through the door and of course this may be true.  But I still feel the lack of depth will do for us in the end.

[Risso]

But, even so, regretting the lack of activity in Jan.  I know there's an argument we may not have had the brilliant run we have with different players through the door and of course this may be true.  But I still feel the lack of depth will do for us in the end.

Same here. Having a tight knit squad is good, but in the end having more good players is always better than not having them. It feels like the lack of options is starting to bite now, as we make subs that then have no discernible impact on the game. Hope we give Wolves a good twatting to get things back on track.

[PeterWithesShin]

If we fall short it will be because we took the grand total of 2 points from the games against Bournemouth, Palace, West Ham, Leeds, and Forest under Gerrard and you can maybe add the Chelsea and Fulham games as well.

[chrisw1]

If we fall short it will be because we took the grand total of 2 points from the games against Bournemouth, Palace, West Ham, Leeds, and Forest under Gerrard and you can maybe add the Chelsea and Fulham games as well.

Nobody is denying what came before Emery was awful, or that he's done a great job.  But if we fall short from where we are now it will be because we don't get enough points in the final 4 games.  But I agree, losing to Man U or Liverpool away does not define our season.  Emery's superb impact does, wherever we finish.

[algy]

I don't think it's the end of the world if we finish 8th. It's been a remarkable turnaround, and I'd suspect most folk would've taken an 8th place finish at the start of the season, and certainly after the Bournemouth game.

Anything better will be an incredible achievement. I don't think it's worth considering what ifs about squad size, they could've as easily not worked in our favour, e.g. would Watkins have gone on the incredible scoring run had he been competing with Ings for a place? Who knows.

It's all in our hands though. The games we have left are against our direct competitors for that space (plus Wolves) so if we don't beat them, fair enough they deserve the place more than us anyway. If we do take the spot, whoever misses out can't have any complaints either.