Will we finish above Aston Villa?

DJ_21

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I still think we’ll finish above them. They’ll drop of if they get deep into the Europa
 

DJ_21

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Right now I see the first three positions being strongly in the hands of City, Liverpool, and Arsenal, and fourth through seventh really up for grabs between us, Newcastle, Spurs, and Villa.

My gut still says Newcastle and us in fourth and 5th, with the order being up for grabs.
I think we’ll be fightin spurs for 4th place. I think spurs will beat Newcastle this weekend
 

Ayoba

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Hopefully he scores goals from February to May as well.
Even if he scored goals in January only it would still be an upgrade on our current strikers output.
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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Yes. We get this nonsense every year. People pumping up other clubs with low expectations. The micro analysis for us is a lot different to what takes place for Villa because who the feck cares except their fans. Which means hyperbole tends to come with it.

Can't say that we'll have a great season but confident we'll be better than the likes of them.
Hope you’re right.

They’re 8 points ahead now and a vastly superior goal difference.
 

James35

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I think they will finish 5th so no I don’t think we will finish above them.
 

LARulz

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I hope nobody does this season (on the assumption we are at our level)
 

The-Mezzala

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Carlos and Pau Torres is a good centre back pairing. Mcginn , Watkins , Cash put in a shift every game. Got players like Diaby and Bailly both rapid and a massive threat . Got to hand it to Emery he has done an incredible job with Villa. Such a good coach. They comfortably finish top 6 this season.
 
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Banana Republic

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Villa are now 1 point behind Arsenal and only 2 points behind league leaders Liverpool.

They'll stay 3rd, even with a City win tomorrow and they've opened up a gap on tail enders, Spurs and Newcastle.
They're looking good for 4th place at this stage of the season.

Utd, in contrast, are only heading in one direction with our next 3 league fixtures ...........and it's not upwards.

A Newcastle draw or win at Tottenham tomorrow, puts them above us, with the possibility of West Ham also going above us on GD, if they win..
At least Brighton blew another 2 points with a home draw against lowly Burnley, preventing them leapfrogging us this weekend.
 

Roboc7

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8 points is a pretty big gap to close when you are as bad as we are. Would expect that to grow even further over next 3 games and I’d be surprised if they don’t beat us at Old Trafford in one of those 3 games.

I see us finishing 6th or 7th and Villa will surely finish higher than that, can see them strengthening in January as well.
 

Winrar

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City/Arsenal/Pool/Villa look like they'll finish top 4 in any order. Villa will probably give us another hiding when we play them as well.
 

Scholsey2004

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No. Goal difference is a good indicator and we're currently -3 in that respect.
 

ti vu

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I still think we’ll finish above them. They’ll drop of if they get deep into the Europa
They're in ELC which is lesser in term of quality opposition. Topping the group thi
us not playing an extra round, they should be able to deal with the ELC and PL fixture. They have decent squad depth bar CF position. I think secretly Emery would want to drop out of FA Cup ASAP. For Aston Villa, getting CL football next season would be huge. ELC is easier competition for them to win, than gamble with luck of draw in FA Cup coming against tougher PL oppositions.
 
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FootballHQ

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Will we finish above Bournemouth?
I think a better thread is will Man. United finish above Brighton?

Like you they've had endless injuries right throughout their side and a few of those are long term ones for Solly March, Welbeck, Enciso and Estupinan.

We're into middle of December and while their results are up and down they are still through to Europa knock outs with a game to spare and will miss the play off round by beating Marseille. They are the grand total of one point off 6th after nearly half the season. They might not have quite completed/defeated football but they are doing o.k and nicely positioned if they win games over xmas/new year. You've got them away on the final day so that will be a sort of play off match I reckon.

As for us....well I certainly never expected to win these two home games. We have Brentford away next week where we always have tough games and rarely win. It will be tight but feels we're playing Brentford at a good time with Mbeumo injured and others like Jensen also out I think.

Over xmas we have Sheffield United and Burnley at home either side of the Boxing day game.

This is where we must be ruthless and win both (and not lose at Old Trafford). We could potentially have a 10 + point lead over a few below us.
 

Sarni

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They're in ELC which is lesser in term of quality opposition. Topping the group thi
us not playing an extra round, they should be able to deal with the ELC and PL fixture. They have decent squad depth bar CF position. I think secretly Emery would want to drop out of FA Cup ASAP. For Aston Villa, getting CL football next season would be huge. ELC is easier competition for them to win, than gamble with luck of draw in FA Cup coming against tougher PL oppositions.
ECL doesn’t even get them into CL. If they are close to top in February, they will probably sacrifice Europe to stay in contention and get into CL. They should be able to get far in ECL even whilst playing their second string team anyway, their squad is actually quite deep and the quality of teams in ECL is quite poor.
 

ti vu

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ECL doesn’t even get them into CL. If they are close to top in February, they will probably sacrifice Europe to stay in contention and get into CL. They should be able to get far in ECL even whilst playing their second string team anyway, their squad is actually quite deep and the quality of teams in ECL is quite poor.
I meant ECL is to build them up for winning an easier trophy.

The league position is ultimately most important for them. FA Cup is the nuisance in comparison to ECL if they want to both maintain a good league campaign and getting to get a trophy.
 

InfiniteBoredom

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What a thread.
Meh. They did well to get those consecutive big scalps but City were without their best midfielders and Arsenal absolutely battered them and only foiled by some defending heroics. Solid team but if that’s the general level of play then they will hit a bump pretty soon, especially with fixtures pile up.

We are a hot mess but if the players can somehow pull their fingers out of their arse I wouldn’t rule out us getting 70 ish points again and finish above them. Despite the loss I think we gave a better account of ourselves against Arsenal away than Villa did at home with this win.
 

Maciej

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Not possible if we can't win against any Top 10 team (I never thought I'd write a sentence like this on here).

 

RaddyRed

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If England gets the 5th CL spot, does that mean the top 8 get into some form of European competition next season, top nine if a top 5 side win the FA Cup?
 

ForFuchsSake

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At this stage, hopefully no one does. The alternatives are all equally terrible for varying reasons.
 
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Well done to Villa, Emery has them playing some excellent stuff, morale is great and their home form is outstanding. They look miles better than us.
 

Leftback99

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Likely 14 points behind before we play them on Boxing day.
 

Loon

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When we were shit, this lot were winning the League Title and a European Cup. Regardless of what Centennial’s think, this is a genuine huge club and it’s kinda fun to see them back.

Even the Ron Atkinson side which pushed us in 1993 was a terrific team .
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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So, Villa gained a point on us this week. They now have an 11 point lead plus GD.

But they were playing Sheffield United at home (expected to win) whilst we were playing West Ham away (expected to lose) so, needless to say, we had the last laugh.