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Will we qualify for the Champions League? Sadly not...

Rich

by Rich
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loki679

loki679

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I'm torn a bit at the moment but I think i'd rather see us get europa league.  It would be great to get into the champions league for the money and prestige and big european games but realistically we've got no chance of winning it.  Europa on the other hand i'd fancy us to go pretty far and actually have a chance of picking up a trophy.  Not sure what the current rules are about CL teams dropping into the EL when they get knoocked out but if we've got a good chance of getting into the EL anyway when we get knocked out of the CL then i'd probably prefer CL.

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Guest Tyson

Guest Tyson

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On paper this weekend's fixtures are the most interesting in many seasons. Alot of scores worth keeping a listen out for.

 

 

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Rich

Rich

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:memeyeah: We're still in there with a shout.

 

The penultimate round of fixtures have come and gone and we remain in fifth place, which is where we were exactly four weeks ago when this thread began. However, we now sit just two points behind Arsenal, Tottenham have snuck ahead of us by a solitary point and after tonight the only way in which Chelsea can affect things is by winning the Champions League outright in Munich. They've still got a huge say in things because of that, but they've fallen by the wayside in terms of outright league finish. I think tonight's was a good result for us because of that, as it means we know that fifth place is assured regardless of the next weekend's results. Still, let's not just settle for that at this late stage eh? I didn't much care for the air of resignation around SJP after the whistle on Sunday, but I could understand it after the way the game had gotten away from us. It felt to me like people accepting that was it "over", but it's not by a fucking long chalk...

 

We head to Everton on Sunday afternoon in a fixture that brings back warm memories from last seaon of Hatem's wonder strike and an imperious debut by Cheik Tiote in the middle of the park. That game down at Goodison was similar to the Stoke (a) game from this season, for me, as it was something of a watershed that showed just how far we had come at that particular juncture - it was definitely one of the highlights of the entire year and was something of a masterful away performance against a decent Everton side. Thing is, we're going to need much of the same this weekend to give ourselves any chance of achieving this unbelievable feat. With Fulham and Liverpool just a point behind them now, I'm hoping the pressure of hanging on to seventh may just play into our hands, but they're a pretty professional outfit from top-to-bottom and so I'm not sure how much it will really affect them. A win is entirely realistic, but it's not going to be easy at a place where we've taken maximum points just five out of seventeen times in the Premiership.

 

Arsenal are at West Brom for Roy Hodgson's last game in charge of the Baggies and they are on the worst form out of the three of us. I wrote them off as being "too far gone" in the opening post, but since the creation of this thread they've taken just six points in their five games, three of which were at home and the only win they have in that time came away at Wolves, comfortably the worst side in the divison. Come Sunday night WBA will either be tenth, eleventh or twelfth in the table (barring some insane scores), they can't fluctuate too much and so don't have a great deal to play for but their comeback at Bolton this weekend gave me hope that they'll offer something against Arsene's mob this weekend. The Gunners are struggling in all areas with injury, losing Sagna most recently against Norwich, and don't exactly have a great record of coming up trumps in pressure games with this squad. It's a big ask for them to lose and us to win, but again it's far from impossible. Come on the Albion!

 

Finally, Tottenham have a home tie against Fulham and unfortunately appear to have turned the corner, although it wasn't a win I suppose a 1-1 draw away from home when you've had ten men for basically an entire half isn't exactly a terrible result. Cheers again Villa, by the way, you utterly useless cunts. Like Arsenal, Spurs are suffering with injuries and a lack of left-backs thanks to Rose's red card, but off the top of my head I seem to think Fulham have a pretty terrible record at White Hart Lane (a check confirms this as being one win in ten games during the PL era, way back in 2003/04) and so to say I'm not entirely hopeful of the Cottagers doing us a favour is an understatement. However, unlike WBA they do have something to play for with seventh firmly in their sights (which would equal their best-ever PL finish), a record PL points haul on the cards if they win and it's Jol's first return to Spurs since they sacked him. They're also on pretty decent form overall, with thirteen points taken in their last six games. Howay you Cottaging bastards!

 

I've reset the poll for what will potentially be the final time (barring us finishing fourth and then needing Bayern Munich to beat Chelsea), with the results to this point as follows:

 

Rolling Results

Tuesday 10th April @ 6pm - Sunday 15th April @ 9pm: Yes = 89 (24.7%) No = 271 (75.3%) from 360 votes

Sunday 15th April @ 9pm - Saturday 21st April @ 5pm: Yes = 62 (37.6%) No = 103 (62.4%) from 165 votes. An increase in belief of 9.9%

Saturday 21st April @ 5pm - Saturday 28th April @ 3pm: Yes = 94 (41.8%) No = 131 (58.2%) from 224 votes. An increase in belief of 4.2%

Monday 30th April @ 10pm - Wednesday 2nd May @ 9pm: Yes = 5 (15.2%) No = 28 (84.8%) from 33 votes. A decrease in belief of 26.6%

Thursday 3rd May @ 1am - Saturday 5th May @ 1pm: Yes = 33 (25.6%) No = 96 (74.4%) from 129 votes. An increase in belief of 10.4%

 

Of course I've gone "yes" again, as I have done every time so far because I just think we're very capable of taking maximum points at Goodison Park (though I'm not taking this for granted by any stretch of the imagination) and I reckon the other two we're competing with will both have a bit of a wobble due to the pressure on them, although I certainly can't see both losing. To be more precise I can see us finishing fourth and relying on Bayern to do the business in their backyard, which they'll do. Whatever happens though, it's been an absolutely tremendous season and whether we finish it in the best style possible or not I think all of us will look back very fondly upon 2011/12 as a campaign of surprising brilliance.

 

Put it this way, if you'd offered me fifth before a ball was kicked I'd have bitten your hand off, but if you'd told me we'd head down to Goodison on May 13th 2012 with even a remote chance of qualifying for the Champions League I'd have... well I'm not sure what I'd have done to be perfectly honest.

 

Howay. The. Fucking. Lads. :indi:

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Rich

Rich

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The fact that people can no longer simply reply to this with "6th" says it all to me, really, we just continue to outstrip people's expectations and doing the business this weekend would be a final slap in the face of negativity. I'll admit that the loss at the weekend was something of a hammer-blow, especially when we'd got them to 70 minutes at 0-0 and they were going to start having to take big chances in a game they knew they needed to win, but the fact that Arsenal couldn't put fucking Norwich away at the Emirates (and deserved to actually lose, if we're being honest) keeps the fire burning for me.

 

We've come so far that we're not even defying the odds at this stage, we're heading into a two-hour period in time with a legitimate chance of doing something truly wonderful and enabling our club to keep it's best players, earn a shedload more money and kick-on to previously unimagined heights under this regime. The great thing is that even if we don't do it, the whole thing has been a resounding success anyway and we're heading into next season with passports at the ready and a renewed sense of belief in our football club. It's just fucking brilliant.

 

I understand people being tentative given what has gone before but as I said in the OP, this has been the season of the optimist so far so I don't see why Sunday should be any different. I must be some kind of sadist as well as a borderline mental optimist too, as I'd love to go into watching the CL final with so much at stake for us if we do finish 4th.

 

:idiot2:

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midds

midds

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Honestly don't think we'll beat Everton at Goodison. We've had 3 really tough games recently, even at Chelsea we looked really tired, and it could be a game too far. I'd love us to do it, and to even have a shot at it is unbelievable, but I think we'll fall just short.

 

Nothing to lose though so I hope we go there and attack them from the off. Fuck it, no regrets. 

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JH

JH

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Tonight has put me in a really good mood because we've officially secured our best finish since 2004.

 

I really don't know what's going to happen on Sunday. Now 5th is secure and the shackles are off, I just want us to go to Goodison and go for it. 4-3-3 and attack them from the off and see what happens.

 

fwiw, I think there's a few more twists and turns in this race yet.

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Cronky

Cronky

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There's big pressure on Arsenal and Spurs, so I can see one of them slipping up - either Arsenal losing or Spurs drawing. Having beaten Chelsea away, we'll believe that we can do the same at Everton, so yes, you can see it happening.

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