AyeDubbleYoo Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Fairly normal set of PL fixtures innit? The three away games in a row is a bastard, admittedly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbandit Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Wouldn’t say it’s that brutal, our home form is outstanding, and we’ve played all the toughest teams. There are some difficult away fixtures but there’s not a single game there I don’t feel we can’t get at least a point out of. I’m sure some of our rivals have tougher fixtures Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paullow Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) 10 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said: Fairly normal set of PL fixtures innit? The three away games in a row is a bastard, admittedly. I'd be much more confident of a greater points tally if the venues were all completely reversed. The away fixtures are really tough, some big, traditional grounds we have to go to - Everton, Villa, Leeds where you know their fans will be up for it against another big city team, especially with that team being on the up (controversially in some peoples eyes), West Ham too. Our home form is very good, but we probably won't be betting favourites to beat Man U, Tottenham, Arsenal, not massive faves to beat Brighton, and (from all 12 remaining fixtures) it's just really Southampton and Leicester at home where you look and think we should definitely be winning that one, whereas if they were reversed, you would be thinking Brentford, West Ham, Villa, Everton, and Leeds, if that makes sense. We likely wouldn't win all 5 of them (and we did obviously drop points in two of them), but every match the opponent would range from in and around 4/1 to 6/1, and individually we'd be expected to win, whereas here, we will only have two fixtures where the opponents will be that price. Edited March 19, 2023 by Paullow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankpingel Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) Agree with most of that but have to point out we are favourites v Man U. Edited March 19, 2023 by frankpingel . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteV Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 18 minutes ago, Paullow said: I'd be much more confident of a greater points tally if the venues were all completely reversed. The away fixtures are really tough, some big, traditional grounds we have to go to - Everton, Villa, Leeds where you know their fans will be up for it against another big city team, especially with that team being on the up (controversially in some peoples eyes), West Ham too. Our home form is very good, but we probably won't be betting favourites to beat Man U, Tottenham, Arsenal, not massive faves to beat Brighton, and (from all 12 remaining fixtures) it's just really Southampton and Leicester at home where you look and think we should definitely be winning that one, whereas if they were reversed, you would be thinking Brentford, West Ham, Villa, Everton, and Leeds, if that makes sense. We likely wouldn't win all 5 of them (and we did obviously drop points in two of them), but every match the opponent would range from in and around 4/1 to 6/1, and individually we'd be expected to win, whereas here, we will only have two fixtures where the opponents will be that price. We are slight favourites to beat Man Utd. Would imagine we’ll be stronger favourites against Spurs (depending on how the next month goes obviously). Possibly not against Arsenal though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Thing with our remaining home games is I’d expect most of the opposition to come out and have a go which will suit us nicely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geogaddi Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) 36 minutes ago, duo said: I just realised how tough our run in is.... Sun 02-Apr -Manchester United(h) Wed 05-Apr - West Ham(a) Sat 08-Apr - Brentford(a) Sat 15-Apr - Aston Villa(a) Sun 23-Apr - Tottenham(h) Thu 27-Apr - Everton(a) Sun 30-Apr - Southampton(h) Sat 06-May- Arsenal(h) Sat 13-May- Leeds United(a) Sat 20-May - Leicester City(h) Sun 28-May - Chelsea(a) Date tbc Brighton(h) Sun 02-Apr -Manchester United(h) Win Wed 05-Apr - West Ham(a) Draw Sat 08-Apr - Brentford(a) Draw Sat 15-Apr - Aston Villa(a) Draw Sun 23-Apr - Tottenham(h) Win Thu 27-Apr - Everton(a) Lose (still scarred from last season) Sun 30-Apr - Southampton(h) Win Sat 06-May- Arsenal(h) Draw Sat 13-May- Leeds United(a) Draw Sat 20-May - Leicester City(h) Win Sun 28-May - Chelsea(a) Draw Date tbc Brighton(h) Win 21 points would put us on 68. Edited March 19, 2023 by Geogaddi Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paullow Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) 16 minutes ago, SteV said: We are slight favourites to beat Man Utd. Would imagine we’ll be stronger favourites against Spurs (depending on how the next month goes obviously). Possibly not against Arsenal though. Yeah, fair enough, but we won't be odds on like we would at home against some of those bottom half teams. So in the 'double chance' odds, Man Utd are 8/15 to achieve either a win or a draw, so odds-wise, it's more likely we won't win that match than win it. We were around 4/6 to beat Forest and around 7/10 to beat Wolves, so in both cases we were odds on and expected to win, whereas I think it'll just be Southampton and Leicester where we will be odds on in the remaining 12 (maybe Leeds at a push). I guess it could change by the time we play teams, if they have less to play for, but still a generally tough remaining set of fixtures. That said, there are obviously advantages that some of the '6 pointers' against the better sides are at home because statistically we will have a better chance of getting points, and simultaneously ensuring direct rivals don't take 3 points, but instead of having say 6 easier games and 6 tougher games, we've basically got a large amount of remaining games (like 8 or 9) where many would expect the end result to easily go either way. Edited March 19, 2023 by Paullow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronky Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 12 hours ago, Kid Icarus said: Will be interesting to see how Conte's rant goes down. Personally I think it's probably more likely to galvanise them than it is to make them shrink even more. I don't think slagging your players off in public like that is ever a good idea. And the weird thing for me is that they're already in the top four. It's not like they can seriously see themselves as challengers to the top two at this stage. It looks to me that for Conte, it's winning or nothing. He can't deal with the current position - it sounds like it's him who has lost the fighting spirit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
80 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 I think people who have/are writing us off are making the mistake of overestimating our competition. I can see why you'd expect history to repeat with experienced campaigners like Liverpool, but truly the only thing consistent about them, Tottenham and others is their inconsistency. It's not a fluke, they've got real underlying problems. Meanwhile, I'd argue we've got one of the highest quality lower halves of the table in a long time. No team has any reason to give up on their season at this stage. So I think we can expect the top tier to finish with an unusually low points tally, with very few 3 point gimme games around. As for us, I'm just so happy to see some attacking invention return to us. It looks like we're coming back into form at just the right time... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 If we can get regular clean sheets back into the equation, Isak on a run of good fitness and surely to God some players chipping in with goals elsewhere then we're laughing. Forest have a very impressive home record and we blew them away the other night, on another night that would have been a breeze scoreline-wise. If we're on it at places like West Ham, Brentford, Leeds, we can do the same. Man Utd game is massive - a draw keeps it ticking along, a loss would be a blow, but a win would set us up for the run-in with serious momentum. We don't need to win every game, just need to avoid slipping back into frustrating draws against teams below us and we're in a good position. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gawalls Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 39 minutes ago, 80 said: I think people who have/are writing us off are making the mistake of overestimating our competition. I can see why you'd expect history to repeat with experienced campaigners like Liverpool, but truly the only thing consistent about them, Tottenham and others is their inconsistency. It's not a fluke, they've got real underlying problems. Meanwhile, I'd argue we've got one of the highest quality lower halves of the table in a long time. No team has any reason to give up on their season at this stage. So I think we can expect the top tier to finish with an unusually low points tally, with very few 3 point gimme games around. As for us, I'm just so happy to see some attacking invention return to us. It looks like we're coming back into form at just the right time... We’ve always had attacking invention just couldn’t finish it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
80 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Nah, we were much more rapid and incisive against Forest than we have been in prior weeks. We've had periods of sustained pressure, but the ultimate moves and balls in have been formulaic. Isak, Murphy and Willock have to get a lot of credit for changing us up. Our set pieces have picked up too - that surprise dink from Trippier to Isak in the first half which ended up on the cross bar was great, caught Forest totally flat footed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) 40 minutes ago, 80 said: Nah, we were much more rapid and incisive against Forest than we have been in prior weeks. We've had periods of sustained pressure, but the ultimate moves and balls in have been formulaic. Isak, Murphy and Willock have to get a lot of credit for changing us up. Our set pieces have picked up too - that surprise dink from Trippier to Isak in the first half which ended up on the cross bar was great, caught Forest totally flat footed. Totally agree, we were looking very laboured for weeks and devoid of ideas going forward. It was a concern tbh. The uptick in performances the last couple of games are almost as pleasing as the results. We did play quite well vs Man City and to an extent Liverpool mind, but there was a run of games before that where it looked like it was getting stale. Edited March 19, 2023 by Interpolic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 15 hours ago, r0cafella said: Conte will always complain, the backing he gets is never enough. Check his trophy record though. I do wonder why Spurs would ever go back to Poch even though he's one of my favourite managers in the Prem in recent times. He's won nothing of note has he? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilikenewcastle Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 4 minutes ago, TRon said: Check his trophy record though. I do wonder why Spurs would ever go back to Poch even though he's one of my favourite managers in the Prem in recent times. He's won nothing of note has he? I felt he was a bit of a yes man too. He very much bought into Levy's 'top 4 is all that's important' approach and it seems to me the fans are sick of that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaqen Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 1 hour ago, ilikenewcastle said: I felt he was a bit of a yes man too. He very much bought into Levy's 'top 4 is all that's important' approach and it seems to me the fans are sick of that. They were in a title race and Champions league final to be fair under Poch. On the whole Spurs have generally been really competitive under Levy whilst moving into a new stadium and competing against sides with much bigger spending power. Conte has been backed with close to £200m in a year, he's managed to make one of the most exciting front 3 in Europe look boring as fuck. There's way more blame on him than Levy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Pochettino was great. If Howe does for us what he did there he'll be our greatest manager in memory. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 22 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said: Pochettino was great. If Howe does for us what he did there he'll be our greatest manager in memory. Howe will win a trophy IMO. That will make him the greatest manager in our history. Poch got sacked by Levy so one of those two was missing something. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
80 Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 If I supported Olimpia Ljubljana I'd be feeling really pumped right now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STM Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 That win against Forest was gargantuan. We've effectively just replaced our batteries with nice shiny new ones. If we beat Man United we will make top 4 for sure IMO. A draw wouldn't be terrible in all honesty. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffee_Johnny Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 End of March tracking has us bang on the 30 year average for fourth place, after this many games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Icarus Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 It's mad how the average stagnates in Jan-Feb, then massively shoots up between March and April. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoU Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 8 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said: It's mad how the average stagnates in Jan-Feb, then massively shoots up between March and April. That is probably because of the amount of games those months. If the x-axis was games played instead of months, I am sure you would get much more even lines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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