It's that time - Guardian's team preditctor

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

1 - Other Manc b*****ds
2 - Arsenal - well they got that wrong already. Top 4 probably but not top 2
3 - Manc b*****ds
4 - Liverpool
5 - Chelsea
6 - Newcastle
7 - Villa
8 - Spurs
9 - Brighton
10 - Brentford
11 - West Ham
12 - Palace - f*** the Owl
13 - Flum
14 - Forest
15 - Bournemouth
16 - Burnley
17 - THE f***ING s***E
------------------------------------------------
18 - Wolves
19 - Sheff U
20 - Luton (which is actually an anagram for Everton)

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Sir Tokyo Sexwale

[Hassony]

1-Liverpool

-

-

18 - Man City (deducted 60 points for being big f***ing cheats)

19 - Man United 

20 - Everton

 

 

[Jarg Armani]

Arsenal look most likely to finish 2nd. We are the wild card but we're even wilder than last year now.

Newcastle Man U Chelsea Spurs and us will fight for the other CL spots. City will win the league. 

Brighton, Villa, Fulham might have good seasons again but not enough to break in.

Everton will f***ing stay up again.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Villa in 7th is interesting - a good manager & how they played post-Gerrard supports them having a good season but you've also got City, manU us, Arsenal and then Spurs, Chelsea will fancy themselves more and Newcastle. So there are 7 teams that will be expecting to finish ahead of Villa

[Cobs]

I’d say we’re still the team most likely to beat City.

we’ve still a core of players who’ve been down the stretch with City and handled the pressure- and - if we can get away from them at the start shown we can maintain it and make them crack.

[kop205]

1 hour ago, Cobs said:

I’d say we’re still the team most likely to beat City.

we’ve still a core of players who’ve been down the stretch with City and handled the pressure- and - if we can get away from them at the start shown we can maintain it and make them crack.

It's such a different side now that I'm not sure what we've done previously is that relevant.

We do have a good few who've done it but we've lost just as many including the whole midfield.

No idea what to expect from us which is at least better than last year when I expected us to be pretty s***e.

[Cobs]

19 minutes ago, kop205 said:

It's such a different side now that I'm not sure what we've done previously is that relevant.

We do have a good few who've done it but we've lost just as many including the whole midfield.

No idea what to expect from us which is at least better than last year when I expected us to be pretty s***e.

Back 5 is intact, we still have Salah upfront - hopefully fit Jota/Diaz to go with Nunez/Gakpo which gives us goals up top.

question mark is midfield - last season all the moans were about lack of legs.

we’ve now got MacA Sobz, Jones, Elliot + presumably some other f***er(s) that Schmadkte gets over the line as legs around Thiago

 

it’s a pretty decent squad to have a crack at the title, for me Brian.

it’s where my £5 has gone anyway

Edited August 2, 2023 by Cobs

[stressederic]

I'm also not entirely convinced that City are as strong as last season. They might still yet buy players but they've let a few big players go and not replaced them.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

I'm with Cobs here, think we're a better bet for top 2 than Arsenal are

[Jarg Armani]

6 hours ago, Cobs said:

I’d say we’re still the team most likely to beat City.

we’ve still a core of players who’ve been down the stretch with City and handled the pressure- and - if we can get away from them at the start shown we can maintain it and make them crack.

I think that is the only way to beat them, but we don’t look close enough to the finished article to get that sort of start. 
 

If we nail it before halfway we might finish 2nd.

[Benzo-13]

Don’t think Arsenal have the goals lads. Jesus out for a bit and not cos it’s Easter.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

OK - they have Chelsea 5th. 

So guessing they'll have City 1st & with a*** 2nd, that means us, ManU & Newcastle are vying for 3, 4 & 6. Imagine Newcastle 6th then?

and Spurs 8th?

[kop205]

15 minutes ago, Sir Tokyo Sexwale said:

OK - they have Chelsea 5th. 

So guessing they'll have City 1st & with a*** 2nd, that means us, ManU & Newcastle are vying for 3, 4 & 6. Imagine Newcastle 6th then?

and Spurs 8th?

They'll defo put Newcastle above us. Possibly Spurs as well.

[Cheesecake]

They probably looked at our midfield, saw we didnt have one and plonked us in 8th

[Roscoe]

I’d say 6th is where I’d put us if I was a neutral objective observer 

City

arsenal 

mutd 

newcastle

chelsea

us

 

[PaulMcC186]

I still think we'll get top 4. Newcastle haven't a better squad than us.

[Jarg Armani]

I think we will get top 4 but I doubt it will be 2nd or 3rd.

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

I'd be very disappointed if we don't get top 4 and I fully expect us to be back there challenging. 

Plus I fancy a UEFA Cup win

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

they seem to have assumed the team that's winning the league will finish 4th

[Cobs]

So they've gone City 1st , Utd 3rd, Newcastle 6th, Spurs 8th

 

meh

Btw - i heard somewhere that 5th this year may get you a CL spot in 2024/25 - is that right?

and i can't see the mancs finishing above us unless we let them again this year - i heard Neville being his usual bulls***, pro-manc gungho w***er about Utd the other day, saying they we the only team that would challnege City this year

 

the t***

[Gethin]

10 minutes ago, Cobs said:

Btw - i heard somewhere that 5th this year may get you a CL spot in 2024/25 - is that right?

England still gets 4 places - but there's an extra place for the two countries whose teams performed best (i.e. got the most ranking points) in the previous season.

So it's not guaranteed - but practically, that's always going to be two of England, Italy, Germany and Spain. would have been England and Italy for this year

https://kassiesa.net/uefa/data/method5/ccoef2023.html

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Gethin

[Roscoe]

20 minutes ago, Cobs said:

So they've gone City 1st , Utd 3rd, Newcastle 6th, Spurs 8th

 

meh

Btw - i heard somewhere that 5th this year may get you a CL spot in 2024/25 - is that right?

and i can't see the mancs finishing above us unless we let them again this year - i heard Neville being his usual bulls***, pro-manc gungho w***er about Utd the other day, saying they we the only team that would challnege City this year

 

the t***

By ‘unless we let them’ do you mean if we get worse results than them over the season? 

[Cobs]

6 minutes ago, Roscoe said:

By ‘unless we let them’ do you mean if we get worse results than them over the season? 

i mean - produce a pile of bolllocks like we did last season

in essence, i don't think they are better than us (nor are Newcastle), as evidenced by the monumental batterings we've been giving them the past few years

 

or to put some numbers on it - they finished 3rd on 75pts last year - that, to me, on the levels we should be producing is 'letting them' finish above us

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Cobs prediction of their predictions eerily spot on so far

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

Updated for Newcastle (6th) & Forest (14th).

Forest could suffer that 2nd season syndrome & drop. Mind they did get rid of LingZ in the summer (0 goals, 0 assists last season).