1 Arsenal 28 60 2 Man Utd 28 55 3 Newcastle 27 52 4 Chelsea 28 48 5 Everton 28 48 6 Charlton 28 45 7 Liverpool 27 43 8 Tottenham 27 42 Winning against Birmingham puts us 2 points behind Chelsea and Everton. Arsenal, Man U and Newcastle seem to have sown up the top three places.
Next weekend Newcastle play Chelsea so that will shake things up. Everton travel to Boro which has proved difficult for most visiting teams. We follow our match against Birmingham tomorrow with a home match against Bolton on March 5(Worthington and UEFA Cup aside!) Assuming home wins for Newcastle and Boro and 6 points from us and we could really be in with a shout for that fourth Champs League place. Beating Man U and Auxerre in-between would be nice too.
Yes, that was behind my thinking in starting this thread. With that loss they have opened the door to us, Everton, Charlton and Spurs to challenge for that fourth spot.
Wouldn't that be special...? Last year we roared through the last 10 games or so on a wave of confidence. Mikey was scoring goals and drawing defences after him leaving holes for the others. Can we do it again...? One thing we need to do for sure is to get a good win in the final against Manure....That could set us off for a good finish.
A race it is indeed. Spurs are playing tonight of course and as an Everton fan I will join you in hoping they lose. Except they won't. You lot don't play this weekend and while you'll have a game in hand it won't be very encouraging to watch others win. Charlton will lose at Arsenal so thats alright and Chelsea will be swept away at Newcastle so it really depends on how we do away to Boro and Spurs away at West Ham. I think we'll both win so the table could look like this next monday: Arseanl 63 Man U 55 Newcastle 55 Everton 51 Chelsea 48 Tottenham 48 Charlton 45 Liverpool 43 Blackburn 43 Thats alot of ground to make up.
Ah "don't count your winnings when your sitting at the table -- they'll be time enough for counting when the dealings done". We'll have to show a heck of a lot more effort and skill than we put on display in Birmingham to have much to say about it though.
Case in point --- Spurs drew at home to Fulham. Boro can beat Everton. The Toon should beat Chelsea. To quote a great American philosopher, " It ain't over til it's over".
30 points available for us to take. If we play the way we're capable of playing, this should become a moot point, we can overtake everyone ahead of us excpet Newcastle (I think they're well enough ahead of us now). But the rest can be caught and I still think we can do it. I do think winning a trophy could be a nice way to kick off the last 10 games. Hopefully we'll get some luck and the standings will remain the same for us when we get back from Cardiff.
Table updated 1 Arsenal 28 60 2 Man Utd 28 55 3 Newcastle 28 55 4 Everton 29 49 -------------------- 5 Chelsea 29 48 6 Charlton 28 45 7 Liverpool 28 43 With today's draw for Everton and defeat for Chelsea, the bluenoses move into 4th. Most people would predict Arsenal to beat Charlto at home (though Charlton did win there last season)
Actually by winning our game in hand this coming wednesday we will only be 3 points behind Everton. However, our track record in the league recently needs to change if we wanna finish 4th.
I was thinking the same thing.Would have been better for Boro to win, but a draw wasn't too bad for our purposes.
Kopite: Sorry, but I'm confused. We are playing this coming Wednesday (3/5/03)? The Club Web site lists the next match as Saturday 3/8 against Bolton at Anfield. The following two Wednesdays would be the days before the Celtic matches, so it can't be happening then, either. Am I missing something here? ----
The nice thing about the Cardiff win was to finally see the lads play with some conviction and more like a team. The passing, while not superb, was the best we've seen in a long time. If we keep that type of team spirit, a fourth place finish is entirely possible.
One thing about scousers, be they local, expat. or honourary. Optimism and humour are definitely part of their makeup.
Only one thing left to play for--so I thought I'd give this thread a bump. English Premiership 21 March 2003 Arsenal 30 63 Man Utd 30 61 Newcastle 30 58 Chelsea 30 51 ============= Everton 30 50 Liverpool 30 49 Key fixtures this coming weekend: 3/22/03: Chelsea v Man City 3/23/03: Liverpool v Leeds 3/23/03: Arsenal v Everton ----
Absolutely. I'm still pessimistic, I suppose, after yesterday's outcome; but I think we have only seven matches, not eight, in which to wrap up the fourth spot (that is, I DO NOT want to see us have to travel to Stamford bridge on the last matchday, needing a result to secure fourth.) Another stat to keep an eye on is goal differential: Chelsea: +21 Everton: +4 Liverpool:+14 ----
Of the three teams Chelsea seems to have the easier run-in and I think we might have to rely on getting 3 points at Stamford Bridge to do it. Our track record there is awful. But hey we won at Spurs. Not much optimism from me, but we need to do this "one game at a time" by hammering Leeds and improving our goal difference. Win every match and we are in. Simple as that
Gotta break out of our 2 good wins 1 shitty loss routeen to do this. I want to shut Canblues constant bragging of Liverpool at Stanford Bridge. We will win there. Koppite, did you ever get the tape...?
Newcastle and Chelsea win big today,considerably improving their goal differential, but we can move into 5th tomorrow if the Gunners do the True and Proper thing and beat up on the Bluenoses.