Are Chelsea out of it?

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Surely they are out of the title race now? The highest anyone has finished from where they are now is fifth. History is against them as is form, morale, leadership, settled team.

The way they are going fourth is not a given. Shaping up to be a great season

Was it not around this time last season where arsenal won something like 38 points out of the next 40?

Any big run like that now will leave a team well in contention come January, although it looks unlikely from Chelsea as their problems appear to run too deep, and the defence too fragile to go on that run.

It's mathematically impossible to get 38/40 points.

[iwasthere2012]

Surely they are out of the title race now? The highest anyone has finished from where they are now is fifth. History is against them as is form, morale, leadership, settled team.

The way they are going fourth is not a given. Shaping up to be a great season

Was it not around this time last season where arsenal won something like 38 points out of the next 40?

Any big run like that now will leave a team well in contention come January, although it looks unlikely from Chelsea as their problems appear to run too deep, and the defence too fragile to go on that run.

It's mathematically impossible to get 38/40 points.

Ah but not mathematically impossible to get something like it.

[Whassat]

Why jinx it with a post such as this... the thing they need to revive their season is the feeling they have the backs against the walls and everything is working against them... Thats why Mourningho had a 7 minute spat about all and everything.

Its early days yet

[zuricity]

Maureen had a seven minute moan about everything.
All and Sundry are to blame .

Never him or his team

He and his team are down in the dumps. A big 'Awww' for those injured souls.

You know what maureen ?

If once, just once you complimented the opposition for being the better team on the day

You just might get people rooting for you in your present predicament , yer big soft mardarse.

[Im_Spartacus]

Surely they are out of the title race now? The highest anyone has finished from where they are now is fifth. History is against them as is form, morale, leadership, settled team.

The way they are going fourth is not a given. Shaping up to be a great season

Was it not around this time last season where arsenal won something like 38 points out of the next 40?

Any big run like that now will leave a team well in contention come January, although it looks unlikely from Chelsea as their problems appear to run too deep, and the defence too fragile to go on that run.

It's mathematically impossible to get 38/40 points.

Ah but not mathematically impossible to get something like it.

Yeah, thats what I meant, as in I don't fucking know, but it was a lot of points out of 40.......then again, there's no combination of 3 point games that gets you 40 points either. That was all round, once of the shittest posts I've ever made

They won a lot of games, in other words

Cunts

[DoomMerchant]

Surely they are out of the title race now? The highest anyone has finished from where they are now is fifth. History is against them as is form, morale, leadership, settled team.

The way they are going fourth is not a given. Shaping up to be a great season

Was it not around this time last season where arsenal won something like 38 points out of the next 40?

Any big run like that now will leave a team well in contention come January, although it looks unlikely from Chelsea as their problems appear to run too deep, and the defence too fragile to go on that run.

It's mathematically impossible to get 38/40 points.

Ah but not mathematically impossible to get something like it.

Yeah, thats what I meant, as in I don't fucking know, but it was a lot of points out of 40.......then again, there's no combination of 3 point games that gets you 40 points either. That was all round, once of the shittest posts I've ever made

They won a lot of games, in other words

Cunts

i dunno...i remember Scouse filth getting 4 points when they beat us 3-2 under Brenda in the title tilt year. Anything's possible. Don't set your limits too low. Follow your dreams. Never give up. ETC.

cheers

[nottsblue]

You can bet your sweet ass they are out of it now.

Arsenal look to be the main challengers, and we'll see how they get on after February with their squad

[dazby]

14 points behind. Do you think we'll drop 14 points for the rest of the season? And do you think Chelsea will be perfect from here on in?

No way.

[Hutch's Shoulder]

The Wenger double, 4th place and FA Cup best they can hope for now; and a few more weeks like this and they can forget fourth.

[Tesl]

Yeah .. Chelsea are done, at least as far as the league title is concerned. Totally unbelievable how this season has gone, but there we are. They need to win almost every game for the rest of the season now, and they just aren't going to win 25/26 of 27 games.

United are really poor and I'd be horrified if we finished behind them. Arsenal look really good lately, they look like our main competition this year.

[The Maine Man]

This thread now needs clarification. Are they out of the title race or out of the relegation dogfight?

[City64]

This thread now needs clarification. Are they out of the title race or out of the relegation dogfight?

They are in the shit #official

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Chelsea's problem is its manager. They can still get 4th if they sack him now. But they won't, so they're fucked.

[sheblue]

4th is a big ask, they could still do it, but their players look dead on their feet.
Anyway it is going to be interesting to see what happens.

[Wonderwall]

Still a possible 81 points left....... crisis, what crisis?

[DoomMerchant]

Still a possible 81 points left....... crisis, what crisis?

to be fair that is true tho your sarcasm is duly noted.

But let's just say if their tides turned, in a snap of the fingers, what would it mean for their season? Let's find out.

Chelsea under probably 5 different managers, maybe even 6, over the last 7 full seasons have achieved 2.06 pts/match on average.

They have a team that's arguably easily as good or better than those teams during this era.

27 * 2.06 == would give them roughly 66 pts. (i have not attempted anything as sophisticated as their Home v Away records, with the assumption that al things being equal they've got roughly the same number of each left at this point of the season vs any other particular season average.)

A quick scan of the the last decade of 4th place finishes shows us that never has 66 achieved 4th place (67 did once), but would have put a team 5th (roughly 65%) or 6th (35%).

I'd say that it's fairly reasonable to assume that unless Chelsea can overachieve and get rapidly back to form which earned them more like 2.28 pts/match last season instead of their average over the last decade (or arguably their current run of form, but let's just pretend they'll get back to "Average Chelsea" at some point), then their chances of fourth are virtually nonexistent. Even with an increase to their haul last season, this could be one of those seasons which the low 70s is required to get into 4th place. Which would mean that a sudden return to form like last season would still make it a very serious dogfight as the best guess would be about 72 pts for Chelsea.

With that perspective, if you were Roman and you were /nearly/ guaranteed not to finish Top 4 would you sack Jose right now and take the chance of getting a bump from a new gaffer which puts your points/match haul at closer to your average last season (2.28/match). Roman doesn't need Top 4 to spend and could miss a year for sure. But he's a prideful, arrogant, tinkering fuck. What would it do to his ego and the headlines all summer, etc?

The team and squad have gone to shit for some reason. Only the manager can be at fault as far as any of us can tell.

cheers