The 4th Place Race - Contender Watch

[Big Dave]

Just had a look at the predictor thingy on the BBC. The Spurs v City game is going to be vital. I actually had us, city, spurs and villa all finishing on 68 points with city and spurs drawing their game.

Unfortunately, I had the scum winning the title on equal points with Arsenal and Chelsea 1 point behind. Could be very close.

[Chazza]

Not sure if this is good or bad news but Lescott's been ruled out for about 5 weeks, done his hamstring

[red g]

Just had a look at the predictor thingy on the BBC. The Spurs v City game is going to be vital. I actually had us, city, spurs and villa all finishing on 68 points with city and spurs drawing their game.

Unfortunately, I had the scum winning the title on equal points with Arsenal and Chelsea 1 point behind. Could be very close.

What has made you think we will get 17pts out of the next 21?

[Baracus]

What has made you think we will get 17pts out of the next 21?

possibilities no? (Don't you just hate it when any poster, posts that phase)

[Craig_H]

What has made you think we will get 17pts out of the next 21?

Sunderland home
Brum away
Fulham home
West Ham home
Burnley away
Chelsea home
Hull away

Why wouldnt we? We've been winning consistently at home and our form is slightly more positive now - our away games are against a wilting Brum, a woeful Burnley and a ****e Hull. With Nando back and scoring, why couldnt we win all 7 games? I think we can.

[Big Dave]

Sunderland home
Brum away
Fulham home
West Ham home
Burnley away
Chelsea home
Hull away

Why wouldnt we? We've been winning consistently at home and our form is slightly more positive now - our away games are against a wilting Brum, a woeful Burnley and a ****e Hull. With Nando back and scoring, why couldnt we win all 7 games? I think we can.

I think we've got lots of winnable games left. Apart from Birmingham and Chelsea we've got loads of dross left to play and see no reason that we can't pick up the 3 points each time. Especially now that we've got a pretty much fully fit squad to choose from

[red g]

Sunderland home
Brum away
Fulham home
West Ham home
Burnley away
Chelsea home
Hull away

Why wouldnt we? We've been winning consistently at home and our form is slightly more positive now - our away games are against a wilting Brum, a woeful Burnley and a ****e Hull. With Nando back and scoring, why couldnt we win all 7 games? I think we can.

I think we've got lots of winnable games left. Apart from Birmingham and Chelsea we've got loads of dross left to play and see no reason that we can't pick up the 3 points each time. Especially now that we've got a pretty much fully fit squad to choose from

we havent managed to win half our games this season, 15 in 31, we have been beaten by dross plenty of times this season which were winnable games. I would be astonished if we won 7 out of 8*



*Unless Rafa forgets everything he knows and actually sends out teams to win the games, instead of setting out to defend and nick a goal.

[Craig_H]

In reply to that - our home record is very solid.

Away we've been ****e - but a lot of that was when we were at our lowest ebb - since then, we've had two very good home wins and restored confidence. And we've got Nando back - which we didnt have for most of our away games this season.

Furthermore, whilst we've lost to dross, that was the worst of the worst and not wholly reflective. Burnley and Hull are dross, and we're in better shape now.

[SimonNo7]

Not sure if this is good or bad news but Lescott's been ruled out for about 5 weeks, done his hamstring

Don't think it will make too much difference, he's hardly been an outstanding player for them.

Now if it was Tevez...

[Craig_H]

81% of City fans on this forum dont think they'll get 4th place:

http://www.mancityforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8124

4th should be ours looking at the table, but I''m saying 5th if we don't get any key players injured. If Tevez misses a couple more games it could be 6th.City are not playing well enough and not showing the ambition to get 4th. Liverpool seem to want it more than us. Mancini doesn't enthuse me. We are currently not setting ourselves up to score enough goals to finish ahead of Liverpool especially now Torress looks fit.

I think you can only justifiably say 4th if you are an eternal optimist, who has no regard for, or understanding of our form and tactics, and you pay no attention to the form of the teams around us. And you're concussed. And on Crack.

heart says 5th

head says 6/7

Another question is many how more points will we get this season? I ask because points is a direct measure of our own performance but position, although ultimately more important, is also dependent on other teams' performances which we cannot influence to a huge extent (6 pointers aside).

Personally speaking, a point a game seems ambitious at this stage.

[Craig_H]

Updated Run-In with fixture changes, and cup fixtures included to highlight potential fixture congestion:


SPURS

March 27th
Portsmouth (h)

April 3rd
Sunderland (a)

April 11th
Portsmouth (neutral venue) FA Cup

April 14th
Arsenal (h)

April 17th
Chelsea (h)

April 21st
Man Utd (a)

May 1st
Bolton (h)

May 5th
Man City (a)

May 9th
Burnley (a)





MAN CITY

29th March
Wigan (h)

3rd April
Burnley (a)

11th April
Birmingham (h)

17th April
Man Utd (h)

24th April
Arsenal (a)

1st May
Aston Villa (h)

5th May
Spurs (h)

9th May
West Ham (a)




ASTON VILLA

27th March
Chelsea (a)

3rd April
Bolton (a)

10th April
Chelsea (neutral venue) FA Cup

14th April
Everton (h)

18th April
Portsmouth (a)

21st April
Hull City (a)

25th April
Birmingham (h)

1st May
Man City (a)

9th May
Blackburn (h)




LIVERPOOL

28th March
Sunderland (h)

1st April
Benfica (a) Europa League

4th April
Birmingham (a)

8th April
Benfica (h) Europa League

11th April
Fulham (h)

19th April
West Ham (h)

24th April
Burnley (a)

1st May
Chelsea (h)

9th May
Hull City (a)

[Big Dave]

All good results for us last night, and I can see the same happening for all our rivals to the end of the season. The only question is whether we can go on a good run now, if we can, then we should just about make it

[Vermilion]

All good results for us last night, and I can see the same happening for all our rivals to the end of the season. The only question is whether we can go on a good run now, if we can, then we should just about make it

It'll be ding dong to the end of the season by the looks of it, the ones in front have the harder games but have good form, but, we are more than capable of putting a run together ourselves, if the players can shake themselves out of this inconsistency.

But it's by no means guarenteed we will, results like last nights should be enough to really give our players hope...and to believe that if they play well....it's still very much a possibilty.

[Kenneth]

So assuming we don't get 4th, who would people rather did get it? Spurs, City or Villa ?

[Kenneth]

City for me. At least we can excuse it as they have spent silly money. They've 'bought 4th place'