DakotaVilla Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 1 hour ago, CVByrne said: Only once in our last 7 PL games have we won on xG. That was against Forest. Unlike the season up to that point where we were winning games on xG and on scoreboard We will be found out soon if we don't improve our performances. Fortunately games are won on grass not in excel. They should invent a meaningless stat that defines “grit” as you’ll have seen plenty of that in recent games. The ridiculousness of xG as the king of stats is shown by the wolves game. They had one chance and apart from 20 minutes we totally controlled that game barely getting out of third gear at times. XG would tell you a very different and incorrect story though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben1505 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 Anyone on here remotely concerned about top 4 favourites Manure catching us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan_of_oz Posted April 3 VT Supporter Share Posted April 3 1 minute ago, ben1505 said: Anyone on here remotely concerned about top 4 favourites Manure catching us? No. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DakotaVilla Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 1 hour ago, Tayls said: What does this mean? That penguins like cornflakes for dinner. It’s complete bollocks. Especially when you consider that under our winning run at the end of last season we pretty much always lost on XG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 2 hours ago, PieFacE said: Did we not beat Wolves in xG? Cos we were clearly the better team that day. Pretty much sums up why I couldn't give a toss about xG if that's the case. In fairness with the way it works that At-Nouri chance was basically a sitter (it dosen't factor in the quality of keeper facing the shot) so that would've scored very highly compared to say Ollie's chance where he was a bit wider than hit the side netting. Our goals were a long range but very well placed shot that dosen't tend to score high as that would be blocked most times and then a Konsa mishit cross that beautifully looped in. Beyond that it was a typical derby game where not many chances were created although I assume that Doherty header over right at the end was also deemed a decent chance by the metric so Wolves can take the xG trophy home from that one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 43 minutes ago, Mantis said: Neither could crumble. We could just both keep bobbing along in the same way we are now. This weekend is quite an interesting one I think. Many neutrals will both be putting us and Spurs down to win as we're both at home to bottom six teams who've hardly won any games recently. However Brentford and Forest both can sit in and frustrate and also have some decent counter attack players so I think they'll both be much tighter than many are predicting. Spurs are shown consistently this year they can come back from going 1-0 down at home in first halves to win while we must be one of the best in the league at managing leads in home games. Don't think we've even drawn a home game this season when we've been leading which is a huge credit to our game management. If we win then we're 5 clear of Spurs so they're getting to the stage where 1-1s away won't quite be enough which is interesting with their schedule coming up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul514 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 36 minutes ago, ben1505 said: Anyone on here remotely concerned about top 4 favourites Manure catching us? No, zero, nada, zilch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul514 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 1 hour ago, Wezbid said: It's not a half arsed selection to me. Olsen had to step in. Duran had to. Tielemans is working his way back to full fitness and will be needed in games where he's not run ragged by City's possession game. Bailey can't start every game and was replaced by Zaniolo who had upped his game and needs the minutes for the run in, Pau is only just back from injury and can't be over-stretched, he's far more pivotal against the likes of Brentford. I get the frustration travelling there and not seeing the players you want to see but there is nothing half-arsed about what we do. These players are humans, with limits and there's also still a lot of games to come. some fans think if you pay a player another 10k that week they somehow become less fatigued. Newer understood how some fans don't get they have bodies the same as the rest of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben1505 Posted April 3 Share Posted April 3 12 minutes ago, paul514 said: No, zero, nada, zilch. Hope so.. if we beat Brentford and they lose to Chelsea and Liverpool, they’ll need 5 wins from 7 games to overtake us (assuming we don’t get any more points after Brentford). Interestingly, Spurs we’re in 5th at this stage last year and through away 19 points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 The race is still on, we need to give our crucial players breaks and time to recover from any niggles or knocks. People are deluding themselves if they thought we were going to get a win against City at home. We take the defeat, learn from it and as Don Unai has shown time and time again, we bounce back. Anyways, Spurs dropping points to West Ham is bigger than us losing to City. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 McGinn back raring to go. Leon and Youri rested. Dougie played about 90 combined minutes of football in 2 weeks. Zaniolo coming into some form. Ollie and JJ hopefully back for Brentford, with the former getting a much needed rest in the process. In a weird way, it's looking a lot more promising than before the break given how leggy our players were starting to look. I get the feeling Emery's squad and tactical management will help us over the line whereas Ange's lads are going to be gassed out in a few weeks. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zab6359 Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 7 hours ago, wilko154 said: Annoys me as with a lot of injuries we’ve then gone ahead and rested some of our most important players in Torres, Tielemans and Bailey. Maybe Emery knows best and they needed resting but it feels very much like a game thrown away to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted April 4 VT Supporter Share Posted April 4 5 hours ago, ben1505 said: Hope so.. if we beat Brentford and they lose to Chelsea and Liverpool, they’ll need 5 wins from 7 games to overtake us (assuming we don’t get any more points after Brentford). Interestingly, Spurs we’re in 5th at this stage last year and through away 19 points. Man Utd are irrelevant. They have no chance of catching us. Our season now comes down to finishing 4th or 5th. Both will likely result in champions league qualification 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 6 hours ago, rodders129 said: I’m suddenly feeling pretty chill about the ‘race for Champions League’. I read that Spurs forum post saying they’re not that interested in UCL anymore and it made me think. People get sucked into this idea that if we make the UCL next season it will change the future of the club forever. I’m not so sure. I think the next few years are about enjoying the Unai ride, aiming to get consistently better each year and trying to compete for trophies. Look at Newcastle this year…the big prize of the UCL turned into ash in their mouths. Just enjoy the journey and dream of a trophy…be it UECL this year, domestic or Europa next year or whatever Oh absolutely. Making the Champions League is not going to change our world the way some people seem to think. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcarpet Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 I'm pretty happy with where we are, 2 points ahead of spurs still (regardless of their game in hand, it's points on the board that count) and only 1 goal behind them and they still have to play man City. Match or beat their result at the weekend and I think we will be looking the strongest for 4th place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichW Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Happy with the position we are in. Do wonder if Spurs result the other night influenced his decision with the line up or whether he was going to do it anyway. Just have to wait for the Brentford game to see whether it was vindicated or not. Wouldn't be surprised if we saw a similar line-up against Arsenal if the Lille score line is close after the first leg. Lille will have a free weekend when we play Arsenal so the away leg is going to be tough. Pretty sure towards the back end of last season Brighton had a fixture pile-up and De Zerbi was resting different players for each game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted April 4 Moderator Share Posted April 4 If Chelsea win tonight, then one more league win might be enough for us provided English teams do well in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted April 4 Moderator Share Posted April 4 It's weird, we've got a big lead on Utd - but I'm still concerned about them. I guess that's because in my mind, it's likely that English teams will do well in Europe and we'll carry the coefficient place, so 5th is the same prize as 4th. At this stage I'm not really that bothered by what Spurs do, as long as United lose - they might be a way behind us, but it's only really them or a collapse by Liverpool and City in Europe that's likely to keep us out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 1 hour ago, LondonLax said: Oh absolutely. Making the Champions League is not going to change our world the way some people seem to think. Are yo crazy? It will make a massive difference to the calibre of player we will bring in this summer which will be pivotal to us climbing higher next season. Unai has worked miracles with the current squad but we are a couple of engines down and running on fumes as we approach the runway. Massive upgrade ahead if we make it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichW Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said: If Chelsea win tonight, then one more league win might be enough for us provided English teams do well in Europe. Feel disgusting writing this but I think I've had more interest watching Spurs and Man Utd games this mid-week. Last night always felt a bonus to me. Will go have a shower after that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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