Jump to content

Fairytales & Nightmares - mathematical possibilities for the last three games


Recommended Posts

However, unlikely, isn't it amazing to think that three games from the end of the season it is still mathematically possible for Saints to finish above Man Utd this season... and to qualify for the Champions League? Who would have thought that at the start of the season?! In fact even a few weeks ago a few people were predicting that Man Utd would be the ones safely in 2nd or 3rd, while Man City scrapped to finally cross the line of CL qualification.

 

On the other hand, it seems to have been assumed for weeks that we would definitely finish in either 5th, 6th or 7th. Yet, following Saturday's results, Swansea are fast catching us up and if we don't watch out we might not even finish in the top 7.

 

Whatever happens, I hope that we can drive on for the last few weeks and achieve Europa League qualification above the Spuds. There is even that little bit of me that dreams of what that fairytale scenario might look like, so here (before it disappears with Man Utd beating Palace on Saturday!) is a little glimpse of that fairytale...

 

> Saints beat Leicester & Aston Villa, Man Utd lose to Palace & Arsenal. Meanwhile Liverpool lose to Chelsea and only draw with Palace and Spurs drop points against Stoke.

> Saints find themselves in 5th only 2 points behind Man Utd.

> Saints win our final game against City (who are only too happy to help us finish above Utd) and United slip up against Hull.

> Saints finish in fourth! :)

 

OK, you can wake up now... but wasn't it a great dream?!! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been a great season, but I just hope that we don't let it just fade out.

 

I still think we needed to beat Spurs in the home game to have any hope of finishing above them, unfortunately. I think we'll be close by but we'll end on 61/62 pts in 7th. Great haul and hopefully some sort of European football next season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been a great season, but I just hope that we don't let it just fade out.

 

I still think we needed to beat Spurs in the home game to have any hope of finishing above them, unfortunately. I think we'll be close by but we'll end on 61/62 pts in 7th. Great haul and hopefully some sort of European football next season.

 

but that is already happening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe, but let's not allow it to completely fade out.

 

it was a criticism of last season. yet last season, the last 5 games we got 8 points. lets see how this comperes. so far, we have 1 point with 9 more to play for.....

been a good season anyway

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It has been a great season so far. We could easily have won the matches we have lost or drawn recently and lost of drawn the matches we won earlier in the season so I am not unhappy. Apart from Man City and Sheffield United I think we have done well in the rest of the games. Ron and the management team have done a brilliant job and I am really looking forward to the new recruits this summer and next season. Whatever we get now is a bonus for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sadly Liverpool and Spurs will probably pick up too many points for us and we'll merely be the best of the rest again. I think Man Utd could slip more though, 3 tough games for them, all losable with their team. We should have been right up there putting pressure on them having beaten Spurs and Sunderland, but we got 1 pathetic point. Absolutely gutting.

 

I think we've been playing with fear for months now. Cautious with chances, struggling to comeback when behind or seal victories. There's nothing to lose now, 7th is a big risk of no Europe as Villa have a decent chance of winning the cup. Let's actually go and attack 3 remaining games against 3 poor defences.

 

Get Tadic back involved, don't sit back and end the season on a high as it deserves.

 

The weekend is vital, Spurs and Liverpool have their trickiest games left IMO and could both lose. Let's not make it an easy escape for Leicester, they showed against Chelsea that they'll give a lot of chances. They have fight but the quality is not great at all. We just need to make sure we get the first goal this time and quiet them down.

 

Is not Tadic out for the rest of the season ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sadly Liverpool and Spurs will probably pick up too many points for us and we'll merely be the best of the rest again. I think Man Utd could slip more though, 3 tough games for them, all losable with their team. We should have been right up there putting pressure on them having beaten Spurs and Sunderland, but we got 1 pathetic point. Absolutely gutting.

 

I think we've been playing with fear for months now. Cautious with chances, struggling to comeback when behind or seal victories. There's nothing to lose now, 7th is a big risk of no Europe as Villa have a decent chance of winning the cup. Let's actually go and attack 3 remaining games against 3 poor defences.

 

Get Tadic back involved, don't sit back and end the season on a high as it deserves.

 

The weekend is vital, Spurs and Liverpool have their trickiest games left IMO and could both lose. Let's not make it an easy escape for Leicester, they showed against Chelsea that they'll give a lot of chances. They have fight but the quality is not great at all. We just need to make sure we get the first goal this time and quiet them down.

It's strange though, isn't it? When we beat Arsenal in January, we played them off the park and really should have won by more. That should have given us the confidence to push on; probably turned out to be a better result for Arsenal looking at their form since.

 

It's the West Ham and Swansea games that killed our season, we've never managed to get back on track. The confidence should have been there, maybe when top 4 became a reality the nerves kicked in? Who knows

 

We have some tricky games left, and it's a bit worrying, but four points should be enough for 7th.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if we don't get another point we've exceeded expectations and had a great season . How many times in the past 30 years have we finished top 8. To do so after the summer " meltdown" is a fantastic achievement

 

Not my expectations, we sold players, we bought other players for the princely sum of around 70 million £ plus a WC defender on loan at a no doubt astronomic salary (for us anyway), the second part of the season has been a rank failure especially as the manager was speaking of CL qualification up to about a month ago..

Edited by Window Cleaner
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I said in my original post, both Champions League and dropping to 8th behind Swansea are mathematical possibilities, but I don't expect that either is the way that things will pan out. My predictions for the key results involving Saints, Swansea, Spurs, Liverpool and Man Utd are as follows:

 

w/e 9/10 May

 

Arsenal 2 v 0 Swansea

Chelsea 2 v 0 Liverpool

Crystal Palace 1 v 1 Man Utd

Leicester 1 v 1 Saints

Stoke 1 v 1 Spurs

 

w/e 16/17 May

 

Liverpool 2 v 1 Crystal Palace

Man Utd 0 v 2 Arsenal

Saints 2 v 1 Aston Villa

Swansea 1 v 2 Man City

Spurs 2 v 0 Hull

 

24 May

 

Crystal Palace 2 v 2 Swansea

Everton 1 v 1 Spurs

Hull 1 v 0 Man Utd

Man City 1 v 1 Saints

Stoke 2 v 1 Liverpool

 

This will leave the places from 4th to 8th looking as follows:

 

4 Man Utd 66 pts

5 Liverpool 64 pts

6 Spurs 63 pts

7 Saints 62 pts

8 Swansea 54 pts

 

Ultimately that will be an amazing result for us, but also a little frustrating realising that we could have finished so much higher if just two results had gone differently! I just hope that if we do finish 7th then Arsenal will win the FA Cup! :)

 

(PS Of course, if Spurs lose rather than drawing against Stoke, we could end up finishing above them on goal difference!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most obvious WUM in the history of WUM's

 

Not an entirely unreasonable prediction. Leicester are flying and we play them away, Aston Villa are also on form and full of confidence, and Man City are Man City. It's quite possible we won't get another point. The saving grace might be that Swansea also have tough fixtures against Arsenal, Man City and Crystal Palace. They probably won't pick up five points from those games, but you never know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...