So come then who actually thinks

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 32 minutes ago
I've spent so many years sitting on said fence that I wouldn't be without the splinters now. The fence has become an extension of my being.
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This is very true mate, your deriere must look like a porcupine 😂

arrothefoxinoz

The performance yesterday was typical after European games and it will end their title bid. One team down, or two if you include City, it's between us and Arsenal.



Spurs win on Sunday, and Leicester only draw, then Spurs will go top, so the title will be as good as over for Leicester, a 7 or 8 point gap already whittled down to 2 points in a couple of weeks.

comment by sandy, senior citizen, but young at heart (U20567)
posted 6 hours, 50 minutes ago
arrothefoxinoz

The performance yesterday was typical after European games and it will end their title bid. One team down, or two if you include City, it's between us and Arsenal.



Spurs win on Sunday, and Leicester only draw, then Spurs will go top, so the title will be as good as over for Leicester, a 7 or 8 point gap already whittled down to 2 points in a couple of weeks.

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Or Spurs only draw and we win, which is a lot more likely and then you play West Ham and Arsenal while we play WBA and Watford. We'll be uncatchable by them and your season will be over 👍

^ your title bid will be over. You will not win the league, just accept that you have too many games and too many tough games for it to be possible.

If it was the other way round and we had all your fixtures I would say we have no chance either because I'd be realistic. You're not, you're dreaming!!

Thanks Arro - I know what results we got in the first half of the season (we support the same team). However what I meant was no one expected us to do so well in the first half of the season against those teams. Just because we did do well doesn't mean we will automatically beat them in the second half.
I am not trying to argue with you - as I said, we support the same team - just putting my view across. I hope we do replicate the results and we win by a huge margin. In fact if we win it I will probably cry!

comment by L'stone Fox (U11017)
posted 2 minutes ago
Thanks Arro - I know what results we got in the first half of the season (we support the same team). However what I meant was no one expected us to do so well in the first half of the season against those teams. Just because we did do well doesn't mean we will automatically beat them in the second half.
I am not trying to argue with you - as I said, we support the same team - just putting my view across. I hope we do replicate the results and we win by a huge margin. In fact if we win it I will probably cry!
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Yeah mate thats all good, your opinion is just as valid as mine or anyone else's and your concerns are equally understanable. I'm not trying to argue with you either mate, just sharing my thoughts 👍

The more I think about these games the less I worry about them because I sincerely think we're playing all these games at the right time. If we were playing Norwich or Newcastle in the last few games then maybe I'd expect them to make it a lot more difficult but in Feb and March we won't see the kind of performance needed from them.

Still don't think WBA, Watford and Palace will be desperate points because they're not playing for anything.

Southampton and West Ham at home we have to fancy getting at least a point, neither will beat us.

Sunderland won't park the bus because it's a home game and they will be desperate for points and a draw at home won't really help them, they need to win their home games, as we did last season. We had a go at Chelsea and Sunderland will try to beat us and we'll pick them off.

Swansea I do think will pull themselves clear but even so they won't park the bus because it's not their style.

United could be fighting for European places but are we really worried about going to OT this season? We don't fear anyone. Everton won't match our energy because they're not playing for anything. Chelsea also playing for nothing.

If these games were in a different order I would say they would be more difficult but I just don't see the desperation for points from any of them and without that our energy levels aren't met and we will win.

Why are people concerned about teams sitting back and allowing us the ball when we're so dangeous "unstoppable" in Alan Smiths words, when we're allowed to have it? We don't struggle to break teams down and we have shown that on numerous occasions this season when coming back from 2-0 down.

Something else that fills me with confidence is our superior fitness. We all saw it come April/May last season, we ran rings around Southampton, Swansea and Newcastle because they couldnt keep up with our intensity and I don't see it being any different this season.

We are extremely fit and our energy levels and workrate simply MUST be matched otherwise they won't stop us and I can't see any of these teams doing that because they just aren't desperate enough for points.

Does anyone realistically see us winning less than six games because that's all we need as long as we draw the rest because that will give us 77 points and I'm certain that will be enough.

Spurs took 18 points from their earlier fixtures and will end up playing 11 games in 30 days (should they advance against Fiorentina (which they should) and still have to face West Ham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Stoke, United and Chelsea. They won't get anywhere near 76 points.

Arsenal showed their frailties against Hull and now have another game to play. They have United and Spurs away in the next three games so a couple of draws and wins for us, and a sizeable gap could develop.

City have the capability but I'm not sure they're all really that bothered and will probably go all out for the CL.

arro, please carry on being confident for the rest of us.

For me, we have two challenges remaining - regardless of what anyone else is doing. The first, for the next 7 games, is how we cope with teams who may set up defensively against us, and indeed some who will start fighting tooth and nail for any point they can get. This is a challenge that I'm quite hopeful about; we've faced challenges through this season and met each one of them well. I'm confident that Ranieri and the team can find ways to deal with this threat, although we won't win every game.

The second challenge is the final 5 games. Happily, these are against teams who may not have much to play for when we get to them, although they are all potential top 10 teams. But more than that, we will face the biggest threat: Ourselves. Our belief. Yes, we won the Championship; yes, we fought well and stayed up last season. Those were both great achievements and hopeful pointers to the mentality of our players, but history shows that situations like this - with an underdog story coming to a conclusion - could go either way. It could be glory, it could be heartbreak. And it's not necessarily in our hands; there could be refereeing decisions, injuries, suspensions, last minute own goals, anything still to happen.

I suppose I tend to believe in chaos theory and unpredictability!

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 3 minutes ago
arro, please carry on being confident for the rest of us.

For me, we have two challenges remaining - regardless of what anyone else is doing. The first, for the next 7 games, is how we cope with teams who may set up defensively against us, and indeed some who will start fighting tooth and nail for any point they can get. This is a challenge that I'm quite hopeful about; we've faced challenges through this season and met each one of them well. I'm confident that Ranieri and the team can find ways to deal with this threat, although we won't win every game.

The second challenge is the final 5 games. Happily, these are against teams who may not have much to play for when we get to them, although they are all potential top 10 teams. But more than that, we will face the biggest threat: Ourselves. Our belief. Yes, we won the Championship; yes, we fought well and stayed up last season. Those were both great achievements and hopeful pointers to the mentality of our players, but history shows that situations like this - with an underdog story coming to a conclusion - could go either way. It could be glory, it could be heartbreak. And it's not necessarily in our hands; there could be refereeing decisions, injuries, suspensions, last minute own goals, anything still to happen.

I suppose I tend to believe in chaos theory and unpredictability!
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Yeah good points mate. I'm actually looking forward to teams sitting back because it means we get to play our football and when we do we are unstoppable. I keep mentioning coming back from 2-0 down and for me that highlighta just how dangerous we are when we are given the ball.

We're labelled a counter attacking team because we set up that way to face certain opposition, and of course we are very dangerous on the counter, but our movement and pace up front is hard to contain because defenders can never switch off.

It's all about the movement of the striker and with pace you can make space, trust me 😉 and you know yourself how hard it is to mark someone who is always on the move and Vardy and Okazaki's movement is too drawer. Then we have players like Drinky, Mahrez, Albrighton and Kante who can play the ball through and carve out chances. I'm looking forward to seeing us play some football.

I think if we win four of the next six we will only need to win two from the remaining six and avoid defeat when the pressure could be applied and we will get over the line. I really think 76 will be enough this season and that's well achievable.