Title Race - Who Will Win?

Chelsea 30 66
Liverpool 29 62
Arsenal 29 62
Man City 27    60



Liverpool

Cardiff A
Sunderland H
Tottenham H
West Ham A
Man City H
Norwich A  
Chelsea H    
Crystal Palace A
Newcastle H

Arsenal

Chelsea A
Swansea H
Man City H
Everton A
West Ham H
Hull A
Newcastle H
West Brom H
Norwich A

Chelsea

Arsenal H
Palace A
Stoke H
Swansea A
Sunderland H
Liverpool A
Norwich H
Cardiff A

City

Fulham H
United A
Arsenal A
Southampton H
Liverpool A
Sunderland H
West Brom H
Palace A
Everton A
Villa H
West Ham H

I don't know who will win, but Liverpool has IMO the easiest schedule.

Arsenal have to be 4th favourites if only due to their poor GD. If they manage to take two draws off City and Chelsea, and beat Everton, then there is no reason why they cant win it.

I also think Arsenal could well sneak it but it depends how much the FA Cup distracts them. Arsenal need 4 points from those games you mention IMO.

Chelsea have the CL to distract them and I still think their striker issues may deny them. With Mourinho though they are probably favourites, they will win all this home games so it will be those away ones (particularly Arsenal and Liverpool) that will decide it.

Liverpool have no pressure, they weren't expected to be in this race. We have better away games than home but have the chance to take points off those around us at home. Think we may just fall short but we have a good chance if everyone stays fit.

City have the hardest fixtures left, some horrible away games, no Aguero and have the games in hand poisoned chalice. They will fall short for me.

Right now I'm going to go:

Chelsea
Liverpool
City
Arsenal

Difference is that I can see also Chelsea struggling against teams like Stoke or Crystal Palace, when Liverpool IMO wont have too much difficulty to grab 3 points at Selhurst Park. If Liverpool will keep battering top teams at home they have a good chance to nick it, I would think a better one than Arsenal.

We needed both Ozil and Ramsey staying fit for us to win the league after Theo's injury. Ramsey is another 2 weeks out + he'll need few games to get match fit, and Ozil is 4-6 weeks out.

Injuries have fucked us up, AGAIN!!

But we are favourite to win the FA cup (doesn't mean we'll win it though).

FA cup win + 3rd in the league would be a good season IMO.

City will win the league

starting to think it's gonna be Liverpool. something I would not have considered a few weeks ago. but they have clear momentum and a dream fixture list.

debaser wrote:starting to think it's gonna be Liverpool. something I would not have considered a few weeks ago. but they have clear momentum and a dream fixture list.

After they smashed Arsenal i put £10 on them to win it @ 9/1 they are now 3/1.

It will probably be City

Liverpool's defence is a bit dodgy

Chelsea don't have any good strikers, see yesterday for proof

Ba would get 20+ if they made him first choice and stuck with him.

If Liverpool win it, it'll be fully deserved.

However, Man City out of Europe now will be interesting.

Chelsea and Arsenal - neither done enough this season IMO to warrant becoming champions.

Murray wrote:It will probably be City

Liverpool's defence is a bit dodgy

Chelsea don't have any good strikers, see yesterday for proof

I'm hoping our defensive woes are at an end - back to back clean sheets at Southampton and United away. Our defence looked pretty good today, Skrtel and Flanagan didn't put a foot wrong.

You're right though, if we are going to slip up it will be down to the defence. You would assume we're going to have little problem scoring goals from now until the end of the season.

Isco Benny wrote:If Liverpool win it, it'll be fully deserved.

However, Man City out of Europe now will be interesting.

Chelsea and Arsenal - neither done enough this season IMO to warrant becoming champions.

Doesn't work like that though, who ever finishes top deserves the title simple as that.

Have we be been much more attractive to watch than Chelsea? Very much so, but if they finish above us because they've managed to concede a lot less then they deserve the title.

Isco Benny wrote:If Liverpool win it, it'll be fully deserved.

However, Man City out of Europe now will be interesting.

Chelsea and Arsenal - neither done enough this season IMO to warrant becoming champions.

      

You have really become a joke Isco Bunny

If we win the league, it will be fully deserved. Probably even more than deserved given the fact that we were a laughing stock even before the season began. No one, absolutely no one (I'd include myself in this) gave us a chance after the Villa humiliation. But our players and manager deserve a lot of credit for our season so far. Overall we have been very good this season. Have dropped off due to the farcical injury situation at the club. If despite all that, we still go on to win it, competing against the sugar daddies in the league, it will be probably go down as Arsene's greatest achievement.

We have topped the league for most of the season I'll have u know. Take off your blinkered Spurs glasses and face the fact.

Edit: I'm going to vote Arsenal now

Let's think about this for a second.

When I say Liverpool would fully deserve it, I'm alluding to the way they've approached the vast majority of their games this season, particularly against the big teams they've played - go toe to toe and outplay/outscore the opposition, whoever they may be.

Of course whoever wins will 'deserve' to win (thanks Luis) in terms of their ability to picking up points, but fully deserved means merging that will to win games AND win them well.

I don't get that feeling with Arsenal or Chelsea, they've rarely gone full throttle at anyone this season. Apologies if this seems like a joke to you Prof, but how often have Arsenal fans moaned about the way teams in the league sit back and play pussyball (copyright of Puro) against them, waiting for the other team to make a mistake and hit them on the counter. Bit like what your lot did today huh. Liverpool on the other hand have been relentless, and full credit to them, that's how most of us who love the game want to see it played.

This is all rather pointless anyway - I don't think we need to worry though about congratulating Arsenal on a 'deserved' title, you're not going to win the league as you're simply not better than the other 3. Pretty certain the table will prove that come May. Tschussssssss

Edit: And Prof, why are you still persisting with the umlauts? Seriously old chap, it's humiliating     

Isco Benny wrote:Let's think about this for a second.

When I say Liverpool would fully deserve it, I'm alluding to the way they've approached the vast majority of their games this season, particularly against the big teams they've played - go toe to toe and outplay/outscore the opposition, whoever they may be.

Of course whoever wins will 'deserve' to win (thanks Luis) in terms of their ability to picking up points, but fully deserved means merging that will to win games AND win them well.

I don't get that feeling with Arsenal or Chelsea, they've rarely gone full throttle at anyone this season. Apologies if this seems like a joke to you Prof, but how often have Arsenal fans moaned about the way teams in the league sit back and play pussyball (copyright of Puro) against them, waiting for the other team to make a mistake and hit them on the counter. Bit like what your lot did today huh. Liverpool on the other hand have been relentless, and full credit to them, that's how most of us who love the game want to see it played.

This is all rather pointless anyway - I don't think we need to worry though about congratulating Arsenal on a 'deserved' title, you're not going to win the league as you're simply not better than the other 3. Pretty certain the table will prove that come May. Tschussssssss

Edit: And Prof, why are you still persisting with the umlauts? Seriously old chap, it's humiliating     

Lol we've been doing this for the last 18 months to be honest. Just effective football. RE yesterday's performance, we have about 10 players out so were limited in what we could do. Even then, you could still argue we had the better, more clear-cut chances. Like Luis said, if you finish top, you deserve it. A lot of our play hasn't been vintage but considering how shite people thought we were at the start of the season when we were supposed to drop out of the top 4, hasn't been all that bad. I think we're the least likely to win because we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

Romford Pele wrote:we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

given what you have in alternatives, Giroud would arguably be a bigger loss than any of them had he picked up any serious injury. his stats are pretty good too - 12 goals, 7 assists (almost identical to Hazard's 13 goals, 7 assists)

debaser wrote:

Romford Pele wrote:we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

given what you have in alternatives, Giroud would arguably be a bigger loss than any of them had he picked up any serious injury. his stats are pretty good too - 12 goals, 7 assists (almost identical to Hazard's 13 goals, 7 assists)

I don't know how much of a loss it is really. It gets exasperated because of the alternatives but Giroud himself isn't that great. His goalscoring stats should be a lot better than they are because of some of the people we have behind him. Sanogo is quite raw but already offers that threat in behind which Giroud doesn't. Obviously Giroud will play every game between now and the end of the season but he's very profligate, lacks the ingenuity to fashion chances for himself and is overall a bit meh compared to what the other clubs have. Ba would've been a lot better for us. Agree with Kimbo that he's actually Chelsea's best striker. Probably lacks the workrate that Mou wants mind you.

Isco Benny wrote:Let's think about this for a second.

When I say Liverpool would fully deserve it, I'm alluding to the way they've approached the vast majority of their games this season, particularly against the big teams they've played - go toe to toe and outplay/outscore the opposition, whoever they may be.

Of course whoever wins will 'deserve' to win (thanks Luis) in terms of their ability to picking up points, but fully deserved means merging that will to win games AND win them well.

I don't get that feeling with Arsenal or Chelsea, they've rarely gone full throttle at anyone this season. Apologies if this seems like a joke to you Prof, but how often have Arsenal fans moaned about the way teams in the league sit back and play pussyball (copyright of Puro) against them, waiting for the other team to make a mistake and hit them on the counter. Bit like what your lot did today huh. Liverpool on the other hand have been relentless, and full credit to them, that's how most of us who love the game want to see it played.

This is all rather pointless anyway - I don't think we need to worry though about congratulating Arsenal on a 'deserved' title, you're not going to win the league as you're simply not better than the other 3. Pretty certain the table will prove that come May. Tschussssssss

Edit: And Prof, why are you still persisting with the umlauts? Seriously old chap, it's humiliating     

You should try stand up comedy, you really should.

Do u still watch full football matches now that u have moved to the states? Rodgers abandoned that Barcelona football ('trying to play football the right way') six months into his Liverpool managerial career, he realised he was just wasting his time. Now Liverpool are a real progressive counter attacking side. They are no more an attacking side than we are. They just have more pace and individuality upfront that enables them to launch more attacks during matches (see my post on Arsenal attacks in the Arsenal thread).

I have seen them win so many matches with progressive tactics it's not even funny. Even the big games u talk about, they tend to nick an early goal from a set piece and spend the rest of the match countering the opposition to death - see their games against ManU, Everton, Arsenal etc All at home by the way. Did u watch any of those games?

Btw, I think that is exactly how they should play given their limited resources.

As for us moaning with teams sitting back, has it escaped u some Arsenal fans on here (Romford Pele, me etc) are full fledged members of team progress? We are sick and tired of that tippy tappy bollocks and being destroyed (humiliated) on the break in the big games. I'd refer u to our games against the likes of Chelsea and United 3-4 years ago, they all followed a similar pattern; Arsenal having the majority of the possession, having loads of bodies deep into their half (giving the illusion that we were dominating the match, but it was actually exactly what those teams wanted) and then being done on the break. FT Arsenal 0-3 Chelsea/ManU

Viva PROGRESS

I still have umlauts because Ozil is a LEGEND

The Pröfessör wrote:

Isco Benny wrote:Let's think about this for a second.

When I say Liverpool would fully deserve it, I'm alluding to the way they've approached the vast majority of their games this season, particularly against the big teams they've played - go toe to toe and outplay/outscore the opposition, whoever they may be.

Of course whoever wins will 'deserve' to win (thanks Luis) in terms of their ability to picking up points, but fully deserved means merging that will to win games AND win them well.

I don't get that feeling with Arsenal or Chelsea, they've rarely gone full throttle at anyone this season. Apologies if this seems like a joke to you Prof, but how often have Arsenal fans moaned about the way teams in the league sit back and play pussyball (copyright of Puro) against them, waiting for the other team to make a mistake and hit them on the counter. Bit like what your lot did today huh. Liverpool on the other hand have been relentless, and full credit to them, that's how most of us who love the game want to see it played.

This is all rather pointless anyway - I don't think we need to worry though about congratulating Arsenal on a 'deserved' title, you're not going to win the league as you're simply not better than the other 3. Pretty certain the table will prove that come May. Tschussssssss

Edit: And Prof, why are you still persisting with the umlauts? Seriously old chap, it's humiliating     

You should try stand up comedy, you really should.

Do u still watch full football matches now that u have moved to the states? Rodgers abandoned that Barcelona football ('trying to play football the right way') six months into his Liverpool managerial career, he realised he was just wasting his time. Now Liverpool are a real progressive counter attacking side. They are no more an attacking side than we are. They just have more pace and individuality upfront that enables them to launch more attacks during matches (see my post on Arsenal attacks in the Arsenal thread).

I have seen them win so many matches with progressive tactics it's not even funny. Even the big games u talk about, they tend to nick an early goal from a set piece and spend the rest of the match countering the opposition to death - see their games against ManU, Everton, Arsenal etc All at home by the way. Did u watch any of those games?

Btw, I think that is exactly how they should play given their limited resources.

As for us moaning with teams sitting back, has it escaped u some Arsenal fans on here (Romford Pele, me etc) are full fledged members of team progress? We are sick and tired of that tippy tappy bollocks and being destroyed (humiliated) on the break in the big games. I'd refer u to our games against the likes of Chelsea and United 3-4 years ago, they all followed a similar pattern; Arsenal having the majority of the possession, having loads of bodies deep into their half (giving the illusion that we were dominating the match, but it was actually exactly what those teams wanted) and then being done on the break. FT Arsenal 0-3 Chelsea/ManU

Viva PROGRESS

I still have umlauts because Ozil is a LEGEND

PROGRESS

I love you Prof   

debaser wrote:

Romford Pele wrote:we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

given what you have in alternatives, Giroud would arguably be a bigger loss than any of them had he picked up any serious injury. his stats are pretty good too - 12 goals, 7 assists (almost identical to Hazard's 13 goals, 7 assists)

12 league goals playing week in week out for this Arsenal side is a pathetic return. Even I would have scored that much.

I think we should bench Giroud against Chelsea next week. He's useless 90% of the time when we are playing on the counter (when he's far from the opposition goal). I laugh when the media go on about how our season hangs on Giroud staying fit.

Get rid in the summer, bring in Welbeck + a top striker.

Pace and individuality upfront is the way to go

Romford Pele wrote:

The Pröfessör wrote:

Isco Benny wrote:Let's think about this for a second.

When I say Liverpool would fully deserve it, I'm alluding to the way they've approached the vast majority of their games this season, particularly against the big teams they've played - go toe to toe and outplay/outscore the opposition, whoever they may be.

Of course whoever wins will 'deserve' to win (thanks Luis) in terms of their ability to picking up points, but fully deserved means merging that will to win games AND win them well.

I don't get that feeling with Arsenal or Chelsea, they've rarely gone full throttle at anyone this season. Apologies if this seems like a joke to you Prof, but how often have Arsenal fans moaned about the way teams in the league sit back and play pussyball (copyright of Puro) against them, waiting for the other team to make a mistake and hit them on the counter. Bit like what your lot did today huh. Liverpool on the other hand have been relentless, and full credit to them, that's how most of us who love the game want to see it played.

This is all rather pointless anyway - I don't think we need to worry though about congratulating Arsenal on a 'deserved' title, you're not going to win the league as you're simply not better than the other 3. Pretty certain the table will prove that come May. Tschussssssss

Edit: And Prof, why are you still persisting with the umlauts? Seriously old chap, it's humiliating     

You should try stand up comedy, you really should.

Do u still watch full football matches now that u have moved to the states? Rodgers abandoned that Barcelona football ('trying to play football the right way') six months into his Liverpool managerial career, he realised he was just wasting his time. Now Liverpool are a real progressive counter attacking side. They are no more an attacking side than we are. They just have more pace and individuality upfront that enables them to launch more attacks during matches (see my post on Arsenal attacks in the Arsenal thread).

I have seen them win so many matches with progressive tactics it's not even funny. Even the big games u talk about, they tend to nick an early goal from a set piece and spend the rest of the match countering the opposition to death - see their games against ManU, Everton, Arsenal etc All at home by the way. Did u watch any of those games?

Btw, I think that is exactly how they should play given their limited resources.

As for us moaning with teams sitting back, has it escaped u some Arsenal fans on here (Romford Pele, me etc) are full fledged members of team progress? We are sick and tired of that tippy tappy bollocks and being destroyed (humiliated) on the break in the big games. I'd refer u to our games against the likes of Chelsea and United 3-4 years ago, they all followed a similar pattern; Arsenal having the majority of the possession, having loads of bodies deep into their half (giving the illusion that we were dominating the match, but it was actually exactly what those teams wanted) and then being done on the break. FT Arsenal 0-3 Chelsea/ManU

Viva PROGRESS

I still have umlauts because Ozil is a LEGEND

PROGRESS

I love you Prof   

    

The Pröfessör wrote:

debaser wrote:

Romford Pele wrote:we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

given what you have in alternatives, Giroud would arguably be a bigger loss than any of them had he picked up any serious injury. his stats are pretty good too - 12 goals, 7 assists (almost identical to Hazard's 13 goals, 7 assists)

12 league goals playing week in week out for this Arsenal side is a pathetic return. Even I would have scored that much.

I think we should bench Giroud against Chelsea next week. He's useless 90% of the time when we are playing on the counter (when he's far from the opposition goal). I laugh when the media go on about how our season hangs on Giroud staying fit.

Get rid in the summer, bring in Welbeck + a top striker.

Pace and individuality upfront is the way to go

If we're gonna go down that beast-like route upfront, which i'm all for, it needs to be for someone with more mobility and pace than Giroud. Costa, Benteke (sorry Deb) and Lukaku (Mou won't sell to us) would be my choices. I like Welbeck a lot too - feel like a lot of people don't get him.

Romford Pele wrote:

The Pröfessör wrote:

debaser wrote:

Romford Pele wrote:we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

given what you have in alternatives, Giroud would arguably be a bigger loss than any of them had he picked up any serious injury. his stats are pretty good too - 12 goals, 7 assists (almost identical to Hazard's 13 goals, 7 assists)

12 league goals playing week in week out for this Arsenal side is a pathetic return. Even I would have scored that much.

I think we should bench Giroud against Chelsea next week. He's useless 90% of the time when we are playing on the counter (when he's far from the opposition goal). I laugh when the media go on about how our season hangs on Giroud staying fit.

Get rid in the summer, bring in Welbeck + a top striker.

Pace and individuality upfront is the way to go

If we're gonna go down that beast-like route upfront, which i'm all for, it needs to be for someone with more mobility and pace than Giroud. Costa, Benteke (sorry Deb) and Lukaku (Mou won't sell to us) would be my choices. I like Welbeck a lot too - feel like a lot of people don't get him.

Welbeck would be quality for us IMO.

Yes, Costa and one of those u mentioned would make me a very happy man. Let's do it Arsene.

Professor, progressive counter attacking side. (Really) They squeeze and pressure the middle and do not actively sit on the ball in those areas. Gerrard playing deeper gets some time but its not their plan to control the middle just to make it ineffective for the opposition sit in there and govern the possession. Their forwards do the same and squeeze the field, this method gives them space to play into space up front play in between the lines better. So you have the Counter option Gerrard Sitting. The Three Muskrats up front and as important the SQUEEZE going on in the middle of the park to create space quickly backwards and attacking. This is why their Defence can survive so often. Thats how I see it and this is not new either but like you said they make use of there players skills perfectly. Top class footy to watch.

Brian 2468 wrote:Professor, progressive counter attacking side. (Really)   They squeeze and pressure the middle and do not actively sit on the ball in those areas. Gerrard playing deeper gets some time but its not their plan to control the middle just to make it ineffective for the opposition sit in there and govern the possession.  Their forwards do the same and squeeze the field, this method gives them space to play into space up front play in between the lines better. So you have the Counter option Gerrard Sitting. The Three Muskrats up front and as important the SQUEEZE going on in the middle of the park to create space quickly backwards and attacking. This is why their Defence can survive so often. Thats how I see it and this is not new either but like you said they make use of there players skills perfectly.  Top  class footy to watch.

Exactly, true dominant/attacking sides don't play that way.

They do indeed press well in the middle, they did it very well against us. And to prevent us doing the same, Gerrard dropped between their Cbs who  both went went wide, almost in fullback positions, with the full backs pushing higher, thereby making the pitch as wide as possible (typical Dutch/Ajax tactics). It made sense for the following reasons:

1) Gerrard struggles under pressure, we'll have found it easier to cut out the supply to their forwards if Gerrard was playing in midfield by pressing him. Playing deeper when they were in possession bought him a lot of time and space to pick out passes.

2) Gerrard's long passing from deep is top quality, he's the sort of guy you'd like to spray long passes into space (for ur forwards to run on to) from deep. Quality diagonals to pacey wide forwards is a very good way of combating high pressing tactics.

And Coutinho was playing in a sort of a DM role when they were in possession. Unlike Gerrard, Coutinho is very good under pressure, he can wriggle his way out of pressure and pick out quality passes. So they basically got one of the best long passers in the league playing in a CB role (when in possession, he moved into midfield without the ball) and their best midfielder under pressure playing in a DM role - it is for the same reason I always call for Wilshere to be play deep against pressing sides. It's absolutely vital to get quality passes from deep especially in the big games otherwise you front player will be starved off the ball.

Rodgers is a very good tactician

Thinking City, hoping Chelsea but hearth says Liverpool. Infact, in the big games Liverpool impressed me the most.

We aren't a counter attacking side Prof, you just think we are because we've scored some pretty damn good goals through it.

But this side has been scoring goals from all over, set pieces, counters, long range, team goals. Dominant displays, clinical displays, counter attacking wins. I can't really label a single style to it. It's just fluent, fast paced, technically good football.

I've also got no real idea why you have labelled Coutinho as playing a DM role. He is so rarely in that position.

COTR wrote:We aren't a counter attacking side Prof, you just think we are because we've scored some pretty damn good goals through it.

But this side has been scoring goals from all over, set pieces, counters, long range, team goals. Dominant displays, clinical displays, counter attacking wins. I can't really label a single style to it. It's just fluent, fast paced, technically good football.

You can't compete at the highest level without a well worked style. You could adapt and change tactics against certain opponents, but overall it should be easy to see a clear pattern. We also score goals in all those ways u mentioned. In fact I don't think anyone can match us for well worked team goals in the league this season, but we are very much a counter attacking side. And by the way, we control the play with the ball in midfield much more than you do.

You are definitely a counter attacking side. Even yesterday, you destroyed ManU with fast paced counter attacks, and I don't think u even played that well.

COTR wrote:I've also got no real idea why you have labelled Coutinho as playing a DM role. He is so rarely in that position.

I was only referring to 1 match ie against us. I dunno where u can get average position of players over 90 mins but if u do, check out Coutinho's average position in that match.

Romford Pele wrote:

The Pröfessör wrote:

debaser wrote:

Romford Pele wrote:we miss our three best and most important players going forward in Ozil, Ramsey and Theo but third and F.A Cup is something i'd take.

given what you have in alternatives, Giroud would arguably be a bigger loss than any of them had he picked up any serious injury. his stats are pretty good too - 12 goals, 7 assists (almost identical to Hazard's 13 goals, 7 assists)

12 league goals playing week in week out for this Arsenal side is a pathetic return. Even I would have scored that much.

I think we should bench Giroud against Chelsea next week. He's useless 90% of the time when we are playing on the counter (when he's far from the opposition goal). I laugh when the media go on about how our season hangs on Giroud staying fit.

Get rid in the summer, bring in Welbeck + a top striker.

Pace and individuality upfront is the way to go

If we're gonna go down that beast-like route upfront, which i'm all for, it needs to be for someone with more mobility and pace than Giroud. Costa, Benteke (sorry Deb) and Lukaku (Mou won't sell to us) would be my choices. I like Welbeck a lot too - feel like a lot of people don't get him.

I thought you might go for Benteke last summer tbh. this season has shown he's a confidence player, but I do think he would do very well if he was in a team that created more. if he does go, I'd rather he goes to Arsenal than some others..