Proximity.

[Insidious]

So now we arrive at the 16 games played point -

Distance from 1st - 10 points (no change - we were 10 points adrift after 15 played)
Distance from 4th - 2 points (1 point closer to 4th spot)
Distance from 18th - 13 points (having been 10 points clear, so 3 further points away from the horrible bit of the table)

The Forest and Fulham fixture will have no bearing on how close/far we are from 18th, whilst the Villa and Man United fixture will have no bearing on our distance from 1st of 4th spot, so we can have a quick look again.

After 17 games played -

Distance from 1st - 10 points (no change - we were 10 points adrift after 16 played)
Distance from 4th - 0 points (2 points closer to 4th spot)
Distance from 18th - 16 points (having been 13 points clear, so 3 further points away from the horrible bit of the table)[/QUOTE]

Really nice to see us finally draw level on points with 4th spot. We'd be foolish to gloat about it, as we're only 3 points ahead of Crystal Palace in 8th, but it's nice to be conscious of looking forward rather than behind.

Chelsea's draw was a big help. We're 4 points behind 3rd spot now, though few will hope for a Villa loss as it means a Man United win - perhaps many would settle for a draw to keep the Mancs away whilst keeping Villa within a distance we feel we might close.

3 wins and 2 draws in our last 5 League games, with an away victory in Europe. After our awful run, we'd definitely have taken that.

Our hopes of catching Arsenal are somewhat dubious right now with the 10-point disparity. I'd love to see us get that down to 7-points behind which probably means having to beat Wolves, Leeds, Fulham and Arsenal on the spin, which looks a tall order just now, though nothing is impossible.

If we pull that off (doubtful, but let's hope eh?) we might briefly hear the whispered echo of Clive Tyldesley's "hello, hello! Here we go!" before Guardiola's side go on a rather dull-and-predictable run of wins

Still - the Champion's League spots are right there now, we'll have belief against Marseille and Qarabag and there are further green shoots as Kerkez's form stabilises, Wirtz snags his much-needed assist and Ekitike continues to do his sumptuous re-imagining of some sort of Matip x Torres hybrid.

In short, there's still plenty to find joy in from now until May. I'll take it!

[JockStrap]

Are we there yet?

[CCTV]

15 points from 5 would take us to 41 points after 21 games.
Arsenal would have a maximum of 48 points. Cituae a maximum of 49 points.

Taking us up to the January break there are 5 more PL games to play, a few have an efl quarter-final to play.


Here's the 3 remaining fixtures after today.

LFC:
Leeds H,
Fulham A,
Arsenal A.

Arsenal:
Villa H,
Bournemouth A,
LFC H.

Cituae:
Sunderland A,
Cfc H,
Brighton H.

Villa:
Cfc A,
Arsenal A,
Forrest H,
Palace A.

Cfc:
Villa H,
Bournemouth H,
Cituae A,
Fulham A.

2 down, 3 to go..

Cfc v Villa underway

[Insidious]

After 17 games played -

Distance from 1st - 10 points (no change - we were 10 points adrift after 16 played)
Distance from 4th - 0 points (2 points closer to 4th spot)
Distance from 18th - 16 points (having been 13 points clear, so 3 further points away from the horrible bit of the table)

Okay - another update, all very finicky from my Phone after the death of my 19-year old PC

After 18 games played -



Distance from 1st - 10 points (no change - we were 10 points adrift after 17 played)

Distance from 4th - 0 points (we're now 4th at last and have a small cushion temporarily)

Distance from 18th - 19 points (having been 16 points clear, so 3 further points away from the horrible bit of the table)

It's taken quite a bit of time to get to the Champion's League spots, but it's done now. The next steps are holding our position and hopefully winning enough games that we might close the gap a little to make things more interesting. Getting Arsenal down to being 7 points clear rather than 10 points clear would be really something, though right now the main hope is getting a little bit more of a cushion to put sides like Chelsea or Man United at arm's length.

[Kev0909]

Why is distrance from relegation a thing, forgive me but I don't get it

we was never going down, I guess we're safe now at least.

[Insidious]

Why is distrance from relegation a thing, forgive me but I don't get it

we was never going down, I guess we're safe now at least.

Lightly touched on it in the OP, but because we were in a patch of relegation-esque form in the first half of the season, just like Klopp's Dortmund in his final year with that club - no "real" reason, just something about that appealed to an element of completeness in me when I first made the thread.

As the season progresses I'll likely add distance from another position instead / as well.

[Kev0909]

Lightly touched on it in the OP, but because we were in a patch of relegation-esque form in the first half of the season, just like Klopp's Dortmund in his final year with that club - no "real" reason, just something about that appealed to an element of completeness in me when I first made the thread.

As the season progresses I'll likely add distance from another position instead / as well.

fair enough, just thought it was a bit strange, as we was never going to be as bad as man utd last season

makes sense.

[JockStrap]

Why is distrance from relegation a thing, forgive me but I don't get it

we was never going down, I guess we're safe now at least.

None of it is suppsed to make any sense. To be fair he calls that out in OP

Just one of my many semi-nonsense threads - in this case, looking to intermittently keep tabs on where we are.

[Insidious]

Quick update and a disappointing one - also I can't wait to replace my PC, argh!

After 19 games played -



Distance from 1st - 12 points (2 points worse off - we were 10 points adrift after 18 played)

Distance from 4th - +3 points (a win against Leeds would have made it +5 which would have been welcomed)

Distance from 18th - +19 points (probably the last time I'll note it for a while)

A very frustrating one against Leeds. We'd all hoped that we could match Arsenal until our fixture and then (long-shot perhaps) managed to beat them again. That would have seen us just 7 points off top with 17(?) fixtures to go and whilst we wouldn't have had huge belief in a title challenge based on evidence provided this season, it would have been great to have had an outside shot. As it stands we're probably more concerned about becoming 15 points adrift, which is most definitely an unassailable gap unfortunately.

Equally, on the more realistic goal of retaining our position in the Champion's League spots, the 5-point cushion would have felt more comfortable than a 3-point one, especially if Chelsea make a new appointment and get an initial "bounce" - but after a half-season that included our worst run in 70 years, I'm inclined not to grumble tooooo much about us having a small cushion with 19 games left to play.

The awful rot was certainly stopped on a results front. Next step is to find a bit more cutting edge in attack in terms of runs, creativity, patterns of play in the final third etc in the hope of finding ourselves in some form for such times as we play a last-16 tie in the Champion's League (all being well against Marseille and Qarabag) as European football can always throw up a surprise, particularly where we're involved.

[CCTV]

2 down, 3 to go..

Cfc v Villa underway

2 down, then a draw FFS.

[CCTV]

If we can win our next 5..... then we'll very likely be in a title race

Well we won 2, and then had 3 shitty draws.

What could have been....

Arsenal 48
Cituae 43
Villa 43
LFC 41

A costly 6 points. Id have hoped for a draw for the arse v Villa. So we'd have been 5 off.

Sadly, 14 points off today.

[Insidious]

After 19 games played -



Distance from 1st - 12 points (2 points worse off - we were 10 points adrift after 18 played)

Distance from 4th - +3 points (a win against Leeds would have made it +5 which would have been welcomed)

Distance from 18th - +19 points (probably the last time I'll note it for a while)

Alrighty, a slight tweak to the format, relegation area mercifully holds little weight now -

After 20 games played -



Distance from 1st - 14 points (2 points worse off - we were 12 points adrift after 19 played)

Distance from 4th - +3 points




After 21 games played -



Distance from 1st - 14 points (no change)

Distance from 4th - +3 points (no change)

Sides below us would have hoped for us to lose to Arsenal, who we have now met twice in the League.

Just 3 points separate Brentford (5th) and Fulham (10th) so we can ill afford a drop-off if we want to extend our lead and avoid getting sucked into an almighty scrap for the European spots. Man City and Aston Villa's 8-point lead on us remains frustrating - it'd be great to reel at least one of them in.

[LFC-DPG]

Another missed opportunity to close the gap

well I suppose we closed on Villa and City by 1 point but allowed the pack behind to close up on us.

[JockStrap]

It's no certainty for Villa to finish in the top 4. I reckon we'll make it ok.

[CCTV]

Another missed opportunity to close the gap

well I suppose we closed on Villa and City by 1 point but allowed the pack behind to close up on us.

It's fucking infuriating. Turn our last 4 draws into wins and it's +8 points for us and -1 for Arsenal...

to update a post...

**** What could have been....

Arsenal 49
**** LFC 44
Cituae 43
Villa 43
LFC 36

A costly 8 points.

Trad top4 pace = 2 points per game.

76 points for the season.

22 played 44 points

**** 44 points