Where will we finish 2018/19?

I have zero faith in our ability to defend.

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Give Unai time to adjust this mess :wink:

Top 4 should 100% be the goal.

Check how dysfunctional Spurs and United are, they are there for the taking.

Could easily see us getting 3rd ahead of Chelsea too. Their midfield is awesome but Morata up frontā€¦ And theyā€™ve lost Courtois.

Fact is, we love to talk ourselves down and talk the opposition up. But we have Auba for a full season, an improved Laca and we have improved the midfield no matter what anyone says. Not to mention a new manager.

Now he may not be the best but I bet heā€™s a damn sight better than the one we had last season and thatā€™s an improvement.

Before this window Iā€™d have said Iā€™d be ok if Emery finished 5th but now thatā€™s only permissible if we win the Europa.

We have to be back in the CL and thatā€™s the expectations for me.

Top 4 and Europa semis at least.

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Top 4 and Europaā€™s win for sure.

What makes spurs so much more dysfunctional than the spurs teams that have finished 2nd & 3rd last 2 seasons ?

Iā€™d be stunned if we finish top 4 with our CB options being Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding & Mav.

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Because they havenā€™t changed the team and albeit it is still good on the paper, they needed some new signings to rotate with the first choices.

Agreed it will stop them from pushing on, but I still think the have a better squad than us, mainly due to far superior defensive options. If Kane or Eriksen miss a fair chunk of time I could see us finishing above them.

Well yeah, but i think itā€™s gonna be close, with them just slightly favourites.

Asking for cup champions is kind of fools goldā€¦ we should progress Far but 1 or 2 game knockouts are just too noisy. Top 4 to me should be measuring stick.

Europa League should be. That was what got him his job at PSG and Arsenal.

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Iā€™ve gone for 4th, more in hope than anything else

I still think we will struggle defensively but i cant see our away record being worse than last season so we will surely be closer to top 4

Was going through mental exercise of ā€œbest case scenarioā€ and how things could shake out in a surprising (and positive) way for AFC.

So first of all, I still think banking on any Cups is dicey b/c they are a crapshoot - one bad game and you can be out. Having said that, Iā€™ll suspend my analytical side on the Cups and play along.

FA Cup - Champions

We get lucky with draws, are able to conserve key people and rotate players like Nketiah, Nelson, (Welbeck - is he still here?), Goozey, etc. and get away with itā€¦ finding ourselves in the semiā€™s where City has been knocked out by shocker/injury/redcard scenario and we face ManU who are now in full-blown Mourinho crisisā€¦ we beat them and then win the final against some mid-table team who snuck past the other big teams.

Euro - Champions

Pretty much same script as FA Cup - we probably have to beat 2-3 pretty good teams and a bunch of nobodies, so it really comes down to our 2 game matches in the 16/8/4 and final. Need a bit of luck, but I imagine we will be favorites in nearly every single gameā€¦ key here and in FA will be somehow rotating enough to conserve for league.

Prem - ok, I simply canā€™t bring myself to find a scenario where City drops enough and we rise enough to overtake them, but I do feel there is an inevitable points drop from Cityā€™s lofty achievements and we WILL go up at least 12 points.

So the scenario goes like this - City still wins, but closer to 90 points.

Liverpool suffers an injury crisis and Salah has crisis of confidenceā€¦ their midfield isnā€™t as good as they think it is, and their defensive wobbles return full-force. They are still strong, but manage only to get around 79 points (still an increase of 4 over last year).

Chelsea canā€™t score consistently, Hazard agitates more, the drop off from Courtois is greater than they hoped, and new management gets pressure from an increasingly ornery owner. They only hit 75 points (also an increase over last year).

Spurs suffer key injury and confidence wanes, feeling the pressure of no investment and suddenly high expectationsā€¦ they collapse under the weight by late in the season and only generate 72 points (5 point drop).

ManU goes full Mou-plosion, team revolts, Pogba gets bad infection from a hair shave gone wrong and is out for 3 months and then slow plays his return, continuing to agitate for a leave. They manage to get to 70 points on the last day.

And us - we massively improve, stay healthy and a fit again Koscielny drags us over the line in the latter half of the season - Auba gets golden boot, Ozil is majestic, we flog Xhaka and Mustafi off in Jan and bring in Dembele on 6 month loan with option to buy (hahahaha), and we hit 80 points, nicking second.

2 trophies and massive climb to 2nd, increasing our points total by 17 from previous year.

COYG!

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No chance itā€™s gonna be worse than last season lol. We were just pathetic.

Weā€™ll finish 4th and Iā€™ll become relevant again :speak_no_evil:

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Very early doors but it looks like we could be in a dog fight with Spurs for 4th, which is exactly what we could have realistically hoped for.

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Well it looks like weā€™re pretty handy offensively scoring 37 goals in 17 games, but itā€™s still going to be very unlikely itā€™s good enough to finish in the CL places.

Im sticking with 4th. Id have taken being 3 points behind Chelsea at this stage. January key though for us to maintain that.

3rd

That would be sensational tbh. Whereā€™s your confidence coming from? :slight_smile:

Iā€™m gonna be optimistic and say we get 4th on the last day by a point or so