The Chelsea v Rags Quandry

[Ted Hughes]

No. I was hoping for at least 3rd spot, which means finishing above Chelsea. They have been playing worse than us on the whole, werte fucking diabolical v Liverpool & have been underperforming & average all season.None of their players are used to struggling for 4th, they're used to fighting for trophies. A defeat last night would have put them under immense pressure & been a shot in the arm for us. They needed something like last night in order to kick them into gear. They got it; ahuge psychological boost which gives their multi trophy winning players a goal to aim for.

If they beat us, we may well be looking at a table with Spurs & Chelsea ahead of us the next day. Who will be favourites for 4th then? Us? We'll take points from Anfield & Goodison & beat Spurs at home for sure?

Our job just became much much harder.

Who gives a fuck though, so long as Utd didn't win. We can have the satisfaction of them winning the league with 3 less points, which is so important..

I see where you're coming from Ted but I think you're being a bit too negative here. Liverpool and Everton are two games we can win, Everton lost at home to fucking Reading yesterday, FFS, and Liverpool have been average all season; Anfield will lift them but only so much. As for Spurs, it's a tough game for sure but by then we might have recovered our form. As for the Chelsea game, they didn't impress me at all last night and I believe we can at least draw with them, which would defuse part of the scenario you described.

Winning tonight can give us that psychological boost we need to get back into form.

We CAN beat anybody, however we haven't beaten ANY kind of decent team home or away since the home game v Chelsea & that was a backs to the wall tactical battle. We tend to pick up most of our points against poor teams & our game v Fulham was crucial because of that. The Fulham result meant we now have to get those points back. Rags beating Chelsea would have given us back those points as far as our competition with Chelsea is concerned. The fact that they won, means that, if we want to finish above them, we will have to play better, against tougher teams, than we have done pretty much all season. I recon the same thing will apply if we want to finish above Spurs too, so we need both of those teams to lose whenever possible.

We are undoubtably capable of doing it but we were undoubtably capable of beating Birmingham (twice), Blackburn, Wolves, Villa, Sunderland, Stoke, Everton, Fulham, Poznan, Aris, Notts County & Leicester. All teams who have got results against us so far.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

I'm with Ted.
We had five very winnable home games which should have been how we get most of the points towards the 70 ish we need.
It was a disaster dropping two so cheaply. Plus it gives hope to visiting teams in the near future.
As for the game against Arsenal away last season it still stands as one of the biggest black marks against Mancini. Pathetic effort.

[Chinners]

As I've said before it's what we do that matters. Relying on other teams to lose is no way to approach football (granted it certainly helps at periods in the season) but after 38 games is when it all matters. Chelsea winning against the rags will be an irrelevance after the next 3 games ... It's going to the last couple of games again I reckon

[Beefymcfc]

Imo, we're so used to being shite & not competing for anything that we don't even realise the importance of games, when it's staring us in the face. The (lack of) atmosphere v Fulham showed how nobody truly realised how much we needed the 3 points. Likewise the pathetic joy taken in our biggest rivals for a Champ's Lg spot taking 3 points off the rags last night, is going right over everyone's heads. We're so used to being fucking losers that we don't look at fixtures as 'must win' for us & 'must lose' for other teams. We just sail through life expecting things will somehow work out.

A rags victory would have given us a real buffer against them.

This is where we differ again mate, I've never thought we were shite. All my time being a City supporter I've thought of us as Battlers and even now I'm of the same opinion. We're going through a tough run of fixtures and seemingly having to use players that wouldn't normally be used together, but we still battle through whilst under orders to keep the formation.

As for atmosphere, it started off really well with the SS and East corner going at each other but the lack of away support made it impossible to keep going. Combined with the opposition taking it to us it left people in a very uncomfortable position, worrying about the outcome (and CL place) instead of us just enjoying the game and having a bit of a gas.

Oh, and as mentioned, it's nowt to do with wanting the Rags to lose, that's just an added bonus, it's about actually wanting us to win instead of seeing some shite performances from a fantastic squad. Is that too much to ask? Or, in your view, we should start every season hoping that every team draw games and one of our opposition loses for us to make it. It should never be about what other teams do, it should only be about us, surely?

[Ted Hughes]

As I've said before it's what we do that matters. Relying on other teams to lose is no way to approach football (granted it certainly helps at periods in the season) but after 38 games is when it all matters. Chelsea winning against the rags will be an irrelevance after the next 3 games ... It's going to the last couple of games again I reckon

All teams worry about the opposition. Remember pubs full of rags patting us on the back when we got back from beating Leeds 4-0?

If the opposition win every week, you're fucked, someone has to beat them & most teams don't. We'll be even more worried about the opposition if we start challenging for the league & may need the rags to beat an opponent then too. There are only so many games the likes of Chelsea play per season, when you'd say they are quite likely to lose. That was one of them. It may be that we'll be relying on the rags to beat someone in order for us to win the league in the coming years. It happens like that all the time.

That's how it is from now one & it's about time we grew up & realised it.

[Beefymcfc]

Well Ted, at least we're safe in the knowledge that United didn't get any further ahead of us. We've still got a shot at the title.

[Ted Hughes]

Well Ted, at least we're safe in the knowledge that United didn't get any further ahead of us. We've still got a shot at the title.

We don't have enough games left.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

On SSN this morning they showed a graphic of Arsenal's remaining games and they certainly looked to have the easier run in. Admittedly I didn't study it in great detail.
If The Arse were to beat the shite when they meet at The Emirates, they would be quite clear favourites.

[Chinners]

All teams worry about the opposition. Remember pubs full of rags patting us on the back when we got back from beating Leeds 4-0?

And in the end it made no difference did it! If we win our remaining games it doesn't matter what Chelsea do. Big ask but that the way I see football

[Ted Hughes]

All teams worry about the opposition. Remember pubs full of rags patting us on the back when we got back from beating Leeds 4-0?

And in the end it made no difference did it! If we win our remaining games it doesn't matter what Chelsea do. Big ask but that the way I see football

No it didn't but that's how teams at the top always view things, the points are far more important than local rivalry. Most City fans will learn to look at it the the same way.

[Chinners]

Yeah I certainly agree about the points thing, which is why I said IF we win all our remaining games we'll be fine and will not matter what Chelsea or Spurs do.

[Ted Hughes]

Yeah I certainly agree about the points thing, which is why I said IF we win all our remaining games we'll be fine and will not matter what Chelsea or Spurs do.

I don't think anyone will win all their remaining games, therefore all 4 places will be decided on who loses & to whom.

[Beefymcfc]

On SSN this morning they showed a graphic of Arsenal's remaining games and they certainly looked to have the easier run in. Admittedly I didn't study it in great detail.
If The Arse were to beat the shite when they meet at The Emirates, they would be quite clear favourites.

I had the Arse to win it at the start of the season and still had the same opinion up until this week. The only concern for them is the number of 1st team injuries they have and the loss of key players such as Fabragarse and van Pussy may see them go through one of those slides that they normally have. I think United will start to feel the pinch soon as well so anything could happen.

[john68]

You are right on the money Ted...and City fans have to change the mid table mentality, where it's good to grab a well earned point at difficult places to a winning mentality, where a draw anywhere means 2pts dropped.

In mid table dropping 2 pts while all the rest are doing similar is not usually a problem.
At the top, those around us rarely drop points and every point gained is gold dust and precious.

Wherever and whenever, we have to go out to win.