CHOULO19

I made a post somewhere going into some detail about this. I'll try to find it. EDIT: Here it is:

Just 'made up' for it

Yeah, good points. Also, thinking about it, Spurs winning at City would give them another huge psychological boost after the one they got by ending our winning streak.

What are we hoping for here, guys? I'm really torn. A City win gives us the most breathing space before tomorrow, a draw is a point that neither would get but a Tottenham win probably means that City are definitively out of the title race. Not sure which would be best for us.

Saw how they came back from behind to win against Bournemouth yesterday. They looked very good and Bournemouth are no pushovers either. This is not as straight forward as it looks.

Yeah, I think the average of the top teams will be slightly higher this season but I highly doubt any of the teams, us included, will continue with the same averages till the end of the season especially when the bottom teams start fighting a lot harder for points to avoid the relegation zone.

We really are in a great position even if 5/7 points don't seem like much. Statistically we should go on to win the title, but then I remember that we honestly shouldn't be in this position to begin with. On paper our squad is at most the fourth best in the league. Conte and his 3-4-3 system have done absolute miracles for us. But I just keep worrying that eventually someone will 'figure it out'. If we somehow manage to break our 05 record with all of Moses, Alonso, Cahill and Matic in our XI we should build Conte a bloody statue outside the bridge!

I think it's time we started talking about the title. Barring some exceptional events, we will most likely at least be very strong contenders for the title. So here's my view of it: We currently have 52 points and 17 matches left. I think the minimum target to win the EPL would most likely be around 86 points. In the past decade, only once would 86 points not have won you the title (in fact just twice since the launching of the premiere league itself in 92). That means that of those remaining 17 matches, we will need to get 34 points. That is 11 wins, a draw, and 5 losses or 10 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses...etc. Now if we look at our fixture list, it seems that the remaining tough games where we're more likely to drop points are: Liverpool away, Arsenal at home, City at home, Utd away and we can maybe throw in Everton Away into the mix. Based on the above I think we can afford to not win a single one of those five matches and still get the title if we continue to beat the lower teams in the league as we have done consistently so far this season. Of course I hope that we do beat other teams in the top 7, especially that there are no guarantees that we will continue our 100% record against the smaller sides, particularly when you see that we seem to be playing all the mid-table teams away from home in the second half of the season. But my point is, if we want to get that title our emphasis should not be just on beating the other title contenders but rather to continue what we've been doing against the smaller sides because even if we fail to beat any of the teams currently in the top 7 we can probably still win the title by beat everyone else in the league.

Whether you agree is also irrelevant because this is a forum and nothing said here is likely to have any actual effect on the club.

We've played basically the same XI for almost 4 months now. I really doubt that 20 odd minutes will affect the team's 'gelling' abilities..

I love Conte, but can someone explain to me why at 3-0 we still haven't seen either Mitchy or Chaloba?

Bloody hell he actually almost got it!!

I REALLY don't get British refereeing. How was that not a dive but Ki's against Arsenal was?!

Anyone know what were the odds for an Alonso hat-trick at the start of the match?!

Yeah, that's what meant:

I can maybe get this approach in a derby or a Manu vs Liverpool match where you don't want to start giving cards from the start. But when one team is doing all the fouling, you're actually being biased against the other team with this kind of refereeing.

That was a great move from the FK. Pedro really should have taken that with his right.

I am NOT a fan of this ref...

Just watch him complete 90 mins...

WHY did Luiz just do that?!

No seriously, Matic needs to not come on for the second half. And we need a center forward.

No seriously, someone needs to tell Matic that he's not playing for the team in Blue today...

To be fair, you shouldn't have been fucking him in the first place!

How many more will the ref allow Huth to get away with? Arguable both of his fouls so far were bookable.

That was brilliant vision and selflessness from Hazard. Great stuff.