Nov 23rd - Forest (H)
Nov 26th - Sporting (A) CL
Nov 30th - West Ham (A)
Dec 4th - United (H)
Dec 8th - Fulham (A)
Dec 11th - Monaco (H) CL
Dec 14th - Everton (H)
Dec 18th - Palace (H) LC
Dec 21st - Palace (A)
Dec 27th - Ipswich (H)
Jan 1st - Brentford (A)
Jan 4th - Brighton (A)
Jan 15th - Spurs (H)
Jan 18th - Villa (H)
Jan 22nd - Zagreb (H) CL
Jan 25th - Wolves (A)
Jan 29th - Girona (A) CL
17 games coming up over the next 2 months (plus potentially 2 more LC matches), before we host a relegated Man City at the Emirates.
From Nov 23rd-Jan 22nd, 13 of our 15 games will be played in London, with the matches outside London being Lisbon in the CL and Brighton in the PL which is basically London anyway, so very little travelling for the squad to worry about.
The squad is almost fully fit, many of our key players have had time off, and the run of fixtures is decent. White is a loss but we should have enough to cope without him. We have to start the winning run now or else it’s simply a case of securing top 4 which really isn’t good enough considering our pre season expectations.
Realistically, we will have to take a minimum 31/36 points to get back in the title race, but with a 9 point deficit on Liverpool, we may even need to get maximum points to get back in touch with them. We need a minimum 10/12 points to qualify in the top 8 of the CL. Possibly need maximum points. And we really need to go all out for the League Cup. Pub trophy it may be, but this team needs to start winning trophies or else it will soon be compared to Poch’s Spurs.
“Our season starts now”
posted on 21/11/24
I think considering the respective runs we've had we've done fairly well to keep ourselves in contention - it just feels a lot more frustrating because of the nature of our slip ups. But it was a bad run and we had some bad luck mixed in, but on the flip side City have been rubbish so we're not far off them and they're still the favourites IMO.
But yeah we have to really push forward now and start putting points on the board with no excuses. Do we have enough firepower up front to do so? I'm not sure.
posted on 21/11/24
We’ve only taken 2 points from the last 12 available so I don’t think we’ve done well at all, which is why we are talking about having to win basically 15 of the next 17 games in all comps to salvage our season, in November.
It obviously doesn’t help that Liverpool are running away with the league. Hopefully they drop some points soon because it might give our squad the boost we need.
City are surely getting a significant points deduction at least in January so it’s Liverpool that we have to concern ourselves with.
posted on 21/11/24
I mean in the sense of looking at the season at a whole, we're not too far off where I expected to be. Honestly with the first 5 games or so we had I was half expecting to be 9 points behind City after that so to be within 4 of them at this stage isn't too bad.
Being that far behind Liverpool sucks, but I'm not hugely worried about them just yet. Obviously they could just keep getting stronger and not give us any chance but I haven't seen enough evidence of that yet in their performances or results.
posted on 21/11/24
Yeah, have to build up a strong run now. Forest are on a strong run and Sporting are very decent and we are not great in Portugal - hopefully losing their manager will set them back.
Win those two and the mood pre-break will change dramatically. We would be in a strong position for top 8 in CL.
posted on 21/11/24
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 56 seconds ago
Yeah, have to build up a strong run now. Forest are on a strong run and Sporting are very decent and we are not great in Portugal - hopefully losing their manager will set them back.
Win those two and the mood pre-break will change dramatically. We would be in a strong position for top 8 in CL.
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I will take any win against Forest.
posted on 21/11/24
Odegaard, Calafiori and Merino playing together for the first time should give us a big boost.
posted on 22/11/24
Unfortunately for you, the season started 11 games ago for liverpool.....🤷♂️
posted on 22/11/24
Last season was the Dubai trip which somehow re-invigorated us, hopefully this year it's Odegaards return now.
Still think the setup is not quite right, maybe its been the injuries and lack of time to bed in Calafiori and Merino but hopefully from now we can build some steam.
I'm not too worried about the deficit, there are so many good teams in this league Liverpool will have a wobble, its just how consistent we have to be to get back into contention now.
As good as we were on that run after Dubai, we had a couple of slices of luck as well that meant our points return was huge, we need that again. Will only take a slip against Forest and it becomes 12 points and another game down
posted on 23/11/24
tell that to Ben White
posted on 23/11/24
comment by Bats Uncensored (U18355)
posted 1 day, 20 hours ago
We’ve only taken 2 points from the last 12 available so I don’t think we’ve done well at all, which is why we are talking about having to win basically 15 of the next 17 games in all comps to salvage our season, in November.
It obviously doesn’t help that Liverpool are running away with the league. Hopefully they drop some points soon because it might give our squad the boost we need.
City are surely getting a significant points deduction at least in January so it’s Liverpool that we have to concern ourselves with.
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Not sure Pool are running away with it - at the moment they are just incredibly efficient at scoring when they get the chance - some of their goals on the break are pretty amazing