Do it to yourself, you know you want to …

Qwiss

Liverpool are not as good as people think. They will drop points. The problem is so will we.

Lukazan

Qwiss This basically. I think Liverpool will go through a bad patch of form and drop a handful of points, but we'll do the same, and for some added salt to the wounds watch it be around the time they do too.

Sicario2

Fact of the day: Liverpool have NEVER won a title race in the prem.

6 times they were top by Xmas and only once did they win the title.

Next 10 days are massive.

JazzG

Sicario2

TambourineMan

Lukazan yeap, no one is cracking 85 this season.

Mirth

IBL

Need to re-watch this gem.

Sicario2

There is a glimmer of hope but next 7 days is huge.

I remember when City caught us in 2022-2023, we were 8 points clear in April and they had a game in hand (including having to play us). Then we kept drawing 2-2. Sound familiar?

We are in the exact same position City were in albeit a few weeks earlier which is better for us as more time to claw back points.

Sicario2

TambourineMan

We just need to stay in there. Grind out the 1-0's when we can. Don't really care how ugly it is as long as we win.

lorddulaarsenal

Liverpool obvs won’t bottle it having such a huge lead over us

But if, and it’s a big if, City beat them this weekend and we get the dubya over West Ham then the bugger will mathematically be in our hands

Burnwinter

Glass half empty view: if we don't beat them at Anfield, we're not getting anything from this season.

Glass half full view: supposing somehow we did beat them at Anfield, all else being equal we're as close right now as we were on the final day last season.

Qwiss

Burnwinter Glass half empty view: if we don't beat them at Anfield, we're not getting anything from this season.

A draw could be enough if we can hit extreme form in other games. However its hard to see it given our injuries.

If we had Havertz, Saka and Martinelli coming back sooner I'd be very gung ho however. Liverpool are there for the taking, we just may not have enough to make the most of it.

RocktheCasbah

Burnwinter Glass half empty view: if we don't beat them at Anfield, we're not getting anything from this season

this is the view I've come to (and had only previously shared with Jo and someone at work): win at Anfield, we win the league.

Although, the way Liverpool are going, we might not even need to do that...

Claudius

Qwiss Pool have been running hot. They have a series of tough games. Will take a mental toll. And they’re under more pressure as the leaders.

SimplyThePest

Qwiss Ethan! Ethan! Ethan!

Sicario2

RocktheCasbah without sounding like Haaland, let’s be humble. We are fortunate we still have a glimmer of hope to be honest.

Liverpool game is way into the horizon. Let’s take it game by game. As mentioned, end of Feb (ie next Wed) we will have a much better understanding.

In March us and Liverpool only play 2 and 1 game respectively.

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah win at Anfield, we win the league.

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

RocktheCasbah

Sicario2 oh look at you, being the voice of moderation all of a sudden! 🤣

I was joking about Liverpool, obviously. But I do believe that game at Anfield has serious winner takes all potential. It's something I've felt for a while.

And Sicario, you have to admit, I've been very consistent about saying this wasn't over - so I'm not just reacting to last night.

Don Pacifico

There's a long way to go before Anfield can be a title decider. We basically need to not fuck up until then and we still won't have Saka for the next month or so. Didn't manage to avoid fuck ups even when Saka was fit so colour me highly sceptical.

Tam

Don Pacifico I wasn't aware until Sicario's post above how few games there in the next month or so. Albeit the two in March are Man United away and Chelsea at home, which regardless of either their current form are potential banana skins at the best of times. The FA Cup showed there's nothing like an Arsenal game to give an underperforming Man United team a helping hand.

It's fortunate we have so few games in the next 6 weeks given the injury situation. We won't overload the team too much, especially Nwaneri. We do have a run of games every few days coming back in April though.

RocktheCasbah

Okay, but what if we beat West Ham on Saturday and Liverpool lose to City on Sunday? It's proper on then, innit?

Don Pacifico

Tam yeah, but even that's an optimistic take that Saka will be ready to go come April 1st. Likelihood is that he'll take a bit of time to get match sharp/will need to have his minutes managed to avoid aggravating the injury he's recovered from.