Les-TA-Jon

Not sure exactly what you're asking but if all 4 of us average 2.00 points per game from here until the end: Leicester 104 Leeds 95 Southampton 95 Ipswich 94

I don't either. I'm just saying it's irrelevant. And the logic doesn't stand up to much scrutiny given you actually had a worse 4-game run in another period of the season, with your team of world beaters assembled. The cold hard facts quite clearly demonstrate that Leeds have been almost as good as Leicester this season after August. 64 vs 66 points. That's not disputable. So I'd stick to that rather than this silly 'we were disrupted in August' narrative.

A bit irrelevant given we only have 1 more game against our rivals the rest of the season after Friday? Even if we lose to Leeds and Southampton and draw say 3 games and win the other 7, we'd finish on 105 points. Ipswich couldn't overtake us with maximum points. Southampton could get to 109 with maximum points. Leeds could get to 108 with maximum points.

All I'm saying is what I said before: the coherent part of your argument is: Since August: Leicester P29 66pts Leeds P29 64pts Ipswich P28 58pts Southampton P28 57pts The incoherent bit is: banging on about how awful your August was when you still got 5/12 points (even though you had a pub team of semi-professionals) and have actually had worse 4-game runs (4/12 in Dec) in other parts of the season (when you had your team of Galacticos in place) It kinda renders your argument a bit irrelevant?

Even if we lose to both Leeds and Southampton (which is possible but we'd back ourselves to do better of course) it's still in our hands, even if they all get maximum points (which they can't and they very likely won't)

The final table if Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton get maximum points (including Leicester losing to Leeds and Southampton) (and note that Ipswich and Southampton can't both win their game on matchweek 40) (and note that Leeds and Southampton can't both win that final game) That'd be: Ipswich 16 wins in a row Leeds 21 wins in a row Southampton 15 wins in a row I suppose the key finding is, even if we lose to Southampton and Leeds, don't panic!

You're moving the goal posts a bit here. You initially were talking about cold, hard points - i.e points gained since August: Leeds 64, Leicester 66. You said the only reason you were behind us was your 'disastrous' August. But you did get 5 points out of 12 and have indeed had worse 4 game runs in other parts of the season. Your retort is all about off the pitch intangibles.

DLDW - August wasn't that horrendous - 5/12 points. What about your slightly worse run of DWLL in December? Does that not count either?

@Pub breath I think you'd be better off dodging all the talk of best team vs best team or the Ifs, Buts and Maybes of 'if we hadn't of had the August we had...' and simply focusing on: Since August: Leicester P29 66pts Leeds P29 64pts Ipswich P28 58pts Southampton P28 57pts Which appears to be your actual argument? To be honest I don't think much has ever changed this season - it's a 4 horse race for the top 2, 4 teams are going to end up with enough points for Autos in any other season and 1 team out of the 4 won't go up despite this

Wonder if he thought he was inheriting a good team from Ange and could win some easy silverware to rebuild his brand/reputation...

You specifically said: As I say, we've not had a single fixture this season that we were expected to struggle in, so this is a moot/unfair argument As I say, I'd say good performances (note, you said performances, not results): Southampton A Leeds H Ipswich A and H Again it's hard for us to specifically outperform expectations in many games this season because we've been favourites in just about every fixture. Had we beaten Leeds at home, would that have been an overperfomance? No. We were top, ahead of them by a ton of points and has won 9 in a row. Had we won either or both Ipswich games, would that have been an overperformance? No. We were in the PL last season, they were in League 1. We've got a much better squad/players. Southampton Away - the performance, not the result, I'd say was an overperformance, yes. I don't think anyone expected us to batter them like we did.

When was the last time we even had a league game in which we were expected to struggle in? I think we've been favourites for just about every fixture this season? So we've not had many opportunities, on that measure. Really good performances vs a side we're competing with? Southampton Away. 4-1 win. We battered them Leeds Home. 0-1 loss. We probably lost the midfield battle, but we were definitely good enough for a draw. Meslier clawed it off the line at the death. Ipswich Away. 1-1 draw. We were by far the better side. We didn't take some chances and were denied a stonewall pen. They only equalised at the end with a double deflection. Ipswich Home. 1-1 draw. We were certainly the better side in the first half. Subs came too late and maybe got too deep in the final 10 mins. Ipswich barely threatened. Another last minute deflection. Leeds Away ???? Southampton Home ????

Think the key things will be: 1) just how tough (i.e how many dropped points/losses) will this tough period be and 2) how will we respond after it's over and going into the final 8 games

...+ the transfer fee...?

We're still 6 points clear of 3rd by Saturday night if we lose to Leeds and Southampton and Ipswich win their games.

It may have also been because I'm used to us having a far superior GD to Southampton and Ipswich and may have assumed it was so for Leeds too

I said the gap is 6 (potentially 7 with GD) I never said it was 7 points. Either way, my overall point was, everyone is having a wobble after the Boro defeat, but 'worse case' scenario we lose to Leeds and everyone else keeps winning and by the end of the weekend Leicester will still be 6 points clear.

To be fair the emphasis was on the gap being 6 points (potentially effectively 7 with GD) I wasn't banking on having better goal difference

Worst case scenario: we lose to Leeds and Southampton and Ipswich win their games in hand and after 34 games the table looks like this: Leicester 78 Southampton 73 Leeds 72 Ipswich 72 6 points (effectively 7 with GD) gap to 3rd with 12 games to go is less than it was, but we'd have all taken that if offered

Breaking News: team that loses 5 games in 33 tends to lose them only against the best sides in the division I mean, if it was the other way around you’d be moaning about us losing to shite like Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham. Of the 5 losses this season I don’t think a single one can be described as a genuinely bad performance. Lower levels, sure and ultimately lost them but: 0-1 vs Hull. Battered them, it just wouldn’t go in. Hull’s goal a deflection. 0-1 vs Middlesbrough. Incredible that we didn’t score. Lost to a late worldie FK 0-1 vs Leeds, probably 2nd best at times and lost the midfield battle but a worldie save centimetres away from over the line stops a 1-1 1-3 vs Coventry. Red changes the game. They should have had a red for the pen. Even then we were 1-0 up until 79 mins. 1-2 vs Middlesbrough. Yes they played well to create and exploit some weaknesses. Yes we had some sloppy patches. Quite an anomalous game. We missed 1-3 good chances at 0-0. They scored both of their 2 meaningful chances in the entire game. We missed a hatful of others, including a 2 yard sitter from our GOAT. An off day for many players throughout the match day squad but you can’t also discount how difficult it is to play, psychologically, when 2-0 down. 2.42 - 0.69 on xG…

If Leeds beat us and Southampton win their game in hand the gap to 3rd would be 8 points EDIT: oh sorry, you’re assuming Southampton win both games in hand. either way the previous was someone talking about the gap had closed compared to 8 games ago but it’s actually the same, to 3rd

8 games ago the gap to 3rd was 11 points. Today, the gap to 3rd is 11 points

I’ve seen the replay

It wasn’t the scorer

No. It was another player who neither scored or assisted