The Top 4. Can we get there?

By very definition both games were/are "a six pointer"... six pointers don't come into play with teams like Villa, West Ham, Villa and Palace... therein lies the difference mate.

And to me that's what's wrong with prioritizing matches against the top sides as opposed to getting maximum points against the teams 6 through 20. They don't become "six pointers" if you do what you're supposed to do and beat who you're supposed to beat. There are only 8 matches against the top 4, but 30 against the bottom 15.

Yeah, everyone wants to beat the likes of Arsenal and United for bragging rights, but it doesn't mean a damn thing if you don't get maximum points vs Newcastle, Hull, West Brom, QPR, etc. It's only when you fail to win those that you need to dislodge teams above you.

And to me that's what's wrong with prioritizing matches against the top sides as opposed to getting maximum points against the teams 6 through 20. They don't become "six pointers" if you do what you're supposed to do and beat who you're supposed to beat. There are only 8 matches against the top 4, but 30 against the bottom 15.

Yeah, everyone wants to beat the likes of Arsenal and United for bragging rights, but it doesn't mean a damn thing if you don't get maximum points vs Newcastle, Hull, West Brom, QPR, etc. It's only when you fail to win those that you need to dislodge teams above you.

Yeah... You're probably right. 

Not just saying this to be controversial but I got to thinking does it really matter whether we get top 4 this season?

A big part of being in the top four (aside from the opportunity to win the European Cup) is that it enables clubs to lift their status, to generate income, to become more attractive to the top players and thus being in a position to improve the team/squad. My feeling the past few years is "we must get back in because if we don't such and such will leave and we won't be able to attract top players".

But then I look at this past summer, we finally got back in and then we bought a bunch of players who would have signed regardless. Markovic (given that he was at a Champions League club in Sporting, I think?) is the only one IMO who might not have come had we not qualified. As for the rest, your Cans, Morenos, half the Saints team etc I figured we could have recruited the lot of them with or without top four.

Not just saying this to be controversial but I got to thinking does it really matter whether we get top 4 this season?

A big part of being in the top four (aside from the opportunity to win the European Cup) is that it enables clubs to lift their status, to generate income, to become more attractive to the top players and thus being in a position to improve the team/squad. My feeling the past few years is "we must get back in because if we don't such and such will leave and we won't be able to attract top players".

But then I look at this past summer, we finally got back in and then we bought a bunch of players who would have signed regardless. Markovic (given that he was at a Champions League club in Sporting, I think?) is the only one IMO who might not have come had we not qualified. As for the rest, your Cans, Morenos, half the Saints team etc I figured we could have recruited the lot of them with or without top four.

i agree with you on this , i think top four is the status, the money , possible attraction of quality players but quality established players will look to play for champions league teams that regularly get to the last 8 or so and are in with a shot every season. we are still developing .
Saying all this the , music, the atmosphere the european nights at Anfield is just great for us fans so fingers crossed we get there and have a better campain than this season.

Think it all comes down to the Arse game. If we can get a draw from that, we will be in with a chance, but if we lose, it may be too big a gap to make up in what will then be 8 games. win it and we are back on track.

Think it all comes down to the Arse game. If we can get a draw from that, we will be in with a chance, but if we lose, it may be too big a gap to make up in what will then be 8 games. win it and we are back on track.

Don't think we can afford a draw and we also have Chelsea to come too. We simply have to win Arsenal, pulling them back in to the scrap and hope City can do a job on United which would put us back where we where prior to the game with United in terms of points. With their following game being Chelsea and ours being Hull it'll put all the pressure back on them.

Not gonna deny that looking back at December and now,i would tend to stay optimistic that we will finish top 4.I think our players will be more hungry to get the 3 points at emirates.I wont be surprised if we turn up(which i think we will)and do a number on them.It would've been a mountain to climb if manc had a an easier run but not only they have tough matches but also a  head to head clash with Arse.So i think there is plenty of room to be Optimistic(still) with 8 games to go.

So this is how the Star Sports experts in Football Today have predicted, for the next 8 fixtures

Liverpool
Arsenal(A) 0, Newcastle(H) 3, Hull(A) 1, West Brom(A) 3, QPR(H) 3, Chelsea(A) 1, Palace(H) 3, Stoke (A) 3 = 54+17 = 71 points

Scum
Villa(H) 3, City(H) 1, Chelsea(A) 1, Everton(A) 1, West Brom(H) 3, Palace(A) 1, Arsenal(H) 1, Hull(A) 1 = 59+12 = 71 points

Scum still go through on GD.

So this is how the Star Sports experts in Football Today have predicted, for the next 8 fixtures

Liverpool
Arsenal(A) 0, Newcastle(H) 3, Hull(A) 1, West Brom(A) 3, QPR(H) 3, Chelsea(A) 1, Palace(H) 3, Stoke (A) 3 = 54+17 = 71 points

Scum
Villa(H) 3, City(H) 1, Chelsea(A) 1, Everton(A) 1, West Brom(H) 3, Palace(A) 1, Arsenal(H) 1, Hull(A) 1 = 59+12 = 71 points

Scum still go through on GD.

The words 'Star', 'Sports' and especially 'Experts' don't belong in the same sentence

We can do it, mancs or arsenal will drop out, 1 of them will bottle it, and we will go unbeaten till end of season.

We can do it, mancs or arsenal will drop out, 1 of them will bottle it, and we will go unbeaten till end of season.

See, this is what I always thought.

The mancs didn't bottle it on Sunday though did they! We did!

It will be extremely tough to finish in the top 4 now. Not impossible, but very, very tough.

we can if we beat Arsenal and win all our other games leading up to the rent boy game, but then we need UTD to get a draw and one,two defeats also in there when we win.

tough ask heart says yes we can keep the faith but head says no we will finish 5th.

As others have said we need at least a draw against Arsenal. A win and we are back in pole position.

As others have said we need at least a draw against Arsenal. A win and we are back in pole position.

Not sure how we'd be in pole position considering we'd still be 4 behind Arsenal (who have an easy run in) and 5 behind a United side who've suddenly started picking up points against big teams.

Know I'm sounding incredibly negative here but I don't really see us getting close after what happened on Sunday.

Not sure how we'd be in pole position considering we'd still be 4 behind Arsenal (who have an easy run in) and 5 behind a United side who've suddenly started picking up points against big teams.

Know I'm sounding incredibly negative here but I don't really see us getting close after what happened on Sunday.

Agree.

Even a win against Arsenal doesn't put us right back into contention.

To think a week or so ago I was thinking about 2nd.

It took me five days not discussing about football since the last match.

I fear (I hope I'm wrong) that we have put away our chace to destroy MU.



MU is not playing well this season, but they have money.. that match was actually our best chance to put them down for years to come...

if they get their CL this season, their confident will grow, their financial will be better, and they will spend more next season (and more players would like come to there)

 we must hammer them this season, to put away their resurrection, when they are not at their best, their management will be more strict to spend when they don't get CL this season, and hence distrub their resurrection.



Why do I care about that? Premier League now has 5 top teams... I can see Arsenal, City, and Chelsea will get a consistent spot on CL.
I hope it doesn't mean that we are 5th contenders after this, and next and next (hell no )

I hope that the next era of football will not rely on the mega-budget team, but a tactical squad team with some stars like Brendan have/building.

Not just saying this to be controversial but I got to thinking does it really matter whether we get top 4 this season?

A big part of being in the top four (aside from the opportunity to win the European Cup) is that it enables clubs to lift their status, to generate income, to become more attractive to the top players and thus being in a position to improve the team/squad. My feeling the past few years is "we must get back in because if we don't such and such will leave and we won't be able to attract top players".

But then I look at this past summer, we finally got back in and then we bought a bunch of players who would have signed regardless. Markovic (given that he was at a Champions League club in Sporting, I think?) is the only one IMO who might not have come had we not qualified. As for the rest, your Cans, Morenos, half the Saints team etc I figured we could have recruited the lot of them with or without top four.

my basic understanding is that the money involved from next season onwards means that we simply can't afford not to make it.. making the europa league is a 'disaster' from the admin's point of view because you need a big good squad to go all the way there but the reward isn't worth it financially - only now with a CL spot on the line is there something substantial in it. if we don't make top four we'll do best to go all out with no european football to get right back in it, I can only hope another season of building will bring us to at least 15 solid first teamers which we've thought we've had going into the past couple seasons but really worked out we haven't. we are getting close though.

Not now.

Not now.

Unless Villa beats Utd......

Not now.

Not now for sure... more so because we are playing muck.

Unless Villa beats Utd......

Even villa beat mu, dont think we can reach top 4!   

No

Forget about it!

We fu**ed up in the transfer market last Summer and it has bitten us in the arse.

If we have another poor window this Summer we can forget about top 4 next season too.