The College Dropout

Draw not the worst result. If Villa draw just 1 more game, their max is 68 and we’ll finish above them if we win our home games.

He’s their only player that has magic in his feet from what I’ve seen. He’s so purposeful on the ball

Those Villa subs are scary.

Rashford has looked good at ST for Villa

Not massively so you would imagine. CL could be the difference between a £60m net spend summer or a £140m net spend summer. It's a different market entirely.

I keep saying this. We need CL to match the ambitions of our best players and to bring in similar quality

Thought this at the time

If we can’t beat Ipswich Chelsea and Everton at home we don’t deserve to be in the CL. The wriggle room is probably not needing any points against Brighton or Arsenal. We should obviously target at least 1 point considering what we have on the line.

Ipswich is the easiest game on paper. We need to win those for confidence. I don’t think there’s a world where we lose at home to Ipswich and then go on to beat Brighton away. Confidence and momentum would be low. If we did it yeh it would effectively be the same but it won’t happen that way imo. Chelsea is a six pointer so is massive. I think the players and staff would snatch your hands off for 10 points. I think they take 9 too. They would target the home games just like us. I do think we’ll need to win that last game to make sure.

Yeh we can. It's almost impossible that Villa & Forest get 70 points min, with Man City getting 69 points min. That's what needs to happen (assuming our GD is superior to Villa and Forest) for us to get 3 wins and a draw and not qualify for the CL. As long as our GD is good, we only need 1 more point than Forest in the run-in and can afford 1 less point than Chelsea in the run-in. And that's assuming Villa continue to keep winning and City do enough. It won't all amalgamate like that. 69 does it. 68 does too. 67 or less and it's shakey.

There is no way 69 points won't be enough. Even 68 should be fine. Villa's max total is 72.

Have to beat Ipswich & Chelsea. Any result against Brighton would be brill. Win all 3 and we are there I think.

Opposite profile imo. 1 is physically top with great work rate. The other is great technically but physically short with some of the worst work-rate/passion you'll ever see

Sancho has the heart of a pea. Feels like Pep rarely signs exciting players or if he does - he makes them boring. Silva, Sane, KDB, Aguero - exciting players in their pomp. To replace KDB for the enjoyment of the wider footballing community, would be like a Wirtz or someone. Bring us a real magician. (note: don't watch much of Wirtz, just going off the hype)

Can we have an official latest update in the title please? If Tindall said he's still in the hospital on Saturday - that should be it. Very selfishly, I think that would be the difference in us qualifying for the CL or not. We've had lots of bad halves this season. But I feel like Eddie would've went tighter/more defensive

It's never a bonus when we have players like Isak and Tonali. They've already got momentum. A draw is bad. Villa win is bad. Minimum requirement is finishing above 2 of the teams in the chase. That's most likely to be Villa & Chelsea at this point. Best likely case scenario at the end of the weekend - 2 points ahead of Chelsea with a better GD, 1 point ahead of City, 5 points ahead of Villa - effectively 6 points. a smaller gap to 6th. Think Chelsea are always liable to drop points though.

We want teams ‘eliminated’ from the race. Villa are bottom of the pack, we want them gone.

Agreed. I thought 68 to be safe. 69 might be the breathing space number. I don’t think 66 will be enough out right. Perhaps on GD.

Did you have them winning last week? I did. I had today as a draw or defeat but it’s levelled out.

Vila are reliant on others dropping points as they have the worst goal difference. Their odds will change drastically if they beat City. As it stands they have the smallest margin for error.

People keep assuming City will qualify but they are liable to drop a bunch of points. Having the best goal difference I think will save them. it might be that close. Lose to Villa and they will need to win their remaining ifixtures

The Chelsea draw last week was a bonus. We always would need to beat them at home and if we have no further injuries or suspensions and Howe back I’m so confident we‘ll do it.

They gambled on January and it’s paying off. If they don’t qualify it will be by a small margin

Qualify for the CL and neither is sold. 50-60 games next season. First attacker off the bench, first midfielder off the bench, 3rd CB etc. should be first team quality. Villa brought on Ramsey, Onana, Malen and Rashford which killed us off. Full strength we only have Gordon, Trippier and Botman of that quality off the bench.

Aye so they need a mega run of 9 wins in 10 or something right? Thing with Villa is they have a great squad. They didn’t look tired because they have quality in depth. 4 wins and a draw gets them to 70 points. Thats not a crazy ask from here.