This Weekend's Fixtures & Midwek Fixtures (29/30 Nov/01/03/04/05 Dec)

[HCZ_Reborn]

The league table, the overall form they've been in, other conversations I've had with people and things I've read.
They've played 20 games this season in all competitions, won 18, drawn 1, lost 1. I don't need to have watched the games to know that's a team worth taking seriously. You can cherry pick incidents here and there in games where you feel they've got a bit lucky, but over 20 games I call bullshit on those results just being luck or easy games.


I wouldn't say I'm very confident - I don't think one should ever be too confident about predictions in football. It is, famously, a "funny old game". But on paper yeah, I think those are mostly games they should win. But they do have a lot of away games coming up so I am of course hopeful they'll slip up here and there and that we can capitalise.

They have won 11 games out of 13 and a lot of it is down to luck, yet you’re responding as if I’m saying that every game they’ve won is down to luck.

No but they have had great fortune in playing us when they did, and playing city when they did. They got massive get out of jail card against Brighton and Southampton. And the fortune of the four times league winner falling apart at the seams.


Without that luck would they be leading the table at all let alone 9 points clear….its possible but as I keep banging my head on the desk figuratively to make clear, they are no better than last season in my view actually not as good and they have benefited heavily from fortune in their own games, fortune with city’s collapse and fortune with us not winning a single game in four.

I struggle with the fact that, that’s even controversial. I am confounded by their nine point gap only in so far that we should have beaten Bournemouth and Liverpool and that without referee intervention we’d have beaten Brighton and Man City (in my view, there’s no certainty)

Even in the champions league a competition they have rich historical prestige in, I watched their game against AC Milan and I wasn’t especially impressed at all….it was more of an indicator of how poor European teams have become (that’s not a dig at Liverpool either, I think when we won there in 2018 it was more a reflection on how poor they were rather than how good we were as well)


So to paraphrase Mrs Thatcher, you be impressed if you want to….but I’m going to have to see a lot more before I’m especially impressed and not just annoyed at the position we’ve put ourselves in