Top 4 Race 19/20 | duffer: "We [Chelsea] are getting 3rd. Despite what the lunatics in here think, Man United are not all that."

Maluco

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If we can’t make up 4 points on a faltering Leicester in the next 6 games, then we don’t deserve to be in the CL.

The only important thing now is to go to Brighton and win. That’s all that matters right now
 

mad1max954

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If we win every game until the end we will do it. No way the other teams won’t drop points, but we have to keep going and keep the pressure on full tilt. Our games are winnable and Someone will give.
 

pascell

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I said it in another thread, not buying Fernandes could end up costing us top 4. Too many games we relied on Pereira to help unlock a packed defence.

But in this league, you reap what you sow and before Fernandes came in, there was some horrid performances from all of our players.
 

FrankDrebin

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I can so easily see us drop points at Brighton.
May put a bet on Dunk getting the winner. He tends to raise his game against the decent sides.
 

TMDaines

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Going to be three points ahead of Leicester on the final day and lose to them to fall behind on GD, aren’t we? Somehow we will have started the day in third too and end it in fifth.
 

rotherham_red

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Fair play to Chelsea, looks like they have Top 4 sewn up now with that result. The rest aren't that difficult at all and they will likely face a Liverpool who will be looking to book a G6 and head out to Aruba the week after.

Leicester will be the ones to catch now. They do look leggy, and their squad isn't the biggest either.
 

croadyman

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Fair play to Chelsea, looks like they have Top 4 sewn up now with that result. The rest aren't that difficult at all and they will likely face a Liverpool who will be looking to book a G6 and head out to Aruba the week after.

Leicester will be the ones to catch now. They do look leggy, and their squad isn't the biggest either.
Yeah I have switched my focus to targeting Leicester after that result. There just seems to be a real steel about them since lockdown
 

croadyman

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Bit of a gutter this, you'd have hoped City would have at least had the desire to at least get a draw.
Yeah and certainly think Liverpool will have taken both City's wins in a season and record points before that Chelsea game.

Bit of a crappy night all round but just gotta keep winning and see if we can maybe drag Leicester in a battle with us and Wolves.

Frustratingly Wolves are almost certainly going to go three ahead of us when they beat Villa on Sun.
 

Lee565

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I'm more concerned with scrapping out a spot with wolves than Leicester.

Leicester have 4 matches they could easily lose or draw before facing us.
 

croadyman

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Think it's safe to say we can now see why Mendy doesn't start many games for City. He might offer something going forward but defensively he is shocking.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Well, that's fecked up. That Chelsea win has killed the optimism created by the Sheffield United win. 6 and 5 points behind 3rd and 4th is a poor position to be in. Huge win for Chelsea. Hard to see them not making top 4 now. Can only hope Leicester fall to pieces now.
 

amolbhatia50k

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If we win every game until the end we will do it. No way the other teams won’t drop points, but we have to keep going and keep the pressure on full tilt. Our games are winnable and Someone will give.
Dont see us winning every game.
 

amolbhatia50k

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I think it'll be tight. Leicester have some tricky games, and we play them on the final day. I think its very concievable that we make up 3 points by the final match day.

Also we have Europa so it's not a huge deal, and the teams in the Europa aren't great aside from Wolves and Inter.

I think it'll be tricky to catch Chelsea, they look as good as we do currently.
Basically we need to go on a run. 4 /5 game winning streak or something. With Leicester's current form they'll struggle to keep up with that. Problem is I'm not sure that's something we can do. But all we came do is hope.
 

RedRonaldo

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It’s not going to be easy. We are 5-6 points behind, and there only 7 games left to play. Let’s say if we beat Leicester in the last day, still need them to loss another 3 points, and we have to win the remaining games.
 

Rish Sawhney

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People talk about targeting Chelsea or Leicester as if thats something that can actually be done. Nothing's changed fellows. We win our next 6 games I still think we'll go into the Leicester game firmly in the top 4. Just win our games and ignore whatever Chelsea and Leicester do.
 

Verbalkint

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Leicester play Arsenal & Spurs away while they play us at home. I still have Top 4 hopes, we can do this.
 

Rajma

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I wonder if we can catch Leicester's GD? Say we go on an unbeaten run until the final game?
 

Verbalkint

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It’s not going to be easy. We are 5-6 points behind, and there only 7 games left to play. Let’s say if we beat Leicester in the last day, still need them to loss another 3 points, and we have to win the remaining games.
I'm hoping Arsenal & Spurs halt them, both being away games for Leicester. But you never know! We absolutely gotta beat them away too. It's going to be a very interesting wrap to the season.
 

Raw

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I wonder if we can catch Leicester's GD? Say we go on an unbeaten run until the final game?
Well they're 13 ahead. If say we beat them by 2 goals on the final day then that difference goes down to 9.

It'd have to be quite a big collapse. Throw in two losses by 2 goals then that's 5 to make up. We'd really need to score lots of goals and we can't afford to drop any points. I can't see that happening.

That 9-0 v Southampton did them a lot of good.
 

Andycoleno9

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100 % sure that we will play CL next year. Ok, Chelsea probably will not lose 5 points lead (based on their performances).
But Leicester on the other hand..... We have them on last day. So they only need to lose once and they will. On CAF Leicester is hugely overrated. Good team, good manager but not that good.
Plus we have Europa league
Plus we have City's ban.

Everything is good. We just must secure 5th spot at the first place.
 
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Fox_Chrys

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This is wide open, our form is really bad, and on top of that we playing badly as well.

We playing as bad as we were in our first season up, we dont look comfortable in games.

Yourselves and Wolves are on track to overtake us, I can see assuming Manchester City get banned, the CL spots going to Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Wolves.

It can be a game of fine margins, if we didnt defend like comedians at end of Watford game, then we win it and probably then start Brighton game much more positive. I honestly think those two games have doomed us.
 
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charlenefan

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tbh I don't see not qualifying for the UCL next season effecting what we're able to do in the summer so whilst none is us want to be in the EL again we'll still be able to push forward with our progression
 

Havak

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Leicester need a spark from somewhere, that's for sure. However, I think they might be able to just about hold off Wolves for 5th place and assuming City are banned next season, they'll get in. I can see Wolves drawing a fair few games and probably having a defeat somewhere, so while they might have a better end to the season than Leicester, I think Leicester's lead might be just enough to hold on. However, I can definitely see it going down to the last day where if they lose to United and Wolves were to beat Chelsea, that might see Leicester just drop out to 6th.

On paper I do fancy our chances (United), but I think the game against Leicester on the last day is going to be a big one. I'll be surprised if we go into that game able to lose and still finish 4th anyway.
 

redshaw

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Still wide open and all to play for regarding United. We just keep the good run going.
 
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jamesjimmybyrondean

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Nobody is talking about the period where we play 3 games in 5 days (Southampton, Palace and West ham). This I think is where we would drop points
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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If we don't get top 4 it's not deserved really when you look at how we were so slow in improving our team with the signing of Bruno in January. It's like life when you react too late and you miss out on an opportunity.
 

Lee565

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If we don't get top 4 it's not deserved really when you look at how we were so slow in improving our team with the signing of Bruno in January. It's like life when you react too late and you miss out on an opportunity.
This is the annoying thing, imagine if we had just tied this deal up at the beginning of January instead of dragging it out right until the very end because the club once again tried to penny pinch and in the end they didn't even achieve that, we would have surely gained a few extra points in January with him in the side considering the immediate and unbeaten impact he has had on the side.
 

Dancfc

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Nobody is talking about the period where we play 3 games in 5 days (Southampton, Palace and West ham). This I think is where we would drop points
I actually think Brighton is your toughest game, Lamptey is a massive game changer for them (in terms of pace to deal with Rashford).
 

ZolaWasMagic

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All this talk of hard run ins and we have West Ham away, Watford Home, Palace away, Sheff u away, norwich home, pool away, wolves home. Bar Liverpool thats a decent run in. Simply because by the time we play Liverpool, there is a real possibility we can afford to lose it, and still have a pts gap to whoever is below us.

And besides that, its not a bad fixture list all in all
 

TheMagicFoolBus

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All this talk of hard run ins and we have West Ham away, Watford Home, Palace away, Sheff u away, norwich home, pool away, wolves home. Bar Liverpool thats a decent run in. Simply because by the time we play Liverpool, there is a real possibility we can afford to lose it, and still have a pts gap to whoever is below us.

And besides that, its not a bad fixture list all in all
I mean, looking at the two fixture lists prior to yesterday it was very dicey from Chelsea's perspective - United undoubtedly have the more favourable run in and a 2 point gap (assuming a loss to City) seemed overturnable. Yesterday's 3 points were absolutely massive; now the hope is that Liverpool drop points prior to our match such that they can't break the points record.
 

Sean_RedDevil

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100 % sure that we will play CL next year. Ok, Chelsea probably will not lose 5 points lead (based on their performances).
But Leicester on the other hand..... We have them on last day. So they only need to lose once and they will. On CAF Leicester is hugely overrated. Good team, good manager but not that good.
Plus we have Europa league
Plus we have City's ban.

Everything is good. We just must secure 5th spot at the first place.
Brighton & Hove is easily our toughest match till the Leicester match therefore should we beat them on Tuesday + Everton can still reach the Europa League therefore my hope is at least a draw against Leicester on Wednesday = We would be 4 points behind Leicester with 6 matches go play and then with a view on the fixture list it should be in our hands on the last matchday to secure the Champions League (At this date we will know anyway if the 5th place is enough for the Champions League because Manchester City's decision on their european ban will be soon)
 

Maluco

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It’s all conjecture really. Any injury to anyone could spell the end. If United were to lose Bruno/Rashford, I would say that is them out. If wolves lost Jimenez, they are probably out. If Leicester lost Soyuncu or Ndidi, they would be out too. It’s up to fate as much as anything else. No real point plotting fixtures.

Chelsea have the squad to do it, they could easily change their whole midfield and attack for the next game and still field just as strong a team (Kovacic, Jorginho, RLC, Hudson Odei, Abraham etc...). I don’t think injuries effect them the same way because they don’t really depend on any standout stars
 

croadyman

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Think Ole may have fired up Chelsea when he said "where did I say we were aiming for fourth this season". Personally I think it is best to just take it one game at a time and just see where it takes us. Focus on our own results and if we get favours from Chelsea's or Leicester opponents then that is a bonus