Champions League Contention

[Richard]

Looking at Man U fixtures and their much inferior goal difference I'd be amazed if they finish above us. I still think we will be 5th at worst come the end of the season.

[LeonW]

We have totally fucked it now.

We are ten matches from the end of the season and will be playing 30% of those matches without our captain, who plays in a part of the field where we are already decimated.

Not only that, we are playing badly and have been for ages now, just putting in the odd good 45 minutes here and there. Even when we manage a good half we then keep on having an absolute stinker of a second.

We are absolutely fuxked with injuries and have a difficult run in. The next three matches are all tricky, and I can honestly see us losing them all.

I think we will finish sixth, which will be fucking devastating after the expectation of the first two thirds of the season.

Genuinely woke up this morning feeling exactly like I did after that Stoke match, that is how bad this is. Gifting three points to our closest rivals on our own ground and throwing in an eight GD swing.

Fucking hell, I hate football.

This is pretty much how I feel. Why just mess up when you can mess it up as spectacularly as we did yesterday, not only with the goal difference and toothless performance but also by our captain being an idiot meaning we lose him unnecessarily? I was actually more angry today than yesterday.

[PaulWinch again]

Spurs will get 4th now, they have four nailed on wins to come and it’s hard to see them not picking up at least another couple more. Losing Bouba killed us unfortunately.

The only way I see us getting in the champions league would be to lose to Ajax, pull ourselves together enough to hold off Man Utd for 5th and then hope Man City and Liverpool win in Europe. Maybe that would be enough to get the extra place?

Bloody hell I’m pretty fed up after yesterday, but there’s plenty of potential for things to turn around. Bouba is a big loss, but Unai made a mistake and over compensated yesterday. Hopefully he’s learnt his lesson. If he has and we can get some luck with injuries - JJ playing for the rest of the season for a start - there are plenty of games we can win. Hopefully other teams will have also learned that sitting deep against Spurs is not the answer, they’re vulnerable if you actually set up to attack them.

[LeonW]

Looking at Man U fixtures and their much inferior goal difference I'd be amazed if they finish above us. I still think we will be 5th at worst come the end of the season.

You’ve cursed it now.

[Richard]

Looking at Man U fixtures and their much inferior goal difference I'd be amazed if they finish above us. I still think we will be 5th at worst come the end of the season.

You’ve cursed it now.

Ha! I'll revisit my prediction in mid May.

[Brazilian Villain]

I have no idea how to embed and image so imagine (Sid James) 😂

👍

[LeonW]

Looking at Man U fixtures and their much inferior goal difference I'd be amazed if they finish above us. I still think we will be 5th at worst come the end of the season.

You’ve cursed it now.

Ha! I'll revisit my prediction in mid May.

Those lot are a permanent curse on us.

If we get 5th the champions league slot won’t be available for an English team. If they get it, you bet it will happen.

[Hillbilly]

I'm more pissed off that we are now out of contention for being champions. A couple of stupid defeats have cost us a real shot at the title.

[Monty]

I'm more pissed off that we are now out of contention for being champions. A couple of stupid defeats have cost us a real shot at the title.

I like the cut of the jib of your thinking my friend.

[edgysatsuma89]

Looking at Man U fixtures and their much inferior goal difference I'd be amazed if they finish above us. I still think we will be 5th at worst come the end of the season.

Yeah, I'm genuinely not that worried about Man United. I get that they have been getting results whilst being shit but they are still, fundamentally, shit. It will catch up with them, they will lose a few. I don't however fancy us getting top 4 at all, which I get is pessimistic as we're currently still there, I just don't think we have the squad. I'm hanging all my hopes on English teams doing well in Europe* which I naturally think will fail.

*vomits blood.

[Hillbilly]

I'm more pissed off that we are now out of contention for being champions. A couple of stupid defeats have cost us a real shot at the title.

I like the cut of the jib of your thinking my friend.

I'm starting to get long in the tooth. I'm not sure how many more false dawns I have in me.

[wince]

I’m still hopeful and how far we have come in 5 years! Keep the faith and if it wasn’t for our injuries we would be more secure than we are now.

[Clark W Griswold]

Yeah, such a huge difference from June 2018 to now. With the exception of the Gerrard hiccup it's been a fairly swift rise from championship play off hopefuls to Champions League contenders. And in hindsight even Gerrard contributed by signing Kamara and Digne who have been excellent this season as well as Carlos who has contributed as well.

Emery has been the real success story and star of the show though.

[Rigadon]

I can’t cheer myself with comparing where we were a few years ago personally.  The novelty of the championship wore off pretty quick and, aside from the climb in the promotion season and some of the football played (esp by our former captain), I’d rather forget it!

If we finished 6th now, or worse still 5th and it didn’t end up mattering, it would be a massive let down.  We’d be told that we should just enjoy the dizzying heights of europa league qualification and be patronised to within an inch of our lives.  It would be pretty unbearable from a football perspective. 

[Rigadon]

I’m old enough to have seen some games as a little kid from 1982 onwards, but can’t remember the vibe from the title winning season before.  For those that are a bit ‘wiser’, I’m curious how this compares to the run in that year.  Obviously the stakes were higher (though I wonder if it felt any more intense), but from what I’ve already there were twists and turns.  What was it like from a fan perspective?  Nervy? Boisterous? It feels like a lot of us are sensing we’ve fucked 4th up (I’ll judge after the next 3 games starting Thursday) - was it the same in 81?  When stuff didn’t go to plan? Was there an equivalent moment like the 0-4 on Sunday.