Title Race

[BlueBee]

Chelsea and Arsenal the only challengers going into the final leg of the season. Pretty impressive two London clubs leading the way.

Chelsea;
QPR (a)
Man Utd (h)
Arsenal (a)
Leicester (a)
Palace (h)
Liverpool (h)
West Brom (a)
Sunderland (h)

Arsenal;
Burnley (a)
Chelsea (h)
Hull (a)
Swansea (h)
Man Utd (a)
Sunderland (h)
West Brom (h)

 

[Stocky]

I'd have admired you much more BlueBee if you'd just posted Chelsea's fixtures here and left.

You've already won it pal, enjoy. Best team over the season, still don't think you're the side some make out to be but enough for this year.

 

[Tilbury]

It's over.

 

[Skinner]

Next week is a big one. Chelsea buckle at QPR, City/United draw and Arsenal manage to beat Burnley...

 

[BlueBee]

It's far from over. QPR away is as hard as it comes for us, this is their biggest game of the season. After that we play a rejuvenated Man Utd team and then play an in form Arsenal side at the Emirates.

I keep repeating it but we've only been at best once this calendar year....and now we're without Diego Costa.

This is far from over.

 

[Abertawe]

Arsenal ain't winning shit.

 

[Tilbury]

We've only been good once this year and yet we still sit 7 points clear with a game in hand. No way we're slipping up from here.

 

[smat]

It is over. We left it a bit late.

 

[Jarv]

the only chance of Chelsea blowing this lead is if they suddenly hire Kevin Keegan to do all their post match press conferences. #Loveit

 

[Whitechapel]

It's far from over. QPR away is as hard as it comes for us, this is their biggest game of the season. After that we play a rejuvenated Man Utd team and then play an in form Arsenal side at the Emirates.

I keep repeating it but we've only been at best once this calendar year....and now we're without Diego Costa.

This is far from over.

What's the word on Costa's hammy?

 

[BlueBee]

What's the word on Costa's hammy?

Mourinho says minimum 2 weeks. That's very optimistic imo.

He'll have an operation at the end of the season.

 

[BlueBee]

We've only been good once this year and yet we still sit 7 points clear with a game in hand. No way we're slipping up from here.

We've had quite an easy run of games though. When we have played anyone half decent in the league we've dropped points. We stumbled through the league cup semi finals and did the bare minimum in the final.

If we win our next two I'll start feeling confident.

 

[Whitechapel]

Mourinho says minimum 2 weeks. That's very optimistic imo.

He'll have an operation at the end of the season.

Didn't he have issues with the same leg last season? Not insinuating he's injury prone but maybe he fools people into thinking he's fit to play when he's at risk of making things worse?

Remy is decent enough back up though. Wouldn't even bother with Drogbasaur though, until he scores at the Emirates as is tradition.

 

[thespus]

I would prefer Chelsea wins at QPR just so I don't do that to myself.

 

[Stevencc]

It's been over for months, no one has been good enough to challenge Chelsea this season.

 

[Tilbury]

Just a question now if we want it won going in to the Liverpool game or to win against them. I hope Gerrard plays.

 

[BlueBee]

Didn't he have issues with the same leg last season? Not insinuating he's injury prone but maybe he fools people into thinking he's fit to play when he's at risk of making things worse?

Remy is decent enough back up though. Wouldn't even bother with Drogbasaur though, until he scores at the Emirates as is tradition.

Ye he's always had hamstring problems. Atletico, understandably, rushed him back for the champions league final last season and it made things worse. He then had a world cup to deal with before joining us. He needs a long overdue break this summer.

Remy gets us goals but his overall game is not even close to as good as Costa's.

 

[BlueBee]

the only chance of Chelsea blowing this lead is if they suddenly hire Kevin Keegan to do all their post match press conferences. #Loveit

Or we miraculously sign Steven Gerrard.

 

[thespus]

Roman could buy LA Galaxy and troll Liverpool supporters. Make Stevie G's 2004 wish come true. I'd personally hate to see it, but it'd be quite funny.

Because I'm a sadist: If (big if) Arsenal won the remainder of their fixtures, they'd finish on 84 points. Chelsea would need to drop 10 points in that time, so that means they'd need to lose to Manchester United, Liverpool, and at the Emirates and drop points to one of QPR (a), Leicester (a), Palace, West Brom (a), or Sunderland. No chance.

 

[smat]

Roman could buy LA Galaxy and troll Liverpool supporters. Make Stevie G's 2004 wish come true. I'd personally hate to see it, but it'd be quite funny.

Because I'm a sadist: If (big if) Arsenal won the remainder of their fixtures, they'd finish on 84 points. Chelsea would need to drop 10 points in that time, so that means they'd need to lose to Manchester United, Liverpool, and at the Emirates and drop points to one of QPR (a), Leicester (a), Palace, West Brom (a), or Sunderland. No chance.

Annoying tho, innit. If we'd signed Gabriel last summer, or not had a disastrous spell of injuries, we might still be involved.

 

[thespus]

Annoying tho, innit. If we'd signed Gabriel last summer, or not had a disastrous spell of injuries, we might still be involved.

We should have bought a proper 3rd CB in the summer. In retrospect, this likely cost us a few points. If we had 4 more points at this stage, I'd be more inclined to think a race was on. Having said that, I'm a big fan of Gabriel, but we couldn't have signed him and received a work permit in the summer since he had hardly played for Villareal.

Injuries, of course. Koscielny's Achilles quite probably being our downfall, our heel. Both he and Giroud are more fluky injuries rather than the predictable absences for Ramsey, Wilshere, Walcott, Chamberlain, and Özil. Debuchy has been incredibly unfortunate, but it has seen the emergence of Bellerin, so we haven't been too unfortunate. Ditto for Arteta's absence leading to the recall of Coquelin. Chelsea haven't had near the same amount of injuries, but that very well could just be an advantage they've earned via their training and fitness methods. Apart from Costa, all of their key players have hardly missed time. They will be deserving champions, either way.

 

[Smally]

Chelsea should have the league won with games to spare. It would be much closer had Wenger decided not to go into the first half of the season with only Koscielny, Mertesacker and Chambers being able to play centre back. Wenger also seems to have stumbled upon Coquelin providing the balance in midfield which has brought the likes of Ramsey, Cazorla and Ozil back into form. If I was an Arsenal fan I'd be looking back on this season thinking 'what if...' as this seems to be the best chance they've had in a long time to win the league

 

[smat]

Chelsea should have the league won with games to spare. It would be much closer had Wenger decided not to go into the first half of the season with only Koscielny, Mertesacker and Chambers being able to play centre back. Wenger also seems to have stumbled upon Coquelin providing the balance in midfield which has brought the likes of Ramsey, Cazorla and Ozil back into form. If I was an Arsenal fan I'd be looking back on this season thinking 'what if...' as this seems to be the best chance they've had in a long time to win the league

Think last season was a better chance tbh. Chelsea have been miles better than anyone else this season. City last season weren't that great.

 

[Smally]

Maybe you're right. I expect Arsenal to be able to put a real challenge together next season though, if Wenger signs upgrades in goal and defensive midfield.

 

[ArmchairDiehard]

Mourinho says minimum 2 weeks. That's very optimistic imo.

He'll have an operation at the end of the season.

Why not let him have the operation now and let him relax fully over the Summer? You'd win the title even if you had me upfront for the remaining games.

 

[thespus]

I think next season will be our best chance in ages. We'll have more competition for places, more confidence from beating big sides this season, and fringe players such as Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bellerin, and Gabriel could all take the next step and become top players. Assuming we keep everyone bar Flamini and probably Rosicky, we will do well to land Schneiderlin and see if an upgrade on Mertesacker is available. Gabriel, Bellerin, Coquelin, Gibbs, Wilshere, Arteta, Welbeck, Walcott, and Oxlade-Chamberlain would present very strong bench options.

Still not convinced by Ospina. Bringing in Cech would be brilliant, but for a plethora of reasons, it's probably unlikely. Mourinho will view us as a "challenger" and plenty of teams in Europe could with Cech.

 

[Mustard]

I think Rosicky will stay another season at least. I certainly hope so, still has a lot to offer. Flamini can go though, Coquelin is the ready replacement. Arteta should go really, I think bringing in Schneiderlin or somebody like that would make him surplus to requirements but something tells me he'll stay another season despite not being good enough. I think Podolski will be sold too.

We really have no excuses for next season. This summer was a huge fuck up, we should never have gone into the season with as little defensive depth as we did, however over the course of the season we've stumbled upon solutions in Coquelin and Bellerin, as well as acquiring Gabriel. We could still do with another striker to take the load off of Giroud, but otherwise I think we're good going forward. Add another DM (otherwise if Coquelin gets injured we're back to square one) and maybe a CB (hard to say, maybe Chambers will be played at CB more) and we're good to go. I think Ospina deserves more time, he's done very little wrong so far. I don't think Cech will be available to us anyway. Szczesny could still come good, he was very good last season, and I think he'll get another shot to prove himself. He needs to mature and stop coasting first though.

 

[BlueBee]

Why not let him have the operation now and let him relax fully over the Summer? You'd win the title even if you had me upfront for the remaining games.

I'd be happy for that to happen....think Mourinho still reckons he can get something out of him this season.

Remy and Drogba should have enough about them to make up for his absence (I don't think Costa is in great form anyway).

 

[thespus]

I think Rosicky will stay another season at least. I certainly hope so, still has a lot to offer. Flamini can go though, Coquelin is the ready replacement. Arteta should go really, I think bringing in Schneiderlin or somebody like that would make him surplus to requirements but something tells me he'll stay another season despite not being good enough. I think Podolski will be sold too.

I'd love Rosicky to stay another season and he certainly still has plenty to offer. I've watched the majority of his matches since he joined BVB nearly 15 years ago. Injuries prevented him from becoming a massive name in Europe, but he's been quite the professional. If he is content playing a squad role for Wenger and competing for trophies, excellent. But if he desires to play out the rest of his career with regular football, I think the club should make it easy for him to sign for whichever European club he pleases.

 

[Storzy]

hahah title race!

If either us, Utd or City were 6 or so points closer then maybe as Chelsea look like they're limping over the line.