Football The Millionth

[Rorshach]

I'm curious how the Everton-West Ham match this weekend will go. On one hand, West Ham are brilliant against top teams, which means we've certainly got a good chance of winning. On the other hand, guessing which Everton will turn up is just about as easy as predicting which Liverpool team will turn up.

But Slaven Bilic was never much of a hit at Goodison, so I'm hoping that continues.

[Calibandar]

On 3/3/2016 at 1:47 AM, Jeor said:

Utter disaster for Arsenal.

On a day when we could have made up three points on both Leicester and Tottenham, playing at home to a relegation-threatened side, complete catastrophe.

No way can we win the title now.

Agreed, mostly because with 10 games left, Arsenal is likely to lose at least 2 or 3 of those.

Question is, who finishes in the top 4?

Can United do this, and displace either Arsenal (4 points ahead) or City ( same points, but a game in hand).

West Ham at 46 pts. Liverpool at 41 but with a game in hand, if they win that they come close to CL again.

And dare one say it, as far behind as Chelsea are, at 39 points they are still not completely out of the running for a top 4 spot if they keep winning.

 

[Iskaral Pust]

Chelsea look more likely than Liverpool based on recent form under Hiddink, unfortunately. Liverpool have to be the most inconsistent I've seen in years. It would be great if we could gel and put together a run but I'm not holding my breath.

[Nas!]

8 hours ago, Rorshach said:

I'm curious how the Everton-West Ham match this weekend will go. On one hand, West Ham are brilliant against top teams, which means we've certainly got a good chance of winning. On the other hand, guessing which Everton will turn up is just about as easy as predicting which Liverpool team will turn up.

But Slaven Bilic was never much of a hit at Goodison, so I'm hoping that continues.

Well, Everton have done better than any other side this season at keeping Payet out of the game, and that is obviously an important part of playing West Ham. 

Of course, they only managed it by McCarthy trying to break Payet's legs with a series of terrible tackles, but it was nonetheless effective. 

My gameplan would be to keep Payet away from McCarthy and to score at least one more goal than the number that Lukaku will certainly score in the game. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

4 hours ago, Calibandar said:

Agreed, mostly because with 10 games left, Arsenal is likely to lose at least 2 or 3 of those.

Question is, who finishes in the top 4?

Can United do this, and displace either Arsenal (4 points ahead) or City ( same points, but a game in hand).

West Ham at 46 pts. Liverpool at 41 but with a game in hand, if they win that they come close to CL again.

And dare one say it, as far behind as Chelsea are, at 39 points they are still not completely out of the running for a top 4 spot if they keep winning.

 

City will finish top 4. There's simply too much quality in that squad to fall that far. 

Arsenal on the other hand... A few weeks ago, I would have thought they wouldn't finish lower than second. But now, I think there's a real possibility for them to drop off. Especially with Cech out. Objectively speaking United is too depleted to kick Arsenal out, but form/momentum/whatever you want to call it is clearly in favour of United. I guess we will have to wait for their game at City in 3 weeks.

With the Hammers, I will start to believe it, when I see it. And they have a tough April (fixture wise) ahead of them.

For Liverpool it's 10 points to Arsenal (even with a game in hand), that's simply too much. It isn't just about getting a string of good results, at the same time Arsenal has to drop enough points, too. 

As for Chelski making it to the top four... How and where are they supposed to make up 12 points to Arsenal (the supposedly weakest link) with 10 games to go? And their remaining fixtures are not that simple. Liverpool away, City and Spurs and the Hammers at home. I leave out Leicester on the final day of the season, because I think by then the season will be over for Leicester one way or another.

[Nas!]

I don't expect West Ham will finish top four.  They are playing well atm and it is possible, but I don't think it will happen.  As a Hammers fan, I just want to see their performances remain consistently good until the end of the season. 

[Mexal]

I have no expectations with Arsenal. I can see them being knocked out of the top 4 or going on a run to end the season like they've done before. There is no consistency there and anything can happen. Goals aren't falling for us at the moment but if they start going in instead of hitting the post, things may change in a hurry. No idea so my expectations are so low that I won't be disappointed when they inevitably fall short.

[ljkeane]

37 minutes ago, Notone said:

As for Chelski making it to the top four... How and where are they supposed to make up 12 points to Arsenal (the supposedly weakest link) with 10 games to go? And their remaining fixtures are not that simple. Liverpool away, City and Spurs and the Hammers at home. I leave out Leicester on the final day of the season, because I think by then the season will be over for Leicester one way or another.

In fairness, it's you calling Arsenal the weakest link, they definitely don't look like the team most likely to drop out of the top 4 to me. Arsenal have struggled to put teams away this season, City have just been completely outplayed in a significant number of games and looked completely disinterested at Anfield.

Having said that, yeah, there's no chance Chelsea will finish in the top four, they might have improved but there's no way they're overhauling the deficit on six of the sides above them. I can't see it with Liverpool either, they'll probably put in some good performances but they're far too inconsistent to keep it up. United might well pull it off but they'd be getting very lucky given how shit they've been for large parts of the season, still it didn't stop them last year. West Ham are in with a chance, it'd fit with how the rest of the season has gone anyway.

[MisterOJ]

Random question: I know it's not likely to happen at all, but if ManU finish fourth, and win the Europa League, does the 5th place team in England get a Champions League spot?

[polishgenius]

The argument that City have too much talent to drop that far is odd considering how fast they've dropped in recent weeks. I mean, even if they win their game in hand three points is not the kind of margin where you can make that claim. Like ljkeane says, they're capable of losing badly to pretty much anyone. 

[Mexal]

7 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

Random question: I know it's not likely to happen at all, but if ManU finish fourth, and win the Europa League, does the 5th place team in England get a Champions League spot?

I don't think so. 

7 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

The argument that City have too much talent to drop that far is odd considering how fast they've dropped in recent weeks. I mean, even if they win their game in hand three points is not the kind of margin where you can make that claim. Like ljkeane says, they're capable of losing badly to pretty much anyone. 

City's record against the top 7 is almost as bad as Aston Villa's. They're 19th...

[polishgenius]

It would be pretty funny if we finished fifth and won the EL (or if Liverpool won it) and Chelsea won the CL. After all that concern about coefficient spots, six teams in it...

[A Horse Named Stranger]

38 minutes ago, MisterOJ said:

Random question: I know it's not likely to happen at all, but if ManU finish fourth, and win the Europa League, does the 5th place team in England get a Champions League spot?

No. I don't think so, at least.

To the best of my knowledge, if Liverpool won the Europa League, it would mean which ever team finishes on fourth would have to play in the Europa League next season, instead of the Champion's League qualification. 

I am not sure how the seeding procedure for the QL looks like. So I really can't say whether the Europa League winner will be seeded in the group stage, or whether they have to play the qualification round.

[polishgenius]

12 minutes ago, Notone said:

No. I don't think so, at least.

To the best of my knowledge, if Liverpool won the Europa League, it would mean which ever team finishes on fourth would have to play in the Europa League next season, instead of the Champion's League qualification.

I just read up here and that's not the case - unless Chelsea win the CL as well, so I'm wrong about the CL spots. Basically they've updated the maximum amount of spots a nation can have to five, so in a nation with three league spots or less if it happened all teams qualifying via league spots and both tournament winners would go through, but for leagues with four spots, the fourth league team would drop out.

You cannot imagine how annoyed I'd be if Liverpool won the EL, Chelsea or City the CL and we came fourth.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just now, polishgenius said:

I just read up here and that's not the case - unless Chelsea win the CL as well, so I'm wrong about the CL spots. Basically they've updated the maximum amount of spots a nation can have to five, so in a nation with three league spots or less if it happened all teams qualifying via league spots and both tournament winners would go through, but for leagues with four spots, the fourth league team would drop out.

You cannot imagine how annoyed I'd be if Liverpool won the EL, Chelsea or City the CL and we came fourth.

Ah, ok I stand corrected. And I learnt something new, today.

My assumption was, that they would stick with maximum of 4 teams per nation.

But in all fairness, I don't think Chelsea will win the Champions League. And I don't think Liverpool or United will win the Europa League. 

My favorite to win the Europa League this season are Sevilla. I also give the winner of the Tottenham - Dortmund encounter a fair chance to win that competition. I think the other teams are quite on the same level. That being said, it's football so many things can happen.

[Philokles]

9 minutes ago, Notone said:

Ah, ok I stand corrected. And I learnt something new, today.

My assumption was, that they would stick with maximum of 4 teams per nation.

But in all fairness, I don't think Chelsea will win the Champions League. And I don't think Liverpool or United will win the Europa League. 

My favorite to win the Europa League this season are Sevilla. I also give the winner of the Tottenham - Dortmund encounter a fair chance to win that competition. I think the other teams are quite on the same level. That being said, it's football so many things can happen.

I would make Dortmund favourites if they don't win tomorrow against Bayern. Beyond that Liverpool have the best chance of the English sides, mainly because it is unlikely they will reach the CL any other way and Klopp will take the competition seriously. Also, Villarreal have nothing to play for in La Liga as they are pretty much guaranteed fourth, so that could help them. But overall it is such an open draw, which is what I love about the Europa League, but makes me more annoyed about how limply Schalke went out. West Ham and Southampton too, as they are my favourite Premier League sides for family reasons.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Be that is it may, but I don't rate the overall quality of the Liverpool squad as high as the other teams I named. And for Sevilla it's also their last shot at Champions League Football next season.

As for Schalke. I have never liked that club. After they botched the golden opportunity to kill off the bloody HSV last year with a pathetic display in their final match, they have sunk even lower on my likability/sympathy scale. So I enjoyed them getting spanked quite a bit.

To express my contempt in a manner more comprehensinble for the Premier League crowd.

Imagine you were a West Ham fan. You get to enjoy watching Millwall getting spanked an entire Premier League season. Putting forward one ridiculous display after another. Then it's the final match day. Along comes Newcastle, who were really sailing into the Europa League, no matter what they do. And they put up a no show against Millwall. Millwall wins that final game and barely escapes relegation. And to top it off, instead of Millwall one club you actually kinda like drops. So how much sympathy to struggles of Newcastle could you muster up?

That pretty much sums up what Schalke did last season. 

[Nas!]

I forgot West Ham were even in the Europa League this season.

[Philokles]

22 minutes ago, Notone said:

Be that is it may, but I don't rate the overall quality of the Liverpool squad as high as the other teams I named. And for Sevilla it's also their last shot at Champions League Football next season.

As for Schalke. I have never liked that club. After they botched the golden opportunity to kill off the bloody HSV last year with a pathetic display in their final match, they have sunk even lower on my likability/sympathy scale. So I enjoyed them getting spanked quite a bit.

To express my contempt in a manner more comprehensinble for the Premier League crowd.

Imagine you were a West Ham fan. You get to enjoy watching Millwall getting spanked an entire Premier League season. Putting forward one ridiculous display after another. Then it's the final match day. Along comes Newcastle, who were really sailing into the Europa League, no matter what they do. And they put up a no show against Millwall. Millwall wins that final game and barely escapes relegation. And to top it off, instead of Millwall one club you actually kinda like drops. So how much sympathy to struggles of Newcastle could you muster up?

That pretty much sums up what Schalke did last season. 

I don't blame anyone for disliking Schalke after that. I was really hoping HSV got relegated too - incompetence and arrogance don't mix well. But Karlsruhe should have beaten them in the playoff too, if it wasn't for that incredibly soft last minute free kick that they scored from. So you support Werder Bremen or St Pauli then?

20 minutes ago, Nasrudin's True Love said:

I forgot West Ham were even in the Europa League this season.

Probably best too. At least they beat that Maltese side on penalties.

[Iskaral Pust]

None of the other teams in the Europa League have Kolo in them, so they have an outside chance at best.

Kolo has been our most consistent CB this year, and improving. And Lovren has been our second best since Klopp's arrival. I would have given you great on odds on that back in September.

There's a groundswell for Kolo to get a new contract.