The Title Race - 2023/24

How many points will be needed to win the league?

  • Total voters
    446
  • Poll closed .
Not seen anything from the team so far this season to think we can retain the PL title.

Apart from Doku, the replacements for Gundogan, Mahrez and Laporte are very underwhelming.

Injuries to key players and suspensions have made an already small squad threadbare.

Not converting chances created whilst gifting the opposition a goal with their first shot on target has to change if we are to put in a serious challenge.
 
willipp said:
If you look at our last 8 league games (including tonight) we've had arsenal, united, villa and chelsea away and spurs, brighton and liverpool at home. Thats an incredibly tough run when we are also missing the best player in the PL for that whole period and a host of other injuries / suspensions that are really impacting us. Things will look much better by Dec 31st i'm sure and post winter break we will be in a great position.
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We hope so, but how certain is kdb to return at the start of Jan? I get the feeling it could be Feb before we see him again. Arsenal Spurs and Pool also have also had a few injuries that have hit their rotations. Madison being out might have saved us a loss too - him and Son together are lethal. I still think we'll top the league but it won't be easy and it'll be fought until the last game
 
Gray said:
Not seen anything from the team so far this season to think we can retain the PL title.

Apart from Doku, the replacements for Gundogan, Mahrez and Laporte are very underwhelming.

Injuries to key players and suspensions have made an already small squad threadbare.

Not converting chances created whilst gifting the opposition a goal with their first shot on target has to change if we are to put in a serious challenge.
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Similar story to last season. I don't think the issues cut as deep as they did.

Pep's firing the squad up by making a big deal of the questions over our mentality. I don't think anything rat boy said was controversial. But Pep's made something of it to use it as a catalyst to turn things around.

But let's not forget we've had some tough games. Arsenal have drawn away at Chelsea, at home to Fulham and Spurs and lost to Newcastle. Win tonight and we're 3pts behind them - which is thanks to their win over us. No one is running away with it here. A late win over the rags, Brentford and Luton are all going to be celebrated, but they should be beating those teams.

We're currently on the back of a run of draws, dropping points late on through silly goals. So it feels like we're the other end of the scale.

Win tonight, then away at Luton and home to Palace and we'll go to the Club World Cup in excellent shape to win the title. And whilst our game away at Brentford is postponed, we can see what happens when Arsenal go to Anfield.
 
I'm sure we had similar issues that we are having now last season. Not firing on all cylinders, throwing stupid points away and looking like we would be lucky to win one trophy. Incredibly we won three. If....and on the current form table it's a big if...we win tonight we will still be in a great position.
 
paulchapo said:
I'm sure we had similar issues that we are having now last season. Not firing on all cylinders, throwing stupid points away and looking like we would be lucky to win one trophy. Incredibly we won three. If....and on the current form table it's a big if...we win tonight we will still be in a great position.
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The difference between this season and last is our roster was better constructed. This year we know we have a roster Txiki and Prp didn’t want because we know they wanted Paqueta. The question then becomes do we have the horses to win a major trophy. I’m inclined to say yes if Kevin comes back strong.
 
paulchapo said:
I'm sure we had similar issues that we are having now last season. Not firing on all cylinders, throwing stupid points away and looking like we would be lucky to win one trophy. Incredibly we won three. If....and on the current form table it's a big if...we win tonight we will still be in a great position.
Click to expand...
Yep, the flappers thought we were out of it by Feb last season
 
Doku > Mahrez
Covacic < Gundogan
Gvardiol < Laporte
Then there’s Nunes - what even is he? He’s a poor Tommy Doyle.
All in all we have contrived to weaken our squad when, as Champions of Europe and England and the richest club in world football we should have signed genuine world-class talents and broken the bank to do so if necessary. If we fail to win the league this year then it’s in this Summer’s transfer market where the answers can be found when the inquest starts.
 
willipp said:
If you look at our last 8 league games (including tonight) we've had arsenal, united, villa and chelsea away and spurs, brighton and liverpool at home. Thats an incredibly tough run when we are also missing the best player in the PL for that whole period and a host of other injuries / suspensions that are really impacting us. Things will look much better by Dec 31st i'm sure and post winter break we will be in a great position.
Click to expand...
but with better game management we could've won 3 of them games you've just mentioned and drawn the other at arsenal.

it might have been a tough run but when you look at our performances in them games, that is the most frustrating aspect.
 
BerkshireBlue said:
How about the best midfielder in the world playing for us from January onwards?
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Yep that be brilliant when he comes back that that operation on his hamstring works?! Kdb did say about the operation that it is an operation that is rare! So we cross our fingers it has worked and we get him at full tilt the rest of this season and seasons to come!
 
JOGAMIGMOG said:
Doku > Mahrez
Covacic < Gundogan
Gvardiol < Laporte
Then there’s Nunes - what even is he? He’s a poor Tommy Doyle.
All in all we have contrived to weaken our squad when, as Champions of Europe and England and the richest club in world football we should have signed genuine world-class talents and broken the bank to do so if necessary. If we fail to win the league this year then it’s in this Summer’s transfer market where the answers can be found when the inquest starts.
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It's too early to judge our new signings. There's no way Pep would have wanted to rely on them so much so soon. We started the season incredibly well with Rodri-Kovacic as the midfield pairing and Alvarez and Haaland up top. Nunes played well against Forest, alongside Rodri (for the time he was on the pitch). And then came Rodri's ban and forced tactical changes. The balance has been tilted, but I wouldn't put the blame on our recent results at Kovacic's feet and Nunes has been injured. The issue in my opinion has been since we've played Bernardo and Alvarez centrally with Rodri. They're both energetic and press incessantly but it leaves us exposed in the middle. No Rodri tonight so not sure what Pep will do, but if we're to play Bernardo and Alvarez together centrally, then we should only do so if Stones is in the side and can plug the gaps in the middle.
 
Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese said:
Yep, the flappers thought we were out of it by Feb last season
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It's small daft mistakes and bad luck costing us at the moment. The last three games we've drawn we could easily have won too. An extra six points and we'd be joint top with a game in hand. It's been a stop/start season with the number of ridiculous international breaks. This means Pep hasn't had enough time to get new arrivals bedded into our system. Injuries have further hampered This. A win tonight and things will look a lot more positive.
 
JOGAMIGMOG said:
Doku > Mahrez
Covacic < Gundogan
Gvardiol < Laporte
Then there’s Nunes - what even is he? He’s a poor Tommy Doyle.
All in all we have contrived to weaken our squad when, as Champions of Europe and England and the richest club in world football we should have signed genuine world-class talents and broken the bank to do so if necessary. If we fail to win the league this year then it’s in this Summer’s transfer market where the answers can be found when the inquest starts.
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to be fair, this post could be copied and pasted from every previous season under pep and just change the players names
 
SSL2 said:
but with better game management we could've won 3 of them games you've just mentioned and drawn the other at arsenal.

it might have been a tough run but when you look at our performances in them games, that is the most frustrating aspect.
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Not denying that for one second, but some people have almost given up the title and forget what we've just been through and actually this is the template for most seasons.
 
willipp said:
Not denying that for one second, but some people have almost given up the title and forget what we've just been through and actually this is the template for most seasons.
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I think we have to be fair and say that Arsenal are going to push for it really hard this year after last year but we've been and done it, they haven't.

It's far too early, we just have to stay within touching distance. Nobody is playing much better than us though, we're just conceding and drawing more than usual but hopefully that will settle down, we still have a lot of new players.

The biggest test isn't for us because we've been there and done it 3 times in a row and 4 times in 5 years. The others are firing now but they have to keep that going knowing we always come good towards the end of the season. I'll only get worried if one of these teams goes 10+ points clear and it gives us too much to do.

I still don't think that the other teams can win 10-15 in a row like we can, we still have to play them all again AND our best player hasn't played a game yet.
 
Rodri banned again is the big problem, lost the 3 when he was banned last time and a big game tonight without him.

City need to prove they can win away without him against a decent side. If not we will no longer be odds on for the title.
 
At this point we ain’t in a title race.

Poor recruitment is the main factor.

No kdb successor, over reliance on Rodri.

Penny pinching needs to stop. Buy some top quality players.

It’s been an unreal few years so don’t want to sound ungrateful. This season at present we ain’t good enough.

The club will find a way to fix it I am sure but until then we gotta grin and bear it.
 
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Villa away was a draw last year, meaning now we are 10 points worse off fixture to fixture unless we do serious improvement on the Spurs away (yeah sure), Pool away(yeah sure), Castle, Brentford away fixtures (and win every remaining game we won last season) we are on track to finish under 80 points.

cant remember last time a PL team ripped us apart like Villa today. we had worse losses than 1-0 but none of them were so bad tactically, chances created etc.
 
Similar to the first half of last season even with the likes of Palmer, Gundo and Mahrez still at the club.
 
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