Are Leicester genuine title contenders?

[TBM]

[harry]

So, that's
Spurs 2 points behind & goal diff +8 better
Arsenal 5 points behind & GD -3
Man City 9 points back, same GD & game in hand

and for the record
Man U 12 points back, GD -10
If Liverpool win their game in hand they'll crucially move to within 15 points of Leicester
Chelsea are leaving it late but are now within a Newcastle, being only 20 points behind.

[stealthpapes]

The art of actual football management /coaching seems dead

100% agreed, and that's sad.

I just wanted to revisit this as the league table stands with

Leicester - as previously discussed.
Spurs - with players brought in over the last three or four years, youth players such as Mason and Kane and the odd lower league player picked up from nowhere.
Arsenal - where the complaint has been that Wenger always wants to do it his own way, with his own style of players.

What amazes me is the paucity of analysis of what Leicester are doing.

Actually, even what Spurs are doing is evading scrutiny. Out of date wiki stats have them, at the end of Jan, using a core squad of about 12 players, and then another 5 or 6 contributing the odd handful of games. There's not one key new signing - players like Kane, Eriksson and Lamela have been there for a good couple of seasons, £22 million striker from Korea has got only two goals.

Yeah, but football management is dead.

[Hoop Blah]

I'd suggest that Ali has been a key signing for Spurs, but granted he wasn't a big marque investment signing with all the fanfare of a Memphis or Pedro.

It's good to see sides getting success from building a team as opposed to just spending big to plug holes. I do wonder if we'd have seen them where they are if things weren't so f**ked up at City, Chelsea and United though. All 3 of them are, to my mind, examples of bad management to the same extent as Spurs are good.

Everton should be another one on that list alongside Spurs but they've conspired to lose too many games they should've won (probably a lack of pragmatism by Martinez and the difference between very good and just good management perhaps).

Stoke another good story this season?

[stealthpapes]

I'd say Stoke under Pulis were a great example of how a manager gamed the system. If you ever want to get truly bored, I'd explain with many charts why Pulis' Stoke were the nearest thing to a UK version of Moneyball.

It's quite dull, and involves "minute ball in play" stats.

That Hughes has reworked the club and brought in some tarnished gems and bargains is great, but for a demonstration in how to finish well above your finances and play a totally different style of football in order to do so, you want to look at Pulis.

[Hoop Blah]

I'm more interested in seeing managers build effective and good teams (I guess that means playing some kind of attractive football that I don't mind watching as a neutral) than just beating the system as such.

I'm not anti-Pulis though.

[stealthpapes]

yeah, but you don't see mere mortal managers, wearing nowt but a monogrammed towel, offering the spectacle of headbutting James Beattie across the dressing room. .

do you?

[stealthpapes]

... and given that we're trying to firmly rebut Nameless' near limitless reserves of retardation, then yeah, I'll talk about Stoke for a bit.

[seahawk10]

Enjoyable game so far today vs. West Brom. Leicester have created loads of chances but haven't been able to finish a majority.
15 minutes to go, hoping they grab all three points.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Damn shame

West Brom holding out like they did against Everton. How Leicester didn't win that is a mystery

[seahawk10]

Hate to do it, but gotta pull for Wetsham to steal a point from Spurs now. It would be a shame if this was the last day they are top of the table.

[Vision]

Hate to do it, but gotta pull for Wetsham to steal a point from Spurs now. It would be a shame if this was the last day they are top of the table.

Reckon Spurs will happily take a point from that and against Arsenal on Saturday too.

[Handsome Man]

Man City are my favourites for the title.

I can't see Spurs or Leicester maintaining their form.

[Sanguine]

Man City are my favourites for the title.

I can't see Spurs or Leicester maintaining their form.

Given your opinions on Alastair Cook and Jimmy Anderson we can now be pretty sure Spurs or Leicester will take the title.

[Sanguine]

Spurs still have to go to Liverpool (where they have won once in 20 years), Stoke and Chelsea. Depends on other results of course, but I don't know if 2 draws from their next two games is going to cut it.

[stealthpapes]

Craig Gardner is one of my more favourite premiership players, harder than a bag of nails in cement, decent free kick on him, you'd walk past him in Corporation street without batting an eyelid.

[Hoop Blah]

Totally agree, he's a cracking little player.

Man City are now something like 5/1 if anyone thinks they're favourites! I wouldn't be ruling them out mind...

[Winston Smith]

Reckon it is Spurs for the taking

big north london derby come up

[Vision]

Spurs still have to go to Liverpool (where they have won once in 20 years), Stoke and Chelsea. Depends on other results of course, but I don't know if 2 draws from their next two games is going to cut it.

Hate to break it to you but I suspect this current Liverpool will be among the easier games any of the title chasers face in the run in

Think they'll beat Stoke but for sure Chelsea are the fly in the ointment for everyone at the moment.

A draw against in form West Ham and ensuring title rivals Arsenal don't gain direct ground wouldn't be a perfect scenario but would be perfectly acceptable.

Plenty of games to go but once you enter the last 7 or 8 games the pressure really cranks up. I'd be inclined to agree with HM though in that City have finished strongly in the last few seasons and you can see them above all the others going through a spell of winning 7 or 8 consecutive games. However they're normally out of the CL by then so if they're still in that (and its clearly a priority for the owners) then it will be different circumstances.. Also they're gash without Kompany so he'll have to stay fit.

I'd also add that despite the hand wringing from the armchair Gooners on here , they're far from out of it and Wenger is right to tell people to calm down because they've still got a great chance.

I really can't call it , which is why it's the best title chase for ages, and to be honest looking at the remaining fixture list and using historical records is all a bit irrelevant in this of all seasons. Spurs seem the most solid and consistent to me so if "slow and steady wins the race" I'd go with them if I absolutely had to stick my neck out.

[Vision]

Totally agree, he's a cracking little player.

Man City are now something like 5/1 if anyone thinks they're favourites! I wouldn't be ruling them out mind...

That's really good value but would be even better value if Kompany wasn't made of Weetabix.