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A Christmas Roundup - Jan 1st 2024 to Now If we beat Ipswich on Friday we will have 36 points after 18 matches. 18 games in last season we were top with 40. I definitely feel that our best way to win the league is to stay in touch and go on a strong run at the end. There is a lot of pressure being top and Liverpool and Chelsea may yet run into a bad stretch. If they wobble towards the end we can win. Last season we had a powerful finish but City had stronger. City last season, by the way, were fifth on 17 games at that point with 34 points, very similar to us at the moment with 33 points. I can’t remember how City ended the season, can you? It is still very much there for us. We need to believe and give the support. Ipswich are a good side who are not beaten easily Most are already out of the Table of Doom And the Table of Doom? Bizarrely, at the start of the season, I set 92 points as the target. Do you know how many teams are already out of the Table of Doom if I am right with that number? All teams except Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and, you guessed it - Nottingham Forest. We can get 96 if we win all our matches. I think it is safe to say that won’t happen. Liverpool can still get 102 and Chelsea 98. Our best chance of a trophy? At the start, I did not see either of them having such a strong season, with rookie premiership managers and both teams having potentially big problems. I believed that City, Villa and ourselves would carve out most of the points leading to a bigger amount needed than City’s 91 in 2024. I think it is fairly safe to say probably 88 or 89 is more likely to be enough. I will go for 88 as the new Table of Doom figure. That brings in Bournemouth, Villa, Man City, Newcastle, Fulham and Brighton. City are dead, are they? City can still get 90 and of all the teams in that list, they are the only one where we would not be astonished if they got to 88 or enough points to win the league. If they hit top gear, they are capable of winning all their matches. They only dropped 6 points in their last 21 games and they were 5th at 17 matches last season. We are all still a bit afraid of the City bear wakening up. Honestly, though, I cannot see any of the rest having a strong enough run to win the league. And surely Forest won’t do it? Liverpool, Chelsea and ourselves look to be the ones left if City do not have a miracle turnaround. Can this cuddly bear wake up? And we need, to get to 88, to drop a mere 8 points over 21 matches. 1 draws and two losses is the target and win all the rest. It is a tough ask. We have already lost 2 and drawn 6 in 17. We must be truly superb from now on to win the league. I get the feeling that not too many of us are optimistic. Am I right? Whenever I do start the countdown for the Table of Doom, I feel that there may not be many teams in it. At 88 points, Forest, currently 4th, could only drop 6 points over 21 matches. If they lose their next 2 against Tottenham at home and Everton away, they are already gone and it would not even be the new year. How strong is our squad? So how are we at the Arsenal? Raya, Gabriel, Saliba, Rice, Odegaard and Saka are certain starters. Timber is close to that as well. That leaves Martinelli, Jesus, Trossard, Calafiori, Havertz, Partey, White, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Sterling, Kiwior, Tierney, Tomiyasu, Jorginho and Zinchenko to battle for the other 4 places. The emergence of the academy stars, plus Calafiori and Sterling has given us greater depth than last year. We have also had far more injuries this season. Still, there are not too many players I would swap from other teams. Will training with the guys who had him in their pocket improve Gyokares? Will we buy over January? There is talk of Gyokares, Atalanta striker Mateo Retegui, and even Isak but it is hard to know. Only Isak is proven in the Premiership and a new striker could disrupt the team as they work out how to slot him in. I will make a forecast – if we get a new striker we won’t win the league this year. But it could be the missing link that we need to get to the top eventually. Can we win all the rest? Can we win the Champions League? That has always been my dream and without it we are below the true greats. This year looks possible. I can’t see any team that we are incapable of beating and some greats may not even make it to the knockouts. For me that would be a fantastic season even if we finish 4th in the league. The League Cup? Newcastle home and away will be tough as Eddie Howe always sets up to disrupt us. If we get through Liverpool looks the most likely. Will Postecoglou be gone from the Spuds by then? Nothing too easy left but still a good chance of a trophy. Eddie Howe likes frustrating us Manchester United in the FA Cup and in these early days it is hard to see whether we can win the cup. It is our trophy so you never know. It is quite some time since we were in 4 trophies heading to the new year. Can we do that? The only thing I can say is that when I was 13 years old I never really thought it was possible all season to win the double. We never seemed to grab top spot and Leeds and Liverpool were machines. It was extraordinary to do it from low mid-table the year before. The start of winning our trophy? We now have top players in every position, we seem to be united across management and players. The quadruple is on, people. Up the Arsenal!