Is 57 Points Enough For Europe

[Coastwalker]

How is it possible that for every 3 fouls by FFC we
 got a yellow card.
 But Bournemouth only got a yellow card for
every 11 fouls ?
this seems a bit strange to me.

Part of the difference was how scared we were of their pace and cutting edge on the break.  Once one of their players got goalside of ours, out would come the arms and a yellow was taken "for the team".  Bournemouth weren't especially scared of our players ability to break and did this far less.

Incidentally this seemed also the underlying reason Cairney played so deep, sometimes as the very last man, because if a Bournemouth player got goalside of him there's very little chance he could do anything useful about it, arms or no arms.

Much of the shape of the game seemed dictated by how every player on the pitch knew how much more potent Bournemouth were.  Their midfield ability to carve through, slipping clever balls just out of reach was impressive.  This is probably what too European teams see in Bournemouth players and it's one heck of a business model.

I'm sorry, and this isn't just you I've seen multiple people say similar things, but Bournemouth definitely didn't carve us open or been better than us. They've scored a long distance deflected goal and had one good chance late on. Even in the second half, we created more and better chances(if you look at xG that is true too, we've had 0.69 compared to their 0.66 xG in the second half, and in the first we had 0.64 compared to 0.14). I don't recall Leno making a big save or something.

We were the better team overall, even if we weren't amazing in the second half.

You keep going on about chances,but it boils down to we can't put them away...Its the same everywhere teams miss chances.
And the Cherries were miles ahead of us,Get them rose coloured specs off...We're rubbish at the moment,and have been for a while.

[SerbianLad]

You keep going on about chances,but it boils down to we can't put them away...Its the same everywhere teams miss chances.
And the Cherries were miles ahead of us,Get them rose coloured specs off...We're rubbish at the moment,and have been for a while.

That's because our wingers and strikers are out of form. Our defence and midfield is doing a fine job recently. Also we hit the crossbar two times, that's not just poor finishing, that's being unlucky too.

We absolutely weren't the worse team vs Bournemouth. I thought 0-0 would have been a fair result.

[Coastwalker]

You keep going on about chances,but it boils down to we can't put them away...Its the same everywhere teams miss chances.
And the Cherries were miles ahead of us,Get them rose coloured specs off...We're rubbish at the moment,and have been for a while.

That's because our wingers and strikers are out of form. Our defence and midfield is doing a fine job recently. Also we hit the crossbar two times, that's not just poor finishing, that's being unlucky too.

We absolutely weren't the worse team vs Bournemouth. I thought 0-0 would have been a fair result.

Last reply...lots of teams hit the woodwork,sometimes when it's easier to score,it's not unlucky.
If Raul was playing and had the headed chances Muniz had,then we might of got something out of the game.

[SerbianLad]

You keep going on about chances,but it boils down to we can't put them away...Its the same everywhere teams miss chances.
And the Cherries were miles ahead of us,Get them rose coloured specs off...We're rubbish at the moment,and have been for a while.

That's because our wingers and strikers are out of form. Our defence and midfield is doing a fine job recently. Also we hit the crossbar two times, that's not just poor finishing, that's being unlucky too.

We absolutely weren't the worse team vs Bournemouth. I thought 0-0 would have been a fair result.

Last reply...lots of teams hit the woodwork,sometimes when it's easier to score,it's not unlucky.
If Raul was playing and had the headed chances Muniz had,then we might of got something out of the game.

We can't know that + Raul was obviously unavailable as it was JKA who came on and not Raul, so it's a moot point anyway

[Coastwalker]

Bye Bye.

[SerbianLad]

The Palace-Everton score keeps our, albeit minimal, chances of Europe alive.

Palace have shown they still have some fight left in them, at last, so hopefully they'll put on a similar performance vs Brentford later on.


We need Everton to lose or draw at least one of their final two games against Sunderland and Spurs, coincidentally, we need the exact same thing against exact same teams for Chelsea. A draw and a win is completely fine. Additionally we need Brentford to win 2 points or less against Palace and Liverpool (or 3 points if we somehow managed to overcome their goal difference advantage). Obviously, we would need to win both of our games.

It's not ideal that we are relying on Spurs, Sunderland, Palace and Liverpool, but today's result made me optimistic again. There is definitely still a chance for us.

Update:
West Ham loss isn't ideal for our chances, as Spurs can now go 4 points clear of West Ham tomorrow and then they might not need to fight hard in the last 2 matches and we need them to.

[BestOfBrede]

Even if we win our last two games - I have a bad feeling that Brentford will finish above us on goal difference and take the last European spot.

This being the case I think I would prefer we draw at Wolves and then a win on the last day, so we don't have to suffer that degree of misery of missing out by such a fine margin!

I hope they do, as they also will struggle with Europe plus Prem football imo.
Like us - not a big squad and injuries play a massive part.
I hope they get the spot and go down, we take our time and get there withabloomin good chance of success 
(Hopefully before I'm too old to see it!)
Hmm just a few years then Mr Khan!!

[SerbianLad]

Spurs result is good for our chances. This means Spurs still have something to play for, at least in their next match.

[JoeS]

Spurs result is good for our chances. This means Spurs still have something to play for, at least in their next match.

- City win the FA cup
- Fulham beat Wolves
- Brentford don't beat Palace OR Brighton lose at Leeds

These results would mean it goes to the final day

If you humour me and add in Everton dropping points to Sunderland and Spurs getting something at Chelsea...we'd very suddenly be favourites to qualify based on final day fixtures

Lets face it, it's a long shot, but makes this weekend a little more interesting at the very least. If we took it to the final day who knows what could happen

[SerbianLad]

If Sunderland and Spurs get something at Everton and Chelsea respectively with Brentford dropping points vs Palace, and we beat Wolves, the only result we'd need to go our way on final day is Liverpool-Brentford where we'd need Brentford to fail to beat Liverpool at Anfield (and we'd obviously need to beat Newcastle).

Palace showed some fight vs Everton, so hopefully same will happen against Brentford. Beating Liverpool at Enfield is never easy, so it's not impossible that Brentford fails to win both games. That Palace match is huge for us though.

Everton and Chelsea both play Sunderland and Spurs in their final two matches. As it stands, Spurs are still in the relegation fight and Sunderland are in a similar position to us, although their goal difference is even worse, so both Sunderland and Spurs still have something to play for. It's not impossible that both Chelsea and Everton will drop points in at least one of those two games, and that would be enough.

I thought we'd be out of it with a loss, but a lot of results have gone our way, and we definitely still have a shot. I think Brentford is the biggest problem in those calculations.

[KentFulham]

If Sunderland and Spurs get something at Everton and Chelsea respectively with Brentford dropping points vs Palace, and we beat Wolves, the only result we'd need to go our way on final day is Liverpool-Brentford where we'd need Brentford to fail to beat Liverpool at Anfield (and we'd obviously need to beat Newcastle).

Palace showed some fight vs Everton, so hopefully same will happen against Brentford. Beating Liverpool at Enfield is never easy, so it's not impossible that Brentford fails to win both games. That Palace match is huge for us though.

Everton and Chelsea both play Sunderland and Spurs in their final two matches. As it stands, Spurs are still in the relegation fight and Sunderland are in a similar position to us, although their goal difference is even worse, so both Sunderland and Spurs still have something to play for. It's not impossible that both Chelsea and Everton will drop points in at least one of those two games, and that would be enough.

I thought we'd be out of it with a loss, but a lot of results have gone our way, and we definitely still have a shot. I think Brentford is the biggest problem in those calculations.

I cant see us beating Wolves, not if we keep playing sideways football

[The Rock]

You should probably amend the title to "NFR: Is 57 Points Enough For Europe".

[KentFulham]

You should probably amend the title to "NFR: Is 57 Points Enough For Europe".

LOL very true!

[SerbianLad]

Man City FA Cup win keeps our hopes alive!

[bill taylors apprentice]

If we pick up max points (highly unlikely IMO) we have an outside chance of achieving some kind of Euro place, depending on other results.

But frankly I'd be happy if we won enough points to just move ahead of the bluepoo by the end of the season!

[SerbianLad]

Palace put out a strong team, hopefully they can do the business.

[SerbianLad]

While not mathematically over, it's over now.

[Nero]

We are now just 2 points ahead of leeds that were heading towards relegation a few games ago, Siva out now, get some fresh ideas in

[Coastwalker]

While not mathematically over, it's over now.

Thank God this shower wouldn't beat San Marino.😄

[The Little Dave]

57 gets us in easy, but getting 9 points from the games you outlined is incredibly difficult.

Is two home wins and a win against a relegated Wolves that difficult thou?

Yooo