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Are you ready for some Football (Associated)

The last several seasons, the relegation battle has been anything but. Right now, two teams seem assured to be at least visiting Championship next season. Wolves are done. Burnley are in bad shape, but could pull a Wigan. 15-18 is open, but I just can't see Tottenham going down and Leeds are nine points shy of the magic 40 pt threshold. Liverpool and Salah appear to have made up. Liverpool are in sixth currently, performing like I expected them to last season. Villa are still holding onto third in what is an otherwise lower performing top five this year. Manchester United are finally fifth. They won four games in a row which is the first time since, well, no one can remember when... we all assume Alex Fergusson was the manager.

Meanwhile down in League One, Plymouth Argyle have gone from... "Oh fuck, we're relegating to League Two aren't we" to "Can we actually make the playoff?" It is a long shot, but it isn't impossible, they are 6-3-2 in their last 11 league matches.

In Championship, Stoke City are among 4849 teams vying for the sixth playoff spot, all within about 6 points. Their performance this season has been awesome, muddled, and self-defeating. So mid-table finish feels right.

Meanwhile in "Champions" League, five of the top eight teams are EPL squads, including Tottenham "Are we seriously contemplating relegation?!" Hotspur. I know what you are thinking... five EPL teams?! Who isn't in the Champions League these days? I'm uncertain, but I've been told I can put a team in next year when they expand to 8,192 teams.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
The last several seasons, the relegation battle has been anything but. Right now, two teams seem assured to be at least visiting Championship next season. Wolves are done. Burnley are in bad shape, but could pull a Wigan. 15-18 is open, but I just can't see Tottenham going down and Leeds are nine points shy of the magic 40 pt threshold.
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I see Forest and Spurs both trying to out underperform each other in competition for the third relegation spot, with the Hammers most likely to climb out of trouble, despite currently having the fewest points of that trio.

Leeds look safe from here, unless they implode or run into some seriously bad luck.

Wolves are the only team in the EPL who are mathematically incapable of qualifying for the Champions League, so if you were expecting to see them in Europe next year, I have some bad news for you.

At the top, City and the Arse still have to play each other in the League Cup Final on March 22, then for real on April 18, which is looking increasingly likely to be the game that decides who wins the League (which confusingly is not the same thing as winning the League Cup Final).
 
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Well, Wolves have avoided breaking Derby County's record for lowest EPL points total in a season (11), with nine matches still to play, after they smashed third-placed Aston Villa 2-0, to record their second win of the season, and move to 13 points, two more than they needed.

They still need a miracle to avoid relegation, of course.
 
So the Hammers lept up their run of excellent late-season form, with a strong performance at Anfield, where they made Liverpool look less than impressive, with the final score 5-2...

Wait, what??

One of the strangest games in a long time. The West Ham faithful deserved more, as their team simply played as well as, or better than, Liverpool, who had one of those matches where luck smiles on everything they did.

I still fancy Forest or Spurs as the third team to be relegated. Burnley and Wolves are dead men walking at this point.
 
Arsenal look set to take the EPL. Liverpool is fighting against some Manchester United team we haven't heard much from in my daughter's entire lifetime.
Jimmy Higgins said:
Meanwhile down in League One, Plymouth Argyle have gone from... "Oh fuck, we're relegating to League Two aren't we" to "Can we actually make the playoff?" It is a long shot, but it isn't impossible, they are 6-3-2 in their last 11 league matches.
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The run continues! Argyle have two more matches against other teams up top, and then some mid and lower card opponents. Argyle have something like 19 points from the last 24 available. They took down Stevenage and Huddersfield who are also in the run for the playoff. Seven teams within the playoff by no more than 4 points, excluding games in hand.
Jimmy Higgins said:
In Championship, Stoke City are among 4849 teams vying for the sixth playoff spot, all within about 6 points. Their performance this season has been awesome, muddled, and self-defeating. So mid-table finish feels right.
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Stoke City are completely mid-card by the end of this season. Not a great year, but an improvement from, the are we going to League One?!
Jimmy Higgins said:
Meanwhile in "Champions" League, five of the top eight teams are EPL squads, including Tottenham "Are we seriously contemplating relegation?!" Hotspur. I know what you are thinking... five EPL teams?! Who isn't in the Champions League these days? I'm uncertain, but I've been told I can put a team in next year when they expand to 8,192 teams.
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And in the knockout round, 140% of the teams were from the EPL. Quarter finals are in, two teams left form the EPL, Liverpool and Arsenal. Tottenham will now need to try and not get relegated. Liverpool take on PSG in a rematch of last year where the very high flying Reds met their match in PSG who'd go on to take the Trophy. Arsenal take on Sporting for what should be a walk-in for the semis. Bayern and Barcelona face off in the tightest pairing.
 
Wow, what a cup tie!

Leeds were 0-2 ahead at West Ham after 90 minutes, with 11 minutes of injury time to play. West Ham scored three minutes into that stoppage time; And again three minutes later, to take the match to Extra Time.

After Extra Time (having played 146 minutes, including stoppage time), it was still 2-2, and the West Ham goalkeeper went off injured, leaving their 20 year old substitute keeper, Finlay Herrick, making his debut appearance for the penalty shootout.

Herrick saved the first penalty.

Fortunately for Leeds, the exhausted Hammers strikers couldn't capitalise; Leeds won 4-2 on penalties.

Leeds will play Chelsea at Wembley on April 25th in our first FA Cup semi-final since 1987.

BBC match report
 
Plymouth Argyle took on higher ups Bolton. A cracker of a matchup as both teams were showing why they were in the hunt for the playoff in League One. Bolton managed a 2-1 win despite being down 1 man after a sending off. The loss hurts Plymouth as they really need to win out because there are so many teams in the hunt and they are still making up for lost time. Meanwhile, I just found out Argyle has a fan club in Ohio... centered in the city five minutes from my house. Only 11 members, but man! Following League One isn't the easiest thing to do.

Meanwhile Liverpool were blitzed on the scoreboard against City in the FA Cup quarterfinal match up. It was on ESPN+ so I wasn't able to watch it.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Quite a bit easier against a League One side.
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Maybe; But this was a League One side that has made it to the quarter finals, so clearly they had some talent above and beyond what you might expect from League One. They beat Sunderland to get there, and Sunderland are 11th in the EPL.
 
Plymouth Argyle is in great position to win the best ranking among the teams not making the playoff. A draw with Exeter City saved a point for Argyle who found themselves down twice in the matchup, but they needed to win out. Now they need Stevenage to bail out of the playoff with a horrid run to the end. Plymouth Argyle even considering a run at the playoff was unthinkable in the first few months when relegation was a growing concern, so it was a great turnaround for the squad, but it is just too much. With a max possible final point total of 75, and games in hand for 5th and 6th place, Argyle will need a good deal of help. Their near season end match up with Bradford is a +/- 6 pt'er, but Bradford are too far up now and would need an epic Leeds United collapse to help Argyle.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are fighting to stay in fifth... trying to get back into fourth for the "Champions" League place. They held Fulham back for a 2-0 victory which saw Rio score his first goal for the squad, via a remarkable swinging shot that was effectively indefensible. Liverpool stand at 55 points with 6 games remaining. They have a good shot at finishing in 3rd. Arsenal need to play to win, but have a cushion over Man City. Arsenal only have 70, with a max possible finish total 88. 88 wouldn't be bad. Liverpool take on PSG at Anfield, where hopefully their quality isn't totally crap like it was on the first half of the Quarterfinals tie and they were lucky to walk away with just a 2 goal deficit. If their performance against Fulham is a sign of things to come, I wouldn't be buying tickets for the Semifinals. YNWA!

Several weeks ago it didn't seem like relegation was too much of a story. Wolves and Burnley were heading down. Probably Hammers as well. Now Tottenham are in 18th place. West Ham, Forrest, and Leeds United sit no more than 3 points above relegation. This is a first in a few seasons, relegation has generally been a fait accompli by mid-season.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
Several weeks ago it didn't seem like relegation was too much of a story. Wolves and Burnley were heading down. Probably Hammers as well. Now Tottenham are in 18th place. West Ham, Forrest, and Leeds United sit no more than 3 points above relegation. This is a first in a few seasons, relegation has generally been a fait accompli by mid-season.
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The Hammers deserve to stay up, based on their recent form. They have really turned their season around and are playing like they want to win matches. Coming back from 2-0 down at the 90 minute mark in the FA Cup quarter final aganst Leeds, to force the game to penalties, was an astonishing feat.

Spurs, OTOH, seem determined to live down to my earlier prediction, and unless they find some testicular fortitude, are doomed.

Leeds play at Manchester in a couple of hours, in their game in hand, so could restore that six point gap ahead of the hapless Tottenham, though this seems unlikely given the recent form shown by the Red Devils. The remainder of our run in is mostly against bottom of the table opponents, so of the bottom six, Leeds look least endangered at this point, even if we can't secure a win in Manchester. I would be happy with a point from Old Trafford.

My plan for the Cup is that Leeds should win 1-0 over Chelsea, and go on to beat Southampton 3-1 in the final.

Sorry, did I say 'plan'? I meant 'wild fantasy'. At this point, everyone knows that Man City have already had their ribbons tied to the Cup. But Leeds and Southampton fans have earned the right to dream.
 
bilby said:
Leeds play at Manchester in a couple of hours, in their game in hand, so could restore that six point gap ahead of the hapless Tottenham, though this seems unlikely given the recent form shown by the Red Devils.
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Well, that was a game of two halves.

I checked the score before I started work this morning, and Leeds were up 0-2.

Next time I looked, we were playing against ten men. Victory seemed assured.

Then I had a short turnaround break that coincided with the last ten minutes of the match. We were 1-2, and struggling against a ten player side. After our woeful stoppage time performance in the Cup, where we let the Hammers back in after being two up on the 90 minute mark, I was pretty nervous when they called seven minutes of added time; But in the end Man U simply couldn't get that goal, and Leeds go home with all three points, to put us six clear of the drop.
 
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