This is a time when I constantly find myself checking the final nine fixtures and find myself continuing to believe we will make it into the Champions League.
There are some very tricky games in there but only one that I genuinely fear and it may be surprising to some that comes at Turf Moor on May 1 .
Burnley away is bad news for the Irons at a time when we are making our current charge – our record up there really isn’t very good at all.
The likes of Leicester City at home, Chelsea and Everton aren’t too much of a worry particularly the south west Londoners as I always fancy us against them.
Getting off to a winning start after this international break will be important and it’s such a shame that fell when it did as we needed a quick winning game to get over the shock of the Arsenal comeback.
Looking at the nine fixtures, Leicester Burnley and Everton seem to me to be the games where we will lose points and my final total from the games left is 20.
And that’s likely to be enough for top four based on last year’s totals. Let us know what you reckon as your points totals!
Seventy six. Third place finish.
I made a forecast before the season started for all the games we play (just the points, not the scores). So far, the Irons are 11 points ahead of my forecast, and I guessed another 14 points to come from the last nine games, making 63 points in total. And so far I have 12 results incorrect (what do I know?). But I had Arsenal down for a draw!
not sure where we’ll finish – because i’ve been watching this club for 44 yrs now. i do like your optimism, but a little reminder that Chelsea beat us 3-0 earlier this season, our worst loss this campaign. i, like you, think we can beat them but i also think we have the pedigree to lose to Newcastle again. it would be so “us” and i pray that i’m wrong. 5th or 6th for us is my (tentative) guess. proud of this season regardless. well done Moysie and the lads. also thanks to G & S for staying right out of it this season
We have not finished above Arsenal since 1985/6 or above Spurs since 2001/2 so anywhere above them will be good. We were in this exact position in the last season at the Boleyn and only one point of 4th. However we finished the last 9 with 4 draws and 2 defeats to drop to 7th. This feels like a stronger team so I’m hoping we can get at least 5 wins and finish on 66 hopefully being at least the second best club in London for the first time in 35 years.
If we average 2 points a game I think we may finish in the top four, I don’t care how we get them but 6 wins out of 9 or 5 and 3 draws and the games against Leicester and Chelsea could decide whether it’s Europa or CL. We have to get the momentum going again early COYI !!!