alexf

Only silver lining is that one of these teams will lose and therefore have had a rotten season. I think Man U win. They have Amad back now who is always a threat, whereas Spurs have picked up a few more injuries. There is also the mental aspect, Man U just expect to win finals and will rise to the occasion, Spurs are like us pre-eddie and they are more likely to wilt under the light. Man U commercially are a monster as well so were less likely to be hurt financially by missing out on CL, their project with Amorim is going to take while and may still run into issues next year, even with a CL cash boost. Spurs on the other hand, with a boost of CL money and if they changed manager and had bit of luck with some better signings are not a million miles of being decent again, a lot of young potential in their squad. So I fear they would be a more likely contender to overtake us next season than Man U if they got CL.

if Joe was already managing this knee problem already and it hadn't been stopping him playing, then I can completely see him wanting to play through some discomfort again just to help see us over the line. If he got a serious injury because of it then obviously that would in hindsight be bad, but if he's been playing with this for awhile anyway then hopefully one more game wouldn't be the end of the world.

Think Arsenal win with no Dembele and Partey back for them.

I have read alot of strange things on here over the years, but this is right up there.

Win or bust for me regarding finishing top 5. Really hope we have a big performance left in us.

I think that's diminishing why these players are so good. They find the space. You don't think 100's of managers probably put someone on Messi and said man mark him, only for him to inevitably find space and score again and again?

This is going to be a much harder game than I think most anticipated awhile ago. Chelsea even when playing poorly kept getting results and they seem to be coming into some form at the perfect time. They also have fast athletic players that can cause us problems. We need one of those top Howe era games where everyone is firing to get over the line here. Unfortunately however we seems to be running out of steam slightly and Joelinton will be a big miss for this, not just his physicality but his mentality. Really hope the lads have one more huge performance in them. Wish it was a night game, could do with a hostile environment for Chelsea players.

It's being played like and end of season nothing to play for...except we have everything to play for. Very odd. Needs to be a massive change 2nd half to have any chance of turning this round. Gordon needs to come on, just not sure who for.

Literally every tackle on a villa player this ref is giving as a free kick. Ridiculous to watch.

Perfect example there. Tielemans just take out Bassey by placing his leg miles away from the ball and then goes down. Technically it was a foul on Bassey.

The amount of little dramatic dives Villa do is borderline ridiculous. Get given so many soft fouls around the box. Over the course of a season that is bound to pay dividends.

A new contract for Isak would eat into a chunk of our available spend you would have to think. Not saying it isn't worth it, it's essential we try and tie him down for longer and avoid needing to cash in next summer. But he will move on to more money then we have ever payed for a player if he extends. Edit* in terms of cash available but also the wages to revenue turnover thing you need to comply with for Europe. Which if we want to add more "purples" this summer, must be a tricky balancing act for our recruitment staff.

We did lose Joelinton. That no doubt plays on people's minds and adds into the calculation of how likely we are to win certain games etc. Also each game playing the same players adds to the chance of further injuries or suspension. So each round creates a new variable which makes the whole thing far from simple. A little while ago I was pretty confident we would smash Chelsea at home. But missing Big Joe, Isak looking slightly off it recently, Chelsea picking up a little bit of form, albeit against poorish sides, is starting to creep in a small bit of doubt. But hopefully the lads have one last final push in them and smash these last few games.

Because Arsenal seem to have a thing about us and if they have nothing else to play for, then they will put all their energy into "revenge" over us. Or not, I dunno.

The winner should get qualification to the Europa league to "defend their title" but they shouldn't get upgraded to Champions league. Belittles the whole thing I feel.

So is this some Trump level manipulating of the truth here? Not only are his past quotes nothing like you described, but you have also twisted what the other guy said when he clearly meant "if you can call him in trouble" not "if you could call him a coach".

Retiring just after securing our record equaling 20th premier league title yeah?

What a disgusting sentence.

Feel free to ignore this, just felt the need to type this out to help me process all this myself and see where I think we stand for the remaining games. Villa. Safe to say have got 6 points in the bag already with Man U and Spurs games. Strong chance they beat Fulham at home now that they have no other distractions and will be looking to bounce back from the cup final exit, plus not having lost more than 1 league game at home this season. So that's possibly 9 - 12 points with only Bournemouth away a potential banana skin. Leaving then 66 - 69 points Chelsea Could possibly beat Liverpool if they don't turn up, will defo beat Man U and could possibly beat Forest. Providing they lose to us they could be on 69 points. Forest Toughest game looks like the next one, away night game against buoyant opposition and in abit of a rut themselves. But they should beat Leicester and West Ham and possibly could beat Chelsea on final day if they need to so realistically 66 - 69 points. Man City Trickyish games but you just know they normally find a way at this stage and with two being at home you back them + Southampton is a guaranteed. Wolves are the inform side though and they may slip up away to Fulham last day but I'll mark that as a draw at worst. 10-12 points. 73 points. Us. Simply have to beat Chelsea and Everton at home which puts us on 68 and would essentially knock Chelsea out the race hopefully if they drop points already to Liverpool. A point extra away at either Brighton or Arsenal hopefully would seal it, but if Arsenal get knocked out by PSG I don't fancy us to get anything if they are up for it. Need to go all in on this Brighton game and look to get 3 points to ease the pressure later. Cannot afford to assume others will slip up. But I'll go for a realistic 69 points for us. Simply have to beat Chelsea and eliminate them from the race, the only side that can catch our goal difference. So I'll go: City Us Villa With Forest and Chelsea maybe drawing to screw eachother over and Villa sneaking in.

Elanga suits Forest perfectly but against teams that would come to our ground and sit in, I don't think he has the technique and creative to unlock a defense. He's just incredibly useful on the counter attack.

None of us chasing a top 5 finish can afford to lose home games. So in that regard it's a tough loss for them.

Man U will beat spurs in a final.

And there it is...

Yeah wasn't there a handball in the build up?

Getting done on the wing by Harry Maguire? No sorry, but just no that is not acceptable.