The College Dropout

I've more confidence in beating Chelsea at home than getting a point at the Emirates. Your scenario also leaves the door open for Villa potentially. Fuck that. Beat Chelsea and we have 2-swings at securing CL football, all in our hands.

Not at all. I'm more bulish than most about our chances of beating Chelsea. Just an interesting stat.

https://theanalyst.com/2025/05/champions-league-qualification-race-man-city-newcastle-chelsea-nottingham-forest-aston-villa "To add a further worry, one of their most important players could be missing for these two games, as Joelinton is still struggling with a knee injury. When he missed a three-game sequence against Man City, Forest and Liverpool back in February, Newcastle conceded nine goals – 20% of their total for the whole season."

We'll have to see how the other results go. But we have the hardest GW37 fixture by a distance and we play last from the bunch. I expect 7th place will have 64 points minimum by 4pm of GW37 Saturday. That's massive pressure on us, if we are also on 64 points. For me it's been clear what we need to do to secure the CL from since the League Cup final. We've dropped points when I expected we might and we've won every game we needed to win. Chelsea & Villa have picked up the points they should've got in that time too so there's no massive margin for error. I thought we needed to beat Chelsea then and I've never changed my mind. I thought it might be the death knell for Chelsea, while it won't be that - it will be a hammer blow. You're right it's not over if we don't beat them. But I can't stand that mentality. It's a must-win. Always has been for me. I want the players thinking the same thing and I'm sure they will. I think we are readying Big Joe for precisely that reason.

The biggest threat would be a Forest-Chelsea draw that see's them both qualify with 68-69 points on the last day.

I don't buy this at all. There's loads of variables in the number of matches elite players can play. And the average is much closer to 700, and the best of the best are consistently closer to 900 (think Modric, Kroos, Iniesta, Xavi). I do think explosive players tend to peak earlier in their careers and tend to be more injury-prone due to the stress explosiveness has on muscles and joints. Precocious talents also tend to have more personalities that don't prioritise lifestyle and training. But most of them still end up around 700 top-level games like Neymar and Hazard. When the lifestyle is well-aligned they can do more like the Messi, Ronaldo's, even to Lukaku

Why is thos its own thread? Delete and merge with another IMO. As to the point - teams are getting younger but not to a teenage level typically. Inter are in the final with the oldest team since 2017. A lot of the modern game requires elite athleticism which leans towards a younger profile. I really like the mix of youth and experience our team has. I wouldn't want to become a Spurs that lacks leadership and authority. Happy to continue our transfer approach and wouldn't mind the odd older signing.

I didn't. Was always going to be a bonus. Liverpool winning the league and a good win at Fulham tilted my perspective on Chelsea. They've got a good chance of making it, I expected them to finish 6th/7th. We should beat them. But i expect they will still be in the race come GW38 with a win probably enough to secure it. We need to beat Chelsea man. Not beating Chelsea opens the gates for a GW38 draw that would see both Forest & Chelsea qualify, which we need to avoid.

It's a lot of change because you want to rotate 1 player. IMO we need to sign another first-choice athletic midfielder. We need a viable alternative to Tonali/Joelinton that is a similar profile but a level above Willock/Longstaff. The powerfulness, the combativeness, the athleticism, that's our CMs USP. We need more in that mould, Longstaff and Willock have the athleticism but not the other pieces. Miley has the technical elements but doesn't impose himself physically on games. I like the idea of Hall in midfield but not a Joelinton replacement. For me, Miley and maybe Hall can be Bruno replacements/rotations. Or we can sign Angel Gomes for similar. I've heard some pundits mock/laugh at Joe/Bruno celebrating tackles but it's a massive psychological factor for us and the opposition when Joelinton hunts down a man on the ball, stops him from doing what he wants to do through sheer force and power and is there growling and shouting in victory. Like he loves it. Most DMs these days aren't even built like that and the attacking ones don't like it either,

Chelsea aren't good but they will have grown in confidence. But I'm confident we can and will beat them.

Big Joe is so playing again this season. Maybe even Sunday. Start and win against Chelsea. See you in July.

They need a physical monster in that back line ala Walker. Pep also liked a fairly small squad, so Tino’s positional flexibility is a big bonus.

Bournemouth has been the game they will most likely drop points in for some time anyway. The draw at the Amex was a good one imo. We always needed to beat Evertonand Chelsea but that draw is a safeguard against Villa.

Have more faith in Bodo beating Man U than Spurs.

We did it boys!

Man City don’t utilise their academy well. They sold Palmer in the same window they bought Nunes no? It’s a shit show.

He’s the worst. Nunes has never performed in the PL. He got a move to Man City based off his previous reputation in Portugal. Didn’t deliver at Wolves, hasn’t delivered for Man City. From day one in the PL Rogers has stood out and became a key player for Emery immediately.

Rogers is x10 the player Nunes is

One of the maddest games of football you’ll ever see.

Inter not wasting any time here

Some second half this from Barca

That Kang player is a Spurs signing. I would prefer Bryan

Its 90% dependent on the offside trap

I’m a Barca hater. But this brand of football doesn’t make sense and shouldn’t win the CL. No respect for defence. And it will break my ‘you need proper full backs to win the CL’ chat.

Most recent winning CL fullbacks have been lockdown defenders. DC at Madrid obviously and the CBs Pep has been playing at FB. Prior to that Chelsea had 2 of the better fullbacks win it. This season Barcelona aside the 3 other semi finalists have lockdown fullbacks. To win the champions league you need fullbacks to be able to shut out Mbappe, Vini, Kvara, Doue, Lamal, Raphinha, Saka etc. level players. The Madrid CL winning sides have been able to dig deep to win football matches in the CL. Can Trent do that?