It’s all going horribly, HORRIBLY wrong
‘Thank Pellegrini’
– and Willy – we won the League Cup! Okay, we’re also through to the Champions League quarter final; the only English
team left in the prestigious competition and for the first time in our
history. And, had the FA been a little more understanding and had
displayed some common sense we MIGHT still be in the FA Cup too.
But all of that really does ‘paper over the
cracks’ of an appalling season in the Premier League when
you look at the talent we have at our disposal. Injuries aplenty – more than I’ve EVER known in all my 30+ years of following the Blues - but also some flippin’ baffling decisions at times from our manager;
the same manager that, to his credit, has won the Premier League and two League
Cup in 2-¾ seasons.
So why can’t I now wait for Manuel
Pellegrini’s reign to end and Pep Guardiola’s
to start; something I’ve not been ‘bandwagon jumping'-on and, instead, have
been actively trying to avoid thinking and certianly talking about?
Well it’s because of that appalling season in the league that I’ve just mentioned, which now looks just as dire on
paper as it feels of late when trudging home in the cold after another “nil-pointer”.
Over all it reads…
P30 W15 (that’s just half our flippin’
games!) D6 L (a whopping) 9! How on earth we’ve managed to be the league’s
3rd highest scorers and joint 5th best defence throughout
that I’ve just no idea!
Worst still, since our League Cup win on 28th
February our record in all competitions reads…
P5 W1 (against a very poor Aston Villa at home) D2 L2. And aside from that 4-0 win against the league
most-very-bottom side, we’ve scored no goals whatsoever in the other 4 games!
Would you like an
insult added to that particular injury? Then what the HELL has happened to Kelechi Iheanacho
during that barren-scoring run;
he who barely seems to make the bench these days whilst, worst still, we have to watch Wilfried Bony ‘in his place’!
Sour from Sunday’s derby result or is there more to it?
Is
all of this frustration simply at-being beaten at home by our neighbours from Trafford? No, I actually thought we had the
better of the play; more possession, ‘did more with it creatively’ when we had the
ball and had more shots on target / more chances to score than them. For the
most part, I thought most of our
players did okay and that Manyoo looked very ordinary
indeed. A quick look at the stats since and from Sunday’s game goes to prove just that; with 55% possession, 26 shots to their 5 and 11 corners to their 5 too.
But
it’s where it leaves us after such an appallingly bad run in the league;
one that caps off a record where we STILL haven’t won back-to-back games since October
2015!
The
last 10 in the league reads…
D W D W L L L W D L
Just
3 wins in 10 games – two home-game 4-0’ers against
Crystal Palace and the afore-mentioned
Aston Villa and a 0-1 win at Sunderland. Woeful.
So...where
DOES it leaves us? Oh my word! Look at the league table yourself - it leaves us on the brink of slipping
to 6th and, should that happened, then looking over our shoulders at
the likes of Southampton, Stoke City and Liverpool as far down as 9th!
Exaggerating? Panicking?
I
don’t think so; I don’t think so at all.
If
you look at our form and that of the likes West Ham United and Southampton, at least, then it’s a very
realistic and scary possibility indeed. And
THAT, my fellow Blues, is something we dare not contemplate with our new,
Spanish manager coming in June. Imagine the setback if Pep joins us and we’re
not in the Champions League or, worse still, ANY European Competition?!
It would set us back an entire season and with the ex-Barcelona man only on a 3-year deal!
And if you think I'm alone in thinking the unthinkable; such a possibility is this that the BBC have done a litte digging and released a piece just this morning about whether Pep has a clause written into his contract, which states that he doesn't have to join us if we're not in the Champions League next season. He hasn't by the way. Why would he...when it was announced in early February 2016 that he'd be joining us in June I don't think ANYONE thought it a possibility?!
But
before already-concerned and / or fed-up Blues stop reading (if
they haven’t done so already) I am a ‘glass half full’ man - if not also a realist - and, therefore,
I also think it leaves us with a very clear objective…and that’s why I say, for
once, that I’m very relieved to have an international break (I usually can't stand these season-interrupting episodes).
Sure
we’ll have players away and risking tiredness & injury for their
countries…but not many. As has-been reported recently, apparently we are to use this 12-day
break to recover some players and, even, play a ‘behind closed doors’ game
against our EDS lads; giving
most-certainly Samir Nasri a run-out as well as, possibly, Kevin De Bruyne and Fabian Delph. Despite
a huge blow on Sunday in-losing Joe Hart for a possible month and
likewise Raheem Sterling; having those 3 back will be a
massive fillip for the team.
Although
it’s more likely that Samir will be a ‘bench man’ at Bournemouth on 2nd
April and, when possibly in the mix
for a ‘first 11’ call-up for the home game against West Bromwich Albion, Kevin & Fabian might only be fit to take the bench for that
same-said game at the Etihad on 9th April; it marks the start of that very clear
objective I’ve just alluded to.
After
the 12-day gap in domestic play we need to treat the remainder like a mini,
8-game season; 1 more game, I will also
add, than some of the teams around us have left to play.
See…I’m not being too gloomy about our current
situation.
If
we can go into those remaining 8 games (10 games when you chuck in the 2 legs
against Paris Saint-Germain) with a fresh psychology
of ‘a new season’ AND if we can at least start that mini-season like we
started the actual season back in August; then we can turn all of that
pessimism and ‘looking over our shoulder’ and start to look upwards and put
pressure on Arsenal and, possibly even, Tottenham Hotspur too;
whilst holding off the likes of Manyoo and West Ham United.
I'm not for one second saying that we WILL do that but let’s
have a look at the remaining league fixtures; I’ll try to do a
prediction and I’ll do this on the assumption that…
- Samir will be ready to
return early-to-mid April
- Fabian mid-April
- Kevin mid-to-end of April
- Joe end of April
- Raheem end of April
(And all of those - plus the rest - stay fit until the end of the season)
Bournemouth (A)
Nicholas Otamendi back; Samir Nasri on the bench.
Tricky
place to go – can be a very well organised side and, on the break as well as
from set pieces, can hurt you too. 12-points clear of the drop-zone at the
moment and mostly likely safe this
season. But they’ll be very keen to
reach that so-called ‘magical 40-points mark’ as soon as possible - shame
then, for us, that we’re ‘up next’.
Result? Draw.
West Bromwich Albion (H)
Samir Nasri now available for a starting place; Fabian
Delph on the bench.
With
returning personnel ‘giving us a boost’ and a ‘must win’ after a disappointing,
‘dropped points’ draw on the South coast just 7-days earlier; despite a trip to
Paris just 3 days before this fixture; the
[later time] 5:30pm KO on TV should help a little
with recovery too.
Result? Win.
Fabian Delph now available for a starting place; Kevin De
Bruyne back to his old club and on the bench.
Tough
one, very tough one. Unbeaten in the league (at time of writing this) under
their new manager; plenty of draws in their
‘last 10’ and some of them at home. Not the side they were last season and
although some players will be ‘up for it’ and still-pushing for a Europa spot after an appalling start to the season; with
a change of manager coming again in the summer, some “stars” already appear to be looking at the exit door…and ‘the beach’.
Result? Draw.
Samir Nasri, Fabian Delph and Kevin De Bruyne all available
to start.
‘Honeymoon
period over’ or temporarily fixed by
their new manager and now ‘on a roll’ as we
come to play them at their place on 19th April? That
is very much the question for this one. I think they’ll be more dangerous than they are
at the moment (P2 W0 D1 L1 under Rafa) and they might very well score against us. But they still
look ropey at the back and we have some ‘big guns’ back now for this clash.
Result? Win.
Stoke City (H)
Both Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany in contention for a
return; Vinny likely to be on the bench.
I
just don’t like playing these home or away…and, worse still, Mark Hughes seems to know how to hurt us. If…IF we keep the others fit and
we have one or both back in Joe & Vinny; with us being at home and
desperately needing the points then I’ll be slightly
less concerned going into this one.
Result? Win.
Southampton (A)
Raheem available from the bench if needed and baring any
other injuries (of course we will
have…that’s ‘our season’) we now
have everyone fit for the remaining 3, crucial games.
Couple
of away draws but going quite well now. Classic time for us to slip-up then;
especially against a side who can, sometimes,
be very dangerous indeed. They are prone to imploding too though…but they are also
chasing a Europa place. All things
considered…
Result? Draw.
Arsenal (H)
Wow! What a last home game to have! Of course I have no
idea how The Gunners will get on in all of that time (I’m
certainly not doing a full analysis of ‘the others’ in the same period) but I’m guessing that
they’ll be ‘in the mix’ for something and that this one COULD be a ‘6-pointer’ between
the two sides. Tense, crucial game; goals at both ends but, at least, we are at home and we will, hopefully, have all players available against a
side who can be very devastating ‘on their day’.
Result? Draw.
Let’s
just hope that The Swans can pick up points over the next few weeks and ‘reach
the 40’ or more because if ‘points
are needed’ at a-then thunderous Liberty Stadium on the
last day of the season, then this could scupper our own plans. Having won 3
from their last 4 (at time of writing this) they are on 36 points and, so, should have
well reached safety by then. How that-then affects them we won’t know until the
time comes; they could, for example, relax and, therefore, play better…or they
could start to ‘shut down’ and ‘run the season out’. I repeat, I just hope we still have all of
our players available by this stage too…
Result? Win.
Total points tally in the next 8
games? 16 / 24
Total points tally for the season? 67
Where might that leave us?
At
best I’d say that we MIGHT just grab 4th…and so just how tense will those games
against Arsenal & Swansea City be?!
I’d
take that right now because…a look at the last few season’s Premier League final
tables suggests that 67 points this season – baring in mind a remarkably low-points scoring season for
most teams let’s not forget – might only be enough for us to enter the Europa
competition in Pep’s first season in charge.
We
might even lose at, say, Chelsea on
16th April but, equally,
we could even turn a couple of other draws into wins and get closer to 19 from
24 remaining points and, therefore, 70 overall points. That could see us finish 3rd.
In
other words – and to finish off – I think 2nd is now completely out
of the equation and, equally, the
Europa League is definitely a possibility for us.
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