There's no way we can have the expectation of finishing 4th right now, but anyone writing us off is being ignorant. There's no telling how well Ole can do with our squad yet, but if we go out of the Champion's League while Arsenal and Chelsea are still pushing on in the Europa League, you'd have to give us a chance. However, we will have to start winning the big games against the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal in particular if we are going to make up those points. The fair assessment to me is that we're just about close enough to be able to give it a go with half the season left, but this Christmas period needs to be maximum points and if it is, I am sure we'd be at least a couple of points closer to the top four come mid-January.
I think the top three is set now, however. Spurs are looking really good and I think they'll hold on to 3rd and we'll see three teams over 80 points who are uncatchable. I have a feeling Man City will turn it on once their main front six are fully fit and get their routine going (Fernandinho, Silva, De Bruyne, Sane, Aguero, Sterling). I hope they win the title, but if Liverpool can beat both Newcastle and Arsenal at home I'd probably make them title favourites over Man City, even if City came through their two banana skin away games at Leicester and Southampton who are both in good nick right now. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see Spurs level on points with City come New Years Day.