58 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Swansea (h) - W

West Ham (a) - D

Watford (h) - W

Stoke (a) - W

Palace (h) - W

City (h) - D

Bournemouth (a) - W

United (a) - L

Southampton (a) - D

Everton (a) - D

Middlesborough (h) - W

West Brom (a) - W

Sunderland (h) - W

Points total - 28 points

 

That's my guess for how it might pan out. 

We play Southampton at Home not away.

1 minute ago, pacquiao said:

We play Southampton at Home not away.

Blame RIP Mourinho, I'm just a shameless copy and paste merchant. 

My biggest worry is Everton away out of all those fixtures.

Citeh is a nailed on draw and even though Jose's United are looking better there's still no defence or spine to that side.

 

It's going to be a lot closer than most of the pundits and media would have you believe.

5 minutes ago, CarefreeSimmo_ said:

My biggest worry is Everton away out of all those fixtures.

Citeh is a nailed on draw and even though Jose's United are looking better there's still no defence or spine to that side.

 

Chances are we could be champions already before that game, and we go into that getting a guard of honour from them. 

2 minutes ago, Zeta said:

It's going to be a lot closer than most of the pundits and media would have you believe.

We're going to be at least 11-12 points clear with 10 games left. 

Meaning we would have to lose four of the last ten games to give the chasing pack any chance.

I feel we slowed down a bit, but it was expected after that amazing 13 win run. I don't think we are playing badly, i just think this is a "slower" period for us. We have a pretty decent run in, i only think the both Manchester teams will make it hard for us and probably Everton away. Only a complete meltdown would see us missing out on the title, as every fan in England apart from our fans wants. We lost three in 25, we would need to lose another four  from the remaining 13 games to drop from first and if only the rest win all their games. I reckon we will win our 6 remaining home games, and if we manage to win half of our remaining away games it will be enough. Also United, Arsenal and Spurs all play each other in the final 4-5 games of the league. With the way the rest are playing we shouldn't be troubled, but you never know.

11 hours ago, Scott said:

Not me! Up the Blues!!

I admire you. I always feel skeptical already after the first match of every season. Whenever we're in a reasonable position around mid-season, I totally freak out, and it's downright panic when we are top. Convinced we're going to blow it.

Swansea (h) - D
West Ham (a) - D
Watford (h) - W
Stoke (a) - L
Palace (h) - W
City (h) - D
Bournemouth (a) - W
United (a) - L
Southampton (h) - W
Everton (a) - D
Middlesborough (h) - W
West Brom (a) - L
Sunderland (h) - W

22 points (82 points total)

Edited February 14, 20179 yr by the special one

12 hours ago, Blue Ballet said:

Total plastic, Me! 1970 Fa cup final and replay. First games of football I ever saw. Chelsea won, so that's why I don't support Leeds.

and me !!

Im still optimistic but theres no way we'll win the title at old trafford, we'd need to win every game between now and then and hope we're 16 points clear going into that game, given theres 21 points to play for between now and then and we're 8 clear, you'd need the rest of the chasing pack to have a shambolic collapse for us to be even in with a chance of the title at OT.

I think we'll win the title against Boro, with 2 games to spare but its going to be very close in the next 3 months.

I feel confident. Using this partition:

Winnable home games: Swansea, Watford, Palace, Soton, Middlesborough, Sunderland

Hard home game: City

Hard away games: West Ham, Stoke, Bournemouth, West Brom

Bloody hard away games: United, Everton

Now I will be somewhat pessimistic: From the first group I think we should expect winning all of them. From the City-game we can expect at least a draw. Fom the third group, let's expect two wins, one draw and one loss. Finally, let's also assume that we loose all of the really hard away games. This yields in total 8 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses and we have 86 points in total. In order for City to reach at least 86 points, they need 34/39 points and thus they can afford at most 1 loss and 1 draw to reach 86 points.

So, even with these somewhat mediocre results, it will be a really tough task for City to catch us. We are in a good position and I will be surprised if we don't win the league.
 

Based on the fixtures left, assuming this copy/paste is correct:

 

Swansea (Home)

A side battling for their lives down the bottom of the table. They have the potential to throw up unexpected results every now and then, but at home, I feel we should be too strong for them.

2-0 WIN

 

West Ham (Away)

As poor as they've been this season, its never easy to go away to West Ham and they will be right up for the game. It's an evening kickoff, under floodlights, which I think will add to the home fans atmosphere (not that they usually have much of one).

1-1 DRAW

 

Watford (Home)

In theory this should be one of the easier matches we've got left. I can't really see them taking anything back with them. Though having said that, they'll probably surprise us now.

3-0 WIN

 

Stoke (Away)

Another tough place to go, against a physical side going well in the top half of the table.

0-0 DRAW

 

Crystal Palace (Home)

By the time we play them, they could be out of the bottom three, or dead and buried, or more likely still fighting for every point. So another one that's not going to be easy. But we should have enough to see them off.

2-1 WIN

 

Man City (Home)

They will be looking for revenge for earlier in the season, and they are looking better in recent weeks, so if they pick up a few more wins between now and this fixture, they could come into this flying and confident. We will need to be much better defensively than the away game where we could have been 0-3 if not for poor finishing.

1-3 LOSS

 

Bournemouth (Away)

A decent side, who can occasionally upset the odds. I would hope we could see them off though. At home they will want to play their expansive football, and we should be able to set up to counter that.

3-1 WIN

 

Man Utd (Away)

Much improved since we thrashed them earlier in the season, though they still have some issues around the pitch. Mourinho will have them fired up for this one and I can see them walking away with the spoils.

1-2 LOSS

 

Southampton (Home)

Hard to tell with Southampton, sometimes they look great, other times they look sh*t.

1-1 DRAW

 

Everton (Away)

Never easy to go there and if Lukaku is in form, we could be in for a tough game. With 3 at the back, I think we should be solid enough not to lose, but I don't think we'll win the game.

0-0 DRAW

 

Middlesbrough (Home)

Normally a home banker, but so close to the end of the season, they will be fighting for their lives down the bottom and anything could happen. I'd expect it to be a very tight, narrowly contested game.

1-0 WIN

 

West Brom (Away)

They have a habit of beating us on their home pitch and this one looks like a potential bananaskin to me, to keep us all on the edges of our seats as we go into the final game.

1-2 LOSS

 

Sunderland (Home)

By then, will probably be already relegated and just playing for a bit of pride. However, that sometimes means they can play with more freedom and less worry, since its already over and we'll need to be careful.

2-1 WIN

 

That would give us: 22 points, putting us on 82

If we are considering City to be the likeliest to catch us, they would need to pick up 31 points from their remaining 13 games, meaning they can realistically only afford 3 games without winning. Can they do it? Certainly. Will they? I would be surprised but stranger things have happened.

7 hours ago, Nibs said:

THIS.

All teams go through spells. We have been the most consistent team and we can't afford to have a dip between now and the end of the season. Thankfully all of our rivals have dropped points and taken points off each other and hopefully that continues. Looking back, that 3-1 win over City in December was massive. If they had won that (as they did look like doing in the first half) they would now be only 2 points behind us. Our match against them at The Bridge will be crucial. It's on a Wednesday and the good thing is we play at home against Palace the Saturday before whereas they have Arsenal away. Let's also hope they are still in the CL then so they have one eye on that.

Long way to go, plenty of points to be won and dropped - as Carrick says, it's all about having the desire and remaining completely focused. 

And from what we can see Conte looks like the perfect leader for this situation plus we have loads of experience in the squad. 

Well, I would say we don't have the strongest squad in the league and we are not topping the stats in any particular area, but we do have a fantastic coach who knows how to get the extra 10% out of this team, when it matters the most. Maybe that is why we got away with a few scrappy 1-0 wins back in December, when we played no better than we do now.

I think we have a very good shot at winning it, but I do also think that the gap will be smaller than we'd have hoped it would be. I don't think we will win against City or United, and I do think that we will drop a few more points against smaller teams. However, City and United have more difficult fixtures, so there is a decent chance we will edge it even if they'll win more points than us in the remaining games.

If we win the next 5 ( big if), by the time we play City the game won't be a title decider anymore. I believe last Sunday was an one off under difficult circumstances ( nothing could be done about that free kick or the appalling condition), I expect a different performance when we play at home against Swansea. One win at a time, put pressure on the chasing teams, the cliché. I hope we get most of our games on Saturday, will definitely help with most of our rivals play late Saturday or Sunday.

I have to admit I've got this nagging feeling that something could go wrong but I'm a pessimist by nature. I can't accept good things happening, I out on a front and try to be confident with score predictions and stuff but I mostly feel we're gonna lose.

However, I will say this, 8 points is a healthily lead and when we were 5 points clear after losing to Spurs I didn't expect us to be 8 points clear at this point so maybe some of us need a little perspective.

People need to look at the other teams fixtures. They can't all win against each other. Scouse derby, manc derby, north London derby, scoucers vs spuds, spuds vs united, ars vs Everton, Stoke vs Ars, Burnley vs united, United vs Everton, Ars vs w spam, Ars vs City, Burnley vs spuds, City vs scousers, City vs Stoke, Spuds vs Everton, Scousers vs Ars, Southampton vs Arse. That's 17 games between the other top 5 between themselves. I haven't sat and worked out any permutations, but they can't all have the points so there is no way they can all stay unbeaten unless they are draws. Which would suit us fine.

And one of Swansea's best players Nathan Dyer is out for the season with a ruptured achilles tendon...best wishes to him and a speedy recovery...

Edited February 14, 20179 yr by doctorblue

I have a feeling Le Arse could catch us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's gone now.

 

City have Liverpool and arsenal before they come to us and a draw will favour us far more in that game, Tottenham have a better list of fixtures people have stopped talking about them yet they are only a point behind city, of our rivals our fixture list is probably the best, we need to get the bit between our teeth and make sure it's over sooner than later. 

5 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

City have Liverpool and arsenal before they come to us and a draw will favour us far more in that game, Tottenham have a better list of fixtures people have stopped talking about them yet they are only a point behind city, of our rivals our fixture list is probably the best, we need to get the bit between our teeth and make sure it's over sooner than later. 

Tottenham aren't catching us and they're two points behind City (ten in total), not one. 

The only team that could possibly catch us is City. I hope Arsenal and Liverpool do us a favour and take some points off them. 

I always say draws in those games are good cause then neither team really gains any kind of advantage.

I am somewhat surprised by some of the predicted results.  Even though he praised the players for their 'commitment' Conte was pissed after the Burnley game, he felt we dropped 2 points; going forward his mentality is nothing but win, win, win.  Unlike Jose he doesn't play for draws.  That being said, he will expect nothing but perfection until the title is won..whether he gets it from the players is another matter and I am sure we will encounter a few blips along the way.  The two toughest games IMO will be WBA and West Ham away.  The Utd game won't be a title decider and I think we can, at the very least, walk away with a draw.  We can beat City at home, they are still not that good.  Everton don't worry me, they are inconsistent from one week to the next and they have only steamroll a f**ked up City team and Bournemouth team that has more holes than a sieve for a defence.

Although 8 points in not insurmountable it is a decent lead up running up into the remaining fixtures. You may not have any hair left by the end of the year..but have faith......but next year....well that's a different story and Roman will have to spend big money if he wants to keep a grip on the title. 

On 14/02/2017 at 11:37, Valerie said:

I admire you. I always feel skeptical already after the first match of every season. Whenever we're in a reasonable position around mid-season, I totally freak out, and it's downright panic when we are top. Convinced we're going to blow it.

Yet we never have, top in Jan won league every time