February is a killer schedule. and dont forget there is two more games we dont see yet in February due to the CL playoff. that is only possible of course if we get top24 of 36 teams of course which is not sure given our displays. we need something against PSG and deffo we need to beat Brugge.
if we do finish in top24 we might get Real, Milan, Sporting, Lille, Benfica, Monaco, Atletico or similar in a two legged tie both to be played in February while others like Liverpool sit back sit out this round and wait for their opponent in one round later.
all these potential CL sides are levels better than Brentford. a very early CL exit might clear the schedule a bit for us but at the same time it will be Pep's worst ever CL season as a manager and for City too since the Mancini group stage exits. we are at risk of playing 10 CL games and not even getting to last 16 of those games while we needed 6 games previously to reach last 16.
Pellegrini always reached 1/16 finals same as Pep not getting to the last 16 would be very poor. just as bad if Bayern couldnt get there or Real.
we knew what we need to do in the January transfer window, due to the fuck up we did in the summer window, we had long months to fix some issues at least in terms of selecting targets, especially after seeing our horrible run from late October, its quite clear CL places are at risk if we dont manage to improve our form big time.
35 points after 21 games, an overperforming Forest is the last thing we needed but at least balanced out by big time underperforming rags, Spurs and Arsenal also dropped off and will be nowhere near their 89 points tally from last season neither us to our 91 points.
Newcastle, Chelsea, Forest, Arsenal the 4 main clubs that can stop up being in 2/3/4th places. Chelsea going through a shit patch now as well, while Newcastle did find some form recently and have no european schedule which helps them.
5th may or may not be a CL place we dont know yet.
next 5 away games in PL:
Ipswich, Arsenal, Spurs, Forest, rags
while the home games have Chelsea, Brighton, Newcastle, dippers so all top half sides pretty much.
next 2 months we will be tested big time, with some more CL games and FA cup in there as well.
this is where we either save our season or we will be turned over.