Title Run In

[Laylabelle 9,341]

Every game a cup final...which rings true.Slip up and its costly

[nadavTKL 1,787]

An utterly miserable weekend.

Anyway...

Chelsea - will have 78 points besides the games against Palace (A), Swansea (A), Pool (A), Cardiff (A) - 4 games.

City - will have 78 points besides the games against Arsenal (A), United (A), Pool (A), Palace (A) Everton (A) - 5 games.

Arsenal - will have 74 besides the games against Chelsea (A), City, Everton (A), Hull (A), Norwich (A) - 5 games.

Liverpool - will have 71 besides the games against Cardiff (A), West Ham (A), City, Norwich (A), Chelsea, Palace (A) - 6 games.

The way i see it, we're still in the best position when we have the fewest-easiest tests (which i wrote above). But if City will suddenly get 4 points out of their Arsenal-United games it will be a problem and they'll be big favorites. And off course we HAVE to win vs Arsenal.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Can see Liverpool only dropping points against us and City

[Laylabelle 9,341]

Can see Liverpool only dropping points against us and City

Norwich is a definate winner for them.Thats the thing can see them and City winning majority of those fixtures but us who knows.Course what looks definate on paper never works out but tough fixtures aside from the 2 obvious...eeeek...Hey ho gotta do what we can.Play like crap cant expect miracles

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Argh the pain I have right now is unbearable,

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Norwich is a definate winner for them.Thats the thing can see them and City winning majority of those fixtures but us who knows.Course what looks definate on paper never works out but tough fixtures aside from the 2 obvious...eeeek...Hey ho gotta do what we can.Play like crap cant expect miracles

The thing is that Liverpool have got the SAS to bail them out when they are not playing well while City have the likes of Nasri,Yaya and Silva who can make a positive difference against teams that defend deep but we only have Hazard who can damage the opposition and thats a huge problem imo.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

If we score 20 goals fom now till end of the season we will win the league IMO

[lionsden 4,689]

Plenty of people including neutral fans and pundits overrate our squad massively. Make no mistake about it, the table does lie and our position in the league as been mostly down to a combination of factors i,e Jose influence, luck ( in huge quantities) and ofcourse the rock solid defence and structure leading to the best defensive record in the league , this is where jose's influence has been most evident.

Looking at it objectively however, most of our players including those in the starting eleven really aren't all that good and people's perception of players like Oscar, Luiz, Ramires,Lampard (current version ofcourse),Schurrle, William and co is a far cry from reality and there's no need to even acknowledge the striking situation as that will be pointing out the obvious.

If we do an unbiased analysis of our squad starting with the first eleven, in my opinion, the defence which is our main strenght aside, only hazard and perhaps Matic at a push would/could get into other "top 6 teams in Europe's starting eleven. which other players in our team excluding Cech, hazard and some of the defenders would make it into the starting eleven of Bayern, Madrid, Barca,Dortmund,PSG,Man city.

And other teams like Arsenal, Juventus, Liverpool et al have suprior midfield and forward than us collectively.

We need to lower our expectations and realise that our squad is a combination of highly mechanical,technically deficient players, young players who haven't yet reached their prime and players who are talked about only in terms of potential rather than ability and some flat out overrated players etc.

And this is why I'm always baffled when majority see us as a major force domestically and in Europe based on our squad strength. The last time I looked at our squad and felt we deserved to be rated amongst the big boys and merited the expectation that often accompanies Europe's elite was the 2008/09 season. even the double winning squad was far from flawless.

To summarize it, Our squad and starting eleven is massively overrated by most.

[zolayes 14,489]

Plenty of people including neutral fans and pundits overrate our squad massively. Make no mistake about it, the table does lie and our position in the league as been mostly down to a combination of factors i,e Jose influence, luck ( in huge quantities) and ofcourse the rock solid defence and structure leading to the best defensive record in the league , this is where jose's influence has been most evident.

Looking at it objectively however, most of our players including those in the starting eleven really aren't all that good and people's perception of players like Oscar, Luiz, Ramires,Lampard (current version ofcourse),Schurrle, William and co is a far cry from reality and there's no need to even acknowledge the striking situation as that will be pointing out the obvious.

If we do an unbiased analysis of our squad starting with the first eleven, in my opinion, the defence which is our main strenght aside, only hazard and perhaps Matic at a push would/could get into other "top 6 teams in Europe's starting eleven. which other players in our team excluding Cech, hazard and some of the defenders would make it into the starting eleven of Bayern, Madrid, Barca,Dortmund,PSG,Man city.

And other teams like Arsenal, Juventus, Liverpool et al have suprior midfield and forward than us collectively.

We need to lower our expectations and realise that our squad is a combination of highly mechanical,technically deficient players, young players who haven't yet reached their prime and players who are talked about only in terms of potential rather than ability etc.

And this is why I'm always baffled when majority see us as a major force domestically and in Europe based on our squad strength. The last time I looked at our squad and felt we deserved to be rated amongst the big boys and merited the expectation that often accompanies Europe's elite was the 2008/09 season. even the double winning squad was far from flawless.

All sides have weaknesses ,,, but you can only see ours .

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Plenty of people including neutral fans and pundits overrate our squad massively. Make no mistake about it, the table does lie and our position in the league as been mostly down to a combination of factors i,e Jose influence, luck ( in huge quantities) and ofcourse the rock solid defence and structure leading to the best defensive record in the league , this is where jose's influence has been most evident.

Looking at it objectively however, most of our players including those in the starting eleven really aren't all that good and people's perception of players like Oscar, Luiz, Ramires,Lampard (current version ofcourse),Schurrle, William and co is a far cry from reality and there's no need to even acknowledge the striking situation as that will be pointing out the obvious.

If we do an unbiased analysis of our squad starting with the first eleven, in my opinion, the defence which is our main strenght aside, only hazard and perhaps Matic at a push would/could get into other "top 6 teams in Europe's starting eleven. which other players in our team excluding Cech, hazard and some of the defenders would make it into the starting eleven of Bayern, Madrid, Barca,Dortmund,PSG,Man city.

And other teams like Arsenal, Juventus, Liverpool et al have suprior midfield and forward than us collectively.

We need to lower our expectations and realise that our squad is a combination of highly mechanical,technically deficient players, young players who haven't yet reached their prime and players who are talked about only in terms of potential rather than ability etc.

And this is why I'm always baffled when majority see us as a major force domestically and in Europe based on our squad strength. The last time I looked at our squad and felt we deserved to be rated amongst the big boys and merited the expectation that often accompanies Europe's elite was the 2008/09 season. even the double winning squad was far from flawless.

Great points raised there, also have to say I blame the board for some of the squad deficiencies ie we go on and spend 50+ million on willian and schurrle when we are in need of a senior striker

[Yeboii 1,844]

I don't know where else to post this, but I see reports of Giroud's wife wanting to leave London in order to save their marriage. So Arsenal might lose their only striker next season. Maybe they won't be as much of a problem as they have been this season.

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

All sides have weaknesses ,,, but you can only see ours .

Ours have been there for a while to be honest, since Carlo was here we knew we needed a central midfielder but we have gone on to spent over 200 million without bringing one until Matic, also the striker dpt we all knew for the last 3 seasons Torres is not the answer and we need a new striker what do we do we go on and spend 50+ million on schurrle and Willian a position we were covered

[lionsden 4,689]

Great points raised there, also have to say I blame the board for some of the squad deficiencies ie we go on and spend 50+ million on willian and schurrle when we are in need of a senior striker

I absolutely agree with that and most of the blame lies at the feet of Emenalo& co. he squandered majority of our transfer funds on players who either weren't needed, weren't good enough or weren't ready (and may never be good enough either) to make any real impact and contributions to the first team.

misplaced priority and gross incompetence of identify the teams weakness and addressing it accordingly.

[didierforever 7,349]

Lol at all this over-reaction. One loss guys. Our first one in PL in about 12/13 games!!!! Disgraceful reactions and comments.

[The Skipper 20,593]

I absolutely agree with that and most of the blame lies at the feet of Emenalo& co. he squandered majority of our transfer funds on players who either weren't needed, weren't good enough or weren't ready (and may never be good enough either) to make any real impact and contributions to the first team.

misplaced priority and gross incompetence of identify the teams weakness and addressing it accordingly.

Disagree. Emelano is so easy to blame but many are forgetting that after the summer transfer window we were only a CDM and ST away from having the complete squad. We clearly had a budget for a striker (Rooney, the one that Mou wanted) but we didn't get him and Mou thought Eto'o's signing would paper over the cracks for this season, and it was also Mou's decision to loan out Lukaku.

Mou gave the heads up for the Schurrle signing (he said this himself IIRC) and the Willian signing was also under his approval. He then sold Mata and KDB (two very solid squad players at the very least) and brought in Salah, a typical Mourinho player.

Honestly we were fine but Mou wants to build the squad in his own style hence why we got rid of Mata and KDB. If we just brought in Matic in January we'd be 1/2 players away from a complete squad (ST, LB). You can't really blame Emelano for Mourinho trying to build the squad in his image.

It seriously annoys me when people want to blame Emelano for the squad make up when he's clearly working in tandem with Jose, trying to create the squad that Jose wants.

[lionsden 4,689]

Disagree. Emelano is so easy to blame but many are forgetting that after the summer transfer window we were only a CDM and ST away from having the complete squad. We clearly had a budget for a striker (Rooney, the one that Mou wanted) but we didn't get him and Mou thought Eto'o's signing would paper over the cracks for this season, and it was also Mou's decision to loan out Lukaku.

Mou gave the heads up for the Schurrle signing (he said this himself IIRC) and the Willian signing was also under his approval. He then sold Mata and KDB (two very solid squad players at the very least) and brought in Salah, a typical Mourinho player.

Honestly we were fine but Mou wants to build the squad in his own style hence why we got rid of Mata and KDB. If we just brought in Matic in January we'd be 1/2 players away from a complete squad (ST, LB). You can't really blame Emelano for Mourinho trying to build the squad in his image.

It seriously annoys me when people want to blame Emelano for the squad make up when he's clearly working in tandem with Jose, trying to create the squad that Jose wants.

Your argument about 2 players away from a complete squad butresses my point that most overrate our squad and players a great deal. Then again complete squad would be relative to the standard one wishes to set and judge a squad by.

If the aim and ultimate goal was to become/rejoin Europe's elite then we would have needed more than just 2 signings to complete the squad. for starters, Ashley cole is on the way out and Ivanovic's only real competition at right back is the current first choice LB.

Secondly we have no regista sans midfield controller. so with the signing of a defensive midfielder in Matic, we are still desperately lacking a top class midfielder who can orchestrate play from deep and be the link between defence and attack. our Xavi/Bastian/Gundogan/Pirlo if you will. Add to that Lampard,an AM forced to play in CM, is obviously on the wane and likely on the way out in the summer, Ramires clearly lacks the technical ability and intelligence required to play and flourish in CM at a club with big aspirations and Mikel isn't the most reliable midfielder around which imho leaves Matic has the only real midfielder worth his salt in the current squad.

Also despite all the attacking midfielders and wingers we purchased over the last 3 seasons, how many of them actually good enough and consistently produce the goods. Oscar must be the most uncreative no 10 (if you want to call him that) at any top European club statistically and visually and William, for all his technical ability consistently lacks the end product and schurrle isn't much better for all his intelligent attacking runs. And I'm not even sure others like Marin and Moses are even good enough as squad options which again leaves only Hazard as the genuine quality out of all the AM's and Wingers we have. A classic case of quantity over quality.

The same can also be applied to the striking position. Ba is clearly not good enough, Eto'o is past his prime and Torres is unreliable and has never been since his game has deteriorated to the point of no return which means that unless Jose rates and likes Lukaku and sees him in his future plans, we would require more than just one striker signing.

I'm not so sure it would only require 2 key signings, one of which we have already made in Matic, in order to complete the jigsaw.

You will have to forgive me for having high standard.

[Beepu 1,714]

We still have a chance to win it, but even if we don't it's still alright. Compared to last year, our position in the league has been a major improvement.

The premier league is really intense this season. Meanwhile in the bundesliga, Bayern is on 71 points while 2nd place Dortmund is on 48. They can easily concentrate their players and focus on the Champions League.

[teignman 441]

We essentially have no margin for error now. Not ideal, but not impossible either.