Erikse

I mean their game away game at Villa Park literally ended in a draw. This time around it's their last home game of the season. Man Utd have allways been good vs Villa. They beat them twice last season despite Villa finishing 4th. It's almost like the Bournemouth situation for us. Not saying Villa weren't favourites to win this game, but it wasn't as clear as you would think (without the final). Being mid to lower table didn't stop Man Utd from taking points off of Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, and Villa this season.

I agree, but Man Utd has proven to be a difficult team to beat for the top teams (except from us). I had some hopes if they didn't get to the final. It's wild to think about how many points 6th and especially 7th will get this season compared to other seasons.

Would be nice if Bournemouth did something against Villa. They have Man Utd and Spurs after that. Both games close to the final, one right before and the other right after. I expect no help from those 2 teams. Good thing our GD is superior. 69p will do.

Wrong thread

If you look at the results against top 5 here, you'll see that they have only lost 4 out of 9 (two of them against us). My point is if you purely look at their 15th position you'd think that they were a walkover regardless of the European position. Atleast I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that, because how many teams at around 15th has lost just 4 games vs top 5? However these results shows that they were not a walkover if it wasn't for this outside factor. Now, instead of being a team that can evidently pull a draw against any top side, it's extremely unlikely that they will be of any help.

Even more important to get something now, Chelsea now have another free win next. You may say they had that anyways, but Man Utd have actually been decent against the top 7. They've just been horrible against the lower table sides.

So, lets see.. Chelsea play Liverpool the game after the league is secured. Then Chelsea and Villa play Man Utd and Spurs 5 days before the Europa League final they somehow got into, which means another free win for Chelsea and one for Villa. Then Villa play Man Utd only some days after the final. Brilliant.

Scored quite a few in the cup against the sky six on top of these.

Did he save it? Was it going in?

Watching and rooting for teams like Palace allways reminds me of how it was to support a Mike Ashley side (although they would be above average for Mike Ashley years standards). Bar some good moments, the lack of quality sometimes becomes really apparent.

Yeah true.

It's definetly a must win. Draw means they're pretty much out of getting europe. Edit: through the league position..

Save of the season

I have a dream. A dream that we start the next season really well. You may say I'm a dreamer.

Must win for Palace tomorrow. I have hopes for them, think they'll get there.

I still back us to get there, I'm just annoyed about it. They do often seem to win in the most annoying ways aswell. Oh well, gotta be just as strong ourselves then..

All I said was that the teams around us keeps winning. You said it's normal. I showed you the actual situation. xG has nothing to do with the original discussion of "they keep winning".

Last season: It was a battle between 4th and 5th. Villa got 5 points from the last 5 games, Spurs got 6. Near relegation form. 22/23: Battle between us and Liverpool at 5th. We got 6 points, and they got 11. Lets say 13 to Liverpool, they didn't care the final game. 21/22: Battle between 4th and 5th. 13 vs 9 points. 21/20: Battle from 3rd to 6th. 15 - 9 - 4 - 10 points. 19/20: 3rd to 5th. 11 - 9 - 4 points. Last 5 this season: 3rd to 7th. 13 - 10 - 11 - 6 - 12 points. This season teams around the CL spots are in better form overall than usual (on top of the fact that there's more teams involved aswell). It's not rocket science.

In 5 games: Man City 13 points Villa 12 points (lost to City) Chelsea 11 points (this could be their 3rd win in a row) Newcastle 10 points Nottingham obviously struggling. It's a bit brutal to have 3 rivals be better off when you get 10 points from 5 games. It's not like you need more than 2 pts per game to get top 5, so all 3 of them are in good form.

Not really, because earlier in the season teams around 3rd-7th dropped points quite often. It was rare that 4 out of 5 of these teams won in the same gameweek, like what seems to be the norm now. All our rivals have slightly more than 50% winrate overall. But sure, towards the end of the season it's probably common as some face teams who are "on the beach" (this season moreso than others). The points for 5-7th is already unusually high this year (slightly above 50% isn't even common for those places), and it keeps getting higher.

All our rivals keeps winning every game (bar Forest)..

Expected a loss given our history with them. Good result imo!

How is this potensially a clear and obvious mistake?

That's 1 win in 10 for Everton..

I though Fulham was fighting for the last european spot..