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Race for The Premier League - 2024/25


Don_Simon

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Got quite excited yesterday and started thinking about the league race....then looked at the league position of those whom we have beat so far. Sobering. 

Until we beat some teams in the top half,  I am reseving and tempering excitement. 

We've struggled at times against 4 teams in the bottom 6. Scrapped past them and at home in two of them too. 

Need to work out why we look better with our 5m recruit from Luton than our 50m from Everton. Need to figure out how to start maatson to open up the field and stretch. Need to make the big call on mcginn. Need to work out how to teach pau to defend and head as he's creating a really easy and productive attacking route for oppo. Need to get Carlos to stop making one/two brain fades a game. 

Despite all these questions.....I know unai will find the answers. We've the greatest squad I've ever known..and whisper it, secretly....I think we are in the title race. Just trying to stop myself getting ahead of myself. 

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19 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Don't think they can get into the UCL even if they win the league. They are blowing SCR by such a hilarious amount. UEFA have said they aren't accepting hotel sales to yourselves either.

We'll know before the season ends I think. But Chelsea taking points off others towards the top might not be a bad thing for us.

Some people are also pretty convinced Chelsea are in for a 6-10 point deduction for financial misbehaviour under Roman that they have admitted to

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2 hours ago, Ponky said:

Chelsea look ominous tbh. Could easily finish 2nd or 3rd in this form.

There will always be teams in 3rd 4th and 5th that look good.

If we get the points which get you 3rd or 4th over a normal season, then it's irrelevant who those teams are. 

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6 minutes ago, tommytenjobs said:

Got quite excited yesterday and started thinking about the league race....then looked at the league position of those whom we have beat so far. Sobering. 

Until we beat some teams in the top half,  I am reseving and tempering excitement. 

We've struggled at times against 4 teams in the bottom 6. Scrapped past them and at home in two of them too. 

Need to work out why we look better with our 5m recruit from Luton than our 50m from Everton. Need to figure out how to start maatson to open up the field and stretch. Need to make the big call on mcginn. Need to work out how to teach pau to defend and head as he's creating a really easy and productive attacking route for oppo. Need to get Carlos to stop making one/two brain fades a game. 

Despite all these questions.....I know unai will find the answers. We've the greatest squad I've ever known..and whisper it, secretly....I think we are in the title race. Just trying to stop myself getting ahead of myself. 

Liverpool lost at home to Forest, can only beat the teams in front of you

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5 minutes ago, tommytenjobs said:

Got quite excited yesterday and started thinking about the league race....then looked at the league position of those whom we have beat so far. Sobering. 

Until we beat some teams in the top half,  I am reseving and tempering excitement. 

We've struggled at times against 4 teams in the bottom 6. Scrapped past them and at home in two of them too. 

It's true we've not faced many top teams yet.

But the positive spin from last couple is that if you can still come out with wins when going behind and not playing well, that bodes well.

Like Chelsea test well come when we have harder run of fixtures. Oct + Nov will be hard months

1 minute ago, turvontour said:

Where would our PPG for this season so far have you finish in an average season? About third?

Ppg so far extended over season is 91 pts which won the league last year.. but 5 games is way too early to be doing these kinds of calculations!

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The teams we’ve beat I would expect to beat. Same next week against Ipswich. We deserved more out of Arsenal based on chances, but they looked exceptional that game. If we are placed as we are around game 20 / going into the new year then you never know!

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3 hours ago, Ponky said:

Chelsea look ominous tbh. Could easily finish 2nd or 3rd in this form.

They're certainly looking better than last year. Mind you, you could have driven several buses through the gaps in West Ham's defence yesterday

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37 minutes ago, tommytenjobs said:

Got quite excited yesterday and started thinking about the league race....then looked at the league position of those whom we have beat so far. Sobering. 

Until we beat some teams in the top half,  I am reseving and tempering excitement. 

We've struggled at times against 4 teams in the bottom 6. Scrapped past them and at home in two of them too. 

Need to work out why we look better with our 5m recruit from Luton than our 50m from Everton. Need to figure out how to start maatson to open up the field and stretch. Need to make the big call on mcginn. Need to work out how to teach pau to defend and head as he's creating a really easy and productive attacking route for oppo. Need to get Carlos to stop making one/two brain fades a game. 

Despite all these questions.....I know unai will find the answers. We've the greatest squad I've ever known..and whisper it, secretly....I think we are in the title race. Just trying to stop myself getting ahead of myself. 

I look at it the other way. We aren't playing well generally and we have near title winning form. If Watkins doesn't have his two worst misses of the season in the same game, we're probably outright top this morning. 

Again, West Ham are a top half team if theyd beat us. We completely took the wind out of their sails on the opening day. 

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The PPG average is elevated at the moment thanks the the fixtures we've had. We'll likely have a relatively poor run in Nov/Dec when the fixture list gets harder and fixture overload starts piling up.

But putting ourselves in the position we are now is all we can do, and arguably we're doing it perfectly for now. Keep it going as long as we can and the sky is the limit. But it's reasonable to expect a run of form that brings out PPG back down to around the 2 mark, which is no shame when we're playing in the Champions league at the same time.

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2 hours ago, Villa87 said:

The teams we’ve beat I would expect to beat. Same next week against Ipswich. We deserved more out of Arsenal based on chances, but they looked exceptional that game. If we are placed as we are around game 20 / going into the new year then you never know!

But those are teams, in the past, we wouldn’t have beat. We’ve been doing exactly what big teams have been doing for years, beating those bottom teams when you’re not at your best. It’s dropping points to those teams that will cost us 4th, not dropping points to City or Arsenal. 

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4 hours ago, picicata said:

They're certainly looking better than last year. Mind you, you could have driven several buses through the gaps in West Ham's defence yesterday

They are a bit like Spurs, can attack well but giving up a huge amount of chances every game, one of these games they will take a hammering and it will be interesting to see how they react from that.

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1 hour ago, duke313 said:

But those are teams, in the past, we wouldn’t have beat. We’ve been doing exactly what big teams have been doing for years, beating those bottom teams when you’re not at your best. It’s dropping points to those teams that will cost us 4th, not dropping points to City or Arsenal. 

True, but in the past we didn’t try to compete in the top of the Premier League, for that we have to be of a different standard.

Up until now we have grinder out result, without impressing. If we won the two matches this week, we would have 5 wins in a row and that is impressive even if each match in isolation isn’t.

Then week after we would face stronger opposition, after those two matches we would know more how strong our team really are.

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9 minutes ago, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said:

They are a bit like Spurs, can attack well but giving up a huge amount of chances every game, one of these games they will take a hammering and it will be interesting to see how they react from that.

a bit like us as well then really....we give away far too many chances every game

hence no clean sheet in the league since (i think) Arsenal away last season

It's the real big difference between City, Arsenal and liverpool who don't concede too many

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1 hour ago, imavillan said:

a bit like us as well then really....we give away far too many chances every game

hence no clean sheet in the league since (i think) Arsenal away last season

It's the real big difference between City, Arsenal and liverpool who don't concede too many

Our defence frailties are more down to individual errors, their's are more structural with their set up.

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6 hours ago, tommytenjobs said:

Got quite excited yesterday and started thinking about the league race....then looked at the league position of those whom we have beat so far. Sobering. 

Until we beat some teams in the top half,  I am reseving and tempering excitement. 

We've struggled at times against 4 teams in the bottom 6. Scrapped past them and at home in two of them too. 

Need to work out why we look better with our 5m recruit from Luton than our 50m from Everton. Need to figure out how to start maatson to open up the field and stretch. Need to make the big call on mcginn. Need to work out how to teach pau to defend and head as he's creating a really easy and productive attacking route for oppo. Need to get Carlos to stop making one/two brain fades a game. 

Despite all these questions.....I know unai will find the answers. We've the greatest squad I've ever known..and whisper it, secretly....I think we are in the title race. Just trying to stop myself getting ahead of myself. 

With so few games played, a major part of the reason they are down there is us beating them. Not saying they are great sides, but West Ham should end up upper-mid table, Wolves bottom half but safe I'd expect. Everton can get in the bin though, but seem to manage the drain circling better than others. But, yes the start has been easyish, still a long way to go.

re Barkley/Onana - I think Barkley is benefitting from coming on when the game is breaking up, opposition are tiring etc. Onana was about the only decent player first half yesterday and a lot of his harrying and physicality will have helped lay the base for Barkley coming on later IMO. Similar to Jhon coming on later in the game - he benefits from tiring, slower defences, and being pulled out of shape by Watkins. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be so devastatingly effective as a starter.

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8 hours ago, tommytenjobs said:

Got quite excited yesterday and started thinking about the league race....then looked at the league position of those whom we have beat so far. Sobering. 

Until we beat some teams in the top half,  I am reseving and tempering excitement. 

We've struggled at times against 4 teams in the bottom 6. Scrapped past them and at home in two of them too. 

Need to work out why we look better with our 5m recruit from Luton than our 50m from Everton. Need to figure out how to start maatson to open up the field and stretch. Need to make the big call on mcginn. Need to work out how to teach pau to defend and head as he's creating a really easy and productive attacking route for oppo. Need to get Carlos to stop making one/two brain fades a game. 

Despite all these questions.....I know unai will find the answers. We've the greatest squad I've ever known..and whisper it, secretly....I think we are in the title race. Just trying to stop myself getting ahead of myself. 

Man Utd lost points to Palace who are down there, Spurs drew as well to the Leicester we won against. Newcastle had tough circumstances against Wolves. Although they’re much better but Bournemouth played one side against Chelsea, who somehow won it at the end.

We’ve done well against Arsenal as well. It’s not only the results but also the way of controlling matches and playing while players out injured. 

I agree on most of what you’ve said regarding improvements, that’s the best part is we’re finding ways to win yet there is a big room for improvement. 

Going through the season Emery will even do more changes, I think he just doesn’t want to make them now so players such as Maatsen, Digne…etc don’t think they’ve lost their places but it’s just tactical view to each game. 

 

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