City being underestimated again ?

[King Geedorah]

Chelsea and United both have potential to improve on last season. United certainly will and no CL will put them up there, but equally they're making long term signings who won't bed in right away. Chelsea is a tough one- for Fabregas to shine Mourinho will need to completely change a very rigid side and induce some fluidity. But then again Costa scoring 20+ goals will certainly be worth a few points over the course of a season, and Fabregas in for Oscar will be a certain improvement.

Arsenal depends a lot on who they bring in and whether Ramsey's form was a flash in the pan- but you can slot a top striker into their side without affecting too much. That would bring them on significantly.

Liverpool will regress, because they were firing at more or less full capacity last season.

Meanwhile I can't really see where we will struggle, that we didn't last season. We'll probably drop a few more points at home as I certainly felt we came close at times (Hull for one). But then again I can't see our away form being any worse than the first half of last season. We certainly won't lose home and away to Chelsea- which made the league look a lot lot closer than it actually was.

By my money we're favourites unless Mourinho does something special(er) than just setting a side up to grind out 2-0 wins. If both City and Chelsea are off the boil then the likes of United and Arsenal could be in with a shout. If all 4 are off the boil like last season then Liverpool could.

 

[GeekinGav]

if Liverpool sell Suarez, they'll struggle to make 4th.

Scum will battle Liverppol for 4th if they spend about £300m.

Chelsea's arrogance will be their biggest challenge.

I'd be more worried about Arsenal next season. they they spend a bit of money, get a top striker like Balotelli etc and some key areas with solid players, they could challenge us.

Going for
1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Chelsea
4.Scum/Dippers

 

[stony]

I'd be more worried about Arsenal next season. they they spend a bit of money, get a top striker like Balotelli etc and some key areas with solid players, they could challenge us.

Going for
1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Chelsea
4.Scum/Dippers

I was taking you seriously until you mentioned him. He would prove detrimental to a team like Arsenal. Suarez would have almost guaranteed them the title, but it was never going to happen.
If they signed someone like Dzeko I would start to worry.

 

[Helmet Cole]

Wouldn't it be nice if spuds got their act together and took 4th with the dippers and rags out of CL? The dippers last season (briefly) reminded me of what a load of twats they were in the '80s, and at one point I was almost wishing to have the rags back in the title race. Defending our title while they both slug it out for the newly instigated 7th place/away record/'istree trophy would be perfect.

 

[eastmanc]

Really can not see it being close next season City will win it in a canter by 7/10 points like they should have done last year, Pellegrini is one year wiser and we won't make the same mistakes again losing to Villa Cardiff Sunderland and those type of teams, plus a fit Jovetic will add to our forward power and Fernando will make us at least 10 goals better defensively so sit back and enjoy one of the most one sided title wins in history

As arrogant as it sounds I can't help but agree with this to be honest. If we can keep the main players fit I think we'll win the title quite convincingly. I like us being underestimated though as it heeps the pressure elsewhere. Anyone I've spoken to who knows about football knows City will be in the mix at the crucial part of the season. This will be Pellegrinis second season and he's now learnt the pitfalls of the Premier League. Roll on August.

The big if is keeping our better players fitter for longer. We would have walked the title last season had the skipper and our main forward stayed fit for another ten games or so. The encouraging thing is that City seem to be trying to do something about the injury problems by installing state of the art equipment at the new academy and with new tailored fitness programmes for Kompany and Augero we will be fine.

 

[eastmanc]

City were underestimated for the majority of last season, nobody saw us coming, least of all Liverpool and their sycophantic cult.

Didn't turn out too badly.

We shouldn't look for platitudes and feint praise, just to feel that little bit warmer inside that we are somehow respected.

Respect is overrated. Fear is our greatest weapon.

The Liverpool lovefest, and the lack of media coverage of City's title run in last season was a source of continued annoyance for me. We were embroiled in a tight title race, which went down to the last day of the season, again, yet if you'd been dropped into Spring 2014 you'd have been hard pushed to realise that City were even in the hunt for the title, yet alone the side that would ultimately win the whole thing. If that's a measure of the way things will be if Liverpool are perennial title contenders then I, for one, hope they fall by the wayside early doors and that last season was an anomaly rather than an indicator of things to come.

The other thing is that even now media coverage of the last season talks about "free-scoring Liverpool" or "highly entertaining style", yet no one seems to mention that the champions not only outscored them, they conceded less, played better football (lots of team goals), and created a new English record for the most goals scored in all competitions. Its like the latter doesn't exist.

Why is this?

 

[GeekinGav]

I'd be more worried about Arsenal next season. they they spend a bit of money, get a top striker like Balotelli etc and some key areas with solid players, they could challenge us.

Going for
1. City
2. Arsenal
3. Chelsea
4.Scum/Dippers

I was taking you seriously until you mentioned him. He would prove detrimental to a team like Arsenal. Suarez would have almost guaranteed them the title, but it was never going to happen.
If they signed someone like Dzeko I would start to worry.

mentioned him, "like" him ... that level of player that can seriously hurt defenses. Giroud is good but not in the top end of strikers ... and there wont be many available to buy, Benzema maybe.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

Really can not see it being close next season City will win it in a canter by 7/10 points like they should have done last year, Pellegrini is one year wiser and we won't make the same mistakes again losing to Villa Cardiff Sunderland and those type of teams, plus a fit Jovetic will add to our forward power and Fernando will make us at least 10 goals better defensively so sit back and enjoy one of the most one sided title wins in history

As arrogant as it sounds I can't help but agree with this to be honest. If we can keep the main players fit I think we'll win the title quite convincingly. I like us being underestimated though as it heeps the pressure elsewhere. Anyone I've spoken to who knows about football knows City will be in the mix at the crucial part of the season. This will be Pellegrinis second season and he's now learnt the pitfalls of the Premier League. Roll on August.

The big if is keeping our better players fitter for longer. We would have walked the title last season had the skipper and our main forward stayed fit for another ten games or so. The encouraging thing is that City seem to be trying to do something about the injury problems by installing state of the art equipment at the new academy and with new tailored fitness programmes for Kompany and Augero we will be fine.

Exactly. Even if we made no signings whatsoever, simply having our best players fit would be a massive boost. It wasn't just the injuries last season, it was that it was all of our best players. It'd be like getting 3 world class players back.

 

[HenryNacho]

I think anyone who is predicting we get below 2nd is completely delusional. With that said, I think some people on here are underestimating Chelsea a bit. Mourinho will probably improve on his first season as well as fill a lot of the missing pieces to their squad that prevented them from winning last year. Also, I feel like winning the league the previous season allows complacency to creep in and puts you at a psychological disadvantage compared to our rivals who are hungry to win the league. Though I think this season's title defense will go better than the last one, I remember everyone on here thinking we would defend our title last time. Finally, a lot of it depends on what happens this summer. If Chelsea continue to strengthen their squad and we allow Yaya to leave and don't sign any world class replacement nor sign a world class CB then I think Chelsea would have to be the favorite.

 

[eastmanc]

I think anyone who is predicting we get below 2nd is completely delusional. With that said, I think some people on here are underestimating Chelsea a bit. Mourinho will probably improve on his first season as well as fill a lot of the missing pieces to their squad that prevented them from winning last year. Also, I feel like winning the league the previous season allows complacency to creep in and puts you at a psychological disadvantage compared to our rivals who are hungry to win the league. Though I think this season's title defense will go better than the last one, I remember everyone on here thinking we would defend our title last time. Finally, a lot of it depends on what happens this summer. If Chelsea continue to strengthen their squad and we allow Yaya to leave and don't sign any world class replacement nor sign a world class CB then I think Chelsea would have to be the favorite.

A lot was made about Mourinho coming back last season and how this gave Chelsea the edge over City. Thankfully it didn't pan out that way and we all know who won the title. If anything I believe he actually became a hindrance to Chelsea at times with the way he set them up and how he utalised the likes of Hazard and Oscar (remember what Hazard said about Chelsea's style of football). He also tried to use the mind games a bit too much and it just didn't work. What he is very good at is winning one off games when he feels he can use his tactical know how, like the Liverpool game and at the Etihad. He will feel that with the players Chelsea had last season they underacheived hopfully we can again out perform them and win another title.