That I agree with. We’re in a fabulous position to get fourth place and it will take a big balls up for us not to do it, as well as an outstanding end to the season by one of the other teams.

Liverpool should be the only game we should lose of all the remaining games. 'Should' meaning obviously for pedants if we lose, its not a shock to anyone. If we get a draw out of, then obviously great. We shouldn't do no worse than a draw against Man Utd and Tottenham.

West Ham and Villa will be tough games but I expect us to win with 4th as the primary motivation to raise our game up a level. Its also always tough go to Soton but I expect us to win. If we are not up to it and I can see us drawing our way to 4th if we are not focused and committed.

Man Utd don't have an easy run in as well, other than us, they still have Chelsea and I thnk LFC don't they?
They are the ones I'm most worried about.

Other than us, Tottenham have Liverpool, West Ham, Villa, Burnley, all tough considering their form. It will be interesting. I don't see Chelsea giving up 3rd on paper but we can make them be a wee bit nervous about holding that position down.

As for today, 3 points, no less. Easier said than done and I'm nervous (as always) but we must beat the teams below us.

Spurs form last 15 games now: Win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss

The only different fixtures us and Man U have until the end of the season (ignoring home and away for now) are
Arsenal: Villa, Saints, West Ham, Leeds, Newcastle, spurs
Man U: Brentford, Norwich

So in effect it is 4 from those 6 games where our games in hand are

Long long way to go yet. I don’t think you can glean much from analysing the fixtures.

3 points today would be another massive result.

I think that’s right. Relegation strugglers will be fighting for their lives. The point that by and large they presumably have worse players than teams above them doesn’t make them easy fixtures. Burnley had a terrible result yesterday but have done more than enough recently to show they’re tough opponents.

If I was a betting man I would have a flutter on Newcastle to get something from Chelsea today. Newcastle are unbeaten in their last 8 games and Chelsea surely must be at least somewhat unsettled by the Abramovich business.

Chelsea aren't quite back into the tussle for fourth but they don't have a lot of leeway.

On paper it looks good for us but my gut feeling is we need a point as minimum on Wednesday from Liverpool and another at white hart lane and only then really can you have any degree of confidence. We have to fight for every result I feel, not sure that’s the case for the others like united and spurs who seem to pick up wins whilst playing poorly.

Pointless looking at the fixtures. Every team in the PL has players that can hurt you.

Every fixture is a tricky one unless you have the quality and squad depth of City or Liverpool, and even they get tested occasionally.

You can play brilliantly, dominate possession, create numerous chances and the opposition can score a couple of worldies from 25 yards, bang in a free kick or score from a corner or set piece, no matter how undeserved. Look at United yesterday, Spurs were the better side but Ronaldo banged in a hat-trick.

You have to try and play every game like its a cup final and hope that lady luck is on your side when it matters, especially with injuries to key players.

Chelsea might be unable to pay their players in a few weeks. They are far from secure for the third spot.

Today feels like the biggest game of the season, but as long as we are fighting for top 4 all our remaining games will feel like that.

I’m not sure about our biggest game which would have spurs and West Ham at home as contenders but it feels another important moment.

A loss or draw will revitalise united.

A scrappy 1 nil win from a dodgy penalty would be a godsend. A win would be huge

Surely fixtures are worth looking at if you eliminate the teams where both teams play them. This takes away any subjective view on how easy or hard the majority of the fixtures are because you both play the same teams

But how good are the league positions of teams in consistently judging the difficulty of games? Brighton are high enough to be pretty well safe from relegation. But at present, despite Burnley’s result yesterday I would rather play Brighton than Burnley, who are in big danger of relegation.

Not in this league. Bar Liverpool and city it’s very hard to call results in the premier league. Sporadic refereeing and form.

Need 3 points today if possible and a point Wednesday

My gut feeling is that we will finish 5th for some reason. We will maintain our form to an extent and give our utmost but united or spurs will finish above us but not both. Just a hunch

Also Tommy aside we have had few injuries and have been quite fortunate so that could play a factor

Injuries could be a big factor, it's one of those things that can throw all predictions out the window. But other than that, I'm starting to feel pretty confident of fourth place. Just the fact that we can get a maximum of 87 points, whilte Tottenham and Man Utd can get 77 and 78 respcetively tells us we have a much bigger margin for error than those two. It will take a pretty substantial drop in form for us not to get to that 70 point mark, while it's looking unlikely for Man Utd and Spurs at this point.

I don’t feel confident when we are two goals up with 5 minutes to play.

There’s no way that I’d be confident about us finishing fourth. I’m fully expecting an extended period of jangling nerves.

Chelsea fans rolling out a big banner with the colors of the Russian flag and the words "The Roman Empire". They're working really hard to not make a single person feel sorry for them.

Newcastle fans singing to the Chelsea fans 'Mike Ashley, he's coming for you'

Someone called todays match between Newcastle and Chelsea the 'despot derby'.

Chelsea Women beat Aston Villa 1-0 with their goal coming two minutes into injury time. Sod it!

Having watched games yesterday and today I can only conclude that Rich is wrong. Referees don’t save all their rubbish decisions for Arsenal. There have been some horrors elsewhere. No idea what VAR brings to the party.

Looks like their mens team are repeating the late 1-0 trick.

I can also understand the point that singling out Chelsea (fun though that is) is not really fair. Klopp is pretty much on the money:

"“It is pretty obvious where the money is coming from. Everyone knew it, but we accepted it. That’s our fault. It is society’s fault, so we accepted it.

Now we cannot accept it anymore and so we punish them, it is not Chelsea’s fault. Not at all.”

Having said that, the Chelsea fans doubling down and waving the Russia flag really does make it very easy not to be fair!

How unpleasant.

Newcastle fans (assuming they are knowledgeble about world affairs) must be hoping that MBS doesn't go completely nuts and dismember someone, or invade a country, that the British government cares about.

I wouldn't put it past him!

One of the most blatant penalties you’ll ever see NOT given for Newcastle v Chelsea today. Easily a clear foul for a shirt pull and another for a clear trip. Totally incompetent
https://twitter.com/afcjxmes/status/150 ... 63137?s=21

At least the refs aren't allowing the anti-Chelsea sentiment to affect them. Chelsea certainly got away with a couple today.

Yep some real horror shows. That Havertz elbow was a red.

Emile Smith Rowe on the bench.Tomiyasu missing, the rest as you'd expect.

Come on Arsenal.................

I thought it was a red as well but those very, very rarely get given. So if it was given as a red I think as a chelsea fan you’d feel hard done by because whilst it can be justified in the rules of the game you rarely see straight reds for elbows when contesting a header like that

Here we go!

Leicester starting the game with a high, energetic press. Six of their outfield players started their Europa League game against Rennes three days ago, no way they can keep pressing like that for the full 90.

Looks like they will attack down Soares' side all day

Partey!

Partey!!!!!!!!!

Thomas Partey!!!

Partey hits the crossbar, a very good shot actually

Partey hit the post. He's so useless !