ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Top 4

I may be damned for being pessimistic (and quite rightly) for writing this but all I want to do is point out a fact.

Everyone is going on about our inability to beat a team in the top 4. In fact we have only beaten one team in the top 12 all season. That includes Europe where all our competitors are languishing in the bottom half of their respective leagues except Zenit St Petersburg who won their league and are now in close season.

This is not said to dampen optimism because I think we are a much better team and improving. I just thought it was an interesting fact...
Mike Kennedy, London Posted 29/12/2007 at 09:31:57

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Øystein Lemvik
1 Posted 29/12/2007 at 09:51:57

True enough, that - although the team currently fourth have not beat any of the top four either (unless you’ll say they beat themselves against ManU and Reading..).

I hope we’ll soon start beating the teams around us, but I am pleased to see us beat the teams we SHOULD beat - after all, it’s not enough to talk the talk, we have to walk the walk as well

Brendan McLaughlin
2 Posted 29/12/2007 at 10:01:10

Certainly pessimistic Mike but I don’t think I would dam you for it. Another interesting fact is that when you look (glass half full)at our recent form only Manchester United have bettered us. Unfortunately (glass half empty) we have only managed to pull Arsenal & Chelsea back by two points & the Darkside by only one.

This "Top 4" is one hell of a hard nut to crack but that’s not to say we can’t do it.

Dave Wilson
3 Posted 29/12/2007 at 10:00:22

Well your wrong Mike, its not an interesting fact, it’s hardly news either, we threw it away at OT, we were robbed against RS. Chelsea, Arsenal, City, Pompey, Spurs, West ham, Villa and Newcastle have yet to come to GP, why not make your point when they’ve been ?

dave trudgeon
4 Posted 29/12/2007 at 10:11:29

have we played any of the top 8 at home?
we took a great point off chelsea and a very good point off pompey both away.
we got beat in the final few mins by man utd both times and we were robbed by the shite.
we drew against an in form blackburn side when we had a shed load of injuries.
we are comfortably beating teams in the bottom half home and away and we are picking up points against the top 10 teams.
I’m happy so far, and if jan goes well (not selling our stars as well as buying 1 or 2) then we will more than likely have a great season

Rob Heaton
5 Posted 29/12/2007 at 10:54:39

If you win both games against the bottom 10 that gives you sixty points add some draws and you would be in 5th place based on last seasons results.

Therefore you don’t need to beat the top 4 or even top 10 to have a good season

Lars Eidissen
6 Posted 29/12/2007 at 14:16:50

Yes, this season we have taken a step back against the big four. 0-1-3 so far, 2 goals and we have never even had the lead. The interesting thing to note is that all our three defeats came in the final 7-8 minutes, but the point at Chelsea came through a late equalizer on our own.

Last season we were great against the bif four: 2-3-3 is good in itself - scoring the first goal in 6 of the 7 games that contained goals (the Anfield derby were a 0-0) speakes volumes for a team able to compete with the very best.

It high time we beat a top side this season. You can only get so far by beating the second rate sides - finals and top 4 in the league makes beating top sides an absolute neccesity.

The good thing about beating the lesser sides, is that the games against the big ones will matter more - they won’t be opportunities for a one-off win and bragging rights.

Right now, we have two important tasks coming up against big four sides: The home game versus Arsenal today, were three points will take us a lot closer to finishing top 4 (we will get between 60 and 70 points this season, so three points either way will make a massive difference) and the league cup semi versus Chelsea. I’ll be happy with winning at least one of these, but downright disappointed if we come up short in both, even though it’s against better and richer clubs (*yawn’).

We have a damn good side this season, and we must be beating top sides, at least every now and then, too.

Eric Hardman
7 Posted 29/12/2007 at 14:36:10

Rob Heaton
We’ve already lost to two of the bottom ten, so the theory doesn’t stand up. I won’t regard it as a good season unless we either win a cup and / or finish in the top 4. We’ll have to beat someone in the top half to do that, ...starting today. COYB.