Can we challenge euro places?

[St James the Less]

Cant wait to watch Sky Sports News (Other news broadcasters are available) if/when we get 4th. It will go something like this "Here is the Premier League top three, with Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United finishing in 5th 6th and seventh respectively". Bet you!

 

[fandjango]

Think we should focus on cementing 7th(not great but build from there) while trying to catch Utd and co. Hopefully get in the Europe league via a top 4 team winning both comps.

The best way to cement 7th is to give it all in persuit of 6th

 

[Prevenger17]

The optimism in here is incredible, but we are a good few months and a summer transfer window away from challenging for the top 4 imo, and even then, it will be an outside bet. I feel we're only just beginning something here now and it will be a good 2 years before we start challenging for anything meaningful.

 

[barneygumble]

No.

The lads are playing confidently, and importantly, well. Without any pressure, this allows the freedom to kick on, and with a promising run of games, maybe we can assess again at the end of February, but for now. Feet grounded, lets clear ourselves of West Brom and hope for a few favours, that, IF we do finish 7th, then Europe is on the cards!

 

[MrGrumpy]

Lets focus on Stoke first, and take it from there.

We still need to go to

Utd Away - won once in 25 years
Liverpool Away- won there since 99, that 18 years
Arsenal Away - havnt won at Arsenal fr 21 years
Spurs Away - very tough game

We need at least 8 points from them games to have any chance of top 4 and history would suggest we will get 1-3

 

[Woolverhampton_Blue]

It's going to be a very tough task to take 6th place, 4th is a pipe dream. We've gained a bit of ground due to other teams having a wobble, but we're more than capable of having one ourselves.

Either 6th or 7th is fine after the last two seasons, hopefully that gets us a Europa place. The squad is looking much healthier and should be even better by the start of next season. Then we can really look to push on and either have a crack at the top 4 or win a cup. Personally I'd rather win a cup!

 

[jonesey10]

If we get into the top 6 sky will revert back to plugging the 'big 5' or 'big 4' It's laughable really.
last season it was the big 4, now it's the big 6.
I truly believe we can put some pressure on Utd, City and the RS over the next few weeks, momentum is definitely with us.

 

[ggooggooggoo]

The top 6 sides are miles and miles better than us. That's the awkward truth.

just ask Arsenal and City..................miles better yeah

lolz

 

[ggooggooggoo]

Nobody wants to play us atm...........nobody.

 

[nsno-chris]

This will go in the bin when stoke beat us 3-0 next week

 

[Mountfield1985]

If current points per game stayed the same, it would end up:

4th - Liverpool 77 points
5th - Man City 74 points
6th - Man United 73 points

We'd need 42 pts out of 48 for 4th. Or 38 points out of 48 for 6th. Which is obviously never going to happen.

So basically, to have any chance, we need teams above us to start dropping a lot more points than they have been doing.

February will tell us everything. 4 winnable games for us. Whilst the others have got League Cup Finals, FA Cup games and European fixtures to deal with. If we take maximum points and teams above us slip up (pun intended), then we'll talk about catching them. Until then it remains a massive long shot.

 

[hktoffee]

Lets focus on Stoke first, and take it from there.

We still need to go to

Utd Away - won once in 25 years
Liverpool Away- won there since 99, that 18 years
Arsenal Away - havnt won at Arsenal fr 21 years
Spurs Away - very tough game

We need at least 8 points from them games to have any chance of top 4 and history would suggest we will get 1-3

Records were there for us to break.

 

[Kenshin]

I believe we can challenge them this year if we can keep winning the way we have been recently. Win 3 out of the next 5 and see where that leaves us league wise, we are only behind the draw specialists in the league and City have been struggling for consistency and we beat them. If we cannot dream now before it is over then we may as well just not bother.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Lets focus on Stoke first, and take it from there.

We still need to go to

Utd Away - won once in 25 years
Liverpool Away- won there since 99, that 18 years
Arsenal Away - havnt won at Arsenal fr 21 years
Spurs Away - very tough game

We need at least 8 points from them games to have any chance of top 4 and history would suggest we will get 1-3

What we need to do is concentrate on winning games rather than not losing them. RK made a positive substitution when it was still 0 v 0 on Saturday, and it paid dividends. We won't catch the teams above us by drawing games. Sure we may lose some of those games where they are in the balance, but even if we get a result in half of them it still works out better than playing it safe. The other thing we need to do is to play out games where we are in front, and I do think we're getting better at that.

The players all appear much fitter now so there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to finish games strongly.

 

[toffeeblue9]

I think that spell of one win in eleven, or whatever it was, has put paid to any realistic hopes of catching the teams above us

The top 6 may very well all get 70 points or more, that should give you an indication as to how far ahead they are of the rest of the league this season. We all know how 72 points is the pinnacle of achievements after all...

Ahem

Anyway, I find it v v unlikely we'll finish above where we are now. I would settle for putting a bit of distance between us and 8th place - 7th will get us Europa League if the League Cup and FA Cup are won by teams in the top 6 anyway, I think. Essentially, I just want to see us finish as strongly as we can and finish as close to that top 6 as possible.