Will we win the league this season?

Craig said:
Napoli are very average. If we’d not parked the bus in a way we’ve never done in years I think Arsenal would have beaten us. I’m not really slagging anyone I’ve just thought for weeks were miles of genuinely challenging for the title. I didn’t expect us to win today because as we’ve seen for a good while now when a team are half decent with legs we really struggle physically. To be fair today we started very well with our press. Once they started to break it though they could run straight through. We’d over achieved really with the run we’d been on as eventually Harland wouldn’t be able to carry us.
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Average, really ? Champions of Italy, top of their league.

Re the Arsenal game, one man’s parking the bus is another man’s defensive masterclass

In a bang average league I don’t think we’re far off. Had we added one top class creative midfielder to a spine of Haaland, Rodri and Don we’d have been very well placed to make a run.

But instead we got Reindeer and, current flavour of the month for the fanboys, bargain basement Cherki.
 
Nobody is looking like they will win it.
Arsenal are most likely but must prove there mentality which isn't a given.
Were top 3 at best unless we keep starting Savio and Bobb then top six could be doubtful. CTID
 
Axel Freed said:
Average, really ? Champions of Italy, top of their league.

Re the Arsenal game, one man’s parking the bus is another man’s defensive masterclass

In a bang average league I don’t think we’re far off. Had we added one top class creative midfielder to a spine of Haaland, Rodri and Don we’d have been very well placed to make a run.

But instead we got Reindeer and, current flavour of the month for the fanboys, bargain basement Cherki.
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What’s Cherki got to do with anything, he’s played about an hour for us? If it was a great Pep team he wouldn’t have played that way. Didn’t blame him for doing it because Arsenal are better than us now. Look who Napoli’s best players are.
 
Axel Freed said:
Average, really ? Champions of Italy, top of their league.

Re the Arsenal game, one man’s parking the bus is another man’s defensive masterclass

In a bang average league I don’t think we’re far off. Had we added one top class creative midfielder to a spine of Haaland, Rodri and Don we’d have been very well placed to make a run.

But instead we got Reindeer and, current flavour of the month for the fanboys, bargain basement Cherki.
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Napoli just conceded 6 against PSV, and Scott Mctominay won player of the year in Serie A, they aren't a top team.

Can you elaborate on your comment about Cherki?
 
Axel Freed said:
Average, really ? Champions of Italy, top of their league.

Re the Arsenal game, one man’s parking the bus is another man’s defensive masterclass

In a bang average league I don’t think we’re far off. Had we added one top class creative midfielder to a spine of Haaland, Rodri and Don we’d have been very well placed to make a run.

But instead we got Reindeer and, current flavour of the month for the fanboys, bargain basement Cherki.
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We was crap against Everton and Brentford. We’ve looked good against United and wolves, and everybody wins at wolves. We looked decent against Napoli but given they had ten men most of the game it’s hard to judge.

We haven’t looked convincing and that will happen as we adapt as a new team. We aren’t in a run in and we will be far off with the upcoming games. We need to focus on top 4 and something to build on for next year
 
The Stockport Iniesta said:
Napoli just conceded 6 against PSV, and Scott Mctominay won player of the year in Serie A, they aren't a top team.

Can you elaborate on your comment about Cherki?
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One bad game means nothing. They are a top team.

Not surprising that a top class manager like Conte could get more out of mctom than a succession of past it / poor rag managers

The Cherki remark references a back and forth I was having on this thread with some fanboys of his who were proclaiming him as some attacking marvel whereas I took the pragmatic view that he’s unproven and probably cost buttons for a reason.
 
AK45 said:
We was crap against Everton and Brentford. We’ve looked good against United and wolves, and everybody wins at wolves. We looked decent against Napoli but given they had ten men most of the game it’s hard to judge.

We haven’t looked convincing and that will happen as we adapt as a new team. We aren’t in a run in and we will be far off with the upcoming games. We need to focus on top 4 and something to build on for next year
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Crap at Brentford ? Their subsequent results suggest that a crap performance won’t see a team come away from their ground with 3 points like we did.

Is this need to look “convincing” coming from the same needy place as those who want us to dominate the entire 90 minutes of every game we play. Witness the Villareal post match thread with many flappers moaning that we didn’t control the 2nd half blah blah blah. It’s not always about looking convincing it’s more about the result mate and today we had our first bad one since August.

We aren’t far off we just need maybe one elite player in the middle and probably a fullback. Get them and despite the obvious squad deficiencies we can still be in the hunt.
 
Axel Freed said:
The Cherki remark references a back and forth I was having on this thread with some fanboys of his who were proclaiming him as some attacking marvel whereas I took the pragmatic view that he’s unproven and probably cost buttons for a reason.
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You would know Cherki is a top player if you'd actually seen him playing, and playing in his best position which is the right wing. I have this terrible feeling we are going to waste him by trying to shoehorn him in centrally. He's head and shoulders above Bobb and Savinho as a right winger, just hoping he gets the chance to show it. About the fee, Lyon needed to sell, they were totally skint, he turned down Dortmund and PSG before agreeing to come to City.
 
Axel Freed said:
Crap at Brentford ? Their subsequent results suggest that a crap performance won’t see a team come away from their ground with 3 points like we did.

Is this need to look “convincing” coming from the same needy place as those who want us to dominate the entire 90 minutes of every game we play. Witness the Villareal post match thread with many flappers moaning that we didn’t control the 2nd half blah blah blah. It’s not always about looking convincing it’s more about the result mate and today we had our first bad one since August.

We aren’t far off we just need maybe one elite player in the middle and probably a fullback. Get them and despite the obvious squad deficiencies we can still be in the hunt.
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Winning doesn’t mean we played well, we took the lead at Brentford then allowed them to grow into the game. We was having on, result wise it was great, doesn’t mean we played great does it?

The problem with not being convincing is it means games can swing quite easily, like Monaco, like Brighton, like today. We’ve lost games we’ve played well and looked convincing in and it can happen. But if you aren’t winning convincingly then a drop off can happen, and here it is again. There is no desire to control a game for 90 minutes, but to give a 90 minute performance. I don’t think we’ve seen that bar United and wolves. I’m fine with that, but it will be why we aren’t anywhere near a title race.
 
The Stockport Iniesta said:
You would know Cherki is a top player if you'd actually seen him playing, and playing in his best position which is the right wing. I have this terrible feeling we are going to waste him by trying to shoehorn him in centrally. He's head and shoulders above Bobb and Savinho as a right winger, just hoping he gets the chance to show it. About the fee, Lyon needed to sell, they were totally skint, he turned down Dortmund and PSG before agreeing to come to City.
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I’ll believe it when I see it, couple of YouTube highlight reels won’t suffice. Being head and shoulders above those two non performers won’t suffice either

Look at the attacking midfielders / wingers we’ve had in this era. Raz, Leroy, KDB, Mahrez etc even going back as far as Nasri and Silva and Yaya - they all had glowing reputations with a body of work to support this and usually a transfer fee to match. This guy cost Nolito / Scott Sinclair money - doesn’t mean we haven’t unearthed a reasonably priced gem but the smart money’s against it.
 
AK45 said:
Winning doesn’t mean we played well, we took the lead at Brentford then allowed them to grow into the game. We was having on, result wise it was great, doesn’t mean we played great does it?

The problem with not being convincing is it means games can swing quite easily, like Monaco, like Brighton, like today. We’ve lost games we’ve played well and looked convincing in and it can happen. But if you aren’t winning convincingly then a drop off can happen, and here it is again. There is no desire to control a game for 90 minutes, but to give a 90 minute performance. I don’t think we’ve seen that bar United and wolves. I’m fine with that, but it will be why we aren’t anywhere near a title race.
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We did give a 90 minutes performance at Brentford. We got ahead, had some good spells and then defended resolutely when we needed to. Used to be regarded as a textbook away win. Same with Villareal.

Don’t need to play great to win titles. The dippers showed that last year as arguably we did in our 4 in a row season. You need a strong spine, a bit of nous and a couple of superstars at the top of their game for big spells of the season.
 
Axel Freed said:
I’ll believe it when I see it, couple of YouTube highlight reels won’t suffice. Being head and shoulders above those two non performers won’t suffice either

Look at the attacking midfielders / wingers we’ve had in this era. Raz, Leroy, KDB, Mahrez etc even going back as far as Nasri and Silva and Yaya - they all had glowing reputations with a body of work to support this and usually a transfer fee to match. This guy cost Nolito / Scott Sinclair money - doesn’t mean we haven’t unearthed a reasonably priced gem but the smart money’s against it.
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I haven't watched him on YouTube but whatever mate. You'll be surprised what games you can watch if you've got a fire stick, and I watched him absolutely destroy the rags single handedly last season. You are also completely ignoring the fact Lyon were in dire financial difficulties and basically needed to sell, otherwise you're talking £60m minimum transfer fee, probably a lot more.
 
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The Stockport Iniesta said:
I haven't watched him on YouTube but whatever mate. You'll be surprised what games you can watch if you've got a fire stick, and I watched him absolutely destroy the rags single handedly last season. You are also completely ignoring the fact Lyon were in dire financial difficulties and basically needed to sell, otherwise you're talking £60m minimum transfer fee, probably a lot more.
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I’m not personally having a pop at your judgement apologies if it came across like that. I’m an unashamed natural cynic. Anyway hope I’m proved wrong and you right with this lad
 
Unlikely but if we beat Bournemouth and Liverpool things could start to happen. Whilst I don’t think many teams will beat Arsenal, I can see them drawing a few

Donna
Khusanov Dias Gvardiol O’Reilly
Rodders/Nico
Rijnders(on form) or Cherki Bernado
Foden Haaland Marmoush

That’s a good line up if we have a good wind. If is a big word but if we accept we will finish 3rd easily in the end then I don’t think we will be far behind come the last 10 games then test Arsenal’s minerals….
 
The only sliver of hope I clign to is that whilst Arsenal are very unlikely to lose many games, they're certainly capable of racking up too many draws. Whether that means we will be in any position to capitalise is anyone's guess. Could literally flip a coin with us at the moment.
 
Stoned Rose said:
This side is nowhere near the standard of previous seasons either technically, physically, mentally or desire wise.

We’ll do well to finish top 6 imo.
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We're obviously better than we were last season when we finished 3rd, so finishing 6th or 7th seems unlikely.

For instance, we're 8 points up on the equivalent 9 fixtures from last year.
 
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