Who cares how we win as long as we win?

[Marky]

Zero chance?

Get a grip.

It'll be difficult for us to win I'll grant you, but zero percent? ****in hell lad, lighten up.

Charlie man, wake up and smell the coffee buddy.
We're ten adrift of Man U(7 if we win our game in hand)..we still have to play them at Old Trafford - where we have had a **** record at in the last 3 or 4 seasons, we have to go Arsenal - again **** record away to them and Stamford Bridge - shocking record there, even worse than the other two grounds. I have to hold my hands up and say i thought we had a good chance of winning the league and up until a few weeks ago i still thought the same but i think it's now apparent we're not good enough to win it this season. United and Arsenal are setting the standard once more and come what Feb/March i could see them pulling away from ourselves and Chelsea, that hurts me to say that, it really does but i do think there's a strong possibility that will happen.

Imo league wise we should concentrate on beating Chelsea for third place, try to improve our points tally of last season along the way. Then make a big effort in the FA Cup and Europe, see if we can win either or even both(). All is not lost this season, far from it but in terms of the league i think we've missed our chance, dropping silly points at home has cost us.

With one or two more world class attacking players to play alongside the likes of Gerrard, Babel, Torres and Benayoun we really will challenge for the title next season.

[Red_Al_77]

Result looks good after both Chelsea and Arsenal drew. In light of that it was an excellent day at the office. Win our game in hand and we are 6pts out of the lead (behind Manure), 5pts behind 2nd and we'd be third. Not bad for a team that played crap.

[lfcruleus]

By no means all over but the mancs look a little frightening at the mo and i fear they may run away with it, they have no real injury worries and seem to squeeze results out of the big four, other teams just bottle it against them Everton last week for example and of course us at Home, teams need to find a way of stopping them or it could be a one horse race im afraid.

[Red_Al_77]

If we really have title aspirations then we'll need to win our next 6 PL games and then go to Stamford Bridge full of confidence and belief. Our title chances will be decided in my opinion come the 5th April.

[Red_Al_77]

You've forgotten Spurs at home.

and Blackburn



Reading A
Spurs H
Birmingham H
Blackburn A

Those 4 games are the reasons why we aren't vying for top spot at the moment.

[G]

And lets not forget the African nations cup will play a big part in the title race IMO.Both Chelsea and the Arse could fall away from the top during it and we have to make sure we picking up 3 points every week,be it playing **** or not.It could well be us and the Scum pulling away over the next couple of months.

[Guest]

and Blackburn



Reading A
Spurs H
Birmingham H
Blackburn A

Those 4 games are the reasons why we aren't vying for top spot at the moment.

That's 9 points lost. Even accounting for our loss against Manure, draws against Chelski and Arsenal, we've done ok, bar these results. We should have won all of them, especially the Spurs, Brum and Blackburn games where we dominated them games for large parts. Finishing has been our undoing.

[Nicey]

Most important Victory for me in a long time ... made the 3 points so much more valuable, instead of just turning up and taking the 3 points we had to find a way .. Best result for me in a long long time ... its results like these that make players start believe they can do it

[AFII]

Just shows how important Torres is. We have one good enough striker and if he has an off day then we are in big problems.

We need another Torres class striker.

[captainfog]

Just shows how important Torres is. We have one good enough striker and if he has an off day then we are in big problems.

We need another Torres class striker.

Yeah I know, its quite scarey. He is our must play player, much more important than even Gerrard. He has to stay fit until there is cover for him. We would be ****ed without him.

[AFII]

I really don't care if that striker costs £20m+ because we need him or else we don't have a chance to win the title.

It's about ambition. If G&H have any ambition to win the league then they must allow Rafa to splash the cash on another high quality striker.

[BigChief]

Most important Victory for me in a long time ... made the 3 points so much more valuable, instead of just turning up and taking the 3 points we had to find a way .. Best result for me in a long long time ... its results like these that make players start believe they can do it

[Red_Polo]

if past seasons are anything to go by then we will get between 72 and 78 points this year.

the reason i say that is that in every year that rafa has been in charge, his points tally from the second 19 games in the season has all but exactly matched the points tally from the first half of the season.

we're on 36 points now after 18 games. we still have anything from 0 to 3 points to win in the remaining game of the first half of the season. which will mean that after 19 games we'll be on either 36 or 39 points.

double that and it tells you the league isn't going to happen again. just my view based on analysing the comparison between 1st and 2nd half of the season under rafa.

i know people always say we finish better in the second half of the season than the first, but an analysis of the facts state that each half of the season is pretty much identical (often even exactly identical) to the other.

Those facts need a bit of context though. In each of those seasons we've played weakened teams towards the end of the season because we weren't in the hunt for the title, wanted to concentrate on winning a trophy, and give a few kids a run out. Take those out of the equation and work out a points average, it puts a totally different complexion on things. Another encouraging stat (haven't checked it myself yet) - apparently in the second half of the 2005/06 season we picked up a massive 51 points.

[AFII]

Those facts need a bit of context though. In each of those seasons we've played weakened teams towards the end of the season because we weren't in the hunt for the title, wanted to concentrate on winning a trophy, and give a few kids a run out. Take those out of the equation and work out a points average, it puts a totally different complexion on things. Another encouraging stat (haven't checked it myself yet) - apparently in the second half of the 2005/06 season we picked up a massive 51 points.

We didn't had the CL to worry about the last months of the 2005/06 season after Benfica knocked us out in the last 16.

[alunevans]

Those facts need a bit of context though. In each of those seasons we've played weakened teams towards the end of the season because we weren't in the hunt for the title, wanted to concentrate on winning a trophy, and give a few kids a run out. Take those out of the equation and work out a points average, it puts a totally different complexion on things. Another encouraging stat (haven't checked it myself yet) - apparently in the second half of the 2005/06 season we picked up a massive 51 points.

I don't think the 51pts from the last 19 games is correct but check it out.

I take your point but I don't think he rested people for that many games or that he put our reserves out.

It'll have an impact but not as big as you're painting, plus how many of those games did we win anyhow.