[Albion] Would you take 7th place, if offered now?

[Thimble Keegan]

If Chelsea win the League Cup (come on Liverpool!) they will take one of our two Europa League spots. So unless the possible fifth CL place becomes reality, 5th. place will get the remaining Europa League spot, 6th, will get the Conference - and 7th, zilch.
An 'outsider' winning the FA Cup could complicate things still further, I think.

Not quite. If Chelsea win the League Cup (come on Liverpool), they will take a European Conference League spot. You do not qualify for the Conference League through your league placing initially.

As it stands, we get 4 Champions League representatives, which are those clubs in places 1-4 (obviously). 5th spot will get a Europa League place and the remaining Europa League spot goes to the FA Cup winners. If the winners of the FA & League Cups, finish in the top 5 places, then their Europa League & Conference League entries are transferred to the League, which will be 6th & 7th respectively...This is how Villa qualified for the Conference League despite finishing 7th.

Now, if the Premier League get 5 Champions League representatives for next season, then the whole thing could shift down by an extra place...So 8th will be good enough for the Conference League.

For the record, I would take 8th if it meant Conference League qualification. We would have another season of European trips and in a competition we would be heavy favourites to win.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Rustington BHA

 

[Charles 'Charley' Charles]

How does it work if the winners of the Europa League have already qualified for the Champions League with league position? Example, Liverpool win the Premier League, but beat West Ham in the Europa League final, do the losers in the Europa League final get that Champions League spot, or does it transfer to the winning teams domestic league table?

 

[Krafty]

How does it work if the winners of the Europa League have already qualified for the Champions League with league position? Example, Liverpool win the Premier League, but beat West Ham in the Europa League final, do the losers in the Europa League final get that Champions League spot, or does it transfer to the winning teams domestic league table?

Actually, I think there would still be the standard four (or possibly five) Champions League places, West Ham wouldn't qualify for the Champions League in this example - unless they qualified through the league.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Those games against the teams around us are going to be massive. They will feel as tense as the Europa games to me at least.

I can't get the nagging thought out of my head that the teams we've played twice are Palace, Sheff Utd, Sham, Spurs, Wolves and Luton. That leaves us with a lot of tough games to come.

Newcastle and Chelsea have an easier run in than us.
But other than that the run ins are comparable.

With the exception of City, I don't feel the quality of the opposition matters that much to us.
If we can get a good run of games with no more injuries, I rate our chances of at least matching last season's position.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I'm still taking 7th if it was offered now - another European adventure would be amazing!

I think there is a greater chance of us moving down the table than up.
We have drawn against Burnley, Sheffield United, etc. and this is not the time to get complacent.

Those two games were both freak results.
I'm not buying into that being indicative of what we should expect.

The next 3 games are crucial.

• Everton (h)
• Fulham (a)
• Forest (h)

If we are lower than 7th after these, then I would agree we are more likely to finish below 7th than not.
I won't give up onit though.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Those two games were both freak results.
I'm not buying into that being indicative of what we should expect.

The next 3 games are crucial.

• Everton (h)
• Fulham (a)
• Forest (h)

If we are lower than 7th after these, then I would agree we are more likely to finish below 7th than not.
I won't give up onit though.

They could even define our season

 

[Mellotron]

It's always difficult (for me anyway), to answer the question, did we win because we were so good, or because the opposition were so poor?

Almost always a bit of a both isn't it? Doesn't need to be binary.

They were poor, but that was in reasonable part due to our shape, movement and passing. IMO.

 

[aolstudios]

Newcastle and Chelsea have an easier run in than us.
But other than that the run ins are comparable.

With the exception of City, I don't feel the quality of the opposition matters that much to us.
If we can get a good run of games with no more injuries, I rate our chances of at least matching last season's position.

This ^
With a decent amount of our squad fit, we can get a result against anyone

 

[Mellotron]

I still feel a lot of people are ignoring the fact we've been massively understrength for a huge part of the season. We are 7th DESPITE everything so far. West Ham are also in free fall and Newcastle have serious problems. Man Utd and Chelsea are both woefully inconsistent. If we can get a decent run together and beat a couple of sides around us, Top 7 will be ours.

I'm still not ruling out higher than 7th - beat Man Utd at home and it's only 3 points with a better GD.

We look a totally different side with our wingers back and Lamptey fit.

 

[Triggaaar]

They could even define our season

We need to come up with a more succinct way of saying that

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

The next 3 games are crucial.

• Everton (h)
• Fulham (a)
• Forest (h)

Yes, 9 points from those three games would be brilliant.

 

[Simster]

Yes, 9 points from those three games would be brilliant.

And unlikely.

Fair play to him - the ginger dalek has had our number for about a decade. Seven points max.

 

[GT49er]

Not quite. If Chelsea win the League Cup (come on Liverpool), they will take a European Conference League spot. You do not qualify for the Conference League through your league placing initially.

As it stands, we get 4 Champions League representatives, which are those clubs in places 1-4 (obviously). 5th spot will get a Europa League place and the remaining Europa League spot goes to the FA Cup winners. If the winners of the FA & League Cups, finish in the top 5 places, then their Europa League & Conference League entries are transferred to the League, which will be 6th & 7th respectively...This is how Villa qualified for the Conference League despite finishing 7th.

Now, if the Premier League get 5 Champions League representatives for next season, then the whole thing could shift down by an extra place...So 8th will be good enough for the Conference League.

For the record, I would take 8th if it meant Conference League qualification. We would have another season of European trips and in a competition we would be heavy favourites to win.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Rustington BHA

OK, the difference is that the League Cup winners gut the Conference rather than the Europa - that in itself doesn't change the number of European places (all competitions) available through league position.
If an 'outsider' wins the FA Cup, Citeh win the CL, Villa win the Conference and Liverpool or West Ham or us wins the Europa, it's going to get bloody complicated!

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I still feel a lot of people are ignoring the fact we've been massively understrength for a huge part of the season. We are 7th DESPITE everything so far. West Ham are also in free fall and Newcastle have serious problems. Man Utd and Chelsea are both woefully inconsistent. If we can get a decent run together and beat a couple of sides around us, Top 7 will be ours.

I'm still not ruling out higher than 7th - beat Man Utd at home and it's only 3 points with a better GD.

We look a totally different side with our wingers back and Lamptey fit.

This

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Yes, 9 points from those three games would be brilliant.

I would be happy with 6 tbf.

 

[essbee1]

We need to come up with a more succinct way of saying that

This could define our season?

 

[jakarta]

Newcastle and Chelsea have an easier run in than us.
But other than that the run ins are comparable.

With the exception of City, I don't feel the quality of the opposition matters that much to us.
If we can get a good run of games with no more injuries, I rate our chances of at least matching last season's position.

Injuries rather ripped the centre out of the season, no more significant ones then why not 6th?

 

[Farehamseagull]

I really don’t think Spurs are as good as the ‘Ange’ loving media are making out and they are very catchable which is why that last minute winner last week was so sickening.

 

[Justice]

And unlikely.

Fair play to him - the ginger dalek has had our number for about a decade. Seven points max.

Last year was a fluke it happens, Roberto likes revenge it won’t be anything like last season. With a fully firing confident Adingra and Mitoma we will rinse the bin dippers.

 

[oldboyroy]

I'd  settle for 7th but as I said above, there are plenty of games left to finish higher. The only game I don't expect us to get anything from is Liverpool away. The likes of Newcastle away, City and arsenal at home are games that we can get points from and our home form is good despite the dropped points from teams near the bottom.