Battle Of 4th, 5th, 6th Position

[krislu]

We still have a chance at 4th, but I feel all the recent media talk has put to much pressure on our players. We dont have any players who are used to fight for a CL spot, and it might just show to be a bit much for most of them..

[bellamy11]

Jarosik~!

[sibbald]

Bolton lose 1-0.............

[Eddie]

Well. With them losing then I'd take our draw. Overall the two days have gone quite well for us. They can't overtake us now so if we wan't to stay in the top 6 all we have to do is get better results. Finally it is entirely in our own hands...why am I more worried?

[Mr. E]

great result for us with Bolton losing. This puts us firmly in charge of 6th place, it's ours to lose now.

As for CL league...the way I see things we can afford one draw, at the most two (Liverpool and Chelsea I guess) and win everything else. It's a bit unfair to ask that from the players I think, just getting the 6th place will be fantastic. But we have to give it our all, and who knows...

[krislu]

A Liverpool

H Chelsea

A WBA

H Charlton

A Tottenham

H Birmingham

No way will Bolton get many points from these lats six games. We SHOULD get that 6th spot now!

[Eddie]

What is nice about that run of fixtures is thay maybe now we could get to a point where Bolton could help us out in that game against Spurs. This is a very big weekend for us.

I also can't help but feel that Birmingham winning tonight improves our chances at Portsmouth. Portsmouth were on the crest of a wave and had pretty much everything going their way, this may have given them a slight knock to see close rivals pick up an unexpected three points.

[modes98]

I also can't help but feel that Birmingham winning tonight improves our chances at Portsmouth. Portsmouth were on the crest of a wave and had pretty much everything going their way, this may have given them a slight knock to see close rivals pick up an unexpected three points.

396538[/snapback]

Pompey Fans View

Maybe your on to something

[tcj_jones]

I never expected Bolton to fall apart like they have. I now have us finishing above them and getting 6th place

Edited April 4, 2006 by tcj_jones

[evukovic]

I did a quick predictor thingy using that machine type dealy and came up with this...

1 Man Utd - 90 Pts

2 Chelsea - 90 Pts

3 L'Pool - 75 Pts

4 Arsenal - 68 Pts

5 ROVERS - 65 Pts

6 Spurs - 61 Pts

7 Wigan - 56 Pts

8 Bolton - 54 Pts

With the fixtures in hand, I reckon we can get enough to steal fifth. Spuds have a tough run in, as do Bolton, and to be honest, I can see Bolton capitulating towards the end of the season. In current form I also see Manure stealing the title from underneath the noses of Chelski, and Portsmouth maintaining a good run of results to claw out of the bottom three with WBA destiend for the drop.

[tcj_jones]

I have it as:

Arsenal - 69

Spurs - 63

ROVERS - 62

Bolton - 59

Wigan - 59

[asianRover]

alrite bolton lost. i'm so glad we didnt drop all 3 points against wigan. get the feeling its more valuable then we thought it would. with bolton slipping up losing 3 in a row now, and spurs starting to lose a bit of form and a difficult end of season, the season is in our hands and so too is that fourth place IF we regain our form and start to play better.

the man utd, arse game is goin to be huge. man utd did us a favour by beating bolton last week, hope they do it again this week against arsenal. i know the gunners are red hot right now but, you have the remember theyve been winning mainly at home. the last away win was against inconsistent fulhum which was in early march and to top it off, rovers have a slightly better away record than arsenal.

but it all boils down to us. we absolutely must win this weekend at pomey. lets go rovers!

[Mr. E]

If Arsenal finish 4th and win the CL...5th place doesn't open up for a spot, does it ?

[Ricky]

nope

If Arsenal come 5th and win the champions league 4th place goes into the Uefa cup.

[waggy]

nope

If Arsenal come 5th and win the champions league 4th place goes into the Uefa cup.

396596[/snapback]

i can see us finishing 4th and the arse winning the cl

[Walls]

For a few weeks now I've been extremely confident that we will finish above both Spurs and Bolton given their respective fixtures and the draw against Wigan has done nothing to change that. What I think that draw has done is made our persuit of 4th place that little bit harder. Given Arsenal's goal difference we need to make up 4 points on them given that they will win their game in hand.

Arsenal have only played once away since we beat them so the fantastic form that everyone is talking about could be miss-leading. Throw in a few away defeats and it wouldn't look as good. There is still hope!

[Ozz]

We only need 7 more points from the last six games to equal the 60 we got when we last finished 6th and in UEFA spot.

Final Table 2003

Must be on for that at least?

[Eddie]

Also, another interesting landmark to pass in comparison to that season is the number of goals we have scored. That season is often rememberd as one where we saw Rovers playing wonderful attacking football with the likes of Duff, Dunn, Jansen and Cole playing some of their best stuff. That year we scored 52 goals, we have currently scored 43 with 6 games to play there is no doubting that we could still pass that tally as well.

[Billy Castell]

I think we'll finish 5th or 6th now, unless Spuds and arsenal implode.

[Ronin]

I think we'll finish 5th or 6th now, unless Spuds and arsenal implode.

396738[/snapback]

After their last couple of results, the Spuds seem to be starting to

[tony gale's mic]

it's becoming increasingly obvious arsenal will finish 4th. to be fair, worse things happen at sea. they are worthy of that 4th champions league spot, let's be honest. on their day they are much better than us, bolton or spurs. i would have loved to have seen us finish in 4th...to see us on the biggest stage and not to mention the extra revenue we'd recieve which may have made the playing field between us and the big city clubs that bit more fair.

what would have irked me is if bolton or spurs got that 4th place, as we're at least the equal of spurs and a better side than bolton, as i'm sure will be proved next season.

[Rover4ever]

it's becoming increasingly obvious arsenal will finish 4th. to be fair, worse things happen at sea. they are worthy of that 4th champions league spot, let's be honest. on their day they are much better than us, bolton or spurs. i would have loved to have seen us finish in 4th...to see us on the biggest stage and not to mention the extra revenue we'd recieve which may have made the playing field between us and the big city clubs that bit more fair.

what would have irked me is if bolton or spurs got that 4th place, as we're at least the equal of spurs and a better side than bolton, as i'm sure will be proved next season.

396756[/snapback]

Fully agree.

If Arsenal have a good finish to the season, theres nothing that can make us beat them to the 4th position. Lets not forget that we are the 2nd or 3rd in current form and it will be kind to difficult for us to win 4 more games out of 6. Even more so because I really dont fancy our trips to Brum and Ports mouth.

[krislu]

So Arsenal qualify for the semies, that will give them a pretty hard run in:

April

9 A Manchester Utd

12 A Portsmouth

15 H W.B.A.

19 H Villareal

22 H Tottenham Hotspur

25 A Villareal

May

1 A Sunderland

4 A Manchester City

7 H Wigan Athletic

17 N CL Final

I do not believe that they can play their best team and keeping their current form with this shedule. Just look at how many games they will play a week!

They have 6 games in 16 days, thats less than an average of 3days between each game! Points will be dropped here..

Edited April 5, 2006 by krislu

[G Somerset Rover]

Couldnt be bothered to start a new thread so I'll put it here, its with regards to the standard of Italian football. Juventus are walking away with the Italian league this season, yet in four legs (two against L'pool last season and two against Arse) they have mustered one goal. To me, and to all the pundits on there Juve are the most boring one dimensional team to have ever been labelled a 'great side'. Tonight they missed Del Piero, Vieira and a couple others...but what about last year against L'pool? Blimey I know the Italians are famed for their defensive capabilities but they're awful to watch going forward. Take Milan as well, they were extremely fortunate to beat Lyon and haven't looked that comfortable in the competition so far this season, plus they are trailing Juve in Serie A by some margin. Added to this the underachivement of Inter again this term and you can see that the Spanish and English leagues are clearly better in terms of quality and entertainment. The dominance of the Italian game in Europe is well and truly over...I'd take watching Bolton against Everton everytime!

Edited April 5, 2006 by Somerset Rover!

[Bobby G]

What about Englands "best" side, the one that ran away with the title last season and is doing the same this season? They lost to Barcelona, were outplayed, couldnt muster a chance away from home, and only scored from a last gasp "pity" penalty? They also lost with their best side at Betis.

Performances over a few matches dont make a great team, or a mediocre team. Its just form.

I cant agree with you that Juve's style or performance reflects on Italian football, just as Chelsea's unimaginative defeat in Barcelona cant reflect totally on English football.

The continental game is a whole another ball game.