Would you have taken this?

[mad_mac]

If, at the start of the season I had said to you "Going into Christmas, we'll be 4 points clear of Man Utd....oh and Liverpool are closer to the bottom than the top, but Spurs are in the top 6!" Would you have taken it?

[bjd]

If, at the start of the season I had said to you "Going into Christmas, we'll be 4 points clear of Man Utd....oh and Liverpool are closer to the bottom than the top, but Spurs are in the top 6!" Would you have taken it?

Yes, yes and yes.

However it shouldn't mask the fact we are currently playing poorly and with such little imagination and urgency. In the space of three weeks we have gone from looking like we might walk the league after a masterclass at Arsenal to looking very shaky indeed.

We are lucky Utd are not what they were and are currently suffering injuries and Liverpool have melted down.

There is still a long way to go. I think we will be right there up come the end of the season and it will be close but we are not going to walk away with it like it appeared we might.

[Virosh]

Of course I would have. But it could have been more.

[charierre]

Of course you'd take it, though if we continue to play as poorly as the last few weeks we will be relying on others playing equally bad to maintain our position

[mad_mac]

Absolutely barny. i'm not trying to mask over the fact that we've not been playing well (certainly after the Arsenal performance), and I never took into consideration that in all actuality we are really only 3 points ahead of arsenal (assuimg they win their game in hand), but I just want a bit of perspective here.

I actually think the premiership, from top to bottom, is more competitive this year than it has been for a long time. There seems to be "upsets" every weekend!

[north stand]

Absolutely barny. i'm not trying to mask over the fact that we've not been playing well (certainly after the Arsenal performance), and I never took into consideration that in all actuality we are really only 3 points ahead of arsenal (assuimg they win their game in hand), but I just want a bit of perspective here.

I actually think the premiership, from top to bottom, is more competitive this year than it has been for a long time. There seems to be "upsets" every weekend!

Very true but we should be at least be 8 points clear by now instead of 4 :angry:

[Hutch]

Very true but we should be at least be 8 points clear by now instead of 4 :angry:

i think you mean we could have been at least 8 points clear by now ... if we werent going through such a bad patch. but we are. we haven't played well since we won at arsenal. i don't know exactly what's wrong but it's obvious somethings not right. in fact it looks like theres a lot more wrong than right.

everything changed suddenly, right? ok well everything can change just as suddenly for the best. all bad patches come to an end.

[The Machine]

I think the position that we are in the league at the moment is decent, and one that I would have taken at the start of the season. Whilst the situation could be a lot better the fact that we are top despite not playing as well cannot all be bad. Also I think that at some point we will get back to hitting top form, and I would not want to be the team that Chelsea hit top form against.

Keep the faith! :angry:

[Tea Bar Boy]

the sad truth is we are only 3 points up from the same fixtures last year ??????

[The Machine]

the sad truth is we are only 3 points up from the same fixtures last year ??????

Yes but we have the biggest points lead as Premier League leaders for four years. In fact below is the points gap that Premier league leaders have had going into the boxing day fixture since the start of the noughties:

2009: Chelsea - 4 pts clear

2008: Liverpool - 1 pt clear

2007: Arsenal - 1 pt clear

2006: Man Utd - 2 pts clear

2005: Chelsea - 9pts clear

2004: Chelsea - 5 pts clear

2003: Man Utd - 1 pt clear

2002: Arsenal - 1 pt clear

2001: Man Utd - 3 pts clear

2000: Man Utd - 10 pts clear

As you and others can see we are currently have the fourth highest pts gap since 2000. Yes the result yesterday was dissapointing but look on the bright side: We could be sitting hear only being a point ahead of United. Four is better than one I personally think.

[Tea Bar Boy]

Yes but we have the biggest points lead as Premier League leaders for four years. In fact below is the points gap that Premier league leaders have had going into the boxing day fixture since the start of the noughties:

2009: Chelsea - 4 pts clear

2008: Liverpool - 1 pt clear

2007: Arsenal - 1 pt clear

2006: Man Utd - 2 pts clear

2005: Chelsea - 9pts clear

2004: Chelsea - 5 pts clear

2003: Man Utd - 1 pt clear

2002: Arsenal - 1 pt clear

2001: Man Utd - 3 pts clear

2000: Man Utd - 10 pts clear

As you and others can see we are currently have the fourth highest pts gap since 2000. Yes the result yesterday was dissapointing but look on the bright side: We could be sitting hear only being a point ahead of United. Four is better than one I personally think.

Equally Liverscum and Arsenal were top at Xmas and failed in the 2nd half of the season …………….

[bonetti]

I am more than happy with our 4 point lead, what worries me is compared to the manks and l'arse we are at relatively full strength and have not played that well against 2 sides at the bottom. Birmingham will be a real test.

[The Machine]

Birmingham will be a real test.

It will be. Hopefully by the time we will play them we will have Nicolas Anelka back. He was a player that we missed badly yesterday against West Ham.

[The Machine]

Equally Liverscum and Arsenal were top at Xmas and failed in the 2nd half of the season …………….

They did but so did Man Utd back in 2001 (2001-2002) and 2003 (2003-2004). Those two seasons Arsenal won the Premier League.

[Spiller86]

There are very few here who wouldn't have snapped your hand off at the start of the season, they'd have agreed to our currrent position so quickly. This is what I'm not getting right now. We've played poorly last couple of weeks given, but we're four points up, we qualified top of our group in the CL. We're too quick to judge and moan, there are threads popping up everywhere about our rut, why isn't our midfield working better? Why isn't Petr Cech able to keep a clean sheet every week?

I really think that after what happened last season we're all so bloody worried that it's happening again we have lost sight of the fact that we're three points better off, with a better manager and a happier squad than we last last season. Furthermore we've beaten our three biggest rivals, (something we certainly didn't do before last Christmas.) Certainly we could have picked up some extra points but we're in a better position than we have been the last three seasons. So my thought is that we all sit back enjoy the fesitive season and the fact that Kalou won't be playing for a month and get behind our lads on Boxing Day and on the run in.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Spiller86

[ethicalstrategy]

I think there is too much doom and gloom.

We haven't played well for a few matches we have still done better than our main rivals for the title.

Every team has a bad patch at one time or another and if we have had or are having our then I'm greatly encouraged that we haven't lost ground to the chasing pack.

A couple of draws and a loss to Man City is not the end of the world.

[dkw]

the sad truth is we are only 3 points up from the same fixtures last year ??????

i know, how terrible. i mean, how dreadful is it that were actually doing better than last year. its a disgrace i tell you.....

[Tea Bar Boy]

i know, how terrible. i mean, how dreadful is it that were actually doing better than last year. its a disgrace i tell you.....

Sorry my mistake we are only currently 2 points better off from the same fixtures last year. i just hope the curse of January has come early this year ....

[evissy]

The way we played month ago and until that Arsenal game we were looking at closer to that 9point gap rather than this 4p but the fact that Scum is doing so poorly makes up at least 3 points. ManU can easily drop more points before new year with their injury crisis so we could have the gap broaden even more. Lets hope so.

We are facing in form Brum and Fulham who just gave us a falour of beating Mancs so it will be really tough two games ahead. Now we need Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Ballack and co showing leadership how to turn this slump into something better...

[lauren]

I would prefer to see us on a roll and made this 4 point gap in the last few weeks by playing better rather than playing averagely like we are now and relying on the manks losing more games than us.

of course I would rather we go into xmas clear at the top but we are about to lose a few players next month which is more worrying I think.

[rahul]

Of course I'd have taken it...but what if I post another question? How would you have reacted at the start of the season if I said...we'd barely scrape past the team lying rock bottom of the league and would draw against the team second bottom thanks to a dubious penalty in consecutive matches?

The fact is teams have figured us out and we dont seem to have an answer right now. How surprising is it that being one of the tallest and strongest team in the league, we suck at set pieces and get bullied quite easily in the midfield if the opposition decides to play rough.

[TheWestwayWonder]

Every team has a bad patch at one time or another and if we have had or are having our then I'm greatly encouraged that we haven't lost ground to the chasing pack.

A couple of draws and a loss to Man City is not the end of the world.

Exactly. And if we get three points tomorrow and their rocky form continues, we have the potential to stretch our lead to its widest point yet. If this was our first bad patch, we got off the hook bigtime.