'For us to win the league we need Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal to mess up their season,' said Benitez. 'It is very rare that three teams all mess up. 'So there's no point waiting for our direct adversaries to slip up because it won't happen. 'They all have a lot greater financial means than us.' And Benitez compared Liverpool's situation to that of Valencia, who we won the league with in La Liga. 'For me, Valencia and Liverpool are similar — for them to win, the bigger clubs have to do badly. 'When I won La Liga with Valencia that's what happened, Real Madrid and Barcelona were in transition, so it was easier.' We have beaten 2 of the other 3 and drew with the team who has also beaten two of the other three. We have taken 7/9 in these encounters Arsenal has also taken 7/9 while both Chelsea and Man U have taken 1/9. I think his comments are unfounded and are not comments a manager should make. Schuster made similar foolish comments and was handed his walking papers! What we need to win the game is to consistantly win the games we are tipped to win and not draw them. Also Rafa's selection policy bothers me at times leaving Robbie on the bench for the full 90 against Hull was ridiculous. How Rafa uses and deploys players will determine if we win or squander our best chance in 19 years. Just a few of my thoughts very interested in hearing yours
Re: Your take on Rafa's comments of our chances If you are American this is full tilt Lou Holtz, play down your chances and play up the other side. If you win it makes you look extra good and if you lose, well it was always going to be very difficult to win. It's what our in house lawyers say about every suit we get into.
Re: Your take on Rafa's comments of our chances This interview was fabricated and comes from a POS paper. Benitez has already denied what he had allegedly "said".
Re: Your take on Rafa's comments of our chances Off the record "We're going to the Super Bowl to win." Said Joe Pendleton But you won't get that from Rafa...
Re: Your take on Rafa's comments of our chances Because I am tired of people lamenting over "what could have been" so far this season, I wanted to show the 20-gm points totals from all years of the Prem. This clearly shows that monster point totals are NOT the norm. Of the 17 years, only 6 times have teams have accumulated more than 46 points. In fact, 45 pts is a pretty respectable number for us, and it shows that the Prem has regained some parity amongst the top teams - which is good for the league. People need to realize that before we can pass these other teams, we have to "catch them" first. This year, I think we have done a good job to "catching up" to the top teams - and it starts with our head-to-head wins over them. Premiership Points Totals after 20 Games 8/9 - Liverpool 45 7/8 - Arsenal 47 6/7 - Man Utd 50 5/6 - Chelsea 55 (LFC had 44 after 20 in this term. We were in 3rd with 2 games in hand.) 04/5 - Chelsea 49 03/4 - Man Utd 49 02/3 - Arsenal 42 01/2 - Arsenal 39 00/1 - Man Utd 46 99/0 - Leeds 44 98/9 - Aston Villa 39 (Man Utd had 35 at this point in the "Treble" year.) 97/8 - Man Utd 46 96/7 - Liverpool 39 95/6 - Newcastle 45 94/5 - Blackburn 46 93/4 - Man Utd 49 92/3 - Norwich City 39 (Man Utd had 34 at this point.)
I think, that this whole title challenge could rest on the questions on Torres' form when he gets back. If United win their two extra games, then they'll be within one point, which will probably happen. I don't think Dirk Kyut (as amazing as he is ) and Robbie Keane can't get all the goals needed to keep up the pace, so Torres in my opinion will make it or break it. Also, any opinoins on where we'll finish in the Champions League?
I've been reviewing the old tables and it looks like 26 wins should be good enough to win the league in a year without any "runaway" teams. Right now, we've played 20 and won 13. 18 games left. If we get 13 wins out of the last 18. I don't think we can lose. Let's just get thru Jan 3-for-3!
Here is a little thing I put together. Our season in review, result-wise. There will also be comparisons to the other Big Four squads. Hold on tight... League Results 3 points @ Sunderland (N/A For Chelsea and United, 2 points more than Arsenal) 3 points v. Boro (N/A for Arsenal, Equalled by Chelsea and United) 1 point @ Aston Villa (N/A for Chelsea, Equalled by United and Arsenal) 3 points v. United (Equalled by Arsenal, 2 points more than Chelsea) 1 point v. Stoke (N/A for Chelsea and Arsenal, 2 points worse than United) 3 points @ Everton (N/A for Arsenal, 2 points more than Chelsea and United) 3 points @ Man City (Equalled by Chelsea and United, 2 points more than Arsenal) 3 points v. Wigan (N/A for Chelsea and United, Equalled by Arsenal) 3 points @ Chelsea (Equalled by Arsenal, 2 points more than United) 3 points v. Pompey (N/A for United, Equalled by Chelsea and Arsenal) 0 points @ Spurs (N/A for Arsenal, 1 point worse than Chelsea and United) 3 points v. WBA (Equalled by Arsenal, Chelsea, and United) 3 points @ Bolton (N/A for United, Equalled by Chelsea and Arsenal) 1 point v. Fulham (N/A for Arsenal, Chelsea, and United) 1 point v. West Ham (N/A for Arsenal, Equalled by Chelsea, 2 points worse than United) 3 points @ Blackburn (Equalled by Arsenal, Chelsea, United) 1 point v. Hull (N/A for Chelsea, 1 point more than Arsenal, 2 points worse than United) 1 point @ Arsenal (N/A for Chelsea, 1 point more than United) 3 points v. Bolton (N/A for Chelsea and Arsenal, Equalled by United) 3 points @ Newcastle (N/A for Arsenal, Chelsea, United) Modified League Table Taking Into Account Similar Results - (+/-) Liverpool is... -2 points on Manchester United +3 points on Chelsea +5 points on Arsenal The above numbers are only taking into account results that both teams played. Points Taken Off Big Four Liverpool - 7 from 3 matches Arsenal - 7 from 3 matches Chelsea - 1 from 3 matches United - 1 from 3 matches Points Taken Off Teams That Would Be Relegated (Stoke, Blackburn, WBA) United - 12 from 4 matches Chelsea - 9 from 3 matches Liverpool - 7 from 3 matches Arsenal - 6 from 3 matches Points Taken Off Of UEFA Cup Teams (Villa and Everton) Liverpool - 4 from 2 matches Arsenal - 4 from 3 matches Chelsea - 2 from 2 matches United - 2 from 2 matches Number Of Different League Goalscorers and 3 Top Goalscorers United - 12 (Ronaldo 8, Rooney 4, Berbatov/Fletcher 3) Arsenal - 12 (Van Persie 8, Adebayor 7, Nasri 4) Chelsea - 11 (Anelka 14, Lampard 8, Deco 3) Liverpool - 10 (Gerrard 8, Keane/Kuyt/Torres 5, Alonso 3) Champions League Total Points Liverpool - 14 Chelsea - 11 Arsenal - 11 United - 10 Take the above statistics as you want to. They don't really mean a whole lot, they are just interesting.
10 wins and 8 draws leaves us one short.. It's really been a roller coaster first half hasn't it? We've put together some fine matches and good wins. We've also had a couple of incredible draws that were totally unexpected. I actually had to take 'Tums' at half time in one match I got so wound up and could see we were not going to win. Then these past couple of matches we've looked brilliant. The Newcastle first half was the best from any team I've seen for a while. Saying that Newcastle were bad or had injuries doesn't cut it. We made them look bad! That ball was going around like a good pin ball game. One touch high speed football. I watched Chelsea, Manure and the Arse playing last weekend and they looked positively ponderous with their slow, inaccurate passing and build up. I had hopes that we could only get better, I wanted to see us playing that kind of match in March with Manure at the Pile . Now I'm worried once again with this crap going on with Steve Gerrard. If he let's us down ....I transfer him!!!!!!