Topic: The PL run-in

[Abin465]

Looks more like a normal pre Guardiola arrival season to me .. the weird seasons were the last 3

So points away are never bad, win your home games, don’t lose the big 6 pointers... about 4 or 5 losses and 85 or so points wins the title

Sounds like the kind of season Mourinho excels in

[Reeves]

It's between us, Spurs and City. Leicester, Chelsea under Lampard or Man United under Ole aren't going to do it.

I think you're probably right. It would never be Spurs but for Mourinho but he's changed them and they are in the leading pack. City will come good and are not far behind. Aguero may be that change they need.

Leicester are too inconsistent. Chelsea aren't out of it and the more they get used to the prem (the newer players) the harder they'll be. In fact I wouldn't write off Chelsea but perhpa sthey're a shade behind Spurs and City. Injuries and how far teams go in europe will have a MAJOR impact

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

This season is clearly different from the previous 3. In the first of those City got 100 which set the scene for our response. We got 97, they got 98, and Klopp knew we would need to get a similar total; we carried on and City fell off a cliff.
This year, apart from the freak nature of the season, City are looking no closer to the side they were and the league has almost reset to normal, whereby mid 80s would put you in a good position. Because of this season, that total could be lower.

This is the point a few were making in the post Fulham thread when people were losing their heads over dropping points to Fulham.

[Andypandimonium]

We've become favourites again without kicking a ball! What does that tell you? Well, kicking the ball is difficult this year, and no-one else is up to our standards. Imagine if we had a relatively full squad and were rotating right now. Matip in for Joe or Virg; Williams or Tsimikas for one of the full-backs; any three of our elite midfield; and, Jota for Bobby or Sadio, or Mo. Imagine that. We'd be sitting back with our santa hats on delighting at our champions going for number 20. Unfortunately fate has dealt us a horrible hand of cards; get through December and January without falling apart and we still win this thing, and that starts tonight with a boiling of the Spuds. I can feel a Mo and Sadio big night approaching and Jose will bottle it.

Come on you reds! 

[killer-heels]

I said at the start of the season 85 points would win it and right now i think 80 may just do it.

[Wengerpresser101]

I think we need better medics, or whoever is responsible for injury prevention at the club.

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

I think we need better medics, or whoever is responsible for injury prevention at the club.

Van Dijk and Thiago were assaults. Gomez was a freak. Jota, if it's the challenge I think it was got caught.

Allisson had an impact injury in training.

There's not that many muscle injuries you could argue were avoidable, but it's always someone's fault. It's better if there's someone to blame.

[Fromola]

Van Dijk and Thiago were assaults. Gomez was a freak. Jota, if it's the challenge I think it was got caught.

Allisson had an impact injury in training.

There's not that many muscle injuries you could argue were avoidable, but it's always someone's fault. It's better if there's someone to blame.

It's a perfect storm. We lost our main medic over the spring/summer.

No pre-season, Everton, internationals, Covid, condensed schedule, playing Saturday at midday after Wednesday night, moving training grounds in the middle of the season, not rotating more (partly cause and effect due to injuries).

[Paul1611]

We've just been very unlucky, but 2 weeks until the Jan window opens, we might see some reinforcements, even just on loan which would give the tired legs of the squad a boost. 

Still think City are our biggest rivals, to see them drop points last night was a huge but welcome surprise.

[Fiasco]

I think we need better medics, or whoever is responsible for injury prevention at the club.

This is a wind up, surely? Van Dijk and Thiago were taken out by brutal, brutal tackles. Gomez by all accounts suffered a freak injury. Jota's injury was a result of a tackle and can happen to anyone. Alisson had a minor hamstring injury yes, but he also had an injury caused by an impact in training.

On top of those yeah, we've suffered some muscle injuries but every club has. You need to look at the bigger picture.

[mrantarctica]

It's a perfect storm. We lost our main medic over the spring/summer.

No pre-season, Everton, internationals, Covid, condensed schedule, playing Saturday at midday after Wednesday night, moving training grounds in the middle of the season, not rotating more (partly cause and effect due to injuries).

I'm not sure I would lay the blame at the feet of the personnel. Medics, at that level, are fairly even in terms of their knowledge of the field and ability to practice sports medicine. It's not really like a FIFA game or Championship Manager where just having a medic with 99 rating means that you get no injuries. Real life doesn't actually work at all like that.

Our injuries are a function of our congested roster, inadequate recovery time, a depleted roster, and playing in a particularly physical and exacting league that demands a very high level of physicality and athleticism, in a team that is at the very sharp end of that too. Add to that, 2 key injuries were from rash tackles also and I don't see how it has anything to do with the medical staff. If the medical staff were responsible for letting players come back too soon, and one actually knew that for certain then you could probably hold them to account for that but we don't know that at all and quite a lot of whether someone is good to go again is actually educated estimates rather than black and white science.

Or maybe I'm just a sympathetic fellow medic looking out for my colleagues 

[Jookie]

I think we need better medics, or whoever is responsible for injury prevention at the club.

Why?

Injury prevention is more normally about soft tissue injuries. We've had impact injuries (VvD, Thiago, Alisson) or more freak non-contact knee injuries (Gomez, Jota, Tsimikas) in a much higher than expected volume.

Our injury record is normally very good. That's a reflection of our medical team and recruitment. This season is different in the ways it's structured. There's likely to be more soft tissue injuries but also more of a need to rotate. The knee injuries we've had have compounded things. The number of soft tissue injuries is probably in line with other teams.

I think the knock on effect of all of this has been the focus on the likes of Matip, AOC and Keita. Normally their fitness and more sporadic availability isn't a huge concern and can be covered by the squad depth we have. Feels like there's more focus on those individuals (and Tsimikas will fall into this bracket for some soon) when they aren't available when needed. I'm not saying whether that's fair criticism or not but I think more focus will fall on them and their availability in the coming months.

[Wengerpresser101]

So were we just lucky with injuries in 2018 and 2019 or was it skill?

Personally I think it was skill, as I don't believe in luck. I think we just had a really good fitness team and nutrition team and rehab team etc in 2018 and 2019.

Which means now since we get injuries every other match, and more injuries than other teams in the league, the inverse would be true (that injury prevention skill at our club has decreased), and so maybe we should reevaluate our personnel or approach at the club.

Jota's was avoidable if he didn't play. Medical staff should have recommended to Klopp to not play any of our first team players in a meaningless match as this season is very congested. (One example of what I mean in change in approach).

Gomez, Keita, and Matip are injury prone in general, so maybe player recruitment/management should take injury issues more into account when deciding to buy/keep/sell players at the club. (Another example of what I mean in change in approach) 

Milner, Shaq, and Trent injuries are muscle injuries, so maybe better physiological care from our fitness personnel would have prevented it.

Lastly seeing as five of our players were out from knocks/assaults/impacts (Thiago, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Jota, Allison), maybe we should teach our players how to avoid injuries from knocks. For example, Messi (the 2009-2019 version) gets assaulted a lot, especially by Sergio Ramos, but rarely gets injured because I hear he utilizes a technique where he jumps out of the tackle thus avoiding serious injury.

Looking back at Van Dijk and Thiago injuries, I think if they had both jumped out of the tackle they wouldn't have been as severely injured. Haters gonna hate right, we're the league champions and there'll always be clubs looking to claim a prized scalp (i.e. in the Everton match), so it's up to us to help our players defend themselves. The Messi technique is just an example btw, I'm sure there are other ways to prevent injuries from knocks/impacts too, whether that be strengthening the core or upper body etc.

There are elements of control in injury prevention, and we should reevaluate how well we are at that. We excelled at it in 2018 and 2019 after all. (So why aren't we excelling at it in 2020 anymore?)

Finally I just want to say that this post isn't about (whining about) the past. (Ok maybe it's a little but) What's done is done, and we have coped well. This is about our future in Jan, Feb, March etc. To prevent injuries from happening in those hectic months, so it'll increase our chances of winning the title and/or cl.

To put it in another way, if we continue with our current medical team and approach, are you guys confident we won't have injuries in Jan-March? If the answer is no than what can we do to change it? That's what I mean we should do.

[Jookie]

So were we just lucky with injuries in 2018 and 2019 or was it skill?

Personally I think it was skill, as I don't believe in luck. I think we just had a really good fitness team and nutrition team and rehab team etc in 2018 and 2019.

Which means now since we get injuries every other match, and more injuries than other teams in the league, the inverse would be true (that injury prevention skill at our club has decreased), and so maybe we should reevaluate our personnel or approach at the club.

Jota's was avoidable if he didn't play. Medical staff should have recommended to Klopp to not play any of our first team players in a meaningless match as this season is very congested. (One example of what I mean in change in approach).

Gomez, Keita, and Matip are injury prone in general, so maybe player recruitment/management should take injury issues more into account when deciding to buy/keep/sell players at the club. (Another example of what I mean in change in approach) 

Milner, Shaq, and Trent injuries are muscle injuries, so maybe better physiological care from our fitness personnel would have prevented it.

Lastly seeing as five of our players were out from knocks/assaults/impacts (Thiago, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Jota, Allison), maybe we should teach our players how to avoid injuries from knocks. For example, Messi (the 2009-2019 version) gets assaulted a lot, especially by Sergio Ramos, but rarely gets injured because I hear he utilizes a technique where he jumps out of the tackle thus avoiding serious injury.

Looking back at Van Dijk and Thiago injuries, I think if they had both jumped out of the tackle they wouldn't have been as severely injured. Haters gonna hate right, we're the league champions and there'll always be clubs looking to claim a prized scalp (i.e. in the Everton match), so it's up to us to help our players defend themselves. The Messi technique is just an example btw, I'm sure there are other ways to prevent injuries from knocks/impacts too, whether that be strengthening the core or upper body etc.

There are elements of control in injury prevention, and we should reevaluate how well we are at that. We excelled at it in 2018 and 2019 after all. (So why aren't we excelling at it in 2020 anymore?)

Finally I just want to say that this post isn't about (whining about) the past. (Ok maybe it's a little but) What's done is done, and we have coped well. This is about our future in Jan, Feb, March etc. To prevent injuries from happening in those hectic months, so it'll increase our chances of winning the title and/or cl.

To put it in another way, if we continue with our current medical team and approach, are you guys confident we won't have injuries in Jan-March? If the answer is no than what can we do to change it? That's what I mean we should do.

I'm not even sure where to start on this.

So you are saying we should revamp or at the least re-think our strategy to injury prevention based on what's happened in 3 months this season, when we've had a host of injuries due to bad luck and it's coincided with an unprecedented schedule that was preceded by a smaller than normal pre-season?

I'd rather take a holistic view of the evidence and say our fitness and recruitment team has done well and generally we've been able to put most of ur best players out for the majority of the time over the last few season. The only area I think we should have some review in a forward looking sense is whether we can carry a number of injury prone players in the squad next season -  I'd include AOC, Keita, Shaqiri, Matip in that list. Others will argue Gomez, Thiago, Tsimikas should or shouldn't be included also.

If we were suffering a lot of injuries for a sustained period then I could see your point. Calling for a revamp of the medical team after 3 months of injuries with mitigating circumstance comes across as cryarsing. The Messi/Ramos thing is a bizarre suggestion as well IMO. Though maybe you know more about this than me.

[Wengerpresser101]

I'm not even sure where to start on this.

So you are saying we should revamp or at the least re-think our strategy to injury prevention based on what's happened in 3 months this season, when we've had a host of injuries due to bad luck and it's coincided with an unprecedented schedule that was preceded by a smaller than normal pre-season?

I'd rather take a holistic view of the evidence and say our fitness and recruitment team has done well and generally we've been able to put most of ur best players out for the majority of the time over the last few season. The only area I think we should have some review in a forward looking sense is whether we can carry a number of injury prone players in the squad next season -  I'd include AOC, Keita, Shaqiri, Matip in that list. Others will argue Gomez, Thiago, Tsimikas should or shouldn't be included also.

If we were suffering a lot of injuries for a sustained period then I could see your point. Calling for a revamp of the medical team after 3 months of injuries with mitigating circumstance comes across as cryarsing. The Messi/Ramos thing is a bizarre suggestion as well IMO. Though maybe you know more about this than me.

I can see what you mean with the holistic view of evidence and looking at a sustained period of time as opposed to just 3 months, and yeh that makes sense. What I more concretely meant was that our head physio/medic left in the summer, and suddenly we have all these injuries, so maybe we should look into whether or not we adequately replaced him.

I thought of the circumstances factor that you mentioned too (unprecedented schedule, smaller pre season), but other clubs are doing better than us with injuries despite having same circumstances.   

And yep deffo agree with the review carrying injury prone players into next season.

[Fiasco]

Lastly seeing as five of our players were out from knocks/assaults/impacts (Thiago, Van Dijk, Tsimikas, Jota, Allison), maybe we should teach our players how to avoid injuries from knocks. For example, Messi (the 2009-2019 version) gets assaulted a lot, especially by Sergio Ramos, but rarely gets injured because I hear he utilizes a technique where he jumps out of the tackle thus avoiding serious injury.

Looking back at Van Dijk and Thiago injuries, I think if they had both jumped out of the tackle they wouldn't have been as severely injured. Haters gonna hate right, we're the league champions and there'll always be clubs looking to claim a prized scalp (i.e. in the Everton match), so it's up to us to help our players defend themselves. The Messi technique is just an example btw, I'm sure there are other ways to prevent injuries from knocks/impacts too, whether that be strengthening the core or upper body etc.

I've had a shit morning but I've just spat out my coffee reading this. I don't mean to be disrespectful by taking the piss but surely you can't expect this? Have you ever kicked a ball or played any sport at all? How would it have been possible for VVD or Thiago to have jumped out of the way? They aren't that way inclined by the way, but even so there is no way they would have even been able to. You can't anticipate tackles like that, in a rough-and-tumble derby game with the pace of play at 100mph with emotions running high.

Seriously mate, just have a think about what you're saying. You're essentially blaming our players for getting injured because of bad tackles.

[Jookie]

I thought of the circumstances factor that you mentioned too (unprecedented schedule, smaller pre season), but other clubs are doing better than us with injuries despite having same circumstances.   

Fair enough and I think the club will continually review these things. I just don't think changing 1 member of staff results in this amount of change so quickly. The rest of the medical infrastructure at the club is the same.

In terms of the above, if you take out the impact injuries plus Gomez (freak injury) how do we compare against other teams in terms of injuries? Have we been affected that much more than usual when you consider the fact that Keita and Shaqiri, in particular, have had poor fitness records for more than a year now?

I don't know the answer to the above bu suspect we've had slightly more soft tissue injuries than normal. Probably driven by the schedule plus the fact fact a higher % of impact injuries have occurred making rotation difficult. Feels like a vicious circle that was propagated by the injuries in the Everton game.

[Wengerpresser101]

I've had a shit morning but I've just spat out my coffee reading this. I don't mean to be disrespectful by taking the piss but surely you can't expect this? Have you ever kicked a ball or played any sport at all? How would it have been possible for VVD or Thiago to have jumped out of the way? They aren't that way inclined by the way, but even so there is no way they would have even been able to. You can't anticipate tackles like that, in a rough-and-tumble derby game with the pace of play at 100mph with emotions running high.

Seriously mate, just have a think about what you're saying. You're essentially blaming our players for getting injured because of bad tackles.

That's totally not what I meant. What I meant was we should figure out a way for our players to not get injured or to minimize injury from bad tackles. So that in the future, when our players experience bad tackles, say in a match in February, they won't get injured. That's why I mentioned Messi as an example because he's a common target for bad tackles, yet rarely gets injured. 

Another solution to this of course is also for the refs to be more harsh on bad tackles and produce reds more.

For the record, I jump btw when I play, using Messi's technique. It's helped. In that my coach has pointed out tackles in which I could have been injured, but because I jumped I didn't. But maybe it's different because I'm an attacking mid so there's less importance on me to "win the ball" as oppose to defenders and defensive mids.

What I'm saying is we are likely to experience bad tackles in the future, so we should try to ensure that it doesn't result in increase in injuries. Either through decreasing bad tackles experienced (by having refs be more harsh), or decreasing the negative impact of bad tackles (by training our players to not be injured by a bad tackle).

[duvva 💅]

I think we need better medics, or whoever is responsible for injury prevention at the club.

Surely it’s all John Achterberg’s fault

[Wengerpresser101]

Fair enough and I think the club will continually review these things. I just don't think changing 1 member of staff results in this amount of change so quickly. The rest of the medical infrastructure at the club is the same.

In terms of the above, if you take out the impact injuries plus Gomez (freak injury) how do we compare against other teams in terms of injuries? Have we been affected that much more than usual when you consider the fact that Keita and Shaqiri, in particular, have had poor fitness records for more than a year now?

I don't know the answer to the above bu suspect we've had slightly more soft tissue injuries than normal. Probably driven by the schedule plus the fact fact a higher % of impact injuries have occurred making rotation difficult. Feels like a vicious circle that was propagated by the injuries in the Everton game.

Well taking out the impact injuries plus Gomez, that would leave Keita, Shaq, Matip, Milner, Trent, off the top of my head. So yeh I'd agree with you that we have slightly more soft tissue injuries than normal. The making rotation difficult is an interesting observation. I wonder if Klopp will be more oriented to a bigger squad because of this occurrence this season (what you mentioned bout Everton injuries making rotation difficult). Personally I think he'll stick to his original philosophy of having a smaller squad and put his faith in youth, which is good because we have good youth players, as proven by this season.

But yeh in general I think what you said makes sense, that we should see how the next few months pan out injury wise, so that we have a bigger sample size to draw data from to make decisions about the medical infrastructure. And also review how many injury prone players we retain in our squad next season.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Shaq and Keita hve been injury prone for 3 seasons now, so it has nothing to do with whatever we're doing different this year. Milner has had knocks here and there, he's missed matches before, it's just that it's compounded by missing so many players at once.

[abetts]

Our away form is a concern, but then I remembered how Man Utd won it in 2010/11 with a very mediocre record.

Pulled up the results (Man Utd goals first):
2-2 vs Fulham
3-3 vs Everton
2-2 vs Bolton
0-0 vs Sunderland
2-1 vs Stoke
0-0 vs Man City
2-2 vs Villa
1-1 vs Birmingham
2-1 vs West Brom
0-0 vs Spurs
3-2 vs Blackpool
1-2 vs Wolves
4-0 vs Wigan
1-2 vs Chelsea
1-3 vs Liverpool
4-2 vs West Ham
0-0 vs Newcastle
0-1 vs Arsenal
1-1 vs Blackburn

In total:
W:5 D:10 L:4

Home record by comparison:
W:18 D:1 L:0

They won the league by 9 points.

[disgraced cake]

Our away form is a concern, but then I remembered how Man Utd won it in 2010/11 with a very mediocre record.

Pulled up the results (Man Utd goals first):
2-2 vs Fulham
3-3 vs Everton
2-2 vs Bolton
0-0 vs Sunderland
2-1 vs Stoke
0-0 vs Man City
2-2 vs Villa
1-1 vs Birmingham
2-1 vs West Brom
0-0 vs Spurs
3-2 vs Blackpool
1-2 vs Wolves
4-0 vs Wigan
1-2 vs Chelsea
1-3 vs Liverpool
4-2 vs West Ham
0-0 vs Newcastle
0-1 vs Arsenal
1-1 vs Blackburn

In total:
W:5 D:10 L:4

Home record by comparison:
W:18 D:1 L:0

They won the league by 9 points.

Suppose this makes for some good reading! Wow, even the teams they did beat away were shite. Ideally even if our away form doesn't match what it has been in the past couple of seasons our home form will look very similar.

Have to remember as well, we've been cheated out of a couple of wins away too. Everton was shambolic and the use of VAR was disgraceful at Brighton. Push on Salah at the weekend, too. Eventually I think we'll put it right.

[MNAA]

Our many injuries this season are can be attributed to many factors. But I certainly believe that our playing style, the intensity, the pressing, the running, etc ... absolutely requires a full and thorough pre-season like we usually do under Klopp. This season ... the summer break was severely shortened and our pre-season was a concise and shortened version - both were far from ideal and quite likely played a significant part in our players being vulnerable to muscle injuries and perhaps other injuries too

[BigCDump]

That Utd record is mind boggling. How shit must everyone else have been if they still won it by 9 points. It means even if Utd had only won 1 away game all season they would still have been champions. 

[Crosby Nick]

That Utd record is mind boggling. How shit must everyone else have been if they still won it by 9 points. It means even if Utd had only won 1 away game all season they would still have been champions. 

Shows you what can be achieved if our home form holds up though!

I think 10/11 was the second season of Ancelotti at Chelsea and they downed tools a bit. Us and Arsenal weren’t great, Spurs we’re improving but not the level they are now. They didn’t have a lot of competition.

[BassTunedToRed]

Suppose this makes for some good reading! Wow, even the teams they did beat away were shite. Ideally even if our away form doesn't match what it has been in the past couple of seasons our home form will look very similar.

Have to remember as well, we've been cheated out of a couple of wins away too. Everton was shambolic and the use of VAR was disgraceful at Brighton. Push on Salah at the weekend, too. Eventually I think we'll put it right.

I think it's important to remember that 2018/19 and 2019/20 were the club's best two away seasons in their top flight history. They accumulated 27 away wins across those two seasons, which is one more than in the preceding three seasons combined. Such form was never going to last forever, sadly.

[Fromola]

That Utd record is mind boggling. How shit must everyone else have been if they still won it by 9 points. It means even if Utd had only won 1 away game all season they would still have been champions. 

United's last two titles were like that. 12/13 as well there was just no challenger at all and they won them on auto pilot. People say the same about us last season but City finished on 81 points, Leicester finished on that the year they won it (and won it on 77 points with games to spare).

Our away performances are a concern, but Thiago was signed specifically to address that and we saw in the game and a half he played in the difference he'd make. We're too predictable a lot of the time away from home and struggle to exert control or create good chances. Even last season it was often the same, we were just able to really grind out a lot of wins (Norwich/Villa) when we weren't playing well or VAR was going against us. It caught up with us in the CL though. We weathered a 1-0 defeat to Napoli to get through the group just about by winning at Salzburg but a scoreless defeat at Atletico saw us off in the next round.

[skipper757]

Shows you what can be achieved if our home form holds up though!

I think 10/11 was the second season of Ancelotti at Chelsea and they downed tools a bit. Us and Arsenal weren’t great, Spurs we’re improving but not the level they are now. They didn’t have a lot of competition.

I think that was the Chelsea side that finished 2nd with 71 points.

That season was just crazy for us (getting rid of H&G, FSG in, Roy, Kenny back, etc) that I didn't really even remember much about the title race until I looked back at the table years after.

That was a really low points total at the top, but I don't recall if that race was ever close.  United made the CL final that year, so I wonder if they were taking it easy in the league down the stretch with a big lead or if it was actually competitive until the last few matches.

[Fromola]

I think that was the Chelsea side that finished 2nd with 71 points.

That season was just crazy for us (getting rid of H&G, FSG in, Roy, Kenny back, etc) that I didn't really even remember much about the title race until I looked back at the table years after.

That was a really low points total at the top, but I don't recall if that race was ever close.  United made the CL final that year, so I wonder if they were taking it easy in the league down the stretch with a big lead or if it was actually competitive until the last few matches.

Chelsea were a mess that season and never in the race.

It was one of the seasons where Arsenal were within touching distance and then blew up last 10 games. With 10 games left Arsenal were 3 points behind with a game in hand https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/06-march-2011/

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Like I've said before, Leicester aren't challenging.

[PoetryInMotion]

Like I've said before, Leicester aren't challenging.

They are. For top 4 as last season.

[tornado]

We are going to be no 1 to the rest of the season
Everyone else had their day in the sun...now move aside please

[bradders1011]

Just win on Saturday.

We do that and we're 6 clear before anybody else plays and it starts to become a thing.

[bornandbRED]

Won’t drop off top again. Come forth, Alcantara.

[DelTrotter]

We are lightyears ahead of the rest, not arrogance, it's just true. Injuries and VAR will make it closer than it should be but it's really, really hard to make a solid case for anyone finishing above us.

[ScouserAtHeart]

We just need to make sure we're not the first ones to drop points next

[Fromola]

Just win on Saturday.

We do that and we're 6 clear before anybody else plays and it starts to become a thing.

Saturday's a big one. Coming away without injuries is also vital given the kick off time.

Win that and we can put our feet up for a few days and start to get more players back.

[MonsLibpool]

Yesterday was huge psychologically. The manner of the victory really demoralised our rivals. I can imagine them watching our games in the last month or two rubbing their hands expecting us to lose because of our injury crisis.

Turns out that they can't even keep up with our B team, a team ravaged by injuries, that plays untried teenagers in key positions, that plays midfielders in defence, that plays attackers in midfield, that has had many VAR decisions go against it.

That's the best spurs have got because they didn't have any notable injury and came up against a team with 8 first-team players missing. Instead of pushing for a win, they employed cowardly tactics and hilariously came unstuck in the last minute. Their tactics show the fear factor we retain despite our lenghty list of absentees. Beating palace will be another dagger in their hearts.

Let's get some of our players back and run away with it.

[deano2727]

Beating Spurs the way we did last night was massive. If we win our next 3-4, I think we will probably make some space at the top.

It's crucial we reinforce in January.

Absolutely beautiful despite all our injuries and every 50/50 VAR decision going against us every week, we are still 3 points clear at the top.