The Race for 4th Place Trophy

If we could beat Manure, Liverpool and Chelsea at home it would be a great boost to us.

This must be the hardest PL to predict that I can remember.
We have a couple of fairly easy fixtures coming up before we play Man U, which we must get maximum points from.
Apart from spurs, all the other top clubs won, so although it was a great win for us, it’s no use if we throw it away against mediocre opposition.

Beating, or not losing to our rivals, is the most important thing, but undoing all the good work we did against spurs by not beating Burnley and Huddersfield before we play Man U, is worse.

We played really well against spurs, who are a good side, so there is no excuse for not doing that in every game.

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Have you seen our away form? We are joint top of the “home” table but in the “away” table only 3 teams have picked up less points on their travels than us! I hope we can carry the momentum forward but if we lose/draw away at Burnley I wouldn’t be surprised.

You’re right, Burnley aren’t a pushover but if we can’t beat a team where none of their players we get into our first tea, even if it is away, then we aren’t a top team.
But Huddersfield really is an easy game.
Their recent form is not good and we are formidable at home.

It’s the game after against Man U that would be great to win, especially if it takes us above them.

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In terms of top 4 The Manc clubs and Chelski look set to finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd imo. Either Chelsea or United could fall away though. United have a tough few games coming up with Arsenal away, City home and Watford away.

That leaves Us, Spurs and Liverpool. IMO it’s inevitable Spurs and Liverpool suffer injuries to key players they rely on in Kane, Alli and Sane and Coutinho. United, Chelsea, City, Liverpool and Spurs will also have that tough spring period where CL and PL games come thick and fast. Where as our players get a mid week rest as we put out reserves.

So 4th isn’t obvious but the first 2 or 3 spots probably are

The thread title reminds me of @Robin_L. Wherever they may be

I think Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool are all capable of up to 80 points but also capable of 65 points. Depends who fades away first, for how long, etc. I think all 3 are going to wobble at various points and that’ll be what separates the 3 of us from the other 3 clubs.

The thing that gives me hope is Ozil and Alexis don’t seem to have been really on fire yet and Laca has room for improvement. I think Spurs are due a big dip because there’s no way they can repeat what they did last year and they’ll start bottling at some stage.

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Based off of this season and this only, there’s a legitimate case for us finishing in the top 4. The margins between all the big clubs outside of City have been so fine. We could easily be sitting 2nd right now if not for being on the end of some tough calls.

Saying that, I still see us as the most likely team to go on an extended terrible run of form like we’ve done over Jan/Feb/March in both of the last two seasons. There’s also the Özil/Alexis dilemma with January coming up and either of those guys leaving changes everything.

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I am afraid we won’t finish top 4th. Beating Spurs is papering over the cracks. We are usually always fired up for the derby, but next time away against Stoke or Burnley we will lose again.

It’s worrisome how poor people’s memory is as soon as we play one game well. It’s still Wenger at the helm, the perpetual master of disappointment. We will go on a poor run again and lose Ozil and Alexis in the process.

I think it will be:
City
United
Chelsea
Spurs

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Whilst I agree with you that we shouldn’t lose sight of the bigger picture, since this particular win just gets us three points at the end of the day, beating Spurs for the first time since 2014 in the Premier League matters a bit more.

The only people saying that we’ll definitely get top four are the ones who were saying it before the spurs game anyway so I don’t think there is anything wrong with people’s memories.

Alright, fair enough. I don’t keep tabs on who says what all the time, so this I didn’t know. It still scares me though, that there are people who have such faith in a manager who has let us down so often over the last 6 seasons with empty promises and an inability to adapt to the modern game. Unless not seriously competing for the league and being content with scraping 4th is what we are all about these days. Then the lot of us can stash our Wenger Out banners away and sit quiet.

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I think that because “the race for fourth place trophy” thread has now taken over as the main thread when taking about our league position, shows just how far our expectations have dropped in recent seasons.

Even the most ardent Wenger supporters are resigned to a fourth place fight with our rivals.

This is exactly what the board and Wenger want and it means they won’t have to make the massive investment we need to challenge for the title.

If we finish outside the top four this season with two world class players then imagine what it will be like without them and with the inevitable lack of investment we usually have.

This has been coming for a few seasons.
So we will have to get used to no world class signings, our best players leaving and a lowering of our expectations.

Looking at the amount of posts in this thread rather than “the race for the title” thread, it seems as if most supporters are thinking the same thing.

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I didn’t even know a “ race for the title thread” existed in these parts anymore.

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Even Wenger doesn’t talk about it anymore.
When he doesn’t consider it a possibility then you know not to expect much.

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ya I revived it by mistake lol

Once our top 4 becomes difficult to get, i hope Wenger focuses on the Europa League. It’s fine to play our youngsters in group stage, but then it’s time for the big boys.

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When there are teams spending billions in the transfer market there’s really no reason to expect us to be able to compete over a 38 game season for the title. Sure we could do better, and keep it closer, but expect to win the title? Nah those days are over. And before anyone comes back and says well spurs spend nothing and they were closer than us, meh they finished 2nd and were never even in the race Chelsea blew them out of the water. They aren’t in the title race and they won’t ever be.

It isn’t about “expecting,” it is being in position to occasionally truly challenge when things go our way (LC season) - and we should stay closer… fact is the distance between us and the ones below us monetarily show that there is a certain floor (i.e., just because we spend tons more than teams below us, doesn’t mean that they don’t get close or compete sometimes (Spurs over last 100 games, LC season, Everton occasionally not far behind us, etc.).

Also, it would be nice to show a bit more aggression in terms of use of resources - feels more like “let’s get aggressive to get top 4 but our odds are so low to get title, let’s optimize the financial curve and still retain that crumb of probability” rather than “let’s utilize every reasonable resource at our disposal to maximize our position every year.”

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As you said, we could do better and be competitive at least. That’s enough for a change.