The Race for the Top Four Finish

MR NINE

Liverpool

M!Ck^ wrote: »

I responded about a question on form and have made it clear that there's no reason Last Sunday cannot be a catalyst for a good run of form.
Typical response from you

But youre response to the question was "IF we keep the same team we COULD hit a run of form" and you then proceeded to point every game was winnable. At no point did you acknowledge or respond to the fact that Utd have 2 wins in 6. You completely dodged it by claiming utd could win all their remaining games, which frankly any team could do but no team will do, so not exactly enlightening stuff. Its hardly surprising people are amused by your post.

rob316

Manchester Utd

rarnes1 wrote: »

The top 4 teams that finishes with the most points will take top 4..

rarnes1

Southampton

rarnes1 wrote: »

The top 4 teams that finishes with the most points will take top 4..

Nice1 Jamie

M!Ck^

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Nice1 Jamie

Wooooosh

rarnes1

Southampton

rarnes1 wrote: »

Wooooosh

Ooo Sunday shall be juicy

M!Ck^

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Ooo Sunday shall be juicy

I'll be there Mick. May the best team win :cool:

Buford T. Justice XIX

Manchester Utd

rarnes1 wrote: »

I'll be there Mick. May the best team win :cool:

And hopefully United will do ok too...:pac:

Agent Coulson

Southampton

I see Southampton are falling away like everyone predicted.

niallo27

Manchester Utd

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I see Southampton are falling away like everyone predicted.

Are they in the top 4. They were third. Better hope of me winning mister speedos 2015 than Southampton getting top 4.

Harry Palmr

11 points cover the top 7 with a 10 point gap to Swansea. Chelsea do have two games in hand though.

Will I Amnt

Massive step for United today. Still a long way to go but it looks like van Gaal is starting to get it right just in time.

rarnes1

Southampton

rarnes1 wrote: »

I'll be there Mick. May the best team win :cool:

Where were you??? But you promised

Alfred Borden

Southampton

An Arsenal win in two weeks and its only a matter of where everyone places.

Korat

On form, Arsenal are the real winners.

Achtung!

M!Ck^

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Where were you??? But you promised

I was and the best team won

greendom

Southampton

United really helped Arsenal's cause (as well as their own of course) by beating Spurs and Liverpool in the last 2 weeks.

greendom

Southampton

greendom wrote: »

United really helped Arsenal's cause (as well as their own of course) by beating Spurs and Liverpool in the last 2 weeks.

When's Man Utd v Arsenal?

greendom

Southampton

M!Ck^ wrote: »

When's Man Utd v Arsenal?

Currently scheduled for 16th May at 3pm

Mickeroo

Manchester Utd

M!Ck^ wrote: »

When's Man Utd v Arsenal?

2nd last game of the season.

Mickeroo

Southampton

Mickeroo wrote: »

2nd last game of the season.

A juicy cup tie so

Will I Amnt

Hopefully we'll both have our positions sewn up by then. Football friends???

Mickeroo

Manchester Utd

M!Ck^ wrote: »

A juicy cup tie so

I hope it won't matter much at that stage, wouldn't be overly confident of winning at OT again so soon.

Rayne Wooney

Southampton

Hopefully Arsenal do us a favour and beat Liverpool to make the gap even bigger, a 9 point gap when you include goal difference would hopefully seal champions league, United could afford to lose to Chelsea and City and still be in a good position

Stoke getting something at Chelsea in two weeks might make the run in interesting

TheDoctor

Southampton

Mickeroo wrote: »

2nd last game of the season.

Top 4 will be long decided by then

Should be a nice end of season bit of banter

Will I Amnt

Southampton

Will I Amnt wrote: »

Hopefully we'll both have our positions sewn up by then. Football friends???

Rayne Wooney

Southampton

Rayne Wooney wrote: »

Hopefully Arsenal do us a favour and beat Liverpool to make the gap even bigger, a 9 point gap when you include goal difference would hopefully seal champions league, United could afford to lose to Chelsea and City and still be in a good position

Stoke getting something at Chelsea in two weeks might make the run in interesting

Not liking this mentality.

We have a great chance of getting good results against both.
Would love to see Mata stick it to Mourihno

shano_88

Southampton

Mickeroo wrote: »

2nd last game of the season.

Hopefully its a play off for 2nd or 3rd place!

Skylinehead

Southampton

Will I Amnt wrote: »

Hopefully we'll both have our positions sewn up by then. Football friends???

Can't commit to that yet, we'll be fighting for the title :cool:














:pac:

MR NINE

Liverpool

Even if top four is sewn up by then, there could still be a lot to play for between arsenal and united. 3rd is a lot better than 4th, theres potential for a tricky qualifier for whoever finishes fourth. From a liverpool point of view, considering our european record under rodgers i wouldnt be at all surprised if we finished 4th and lost the qualifier (the finishing fourth part would be surprising). Youd expect arsenal or united to get through it but its no certainty and theres definitely an incentive for finishing third.

Alfred Borden

Southampton

Nearly sewn up now. Tottenham dropping points tomorrow would finish it now.

Gbear

Manchester Utd

After a couple of crucial games, the race is pretty much done and dusted.

From Liverpool's perspective, you don't want to be utterly reliant on getting at least 3 points from 2 fixtures like Utd and Arsenal. They simply left themselves too much to do.

A good effort to get back in the running but the team just isn't good enough to get top 4 this season and it's as simple as that.

Unearthly

Southampton

All a bit of an enjoyable anti climax in the end

Harry Palmr

Raf32 wrote: »

Nearly sewn up now. Tottenham dropping points tomorrow would finish it now.

and so it came to pass

Mr.Nice Guy

Southampton

I'm not sure why people think it's all but over? United's gap over Liverpool and Spurs is 8 points but their next three games are by far the toughest:

vs Man City (H)
vs Chelsea (A)
vs Everton (A)

Contrast that with Liverpool:

vs Newcastle (H)
vs Hull (A)
vs West Brom (A)

And Spurs:

vs Villa (H)
vs Newcastle (A)
vs Southampton (A)

Honestly it's not beyond the realms of possibility that United's lead will be cut to 5 points after the derby, and then 2 points after the game away to the soon-to-be champions. Then that Everton game would be a massive pressure game and Goodison Park is not an easy place to go to at the best of times.

LuckyLloyd

Southampton

It's over because Spurs and Liverpool will continue to drop points irrespective of what Utd and Arsenal do.

Oranage2

Southampton

It's over, and has been since united beat pool. The last two games were worrying for pool, didn't even look close and these teams and the top 4 rivals. I'd expect the same top 4 next season too.

Liverpool made a mistake by spending all the Suarez money, just like spurs spent the bale money. You don't just go out and buy crap, save the money and wait till the Right player is available. Not one signing could be classed as a success,

Lambert - bad
lovren - terrible
moreno - shocking (makes a mistake that leads to a goal every single game)
manqilo - not great but a loan
baloteli - probably the worst of all the signings
markovic - very poor this season but I'll reserve judgement
lallana - always injured, top half player not really a top 4 one though
Can - 10 million but plays like a 10 million pound player - though probably best signing of the lot

That's about 120 million, how Rodgers still has a job after okaying them signings is beyond me.

Kirby

Tottenham Hotspur

I think Can and Lallana have proven both at Liverpool and at their previous clubs that they are good players so I think your assessment of them is harsh.

The rest? Spot on.

MagicIRL

Southampton

Lallana is a good player, not a great player, Bill.

If you play him he'll score the odd goal or assist but he just doesn't seem to do enough in his vast majority of games. I don't think anyone is envious of any of Liverpool's signings, same with Spurs bar Eriksson.

I also think Coutinho is an average #10, but he's young.

LuckyLloyd

Southampton

If Lallana had cost £12m he'd be a good acquisition. He didn't though, he cost a lot more than that unfortunately.

Will I Amnt

I like Lallana, he's looked good at times for Liverpool but it's got to be hard for him to show his worth when he can't get any kind of decent run of games together.

Being English and one of the better performing English players the previous season, he was never going to go for much less than 20m.
You would have to pay similar for someone like Delph or Ings in the Summer, it's just the way it is.

Korat

Discipline is killing Liverpool's chances.

Spurs are Spurs, flattering to decieve at every opportunity.

Hell knows what Utd will do next.

Chelsea
Arsenal
Man City
(up for grabs)

Danye

Will I Amnt wrote: »

I like Lallana, he's looked good at times for Liverpool but it's got to be hard for him to show his worth when he can't get any kind of decent run of games together.

Being English and one of the better performing English players the previous season, he was never going to go for much less than 20m.
You would have to pay similar for someone like Delph or Ings in the Summer, it's just the way it is.

There's not a chance that Delph or Ings will fetch a fee of £20 million.

Will I Amnt

Danye wrote: »

There's not a chance that Delph or Ings will fetch a fee of £20 million.

Depends on who is buying. Ings is out of contract soon though but I'm just using an example of the level of player.

Danye

Will I Amnt wrote: »

Depends on who is buying. Ings is out of contract soon though but I'm just using an example of the level of player.

I agree that English players are vastly overpriced but I think buying clubs won't be throwing crazy money at them in the future.

Iused2likebusts

Liverpool

Ings is out of contract in June the fee will be set by a tribunal. If he moves abroad it will be a free. I get the general point being made flavour of the month English players are overpriced.

niallo27

Manchester Utd

Oranage2 wrote: »

It's over, and has been since united beat pool. The last two games were worrying for pool, didn't even look close and these teams and the top 4 rivals. I'd expect the same top 4 next season too.

Liverpool made a mistake by spending all the Suarez money, just like spurs spent the bale money. You don't just go out and buy crap, save the money and wait till the Right player is available. Not one signing could be classed as a success,

Lambert - bad
lovren - terrible
moreno - shocking (makes a mistake that leads to a goal every single game)
manqilo - not great but a loan
baloteli - probably the worst of all the signings
markovic - very poor this season but I'll reserve judgement
lallana - always injured, top half player not really a top 4 one though
Can - 10 million but plays like a 10 million pound player - though probably best signing of the lot

That's about 120 million, how Rodgers still has a job after okaying them signings is beyond me.

You could make that argument for nearly any team in top 5 or 6.

RobertKK

Southampton

The problems for the team below the current top four are many.

1. The obvious 8 point gap,
2. They have an inferior goal difference.
3. Arsenal and United have the best current form of the top 4.
4. Man City looking like the weakest team in the top 4 right now on current form, but their squad has better players than the teams outside the top 4.
5. Spurs will not make top 4.
6. Chelsea unlikely to lose against Liverpool, while one could make an argument for United to beat both City and Chelsea.
7. United have the best defensive record of the top 6 going back over 20 games.
8. Arsenal in great form, particularly at home and they just need 13 points from 7 games.

I think guaranteed top 4 are Chelsea, United, Arsenal and the weak link is City. That is just going on form. Liverpool and Spurs then dropping points and suspect form, would point to the top 4 being the current teams and a race to finish 2nd.
The battle for 2nd place is the most interesting battle right now.

RobertKK

Southampton

So who will finish 2nd in the league?

Will Chelsea just fall apart and get overtaken?
Will be it be Arsenal, United or Man City?

I am going for a big battle between Arsenal and United for 2nd place, and United to get there as they revenge their FA defeat to Arsenal in the second last game.
Man City to come 4th.

Harry Palmr

Arsenal - City are going to stumble and bumble their way to 4th place. They will then sack their manager and buy up every young and promising English player in the summer that they can afford.

CSF

Southampton

I'll still go with City. Best players and all that.