EPL down the stretch

[SAMCRO]

With 10-12 games left, it will be a dog fight for top 4 and to stay in the EPL.

Top 4/6
66 pts.. Chelsea, +37 GD, 11 left (6H/5A), 2 v top 7 teams, 3 v. bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
56 Tottenham, +33 GD, 11 left (5H/6A), 2 v top 7 teams, 4 v. bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
56 Man. City, +24 GD, 11 left (6H/5A), 4 v top 7 teams, 4 v bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup and UCL
55 Liverpool, +25 GD, 10 left (5H/5A), 2 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams
50 Arsenal, +24 GD, 12 left (6H/6A), 4 v top 7 teams, 4 v bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
49 Man United, +17 GD, 12 left (5H/7A), 5 v top 7 teams, 4 v bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup and Europa
47 Everton, +17 GD, 10 remaining (5H/5A), 4 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams

Chelsea has the top spot wrapped up. The battle for top 4 gets interesting, especially if Kane's injury is as bad as they believe and he's done for the season. Spurs and Liverpool have the easiest road home of the teams vying for spots 2-3-4. Hopefully City and United stay in European play for a little while longer.

My prediction... 1- Chelsea, 2- Liverpool, 3- City, 4- Spurs, 5- United, 6- Arsenal

Relegation battle
27 Leicester City, - 15 GD, 11 left (5H/6A), 4 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams, still in UCL
27 Swansea City, -25 GD, 10 left (5H/5A), 3 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams
25 Crystal Palace, -11 GD, 11 left (6H/5A), 6 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams
24 Hull City, - 28 GD, 10 left (5H/5A), 2 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams
22 Middlesbrough, -11 GD, 11 left (6H/5A), 5 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams
19 Sunderland, -26 GD, 11 left (5H/6A), 3 v top 7 teams, 4 v bottom 6 teams

Sunderland is a looong shot and will need close to a miracle. Palace and M'boro's schedules are BRUTAL down the stretch. Hull has been picking it up a bit, and gotten some good results recently. Swansea's bad goal diff could bite them in the arse if they don't handle their business.

My predictions... Sunderland, M'boro, and Palace get relegated.

 

[UCFBfan]

My biggest fear is that Swansea end up equal in points with someone like Palace but their horrific GD ends up costing them.

They need to pull it together and beat the bottom teams left on their schedule. Losing to Hull was killer but they can still survive.

 

[SAMCRO]

West Brom has a legit shot at finishing top 7 and playing in Europa League next season. Tony Pulis has done a great job with this team.

At one point West Brom fans were singing 'We want you to stay Arsène Wenger, we want you to stay."

 

[SAMCRO]

Some interesting results over the weekend and mid-week.
Liverpool fans must be gutted, conceding a late tying goal at home v. Bournemouth;
Swansea fans, wow... so close to picking up a critical 3 points and staying out of bottom 3, to conceding 3 goals in a 6 minute span at the very end of the match. Fabianski played great in goal, then got banged up in the 84th minute... they were going to sub him out, had the back up goalie walking to the 4th official, and Fabianski through a fit, insisting he was fine, so they left him in. 4 minutes later he gave up the first goal in the 88th minute, then Spurs scored 2 more in added time. The goals weren't due to his injury... his defense collapsed, and Spurs had been pressuring pretty hard in the final 20 minutes.
Chelsea bounced back nicely, with a huge win over City.
Hull is stepping it up pretty strongly, huge win over M'boro yesterday

Here's

Top 4/6
72 pts.. Chelsea, +38 GD, 8 left (4H/4A), 3 v top 7 teams, 2 v. bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
65 Tottenham, +38 GD, 8 left (4H/4A), 2 v top 7 teams, 3 v. bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
60 Liverpool, +27 GD, 7 left (4H/5A), 0 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams
58 Man. City, +23 GD, 8 left (5H/3A), 2 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
54 Arsenal, +25 GD, 9 left (6H/6A), 4 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams, still in FA Cup
54 Man United, +19 GD, 9 left (5H/7A), 4 v top 7 teams, 3 v bottom 6 teams, still in Europa
51 Everton, +19 GD, 7 remaining (4H/3A), 2 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams

Liverpool with the easiest road in, followed by Tottenham. Chelsea still with a firm grip on 1st place. Arsenal, United, and City all playing inconsisitently.
My prediction... 1- Chelsea, 2- Spurs, 3- Liverpool, 4- City, 5- United, 6- Arsenal, 7- Everton

Relegation battle
33 West Ham, - 16 GD, 7 left (4H/3A), 3 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams
31 Crystal Palace, -11 GD, 8 left (5H/3A), 5 v top 7 teams, 1 v bottom 6 teams
30 Hull City, - 29 GD, 7 left (3H/4A), 2 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams
28 Swansea City, -29 GD, 7 left (3H/4A), 2 v top 7 teams, 2 v bottom 6 teams
23 Middlesbrough, -15 GD, 8 left (5H/3A), 4 v top 7 teams, 1 v bottom 6 teams
20 Sunderland, -29 GD, 8 left (4H/4A), 3 v top 7 teams, 4 v bottom 6 teams

Sunderland and M'boro are done. Too far back, and too difficult of a stretch run. That leaves it to Swansea, Hull, Palace.. and maybe WH. Palce has a brutal finish with most of their games v./ top 6 teams. Swansea and Hll have a slightly easier path, but need to play better. WH should be fine.

My prediction... 20- Sunderland, 19- M'boro, 18- Palace

 

[UCFBfan]

I've lost all faith that Swansea can pull this out. Zero goals against Boro and what made it worse was that Clements made zero subs that game. They had something like 31 balls served into the box and zero goals. The loss of Llorente hurt big time but they needed to make a change. Somehow Borja, their big signing, can't even crack the bench, let alone the starting lineup.

Yesterday's loss to Spurs was gutting but I didn't expect them to win. The problem is that Hull is on fire and keeps winning while Swansea are losing. They needed 3 points vs Boro and now are playing catch up and need to not only win but have teams above them lose too. It's no longer trying to fight teams off. It's not looking hopeful. They need to beat West Ham this weekend but they are not good away from home. Not holding my breath.

It really just sucks. I wish they'd have pulled it out. I know there stills time and games left but it's looking bleak. Hull made a coaching change and have become more attacking. Swansea seems to be content to draw games. Not ok when you need every point and your goal differential is already attrocious.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

I've lost all faith that Swansea can pull this out.

How did you arrive at caring about let alone rooting for Swansea? Welsh heritage? All credit for supporting the Swans.

 

[UCFBfan]

How did you arrive at caring about let alone rooting for Swansea? Welsh heritage? All credit for supporting the Swans.

My Dad's side of the family is Welsh and I was in England and went to Wales for a few days. It happened to be at the same time of a Swansea City game so I went to watch because the people I was with had tickets. Been a fan ever since. Loved the way they did business and were fan owned. That has since changed with the American buyout this past summer but it's still a fan oriented team to an extent.

However, it can bite me in the ass at times like this because being a fan of a smaller club, you are never guaranteed that they'll stay up. Don't know what I'll do next season should they get relegated. Can't really see myself cheering for a different team in the Prem and catching Swansea games will be near impossible if they are in the Championship. Won't be dropping my fan card if they relegated though, just would like to have a team to cheer for and be able to watch on top of Swansea should they get dropped.

 

[whaler11]

West Brom has a legit shot at finishing top 7 and playing in Europa League next season. Tony Pulis has done a great job with this team.

At one point West Brom fans were singing 'We want you to stay Arsène Wenger, we want you to stay."

Thanks for this. Disasterous week.

 

[SAMCRO]

Spurs

Chelsea has unofficially locked up 1st, Spurs have all but locked up 2nd. It's gonna be an entertaining dog fight for the final 2 spots and a Champions League birth.

City and Liverpool have the easiest road home (although City drawing v M'boro was a big surprise).

United dropping points st home v Swansea today (and were very lucky to even get that draw) was YUGE. They've also got the toughest schedule remaining w/ Arsenal, Spurs and Southampton all on the road. Their best shot at UCL is probably winning the Europa League.

Arsenal needs to win out, and then get a lot of help.

 

[meyers7]

Arsenal needs to win out, and then get a lot of help.

Arsenal is dead in the water. They might be able to hang onto 6th.

 

[Waquoit]

City and Liverpool have the easiest road home (although City drawing v M'boro was a big surprise).

The way Liverpool has gone this year, easy games are a relative term. It took a goal of the year nominee to beat Watford today.

 

[SAMCRO]

Bottom 3 is done (Swansea fans can exhale now), top 4 is all but decided, and United should get into the UCL by winning the Europa final in a couple weeks.

Newcastle and Brighton & Hove Albion are promoted. Both first leg games of the promotion playoff ended in draws (Fulham v Reading 1-1, and Huddersfield Town v Sheffield Wednesday 0-0). Second legs are Tues and Wed. I'm pulling for Fulham, but they are the lowest seed of the 4 teams and a long shot (would love to see them back in the EPL). If I had to predict I'd say Reading will win the play-off.

 

[meyers7]

Bottom 3 is done (Swansea fans can exhale now), top 4 is all but decided, and United should get into the UCL by winning the Europa final in a couple weeks.

Yea Title's won, Relegation is done. If Arsenal can win Tuesday, at least 3 games could matter on the final day. Maybe even goal differential. At least they'll have to play them.

 

[UCFBfan]

Heard something interesting today in regards to ManU. They've basically thrown in the towel in the EPL the past few games in order to focus mainly on their Europa matches.

With the final in 7 days, they could earn a Champions League spot by winning vs Ajax.

So it begs the question, would you be good with your club basically tanking their regular season games in order to prep for a win to earn a Champions League bid? The clip I saw was on the NBCSN app so you can catch their takes but I was interesting.

For me, I'd be all for it. Champions League is the goal for clubs like ManU. If you can't get there by not getting to the Top 4, why not focus on getting there the only other possible way. The talking heads were arguing that it's not fair to the traveling fans, etc. to me, I wouldn't mind the move if it pays off.

 

[SAMCRO]

United started resting a few key players during EPL matches to focus on Europa once their odds/probability of finishing top 4 were probably less than 15% and they got to the semi-finals of Europa. So the last 2-3 EPL matches.

I agree with you, go all in on qualifying for UCL, by whatever path you can. I would imagine the goals of most EPL teams is to 1) win the league, 2) qualify for UCL, 3) qualify for Europa League now that it gives you access to UCL - this is only the second year of Europa where the winner gets UCL access, and that has made a HUGE difference in teams now prioritizing it, and 4) avoid relegation. Once finishing top 4 was not a realistic option, every team would prioritize winning Europa to get in to UCL, and I would imagine EVERY fan of that team would want that too.

 

[businesslawyer]

United needs a lot of different players than those that fill its roster now. When recruiting those players, none will care that they finished 4th versus 6th in the EPL. All will care that MU is or is not playing Champions League football. So they are doing what they have to do to get better.

It sucks watching teams mail league games in, but that's not really on the club. World class players can't play 50 club games in a year, plus international duty, and play them all with 100% speed and intensity. The schedule is just too grueling for human beings. So either you don't play your best 11 every game, because players need days off, or you live with them playing when healthy but going through the motions every so often. It is what it is.

 

[ZooCougar]

Heard something interesting today in regards to ManU. They've basically thrown in the towel in the EPL the past few games in order to focus mainly on their Europa matches.

With the final in 7 days, they could earn a Champions League spot by winning vs Ajax.

So it begs the question, would you be good with your club basically tanking their regular season games in order to prep for a win to earn a Champions League bid? The clip I saw was on the NBCSN app so you can catch their takes but I was interesting.

For me, I'd be all for it. Champions League is the goal for clubs like ManU. If you can't get there by not getting to the Top 4, why not focus on getting there the only other possible way. The talking heads were arguing that it's not fair to the traveling fans, etc. to me, I wouldn't mind the move if it pays off.

I'm fine with it. As Jose said, they really didn't have much choice based on the players they had available. Plus it's a trophy.

 

[whaler11]

West Brom closed 1-2-9. It was sheer agony and today was the icing on the cake. Blow a 1-0 lead on the road in last 18 to lose 2-1. Torture.

 

[Waquoit]

West Brom closed 1-2-9. It was sheer agony and today was the icing on the cake. Blow a 1-0 lead on the road in last 18 to lose 2-1. Torture.

The way they finished, they might not be the best Albion in the PL next year.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Liverpool did what they had to do. All the lost points from Jan and February and down the stretch was the difference of fighting Spurs for 2nd and coming in fourth. That being said, if this group stays together, they pick up a Center back, left back, speedy winger and another midfielder, their style of play is conducive to European football. No teams sit back and play 6-8 at the back.

 

[Waquoit]

Let's go Huddlesfield Town!

 

[businesslawyer]

Let's go Huddlesfield Town!

Mixed feelings. Love the Huddlesfield Town and Wagner story lines, but would love to see how DAnny Williams does in the Barclays as well.

 

[Waquoit]

Mixed feelings. Love the Huddlesfield Town and Wagner story lines, but would love to see how DAnny Williams does in the Barclays as well.

Captain Picard is a Huddlesfield fan.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Mixed feelings. Love the Huddlesfield Town and Wagner story lines, but would love to see how DAnny Williams does in the Barclays as well.

Unfortunate for Williams, but Huddersfield to the Prem for the first time since 1972 surely trumps the Huddlesfield Town story line.

 

[SAMCRO]

Didn't have a dog in the fight (wanted Fulham from the teams in the playoff), but was pulling for Reading - it's my brothers 'club'. Williams did win 'man of the match' in terms of highest player ratings (on FotMob at least),