We could still make it to Top 4!

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Lets get january out of the way, other sides are going to recruit players so lets see who strengthens and with what. lets see how the anc affects other sides.

we have three cup competitions to face, the FA cup starts saturday, we have chelsea home and away in the tin pot league cup, and then there is our profile in europe in the uefa to throw into the mix.

suddenly all these extra games is starting to catch up with us.

fancy that.
 
trueblues1985 said:
If truth be told, this year more than any other, we have competition from some of the lesser clubs like city, villa et al.

I think we are progressing extremely well, but when it comes down to the wire, as moyes says, its the results against the so called top 4 that do matter if your wanting to get into the mix, and also a strong run of consistancy, which we had up until the utd game.

I am not looking at this through rose tinted glasses here, we are playing in 4 competitions, still a smallish squad, and with the ANC coming very soon, its gonna hurt us more than we can admit.

Sure we have anichebe and vaughny et al, but the truth is, we have just lost half the midfield either through injury or sending off.

Personally I think we have had a tremendous season, progressed to the last 32 of the eufa cup, in the semi's against chelski, and still 6th in the league.
This has been the best season we have had for an extremely long time 20 years +, I for one wouldnt complain one bit if we failed to reach 4th spot and the champions league...dont get me wrong it would cap a tremendous season and exceptional progress, but I really cant see it happening, not if we want to continue to progress in europe and the cups, remember we have a small squad..even if we win nothing this season, moyes has justified my belief in him again because progress has been made.

Small squad, a lot of upcoming games in all competitions, anc is going to hit us hard until feb. The Yak has been inspirational at times with his goals for us.

I want to believe we are at the level of breaking into the top 4 this season, but right now I think we are just a little too short, regardless of the results against the top four..we need more players so we can fight on all fronts, so certain team members can be rested..remember that we arent used to this, so a bigger squad is necessary..players are gonna dip in form, and we need replacements for when they do, to pick them back to get back into the team.

We might not have the best known names in our team, apart from perhaps neville, cahill and stubbs. I think imo as long as we qualify for europe next year I will be happy with what has been achieved, and that moyes really does some big spending come jan and the summer, for a real good go for the top 4 spot next year. Between me and you I think we are only a couple of years away from challenging for the title, if you look at the progress that has been made in just this year alone..we keep going like that, and it just be a top 4 slot, it will be us who are the champions...a pipe dream? maybe but oh what a fantastic thing if would happen :)
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SuitsBlue said:
Lets get january out of the way, other sides are going to recruit players so lets see who strengthens and with what. lets see how the anc affects other sides.

we have three cup competitions to face, the FA cup starts saturday, we have chelsea home and away in the tin pot league cup, and then there is our profile in europe in the uefa to throw into the mix.

suddenly all these extra games is starting to catch up with us.

fancy that.
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January could be have an effect on the 2nd half of the season, but it suppose to effect the strength of the team trying to avoid the drop, but some of those signing could effect someo of the result from there matches against Top 10 team.

I won't think too much of losing the match against last year top 4, we still have chance to take 3 points off some of them, and it's not as though we are losing more match than usual, we rather have won more matches instead of drawing more.

you going to win some and lose some, we looked bit off it against Man Utd game and try to get a draw that was a off one for it, although we were not up for the 90 mins against Arsenal, but can't blame the boys got a little bit burn out for a game or to, and in December we manage 6 wins, 1 draw & 2 lost, which I am sure you did take that result at the beginning the season.

It might be a good chance for Arteta getting some rest, it would benefit us in the 2nd leg against Chelsea and we manage them just fine without Arteta last time round, injure player is all coming back pretty soon and the fixture begin to ease a bit compare to the amount of games we had to play in December, our player should recover pretty soon.

Who we could bring in January could also be a factor as to how well we did do?

One things for sure this year the total of points needed to finish Top 4 could be lower than most people though, the mid-table team strength has increase and last year Top 4 team are starting to find it hard to get 3 points from every match that used to be a 3 pointer.

The best example would be Man City, the transformation of an 14th place finish from last season, and the number of points they have been getting and the draw against RS last night, I can gurantee you RS would be the first team get knock out of Top 4 this season, whether Chelsea get pulled into the battle would all be in there own hand.

Not try to be over positive here, but for my prediction to work out, then a win against Middlesbrough tomorrow is a must!
 
Swift said:
My goodness. You lot sound exactly like Tottenham fans in the summer.

Everton are impressive and Moyes is turning the team into a real force but don't get ahead of yourselves. The top four will be Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool for a while. Sure those four will drop points but so will you. If you honestly think you'll break into top four this season then.....:P. I'm pretty sure City will take the 5th spot.
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Someone at work asked me where I reckoned we'd finish (Everton by the way, Swift, whoever you are) and my answer was 5th - with Villa 6th, City 7th and Spurs 8th
 
Devil2001 I dont think you have taken into account that those teams such as pompey, villa and city ALL have far more money than we have, they DONT have the cup compettions that we are in for example CC and EUFA, i'd understand if bolton where doing well in the league and you took them as an example, because we always finish above them.

Like I said id love for us to get a champions league spot, but i wouldnt put that over the chances of getting some silverware, which would help with our profile, and encourage more players to join us, as we are progressing. In the long run we are starving for silverware we need so desperatly, but tbh I think you havent really taken into account other factors, such as the size of our squad for a start, look at the other 3 clubs mentioned and they ALL have bigger squads, and they can afford to bring in more in Jan, but I dont think there will be anything we can get unless its on loan, and even then i think it will be a push.

Id love for silverware and fourth, but I think your getting slightly ahead of yourself here. Next year bigger squad, better equipped more experience , means we wont just be likely fighting for fourth spot.

Here's wishing you a wonderful new Year!

COYB!!
 

trueblues1985 said:
Devil2001 I dont think you have taken into account that those teams such as pompey, villa and city ALL have far more money than we have, they DONT have the cup compettions that we are in for example CC and EUFA, i'd understand if bolton where doing well in the league and you took them as an example, because we always finish above them.

Like I said id love for us to get a champions league spot, but i wouldnt put that over the chances of getting some silverware, which would help with our profile, and encourage more players to join us, as we are progressing. In the long run we are starving for silverware we need so desperatly, but tbh I think you havent really taken into account other factors, such as the size of our squad for a start, look at the other 3 clubs mentioned and they ALL have bigger squads, and they can afford to bring in more in Jan, but I dont think there will be anything we can get unless its on loan, and even then i think it will be a push.

Id love for silverware and fourth, but I think your getting slightly ahead of yourself here. Next year bigger squad, better equipped more experience , means we wont just be likely fighting for fourth spot.

Here's wishing you a wonderful new Year!

COYB!!
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Although I didn't mention Portsmouth, Villa and Man City more but I have taken them into account, take Portsmouth for example they are having problem with scoring goals at home and all of the sudden away match is not easy any more and there player is going off to nation cup soon, expect them to lose more points!

Villa, is a strong attacking unit, they are still inconsistent though and there defence is going to be weakest and I expect them to lose more points, even more against potential drop team, they would be fighting for every points!

Man City this is an easy one, they are a better team this year and excellent at home this season apart two recent draw they won all there home games, but there away form is terrible and the begin to drop form at home, they going to start dropping more points pretty soon.

We don't have the biggest squad but doesn't mean team with bigger squad won't have the same problem even the big team they still manage to get through those period and that what it take to do well and win thing and I believe we have the team to do just that.

One things is we are going through an period with player out and injure yet we are still getting right against team we are suppose to beat and that what's keep ourselve moving forward although if we could get a draw against Man Utd and kept the lead and win against Arsenal it would have help our cause but no harm done, there is still alot of match to play.

What Moyes could bring in January would be the key to help us through January, but not to say our current squad couldn't get result as it is, let's take this month for example we could beat Middlesbrough without Arteta and oldham as well and against Chelsea we only need a result we don't need a win, and Arteta is back for the important match against Man City, which these next two league match is going to important as to how we could do this season in the league.

You feel having alot more match than those team is going to be a problem, I think matches week in week out would keep our player match fit and sharper than there player and hence we could get better result and confidence get higher as we get further in those competition.

I am just saying we could do it, but never getting over confident just believe our player could get the right result from those matches!

Happy New year to you too!
 
So far, so good we have two of the win I predict we should be getting from the left over games, Wigan shouldn't be a big problem, Spurs going to be more difficult than the away match we had with them earlier on the season, but I have comfidence we could do it.

List of my prediction on upcoming matches:-

Middlesbrough (A) Win 2-0
Man City (H) Win 1-0
Wigan Sun (A) Win
Tottenham (H) Win
Blackburn (A) draw
Reading (H) Win
Man City (A) lost/draw
Portsmouth (H) Win
Sunderland (A) Win
Fulham (A) lost/win
West Ham (H) Win
Liverpool (A) Win/lost
Derby (H) Win
Birmingham (A) Win
Chelsea (H) draw
Aston Villa (H) draw
Arsenal (A) lost/draw
Newcastle (H) Win

At this rate I did have to change some of the prediction I made on some draw & draw/lost prediction, as I rate Fernandes signing to be a important one which could over turn some result, should update this list at the end of this transfer window, it won't effect it I predict all Premier League matches to be a win for us in January.
 
Its going to be so close, 4 sides on the same amount of points all battling for 4th. Cant wait till AFCON is over, its gonna be such a relief to have the Yak and Pienaar back. They mustve been cheering on today when they read that we won! And maybe they'll be staying up till 1:10am to catch the full game :lol: I know thats what I'm doing.
 
Well for me I think that if we could finish 4th and push the RS down to whereever that would be more satisfying than winning the Carling or UEFA cups. I would just love to see the face on Onionhead then. No excuse and no whinging to bend the rules to get into the CL.

Yes if that were to happen that would make my season.
 

So far so good, 3 wins in a row just as I predicted:-

Middlesbrough (A) Win 2-0
Man City (H) Win 1-0
Wigan Sun (A) Win 2-1
Tottenham (H) Win
Blackburn (A) draw
Reading (H) Win
Man City (A) Win/draw
Portsmouth (H) Win
Sunderland (A) Win
Fulham (A) lost/win
West Ham (H) Win
Liverpool (A) Win/lost
Derby (H) Win
Birmingham (A) Win
Chelsea (H) draw
Aston Villa (H) draw
Arsenal (A) lost/draw
Newcastle (H) Win

Just waiting to see what sort of addition we did get this month before adjustment to later matches.

Spurs match is going to be the difficult one, but we going to need a result there for sure, and I think we could do it.
 
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Things are looking great just as I have predicted:-

Middlesbrough (A) Win 2-0
Man City (H) Win 1-0
Wigan Sun (A) Win 2-1
Tottenham (H) Win/draw 0-0
Blackburn (A) Win/draw 0-0
Reading (H) Win 1-0
Man City (A) Win/draw 2-0
Portsmouth (H) Win
Sunderland (A) Win
Fulham (A) win/draw
West Ham (H) Win
Liverpool (A) Win/lost
Derby (H) Win
Birmingham (A) Win
Chelsea (H) draw
Aston Villa (H) draw/Win
Arsenal (A) draw
Newcastle (H) Win

I have been saying we could get at least 67 points, which is another 5W 2D from 11 games.

I think we could break into the 70 points, that's only 7 wins and we are 71 points Portsmouth (H), Sunderland (A), West Ham (H), Derby (H), Birmingham (A), Newcastle (H) that six matches pretty certain of 3 pointer, then a possible 7th win from Fulham (A), RS(A) or Aston Villa.

Not to mention we might get something from Chelsea (H) or Arsenal (A).

I think to finish 4th at the end of season we probably need around 71 points, we should know more about the points request when couple more games is play but 71 should be enough.
 
[Poor language removed] the murderous kopite inbreds, if we get fourth great, so long as someone gets it instead of that shower of hypocritical [Poor language removed]-wipes then all is ok.
 

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