3 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

But surely if we get 7 points from our remaining games we can't be caught. We must beat Man Utd. On paper it's the easiest game, they're in horrendous formant hopefully will be hung over from winning the Europa League.

If we beat Newcastle and Man Utd then a draw is enough against Forest. Draw Newcastle and beat Man utd then we need to go to Forest and win.

All this is assuming that none of the others implode either.

Edit: In fact Newcastle potentially have it as tough as us. If we beat Newcastle that really puts the pressure on them as the next game is us against Man utd whilst they travel to Arsenal. We beat Man Utd at home that puts us right on Arsenal's shirt tails so they will want to beat Newcastle on their last home game. That happens and we're in anyway. A lot of permutations, granted, but we are definitely in the mix.

TWO WINS IS ENOUGH, OR DRAW AGAINST NEWCASTLE AND FOREST AND BEAT UNITED GETS CL (UNLESS FORREST CAN TURN AROUND A 9 GOAL DIFFERENCE)

Don’t see us getting anything out of the Newcastle game.

Utd recently always seem to do us.

Forest will be looking to pip us to 6th.

Just don’t see us getting CL and to be brutally honest, we aren’t ready for it anyway, could become very embarrassing very fast (see Arsenal/Tottenham 2010-2016 a total waste of a spot)

Edited May 6, 20251 yr by The Boehly Babes
I said the wrong side and I’m sorry.

5 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Don’t see us getting anything out of the Liverpool game.

Utd recently always seem to do us.

Forest will be looking to pip us to 6th.

Just don’t see us getting CL and to be brutally honest, we aren’t ready for it anyway, could become very embarrassing very fast (see Arsenal/Tottenham 2010-2016 a total waste of a spot)

ER?

Didnt we get 3 points?

4 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Forest don’t have a game in hand against us do they?

I meant the last game of the season

Just now, Caps_Lock_King said:

ER?

Didnt we get 3 points?

I meant Newcastle haha, sorry!

1 hour ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

WHY?

THEIR MAIN PRIORITY IS NOT TO GET ANY OF THEIR MAIN PLAYERS INJURED

MANCHESTER UNITED PLAY US 5 DAYS BEFORE THEIR FINAL, THEY WILL REST MOST OF THEIR PLAYERS

UCL is important but I agree in terms of our squad we are far from being any kind of force in the competition. We now know 100% how we do in the Prem, the cups and in a far inferior European competition UECL.

We need more players and more experienced players along with the super talented core we have.

If we make CL this season we need to make those adjustments to the squad and I think we will. I think we planned the squad well for this season. We had enough bodies to force through UECL group phase. And we have enough to cope with the smaller squad all the games we now have. The amount of players and the level of the players was planned in the right way.

Enzo said we are ahead of the process as he sees it. Now we have a good chance of leaping ahead a bit by making UCL and going for a bit of experience along with the youngsters.

So making the UCL would massively enhance my enjoyment on this forum 🤣🤣

1 hour ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

WHY?

THEY HAVE ROTATED MOST OF THEIR PLAYERS FOR THE LAST 3 GAMES, THEY AREN'T GETTING RELEGATED AND CAN ONLY GET EUROPEAN FOOTBALL BY WINNING THE EUROPA LEAGUE (ENTRY INTO CL), SO THEY WILL NOT CARE HOW THEY GET ON AGAINST WEST HAM, VILLA OR US, THEIR MAIN PRIORITY IS NOT TO GET ANY OF THEIR MAIN PLAYERS INJURED

We have not done well against them. They are horrible and we still don't manage to win them line most other clubs do.

I also think Newcastle is a bit cocky. They are sure they will win at their place. We lost there this season with our UECL team but won them in the Prem. I think we can beat them.

We have a good chance with being able to play both Newcastle and Forest both away and at both grounds we traditionally do not do well at though we do have Lavia back.

Hopefully we do not need the points when we go to Forest.

I think we will get champions league - not necessarily due to confidence in ourselves, but due to the fact that forest seem to be on a slump - and the romance of an underdog winning through, rarely happens in real life.

I think we beat Utd, and beat forest - losing at Newcastle.

I'm gonna be honest, there is absolutely no reason why we can't get champions league from here. Newcastle are good but not unbeatable, we're more than capable of getting at least a point there, but even if we lose it's still in our hands. Man Utd will be fielding a weakened team with the Europa league final in mind and then on to Notts Forest in the decider assuming they beat Leicester and West Ham, although if Potter could do us a favour it would be a bigger contribution to Chelsea than anything he did during his time as manager.

I agree that this group of players might not yet be ready for a CL campaign, but qualification brings with it a validation of sorts to prospective players and opens the market up a bit more for us. It will make us attractive to the players that we need to bring in to bolster what we have for a concerted assault.

I actually think that all of the remaining games are eminently winnable for us unless this bloody manager scuppers everything with his cock-eyed tactics.

If our Target Operating Model is to group together young emerging talent and develop these youngsters then i feel that this philosophy is totally at odds with our manager and his tactics. Young players are full of energy, pace, enthusiasm and a single minded approach to what they are doing. Yes it bring recklessness and mistakes with it but you hope that pace and energy will help in recovering from such errors. Getting a group of young players into a tactical mindset of slow, methodical, risk averse football not only goes against the very attributes and characteristics that make us want to buy them in the first place. but also reduces the likelihood of these recoveries when the inevitable errors occurs.

There is a part of the Liverpool game that illustrates this. They have an overload coming into our box. Trev has Nunez (i think) on his shoulder with Salah in his line of sight. He makes the decision (reckless perhaps) to ignore Nunez and gamble on the pass to Salah. He guesses correctly, gets to the ball first and make a massive clearance. Chest pumps and high fives abound. Guesses wrong and he looks sh*t but you can see that energy, front footedness, and covering each other is infectious. So Colwill then covers, or Caicedo, etc. Slow, methodical, tippy toe tap just makes everyone stop and watch to see what is going to happen.

Every time we have looked good this season it has been on transition. In any of the show reels the goals you see from us are transitional , counter attacking goals. The Felix vs Wolves goal is a case in point currently on TV.

We beat Liverpool and they had 65% possession. We have Newcastle away, they will definitely come after us. We then have Man Utd who will come out to play, they can't help themselves. Forest might be cagey but of course it might be sh*t or bust by then so they might have to come after us. High tempo, high transition, pace and infectious energy, teamwork, one or two touch passing and shooting without over thinking. Its just so Chelsea and so anti-Maresca.

If we allow these players to tap into their natural footballing psyches and go for it then i think we have a great chance of pulling this off. If we go into the Newcastle game with the intention of getting them into an headlock and trying to starve out a draw or nick a 1-0, with fannying around at the back all game, then i fear for us.

I would truly rather be in the position we are in now than being in 5th and trying to stave of Fulham, Brentford and Palace in our last three games as i am sure we would blow that.

Depends on which Newcastle show up. Bit bipolar these past 4 matches.

Joelinton out is huge though.

41 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

I'm gonna be honest, there is absolutely no reason why we can't get champions league from here. Newcastle are good but not unbeatable, we're more than capable of getting at least a point there, but even if we lose it's still in our hands. Man Utd will be fielding a weakened team with the Europa league final in mind and then on to Notts Forest in the decider assuming they beat Leicester and West Ham, although if Potter could do us a favour it would be a bigger contribution to Chelsea than anything he did during his time as manager.

I take your no reason - and raise you a Maresca and Jackson.

Of course if we do get CL we get more money from the League and also makes us more attractive to young talent that might otherwise go elsewhere.

28 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

I take your no reason - and raise you a Maresca and Jackson.

Maresca is certainly a possible fly in the ointment. I am less concerned by Jackson to be honest, relying upon @dkw 's principle that the sun even shines on a dog's arsehole sometimes.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Depends on which Newcastle show up. Bit bipolar these past 4 matches.

Joelinton out is huge though.

I imagine the crowd will help them raise their game.

Midfield battle is key. Need Caicedo and Lavia to win that again.

12 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Maresca is certainly a possible fly in the ointment. I am less concerned by Jackson to be honest, relying upon @dkw 's principle that the sun even shines on a dog's arsehole sometimes.

that was no sun....it was his torch.....a guiding light.

I THINK WE WILL GET A DRAW AT NEWCASTLE (BUT ONLY IF MARESCA DOESNT INSIST TRYING TO SEND EVERYONE TO SLEEP)

WE CRUISE PAST UNITED (MOST OF THEIR EURO STARTERS WONT FEATURE)

AND WE GET AT LEAST A DRAW AGAINST FOREST (THEY HAVE HIT A BUFFER, I THINK THEY WILL DROP POINTS EITHER AGAINST LEICESTER AND /OR WEST HAM)

WE GET AT LEAST 5 POINTS WHICH IS GOOD ENOUGH

Newcastle to me look abit flat. They got smashed by Villa and should have lost vs Brighton. The Newcastle game is our biggest game of the season. If we win it, I reckon that should be enough (assuming we pick up something vs United).

That said, they will be up for it and they are a gritty, nasty team. I worry that we will be abit naive and not up for the fight.

I think we'll nick 5th on 67 points ahead of Villa on goal difference.

Maresca seems to have that vital ingredient "lady luck" on his side

Jackson's fully bottled it for us, hopefully Villa drop some points

56 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think we'll nick 5th on 67 points ahead of Villa on goal difference.

Maresca seems to have that vital ingredient "lady luck" on his side

We need to win our last 2 games then we don't have to worry about the other teams.

27 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think we'll nick 5th on 67 points ahead of Villa on goal difference.

Maresca seems to have that vital ingredient "lady luck" on his side

Why it is luck? If you liked him you would find positives on his work. As I said a million times, the Prem is very tough. Every side can beat any side basically. This is also why I think a lot of people watch the Prem.

I personally think Champions League next season is a bit early for this squad. If we do it I think we will buy experience. Which is fine but I hope it doesn't block the time on the pitch from some of our highly talented youngsters.

46 minutes ago, forbzy said:

We need to win our last 2 games then we don't have to worry about the other teams.

We have two decent fixtures, in theory, to do so. United might be focused on the Europa League final, and Forest are a mess, and missing Murillo.

Biggest obstacles to us is ourselves, as Jackson and a few others, showed us.

Cannot win both games unless Palmer shows up.