[Albion] Premier League 21-23/10/23

[Eric the meek]

With approximately a quarter of the season gone, the title race is shaping up very nicely, albeit without Brighton in it.

Spurs are top, but have had an easy start. Can they maintain it, or will they succumb to Spursiness?
City are right up there as always, and are the team to beat.
Arsenal - always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Liverpool - entertaining, great teeth, and will do better than last season.
Then there is Villa, who look worth their fifth place.
The rest - after weak starts to the campaign, Newcastle, Man Utd and even Chelsea are coming up on the rails, with Newcastle being the most convincing.

Unfortunately, this means that Brighton are being squeezed out of the race, if we were ever in it.
Perhaps we were only in it in my mind. Nine games in, and the table is sorting itself out.

 

[BN41Albion]

With approximately a quarter of the season gone, the title race is shaping up very nicely, albeit without Brighton in it.

Spurs are top, but have had an easy start. Can they maintain it, or will they succumb to Spursiness?
City are right up there as always, and are the team to beat.
Arsenal - always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Liverpool - entertaining, great teeth, and will do better than last season.
Then there is Villa, who look worth their fifth place.
The rest - after weak starts to the campaign, Newcastle, Man Utd and even Chelsea are coming up on the rails, with Newcastle being the most convincing.

Unfortunately, this means that Brighton are being squeezed out of the race, if we were ever in it.
Perhaps we were only in it in my mind. Nine games in, and the table is sorting itself out.

Surely no-one in their right mind thought we'd be challenging for the title even at this stage!? unfortunately money talks, so even united will continue to pick up results despite being utter garbage to watch because of their throw enough mud at the wall some of it will stick philosophy.

There's a lot of anxiety/a touch of doom and gloom around NSC lately though in general which (aside from the worries around injuries) I find pretty mad really considering we're just coming out of an extremely tough run of fixtures, have played 6 out of the current 9 in the league (who will all probably stay in the top 9) in our opening 9 games and yet we're still holding our own in 7th despite also juggling a bloody tough European group and drew Chelsea away in the league cup, which on another day we could've won in what was a tight game with a weakened team.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

With approximately a quarter of the season gone, the title race is shaping up very nicely, albeit without Brighton in it.

Spurs are top, but have had an easy start. Can they maintain it, or will they succumb to Spursiness?
City are right up there as always, and are the team to beat.
Arsenal - always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Liverpool - entertaining, great teeth, and will do better than last season.
Then there is Villa, who look worth their fifth place.
The rest - after weak starts to the campaign, Newcastle, Man Utd and even Chelsea are coming up on the rails, with Newcastle being the most convincing.

Unfortunately, this means that Brighton are being squeezed out of the race, if we were ever in it.
Perhaps we were only in it in my mind. Nine games in, and the table is sorting itself out.

RDZ has been obsessed with the dificulty of fighting on 4 (now 3) fronts.
He has clearly decided that he needed to get the whole squad up to speed.
Considering the amount of changes he has made every game 7th on 16 points is pretty good.

Emery and Howe have decided not to rotate and has kept to pretty much the first starting 11.

If RDZ's plan pays off and the squad improve game by game, then we may find ourselves having a stronger second half of the season, as Newcastle and Villa struggle.

 

[Eric the meek]

Surely no-one in their right mind thought we'd be challenging for the title even at this stage!? unfortunately money talks, so even united will continue to pick up results despite being utter garbage to watch because of their throw enough mud at the wall some of it will stick philosophy.

There's a lot of anxiety/a touch of doom and gloom around NSC lately though in general which (aside from the worries around injuries) I find pretty mad really considering we're just coming out of an extremely tough run of fixtures, have played 6 out of the current 9 in the league (who will all probably stay in the top 9) in our opening 9 games and yet we're still holding our own in 7th despite also juggling a bloody tough European group and drew Chelsea away in the league cup, which on another day we could've won in what was a tight game with a weakened team.

On another day, we could have beaten West Ham, Villa and City, but unfortunately we had to play them on the days the games were arranged.

But you are right. We have had a tough start to the campaign. I kind of alluded to that when I said Spurs have had an easy start. The trouble that we've got (apart from a tough start, losing our best players, Europe, rotations, mounting injuries etc) is that there are 19 other teams who want to take points off us and some of them have improved more than we have.

 

[rebel51]

Oddly think Fulham haven't played too bad

Apart from shirley

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

With approximately a quarter of the season gone, the title race is shaping up very nicely, albeit without Brighton in it.

Spurs are top, but have had an easy start. Can they maintain it, or will they succumb to Spursiness?
City are right up there as always, and are the team to beat.
Arsenal - always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Liverpool - entertaining, great teeth, and will do better than last season.
Then there is Villa, who look worth their fifth place.
The rest - after weak starts to the campaign, Newcastle, Man Utd and even Chelsea are coming up on the rails, with Newcastle being the most convincing.

Unfortunately, this means that Brighton are being squeezed out of the race, if we were ever in it.
Perhaps we were only in it in my mind. Nine games in, and the table is sorting itself out.

Only people that think Spurs will be part of the title race are people wanting to use the term Spursy when they fall back.

It's going to between Liverpool and City again.

 

[BN41Albion]

On another day, we could have beaten West Ham, Villa and City, but unfortunately we had to play them on the days the games were arranged.

But you are right. We have had a tough start to the campaign. I kind of alluded to that when I said Spurs have had an easy start. The trouble that we've got (apart from a tough start, losing our best players, Europe, rotations, mounting injuries etc) is that there are 19 other teams who want to take points off us and some of them have improved more than we have.

I meant on another day in that the game was quite even with both teams having similar amount of decent chances, etc. West Ham and Villa especially we were well beaten.

I agree about the trouble we have, but I'm confident we still have the squad and ability to continue to take a healthy amount of points off teams in the bottom half and some good results v the top teams - like liverpool the other week. Top 10 would be a fantastic achievement I think this season- it's well documented how clubs like us can suffer in the PL when juggling Europe too. I think some fans on here have lost sight of that fact and think anything other than 6th or above in the league this season = failure

 

[Napper]

top 10 would be a big achievement

 

[Hotchilidog]

RDZ has been obsessed with the dificulty of fighting on 4 (now 3) fronts.
He has clearly decided that he needed to get the whole squad up to speed.
Considering the amount of changes he has made every game 7th on 16 points is pretty good.

Emery and Howe have decided not to rotate and has kept to pretty much the first starting 11.

If RDZ's plan pays off and the squad improve game by game, then we may find ourselves having a stronger second half of the season, as Newcastle and Villa struggle.

This is my thinking also. RDZ is trying to get the whole squad up to speed, and with the current injury levels this does not seem to be a bad strategy. I do believe we'll see the benefit in the second half of the season, we just have to do our best to keep ourselves there and thereabouts with regards to positions 5-8.

 

[Eric the meek]

I meant on another day in that the game was quite even with both teams having similar amount of decent chances, etc. West Ham and Villa especially we were well beaten.

I agree about the trouble we have, but I'm confident we still have the squad and ability to continue to take a healthy amount of points off teams in the bottom half and some good results v the top teams - like liverpool the other week. Top 10 would be a fantastic achievement I think this season- it's well documented how clubs like us can suffer in the PL when juggling Europe too. I think some fans on here have lost sight of that fact and think anything other than 6th or above in the league this season = failure

I know what you meant. Forgive me - I was being facetious.

Without wishing to go on a 'we would have won, were it not for x,y,z' journey, the game that sticks out for me was West Ham. Villa and City beat us fair and square, but we shouldn't have left ourselves so exposed to counter attack against West Ham in a game in which we otherwise dominated, enjoying 78% possession. Was that possession stat the cause, or the effect, of leaving gaps at the back? I'm not sure. Does possession lead to complacency, loss of focus and positional indiscipline? The West Ham game, a classic example of pushing forward and leaving gaps, was an example of 'chance missed'.

While I agree that juggling Europe is going to be a big factor early season, but less so later on with fewer Europe games, a top 10 finish I would class as neither success nor failure, but a 'chance missed'. We already are a top 10 team. We can do better. If you think a top 10 finish after just 9 games is in any way acceptable, you are accepting mediocrity, by setting a comfortably low bar. That isn't what elite sportsmen do. 'There is no ceiling' - Tony Bloom. RDZ has previously alluded to a top target. It remains unpublished, but is it likely to be just a top 10 finish? My guess is no.