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The race for second place.
- Thread starter Totti
- Start date
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I'd love 4th (or better) and the FA Cup, but if we were to finish 4th and not win the cup, I'd still regard this season as progress for a number of reasons.
First is the fact we've played our 'home' games at Wembley'. I certainly think we've managed to settle there, but there's no denying in my mind that we dropped points there early on that we wouldn't have dropped had we been playing at WHL. You could argue that a better year-on-year comparison of our league form would be to only consider away games. This shows that we are, in fact, over performing. After 18 away games in 2016/17, we'd won 30 points, whereas we've won 34 points after 18 away games this current season.
Second, compare our CL performance over the past 2 seasons. In 2016/17, we were beaten in to 3rd place (winning 7pts) in the group by Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen, before being ignominiously dumped out of the Europa League by Gent. This season, we won our group against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and APOEL with 16pts, before being narrowly beaten by Juventus.
Third, even if we lose to Man Utd, we'll have matched last season's record in both the FA Cup and the League Cup (semis and 5th round respectively).
When you weight up the two seasons, and when you consider 2nd and 4th both achieve the aim of qualifying for the CL, I think this season can be regarded as progress.
WBA are a bit of a bogey side for us. Got a draw at Wembley and are the only club outside of the top 6 to have a better record against us.
West Bromwich Albion 48 wins Tottenham Hotspur 47wins
Draws 32
Bearing in mind that even when not performing as well as recently we are normally above them we should have a better record than this.
Yes beating WBA should be a formality but ignore history at your peril.
I'm gonna put history aside for one minute and apply the numerological Zen theory of balance within all aspects of a harmonious universe... and that the only logical outcome is that we finally even things up.
48 wins apiece would do quite nicely!
Namaste believers!
That didn’t work out well on the last day to already relegated Newcastle right? Let’s get ahead of ourselves, one match at the time
I feel that there's a much bigger difference between 2nd and 3rd than between 3rd and 4th. I'm not hugely bothered about whether we finish 3rd or 4th now that both mean automatic group stage qualification. Obviously would be very nice to finish above the scousers but not the be all and end all.
It would be a disaster if we didn't get top four but I'm not worried yet. I think we will sign off with four wins if we lose to United. If we beat them then we'll no doubt start to relax if/when 4th is secured, and probably drop points. But I'm very confident that one way or other we'll get that CL spot.
It would be a disaster if we didn't get top four but I'm not worried yet. I think we will sign off with four wins if we lose to United. If we beat them then we'll no doubt start to relax if/when 4th is secured, and probably drop points. But I'm very confident that one way or other we'll get that CL spot.
Yes, agreed. I wasn't trying to say they were going to be an easy opponent. I was just noting they won't be fighting for their lives anymore.
Elite Mentality
Bang on. When the season started, and seeing how much the Manchester clubs were spending in the summer - I thought top 4 might be a long shot with the inevitable knock (however small) that Wembley would bring.
It's only been the second half of the season and some massive results that have made top 4 look good for us. I'm obviously not complaining - but United (W), Liverpool (D), Woolwich (W), and Chelsea (W) in a short period of time has drastically changed where we are in the table.
For me, winning on Saturday against United would represent two big strides forward:
1) I think we're becoming more consistent in the FA cup and are now avoiding getting knocked out by 'lesser' sides. The next step, however, is to beat a top dog when we come up against them. Failing to do so against Chelsea last year was bitterly disappointing (especially because we didn't really deserve to lose) and now we have a chance to exorcise those demons against United.
2) Getting to the FA Cup final for the first time in 25-odd years. Again, we could fuck it all up even if we get there but to me is shows the club going in the right direction.
> 6 wins in a row (including beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for the first time in 28 years).
> lose against Man City who had a massive point to prove
> frustrating as fuck game against Brighton who put on a dogged display and we made 6 changes to the squad.
Fuck me, I worry about the worst too but 'terrible form' given the circumstances is a tad far.
Don’t forget first half against Chelsea was bad. Thankfully Chelsea got worse and we improved. We were awful against Stoke. Never deserved the win. Appawling against Man City. And there are no words for how bad we were against Brighton.
That’s not good form. The points are irrelevant . If we are to finish 4th, history tells us and with the way we are playing , we are gonna make it hard as possible for ourselves and we are gonna hobble and just flop over the line .
Stoke have been fighting for their lives (I'd like to call it the "oh shit we're fucked but there are just enough games to somehow escape the drop" mode), and were also unlucky to lose to Woolwich.
I don't accept the 'there are no words for how bad we were against Brighton'. We were worse against Man City in my opinion. Poor opening half hour but then we were the better side. The truly awful part of the match was the stupidity to give away that penalty immediately after scoring. Literally the worst thing to do when you've just gone ahead against a side that'd settle for a draw. Horrendously slippy conditions too.
Anyway, form is going to go out of the window in the United match. One could say that they were unbelievably dreadful in the first half against Man City and it was a borderline miracle that they managed to smash and grab a 3-2 win from that. Following it up with a home loss against the worst side in the Premier League is also a worse result than anything we've had this year. Last night's win against Bournemouth sounded fairly routine.
My anxiety is that if we lose against United in the semi - which might well happen - then I want the players' response for the remaining games to be a strong one.
There's always people saying this shit. No team plays brilliantly all the time. Honest question- when have we ever played brilliantly in every game or even in half the games? Top teams are capable of brilliance on occasion and also of grinding out results. We do both these things.
However, I do think United will be a big test of exactly how far we have come.
Can someone please change the title of this thread to chase for fourth? I know I'm too superstitious by far but since some people seem to think that 3rd was a foregone conclusion, we've dropped five points. Never, ever take it for granted that points are in the bag until the final whistle has gone.
And with VAR not even then.
For fuck sake. Chelsea. Just fuck off and die.
Negative Spirals and hand hoovering over the panic button. Such is the feeling of Spurs and big leads.
By the time we play again that gap could be down to 2 - albeit with a game in hand. Not a good week
What baffles me is how Chelsea do not look bothered where as we look all jittery.