It could be a very pivotal weekend.

If we win the Saturday lunchtime game v West Brom, suddenly the gap is down to 4pts.

City and Arsenal could well be 4pts and 5pts behind too by 5pm.

Chelsea then face a cold, possibly snowy evening game in Leicester with a bit of pressure and the last league defeat fresh in the memory.

A United win would drag them in to it, but a Liverpool win would pht them within a win of Chelsea with the Anfield game imminent.

It could really open up.

Alternatively there could be a few dodgy results, and Chelsea could be almost home and hosed from 3/4 of us with a win.

How is it not Chelsea's to lose? They're top by five points and have only lost once in 14 games.

It would put them level actually

comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 43 seconds ago
How is it not Chelsea's to lose? They're top by five points and have only lost once in 14 games.
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The losing once in 14 games is a red herring and irrelevant.

the only fact that counts is that we have a 5 point lead with 18 games to go.

Bearing in mind that in the space of just 13 games we managed to gain 18 points on the league leader at the time just shows how small a 5 point lead is at this stage of the season.

comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 34 seconds ago
How is it not Chelsea's to lose? They're top by five points and have only lost once in 14 games.
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So you think its impossible for Chelsea to drop points to Liverpool and Arsenal?

comment by SWTN Biggish (U7916)
posted 2 minutes ago
It would put them level actually
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They would have us on Goal difference.

No I don't, but you're the team in the commanding position as it is and this league is yours to lose based on this, not saying you can't.

The league was ours to lose in 2012 and that's just what we did. I don't get why Chelsea fans take such offense to this. It's only saying you're the strong favourites.

Think it's Utds to lose tbh

Latest Comments View all 33 comments
comment by Charlag (U1717)

posted 16 minutes ago

Saying it's Chelsea's to lose is absolute nonsense. It's a 5 point lead.

Say Chelsea W-L-D and in the same period Liverpool W-W-W (not unlikely by any stretch). That would put Liverpool a point behind.
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Actually that would put Liverpool level on points with Chelsea and most likely ahead of them on goal difference.

comment by SWTN Biggish (U7916)
posted 10 minutes ago
comment by The Noble Lord Flash (U8334)
posted 53 seconds ago
Biggish, i have been thinking. If we get 3 points this weekend and Pool/Utd draw? That offsets the loss of points against Spurs.

I always hope for the title, but I'm still expecting Top 4 (especially if Alonso stays at left wing back)
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That would be a good outcome for us if we could go to Anfield with a 7 point lead, but Leicester will be a tough game for us.
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Agreed Biggish. I don’t think we can afford to be complacent going in to this weekend.

I also think this is a weirdly competitive top 4 race. It feels like (and I said this before Klopp made his jibe) you could win 5 or 6 in a row and not break clear of 5th place. But then drop points in 2 successive games and be out of the top 4.

I know that’s not mathematically the case for Chelsea (yet) at this moment before someone says……….

Saying it's Chelsea's to lose is absolute nonsense. It's a 5 point lead.
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Yes...It's a five point lead that is Chelsea's to lose!

Chelsea also have the momentum at the moment, which is theirs to lose.

Chelsea's players all have title run-in experience as well as recent experience of winning the league which rightly makes them the clear favourites at the moment.

If I was to put money on which team would choke at some point, I'd place my bet on Liverpool before Chelsea.

Obviously that can change but it's where we are now.

Liverpool, much fancied and pretty consistent, could well go in to their game at United in 5th place, knowing a defeat leaves them just 2pts ahead of United in 6th.

Or they could go in to it knowing a win would take them within 2pts of Chelsea

The hard evidence points to the fact that bar the home demolition of United, so far we have not looked superior in any of our games against our top 5 rivals.
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That was actually a strange game where pretty much everything went in for Chelsea and we kept missing sitter after sitter that made it look like a thrashing but in reality it wasn't. I think chances wise that is probably the most dominated Chelsea have been but they won 4-0 and everything is great.

It'll be between Chelsea and Man C come May due to the ability to spend more on players throughout their squads. With ACON, injuries and squads being stretched by injuries and fatigue the others will drop away. Arsenal already have following the injuries to Cazorla, Ramsey, Coq and now Elneny off to ACON.

"This year will be our year" is an improvement from the usual "next year" from Liverpool and Spurs fans, but I don't think they realistically have any more chance than us.

If I were to describe any team as being the 'dark horse' in the top six, then for the first time in a long while, I would put United in that slot. Maureen, love him or hate him, has got them going. Sundays game is huge.

Spurs? Fantastic squad, first-class manager, looking good. Writing off Arsenal? At your peril. City? Too tempremental, their new manager still apparently finding his feet. Chelsea? I agree that they appear to be a one man band, but that's doing them an injustice. They are far more of a team than people are giving them credit for.

LFC? Well, we can do it. Jurgen has got them this far, and he is one of the very few that can take them all the way.

Six teams, all going for it. It just doesn't get much better does it.

JimmyTheRed

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

we kept missing sitter after sitter
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Yeah...of course we did...

I don't have time to read all the replies, but here is my two penneth.

IMO the title is going to be between Chelsea and Liverpool. The other four teams are all in Europe, so those two will only have to deal with one game a week for most of it.

Us, Spurs, City and Arsenal will be fighting for the other two places in the top four.

Chelsea's biggest advantage is no European football. Coupled with the 5 point lead, it is clearly Chelsea's title to lose. A lot of the squad has already been there and done it, so the mentality shouldn't come in to question.

Liverpool also have the advantage of no European football, but their two key game winners are injured/AFCON and they need to make up a 5 point gap. If they were to recover the 5 points, I still don't think they have the mentality to win a title race. Not enough experience on that front.

Arsenals best chance is to stay within touching distance until the final months - the Bayern Munich games will have a huge say on our season. As will Cazorla and Coquelins injuries.

Arsenals best chance is to stay within touching distance until the final months
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Then sack Wenger and replace him with a manager that wouldn't fack it up.

comment by Zlatan The King Ibrahimovic (U10026)
posted 29 minutes ago
No I don't, but you're the team in the commanding position as it is and this league is yours to lose based on this, not saying you can't.

The league was ours to lose in 2012 and that's just what we did. I don't get why Chelsea fans take such offense to this. It's only saying you're the strong favourites.
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We don't take offense, we just disagree that a 5 point lead with 18 games to go is huge, it is not, simple maths proves that.

Well we missed 14 chances while Chelsea missed 6.

oh ffs don't let this thread get taken over by haf and his bollox stats

Chances are it'll be more than five after this weekend, though it's not for certain.

And it's not saying five is huge just that it's all looking better for Chelsea than any other with this lead and the other things to consider which are just important such as; a squad and coach that has experience of getting to the top of the table, staying there all season, and winning the league. No Europe to contend with which is a huge advantage for a manager like Conte with his attention to detail in match preparation, his own amazing domestic record shows all this. The chasing pack are also a United side miles behind, a City team with a poor defence and a coach that doesn't appear to have quite got to grips with his squad and the prem, Arsenal under Wenger and Liverpool and Spurs who don't even cups let alone league titles.

All this is why most make you strong favourites and think it's yours to lose.

Waiting for the stock response "yeah but Leicester".

Having no European football hasn't exactly hindered Chelsea or Liverpool this season.