Champions League Contention

[PaulWinch again]

Since beating us, they've managed to beat Luton and Everton. How the fuck are they still in the European mix at all?!

Because Sky, Talksport etc. are desperate for them to make a late surge to get 4th place and think everyone else in the country is willing them on as well.

Well and us and Spurs haven’t put any chance of it to bed completely (it’s not far off that now though - but we need to fucking win!)

[Lastfootstamper]

They all can be as desperate as they want, it won't make it happen, however much some seem to believe it will.

[Dave]

Since beating us, they've managed to beat Luton and Everton. How the fuck are they still in the European mix at all?!

Because Sky, Talksport etc. are desperate for them to make a late surge to get 4th place

No they're not.

[Steve67]

Good results for us today.  Man Yew and Tottenham failing to win.  The Barcodes will need to win every game with us losing all to catch us.  6th looks assured as it stands but 4th is still ours if we can tidy up at the back.

[olaftab]

Agree with you a near perfect day but did you mean 5th looks assured?

[Steve67]

Agree with you a near perfect day but did you mean 5th looks assured?

I'm still looking further down the table at what is behind us.  The Barcodes could technically catch us, so can Man Yew if we lost our games and they won theirs, but even a misery arse like me doesn't think that will happen, so I reckon 6th is the lowest we will finish and, yes, 5th looks very nearly assured.

[tomd2103]

Since beating us, they've managed to beat Luton and Everton. How the fuck are they still in the European mix at all?!

Because Sky, Talksport etc. are desperate for them to make a late surge to get 4th place

No they're not.

Really?  You don't think they would be constantly going on about them on there if they made a late run to finish "in that coveted Champions League spot"?

[PeterWithesShin]

Spurs were utter wank especially defensively, they're lucky it was only 4.

[Demitri_C]

Looking at Newcastle fixtures they could easily win all those games. But we would have to lose all our games for them to finish above us and even i can't see that happening. If it did we wouldnt deserve CL. Furthermore unai will sell a load of them in the summer as he will know they don't have the bottle to sustain a CL challenge

Have to say Gordon has been one of the signings of the season. Manure our only challenge for top 5 as that game in hand. Otherwise they out of it. I think they are out of it now as they needed to win yesterday.

[Smithy]

Neither Newcastle or Man Utd have a game in hand any more. We’ve all got 6 to play, and we’re 10 points ahead of them both. 3 wins and they can’t catch us even with a 100% end to the season (which is extremely unlikely for either of them)

Realistically we probably need two wins to secure 5th - but it might even be less than that.

4th? Who knows, it looks better than it did yesterday, but will still likely go down to the last game as neither us or Spurs look like putting a run of results together to pull away from the other. A surprise point or three today would be a lovely start :-)

[ADVILLAFAN]

It would be quite funny if after the media constantly trying to say that Manure are challenging for 4th spot, they end up finishing below Newcastle (and maybe even West Ham/Chelsea).

[Drummond]

If we were playing the way Spurs, Man U and Newcastle are currently, and in the form they are in, and we're in their positions instead of ours, I can assure you that all of the people saying they are going to (could, might, yada yada) catch us, would be talking us down and saying there wouldn't be any fucking chance we would catch up and that we were gash etc.

You're supposed to enjoy the fact we're doing well instead of being miserable about it.

Think about what Emery achieved last season with us, think of the improvements we have made as a club. It's pressure but we can't let it get to us.

[Clampy]

If we were playing the way Spurs, Man U and Newcastle are currently, and in the form they are in, and we're in their positions instead of ours, I can assure you that all of the people saying they are going to (could, might, yada yada) catch us, would be talking us down and saying there wouldn't be any fucking chance we would catch up and that we were gash etc.

You're supposed to enjoy the fact we're doing well instead of being miserable about it.

Think about what Emery achieved last season with us, think of the improvements we have made as a club. It's pressure but we can't let it get to us.

The second paragraph is spot on.

[tomd2103]

If we were playing the way Spurs, Man U and Newcastle are currently, and in the form they are in, and we're in their positions instead of ours, I can assure you that all of the people saying they are going to (could, might, yada yada) catch us, would be talking us down and saying there wouldn't be any fucking chance we would catch up and that we were gash etc.

You're supposed to enjoy the fact we're doing well instead of being miserable about it.

Think about what Emery achieved last season with us, think of the improvements we have made as a club. It's pressure but we can't let it get to us.

I think the pressure is always felt more when you are the ones being 'chased'.  The pressure to win becomes more intense and you just want the season to end.  When you are the ones chasing though, you look forward to every game and you want as many as possible.

[john e]

I was in my Boots coming away from the ground Thursday night I know we won but I wasn’t impressed with the performance and without Martinez we would have got tonked, but we have got him but he can’t save us all the time and I can see us going out next week
With our injuries in key positions I can’t see us keeping them out

Then other ridiculous results in the European games the coefficient look like it was going pear-shaped as well

Don’t see us getting anything out of Arsenal today either, so I thought this season was gonna dissolve into a disappointment
However, after yesterday’s results I’ve perked up a bit

Tottenham have a very very difficult next four games and even if we lose to Arsenal today which I fully expect it won’t be the end of the world as long as we can start picking points up in our remaining games