Quote Originally Posted by cricketsi View Post
I don't have confidence we'll get the 9 points we should be very capable of, but as Coney and Jeebus said, 6 points should be sufficient for third and I can't see any of the other 3 winning all 4 of their remaining games, so we should clinch it.

Joker - you cite mental strength, and although we've imploded on several occasions in the past we've had enough about us to keep CL football in our grasps. What makes you think we're more lacking in mental strength this year?
This year we're facing stiff competition from 3 teams (Chelsea, Spurs, Newcastle) going into the home stretch. In the past, we've more or less had CL football sown up much earlier. I know in 2005-2006 there was a real danger of dropping out, but at least we had players like Henry, Pires, Bergkamp, Ljungberg to steer us home with a bit of luck. In 2006-2007 Spurs were on our heels as well, but we ended up securing 4th by around this time so we didn't have to go into the last few games still needed results.

We've failed to often recently when it's really mattered (cup semi-finals, Carling Cup final, etc) that I'm sceptical whether we can cope under the pressure. Of course injuries to Walcott, Arteta, Wilshere don't help matters either.