The Top of the League Thread

[Guest]

It's not though fredo, because there's only 3 other top teams and only 18 points available from beating them.

You're over analyzing things but hey, it's your nature. What counts though? Being top of the league or winning all our home games?

We could easily be winning the league by being a little more than average on our home patch. Who says we can't? Is it some sort of 'law' ?

I'm off to enjoy the week now.

[Nicey]

Craig .. mate .. I did not mean for my post to be so pointed .. I am just saying this thread for a long time was a little ray of sunshine in sea pessimism .. I hear and I share you concerns.. but I put to you.. this is no ordinary Premiership Season ..It is very difficult to pick easy 3 points this campaign and as less than ideal as it is .. we will drop crucial points home away to much lesser sides ... but so will the other teams so we just have to keep the pace in general and try end up on top of the mini lg ... I am going to get stuck into an analysis of the season later ..

But no offence mate I enjoy your posts and you do talk a lot of sense

[SB]

Match Stats
Chelsea West Ham United
Shots (on Goal) 31(8) 6(2)
Fouls 14 22
Corner Kicks 9 4
Offsides 2 3
Time of Possession 59% 41%
Yellow Cards 3 2
Red Cards 0 0
Saves 1 7


How the hell did that end up a draw? LOL

[DannyMan2006]

Well as we are the only team of the top 4 who have been ****e for so long I imagine that we will be the only set of fans who will have such a lame attitude.

Fans of the other teams will see it as such: "We are playing well below form and yet are still right in the hunt. When we hit top form we will surely leave the others trailing in the dust".

LFC fans see at this: " We are lucky to be top. We've been lucky with our results and as soon as the opposition hit top gear we'll be left trailing in the dust, no doubt we'll be out the title race by March at the latest".

Of all the four teams the only teams I have seen at top form are Chelsea at the start and Man Utd for a brief period. We have been very patchy, with perhaps no more than five performances i would call as worthy of league champions.

We all know that our team is capable of top performances. We also kow our tem is capable of going on long winning runs - whether they can do this under pressure is one we can not answer.

One thing is for sure, the league is startig to take shape. Blackburn and West Brom are starting to be cut adrift. The top four are the only ones in with a shout of the title. Villa look the only side capable of gate crashing the top 4.

I've said before, us and Arseal are the only teams who can seriously improve in the transfer window. If we can make it to their whilst still top, that and a returning Torres could be the difference.

Another point is this: We have played all the best teams away already (bar the mancs after Arsenal). We will head into the new year all set to play the good sides at home, they will come and attack and we capitalise. Likewise all the teams that sit back will come out and attack us away from home, again assisting us.

We can be positive. The other teams can to. We've all bottled it so far, one will make a charge. Hopefully that can be us.

[Darkon]

Alternatively, they could return with quite a gap to overcome - I know I'd rather be ahead of them at Christmas than behind them

I think the whole positive/negative arguments about how things are going at the moment are somewhat unnecessary - everyone would much rather we'd won most of the games we've recently drawn and had a much bigger lead than we do, its a shame we haven't and a concern if our home form doesn't improve, and sharpish, but by the same token most people are still hopeful because for the first time in years and years the possibility of winning the league is still completely in our hands. We could be 6 points down on Chelsea after this recent run, maybe even more, but we're not, and that's good enough reason to remain positive.

Under Benitez we've almost always been better in the second half of the season. And we have the best striker on the planet to return, a player who, fit and firing, will ensure we don't have too many silly home draws to come with weaker teams. The future can still be bright, and faith is not a bad thing to have.... nor does having it preclude an awareness that we could be in an even stronger position.

Bring on Arsenal and Christmas at the top

Much in line with what I am thinking, what is the point of asking if we would like to be 9 points clear rather than 1?? Of course we would, but I would rather be 20 points clear! Every team drops points to lesser teams or otherwise football would just be plain boring. But even if we have dropped points against teams we would normally beat, we have also beaten chelsea away, overcome utd for the first time in 5 seasons or so - a lot of points we woulden't normally expect.

It is a fruitless question to ask and to focus on, we should just enjoy that we by mid-december are top of the league and still holding chelsea, man utd and arsenal at bay. We are in a much better position than we have been for the last 10 seasons or so!

When I look at the PL-table I see us in a winning position for the title - what better thing to see???

[Scratch]

You still dont get my point?

Our current ratio at home equates to winning 10.64 home league games by the end of the season. Let's call it 11. And it equates to drawing 8.36. Let's call it 8.

Do you think 41 home points is likely to result in a title win?

Surely then if you use the same logic on the away games...how many points would we have then?? Would it be enough to win the league?

[red g]

You still dont get my point?

Our current ratio at home equates to winning 10.64 home league games by the end of the season. Let's call it 11. And it equates to drawing 8.36. Let's call it 8.

Do you think 41 home points is likely to result in a title win?

Yes as you would put it ....

Our current ratio away equates to winning 14.25 away league games by the end of the season. Let's call it 14. And it equates to drawing 2.4. Let's call it 2.

Do you think 44 away points is likely to result in a title win?



So as much as you bemoan our home form as long as we carry on doing it away, we will be fine. Craig if the home and away tables were the opposite way round nobody would be complaining would they?

home or away 3pts are still the same.......and 2 out of the 3 contenders this year cant win at home, but then Scum cant do it away.

[Kenneth]

The number of points won so far, and where they were won, is not a good indication of how points will come in the remaining games.

[lfc1394]

Alternatively, they could return with quite a gap to overcome - I know I'd rather be ahead of them at Christmas than behind them

I think the whole positive/negative arguments about how things are going at the moment are somewhat unnecessary - everyone would much rather we'd won most of the games we've recently drawn and had a much bigger lead than we do, its a shame we haven't and a concern if our home form doesn't improve, and sharpish, but by the same token most people are still hopeful because for the first time in years and years the possibility of winning the league is still completely in our hands. We could be 6 points down on Chelsea after this recent run, maybe even more, but we're not, and that's good enough reason to remain positive.

Under Benitez we've almost always been better in the second half of the season. And we have the best striker on the planet to return, a player who, fit and firing, will ensure we don't have too many silly home draws to come with weaker teams. The future can still be bright, and faith is not a bad thing to have.... nor does having it preclude an awareness that we could be in an even stronger position.

Bring on Arsenal and Christmas at the top

Completely agree.
I don’t really want to criticise the team as we are top and no team has set the table alight this season. It’s infuriating because IMO we aren’t really going hell for leather to beat teams, take Hull as an example we had the whole of the second half to get a goal but we didn’t think that having 2 strikers may help us achieve this.

If we brought on a striker got hit on the break and lost the game it would have been bad, but if we turn 2 draws in to victories and 2 defeats we are 2 points better off than 4 draws. I dunno, as you say bring on the gooners.

[Mattshark]

Completely agree.
I don’t really want to criticise the team as we are top and no team has set the table alight this season. It’s infuriating because IMO we aren’t really going hell for leather to beat teams, take Hull as an example we had the whole of the second half to get a goal but we didn’t think that having 2 strikers may help us achieve this.

If we brought on a striker got hit on the break and lost the game it would have been bad, but if we turn 2 draws in to victories and 2 defeats we are 2 points better off than 4 draws. I dunno, as you say bring on the gooners.

I disagree we played 2 strikers v Fulham and it was 0-0. It is a real over simplification.

[leftpeg]

Ahem! I woke up this morning and we're still top of the league.

[JohnDoe]

I look at the table at least 5 times a day.

[Liverpool]

No team seems to want to win the league at the moment.

Hard run of games coming up but hopefully with 2-3 players coming back we can stay right in the hunt.

[Nicey]

Ahem! I woke up this morning and we're still top of the league.

I know its great ... this thread has been going and relevant practically the entire season

[BigChief]

Top of the league until at least 22nd December. That feels good. Let's hope Everton can do us ANOTHER favour this season and we'll be top for xmas. :-)