I knew this thread existed, had to go all the way to page eight to find it 🙂
Are we now in a race for higher than fourth? I think we are.
Without getting carried away by our recent run of good results, and turnaround in fortunes, (OK I am) I think we're showing the kind of spirit that will make us realistic contenders along with Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool and Spurs for any position from fourth to second.
At this stage I cannot see how City will lose out on the title.
Along with being absolutely destructively lethal in attack their defence is the most solid of all top four contenders.
It would take an injury crisis of catastrophic proportions to derail their chances.
Outside of City every other club vying for top four status has shown that on the wrong day they have defences that can be turn asunder.
Ours is admittedly the most likely but we are definitely getting better in that regard.
United, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool all have their own headaches in that area.
I would not lightly dismiss the effects the loss to City had on United's young back four.
Take Vidic out of the equation and they are vulnerable.
If we continue and build upon our current run of form, if we find a way to manage van Persie's fitness without paying for resting him, find a way to score when he's not available, deal with inevitable injuries to key players, then we can finish better than fourth.
The continuing improving goal scoring and assists from Gervinho, Theo, Ramsey, Arteta, Arshavin, Park and Song possibly Chamberlain will be crucial to our success.
We're heading the right way there.
For once I'm also quite confident that our defence will get better too.
