4th Place - What's it going to take?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Massive injury crisis for Arsenal ahead of Tuesdays game with West Ham, as things stand Kallstrom is their only first team midfielder available.

From the Mirror today:-



Koscielny, Gibbs, Rosicky and Gnarby are all doubts as well, Ozil, Wilshire, Wallcott, Diaby and Flamini are definitely out.


Oh the irony, Monsieur Wenger.

Your only first choice midfield player is.....on loan lol
 
yea but being Hulls last game before their cup final, there could be a lot of players playing for their place in the first XI. City will be playing for the league and United should need no motivation and palace are still in a relegation scrap. There are pros and cons to all the games. 3 home games is huge for us.
 
I think you've misunderstood, the issue isn't that they will throw the cup game or throw the game against us, it's that they may not have an incentive to beat Arsenal when they play in the league this weekend. I'm not saying they will do this, but if they were to let Arsenal win, it would improve Arsenal's chances of finishing 4th, which would give them Europa League in the event that they don't win the final.

Essentially, by letting Arsenal win in the league, they improve their chances of getting European football in the event that they subsequently can't beat Arsenal in the cup. Still, this isn't really a new issue, and it's not as bad as in previous seasons when the cup final was played during the season. http://www.grandoldteam.com/forum/threads/perverse-incentives-in-europa-qualification.35104/
Right, so the League Cup was won by Manchester City so that sends the Europa League placings down to 6th - as 5th already automatically qualifies for Europa - now, if a top 6 team wins the FA Cup, it will go down to 7th. That was my understanding.

So if the final is Hull v Arsenal, do Hull as finalists not automatically receive the FA Cup's Europa League place, unless Arsenal finish outside the top 6? So it should now be

5th - Europa League (Automatic) - Arsenal
6th - Europa League (League Cup) - Spurs
(FA Cup Finalists) Europa League - Hull

Unless Arsenal finish 7th, I cannot see any way Hull do not get Europa. Unless they are required to WIN it or 7th will go to Europa (United) under which circumstances all this 'incentive to lose' stuff is immaterial, right?
 
yea but being Hulls last game before their cup final, there could be a lot of players playing for their place in the first XI. City will be playing for the league and United should need no motivation and palace are still in a relegation scrap. There are pros and cons to all the games. 3 home games is huge for us.

I think their Cup Final team will pretty much be settled by then and those who are playing won't want to over exert themselves in case of injury.

The bigger worry is their strike force of Jelavic and Long are both cup tied so they will have no such inhibitions.

Are Croatia in the World Cup?

That might be playing on old Niki's mind.
 

Right, so the League Cup was won by Manchester City so that sends the Europa League placings down to 6th - as 5th already automatically qualifies for Europa - now, if a top 6 team wins the FA Cup, it will go down to 7th. That was my understanding.

So if the final is Hull v Arsenal, do Hull as finalists not automatically receive the FA Cup's Europa League place, unless Arsenal finish outside the top 6? So it should now be

5th - Europa League (Automatic) - Arsenal
6th - Europa League (League Cup) - Spurs
(FA Cup Finalists) Europa League - Hull

Unless Arsenal finish 7th, I cannot see any way Hull do not get Europa. Unless they are required to WIN it or 7th will go to Europa (United) under which circumstances all this 'incentive to lose' stuff is immaterial, right?

No the Europa League place only goes to the FA Cup runner-up if the winner qualifies for Champions League, but not if the winner qualifies for Europa League via the league. So if Arsenal win the cup and finish 4th, Hull would get it, but if Arsenal win the cup and finish 5th, 7th in the league would get it. This means losing to Arsenal next weekend could be in Hull's best interest. I don't think Hull would intentionally drop points, but it's still a strange situation.
 
We will beat everyone we play other than City and Southampton who i think we will draw against.

That gives us 77 points. If we dont get top 4 with that I'll be sick. That would have gotten like 2nd last season FFS
 
We will beat everyone we play other than City and Southampton who i think we will draw against.

That gives us 77 points. If we dont get top 4 with that I'll be sick. That would have gotten like 2nd last season FFS
Would be so Everton for us to get 77 and finish 5th, wouldn't it?
 

Arsenal need a massive turnaround to win all 5. Form isn't a tap you can turn on.

Think West Ham will do us a favour, could do with Ox getting injured(but fit for WC), he is there only dangerous player at moment
 

Status
Not open for further replies.
Top