There are three teams who are nailed on for top four, and those three teams - City, Liverpool, and Chelsea - are clearly so much better than the rest of the Premier League.
So it’s a race for top four, which, given the results of the most likely candidates - United, Spurs, Arsenal, even West Ham - it seems not one of them are really up for or capable of the fight.
The 17 teams that make up the league after the top three - just how much in terms of quality is between them? Because they all look like they are capable of losing to anyone, or at least, not capable of actually being able to beat many teams.
Spurs have just lost two homes in succession. United have just drawn two games in succession. Arsenal have barely scored a goal in 2022. West Ham - the pretenders - are so inconsistent yet they are currently the team sitting in 4th, albeit having played more games.
Each week an opportunity presents itself for one of these teams to step up and steal a march on their rivals, yet each week each of them fail to do precisely that.
Are they so bad that there really isn’t any real difference between these supposed top four challengers and the rest of the league? Has the rest of the league just bridged the gap in quality on the likes of Spurs, United, and Arsenal?
Does any team want the 4th place finish?
posted on 13/2/22
comment by Samir (U2630)
posted 1 minute ago
comment by RipleysCat (U1862)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Samir (U2630)
posted 6 minutes ago
Don't think we should dismiss Wolves, either. They absolutely deserve to be mentioned in this race.
If Arsenal had signed a decent striker in the January window, I would have been more optimistic of our chances. But we are relying on Nketiah and Lacazette, who are amongst the worst strikers in the entire division.
So that puts a lot of pressure on us maintaining a solid defence (which, so far, we have done tbf), but relying on goals from set-plays, individual brilliance or mistakes. And that is very risky when you're in such a tight race.
Arsenal still have to play Chelsea away, West Ham away, Spurs away, Man Utd at home, Liverpool at home, Wolves at home - then there's potential banana skins like Southampton away and Villa away.
We have a lot of tough games, some against very resolute defences, but facing them with a weak strike force.
For now, I still think Man Utd should be favourites to get it.
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Wolves are a good shout.
They too however are inconsistent. Lose at home to Arsenal, win away at Spurs.
Those kind of results just add weight to my point about there not being a great gulf in ability between the 17 teams in the league that are below City, Liverpool, and Chelsea.
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Sure, but all the contenders for 4th are inconsistent.
Wolves are currently 2 points ahead of Spurs (albeit Spurs have 1 game in hand on them) and 3 points behind Man United (who have played 1 game more than Wolves), so they deserve to be mentioned just as much as the other teams in the OP IMO.
But yeah, I still expect Man Utd to somehow fluke their way into it.
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That’s why I wrote “they too are inconsistent”. “Too” being the point I am making in regards to all the current teams vying for 4th place.
posted on 13/2/22
comment by RipleysCat (U1862)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by Don (U22703)
posted 2 minutes ago
Spurs and United will improve the longer their managers get to work with their squads.
Arsenal and West Ham will remain inconsistent.
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Conte is a top manager. Spurs I feel will give him time. The question mark is whether Conte himself will stick around.
Ralf isn’t there for the long term. He’s an interim appointment.
Since Ferguson retired, United haven’t given managers time. And they’ve appointed high reputation managers in that time. All of whom have been sacked.
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United have given most managers 3 seasons bar Moyes.
posted on 13/2/22
comment by merrysupersteve (monitoring the situation) (U1132)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 4 minutes ago
I think Ralf is pointing us in the right direction. Most games now there is a period of good play, we can't keep it going at the moment, but it gives me hope.
So I'm going for us fourth.
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Unless 60 points is enough for fourth, I don't think it's happening, sadly. Liverpool away, City away, Arsenal away, Tottenham away, Chelsea at home, Leeds away, Everton away. I honestly don't think we will any of those games. And United being United, we will probably drop some other points along the way
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You'll beat City away
posted on 13/2/22
I think Ralf is pointing us in the right direction. Most games now there is a period of good play, we can't keep it going at the moment, but it gives me hope.
So I'm going for us fourth.
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You don't have the players to adopt what this manager seems to want to do. Your forward players either don't have the desire or capacity to press for long periods. Your defence is slow meaning you can't play the high line required for this type of football just look at Maguire a submarine turns faster than him. Your main source of goals is a bloke closer to 40 than 30 who is going to struggle from now on after all this is the most physical league in the world. You have got some decent players but as a collective your a mess to be honest.
posted on 13/2/22
comment by One Love - Admin 3 (U1250)
posted 40 seconds ago
comment by RipleysCat (U1862)
posted 42 minutes ago
comment by Don (U22703)
posted 2 minutes ago
Spurs and United will improve the longer their managers get to work with their squads.
Arsenal and West Ham will remain inconsistent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Conte is a top manager. Spurs I feel will give him time. The question mark is whether Conte himself will stick around.
Ralf isn’t there for the long term. He’s an interim appointment.
Since Ferguson retired, United haven’t given managers time. And they’ve appointed high reputation managers in that time. All of whom have been sacked.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
United have given most managers 3 seasons bar Moyes.
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That’s not true.
Moyes got just under 9 months (less than one season)
Van Gaal got less than 2 years (lasted two seasons)
Mourinho got 2 and a half years (sacked a few months into his third season)
Ole got just under 3 years. (Only one who’s time spanned more than three seasons, but even then he only had two complete seasons)
posted on 13/2/22
comment by RipleysCat (U1862)
posted 53 minutes ago
Sorry RDD, can’t be bothered with your inane posts.
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posted on 13/2/22
comment by merrysupersteve (monitoring the situation) (U1132)
posted 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 4 minutes ago
I think Ralf is pointing us in the right direction. Most games now there is a period of good play, we can't keep it going at the moment, but it gives me hope.
So I'm going for us fourth.
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Unless 60 points is enough for fourth, I don't think it's happening, sadly. Liverpool away, City away, Arsenal away, Tottenham away, Chelsea at home, Leeds away, Everton away. I honestly don't think we will any of those games. And United being United, we will probably drop some other points along the way
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Man U spurs is at OT
posted on 13/2/22
If we start taking our chances we can win games. If we don't then we don't deserve anything anyway. The last few games we've made the chances to win them in the first half. Bad finishing has given teams confidence going into the second half.
Arsenal in driving seat now but it can all change again given nobody is really any good.
posted on 13/2/22
Hullo
posted on 14/2/22
Comment Deleted by Article Creator