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Sorry if already posted, I know its pretty obvious, but I have been so taken in by our plight to finish 4th that I hadnt realised that if Arsenal get beat on Sunday, City or Spurs (whoever wins both their games) could finish 3rd and avoid champs league qualification games. Absolutely amzing thought (if it were us ;-)

Annoying to think that if we'd actually gone at Arsenal last weekend and beaten them (they were there for the taking) and we win our game in hand tomorrow, we'd have gone level on points with them

oh yeas, forgot to add we would have to score 10 goals in the 2 games :-)

Does 3rd no longer have to go through the qualification rounds? When did this happen

Not impossible

superkev8705 wrote:Not impossible

and worth trying for from City's point of view.

IF spurs crack tomorrow under pressure from an extremely hostile crowd, then it is extra incentive for the lads to try and put a few goals in.

The other thing is Arsenal have a funny game against Fulham.. who go on to play the Europa final 4 days later. Fulham have the experience of playing back to back games and they will want to have a good performance before going to Hamburg.

so anything can happen.. but one game at a time eh!

HeyMark wrote:Does 3rd no longer have to go through the qualification rounds? When did this happen

The top 3 go into the Group Stage while 4th goes to the final Play-off round, as of this year, and same for next year. This year it was just Arsenal in the play-off round yet the year before it was Arsenal and Liverpool. It must be something to do with the coefficency system.

Beefymcfc wrote:

HeyMark wrote:Does 3rd no longer have to go through the qualification rounds? When did this happen

The top 3 go into the Group Stage while 4th goes to the final Play-off round, as of this year, and same for next year. This year it was just Arsenal in the play-off round yet the year before it was Arsenal and Liverpool. It must be something to do with the coefficency system.

England gets 4 places. 3 in group, and one in non-champions' playoff final round. No country can have more than one team in the non-champions' qualification. In this draw, teams are seeded by UEFA coefficient.

By the way, this is nothing to take for granted, as we'll probably be in the unseeded pot going on last season's rankings.

BlueinBosnia wrote:By the way, this is nothing to take for granted, as we'll probably be in the unseeded pot going on last season's rankings.

My big worry if we do get 4th, we could still be bedding in a load of new players and trip up. Do those that drop out at that point go into the Europa?

irblinx wrote:

BlueinBosnia wrote:By the way, this is nothing to take for granted, as we'll probably be in the unseeded pot going on last season's rankings.

My big worry if we do get 4th, we could still be bedding in a load of new players and trip up. Do those that drop out at that point go into the Europa?

Yep. Straight into Europa group stages.

I was looking at the 3rd place thing but the GD is hard to make if they lost that game then they would lose at least 1 GD meaning we would have to make up 8 goals as they are 9 above us (to lose that game it would mean they would lose by at least 1 goal lowering there GD). It's not impossible but we would have to totally destroy one or both our next 2 opponents. I cannot see it happening. If sprs beat us though I can see them coming 3rd to make the loss becoming even more miserable..

giokingkladze wrote:Annoying to think that if we'd actually gone at Arsenal last weekend and beaten them (they were there for the taking) and we win our game in hand tomorrow, we'd have gone level on points with them

It isn't just the Arsenal game though. Four points from six against them isn't bad. Losing to United at home, didn't help our cause. nor Everton(home and away), draws against Burnley and Hull - losing to Hull away. Max points from those games would have us chasing Chelsea !

Next season is going to be a cracker !

I