Will we win the league this season?

manimanc said:
Again?

They've had it wrapped up at Christmas 3 of the last 4 seasons.

They are biggest bedwetters, though some fans on here give them a run for their money.

Yes they look more mature for want of a better word but they are the champions of the bottlejobs.

We'll see.
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They will only bottle it if someone is there to put pressure on them.
 
willipp said:
Not just the wingers, it’s the whole team apart from Haaland. Unless we see some major contributions from Foden, Doku, Cherki etc, we are going to have quite a few days like yesterday.
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The players are far too dependent on Haaland, every match it’s pass out to the wing and then send a cross in. Neutralise Haaland and we’re shite. Teams throw 11 behind the ball and take us on the counter, every match.

The ‘how to beat city’ cheat sheet is bare for all to see.
 
Marvin. said:
They look like the same Arsenal as last season only this season Liverpool have fallen away.

I thought we might win at Villa but we came up a little short. It's too early to know how City will evolve. We are a young side and have players like Khusanov, Cherki, Marmoush and Rodri who have not played much football this season. I think we are stronger than last season and we will get better.
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I completely agree. Wether the improvement is enough to win the league, who knows…
 
Axel Freed said:
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.
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No we didn't, we got ahead and the whole second half I don't think we had a chance and we invited pressure onto us, something which wasn't evident first half. That is exactly what we did at Brighton, only we didn't get away with it there, same with Monaco so thinking we can take a lead and see that out isn't great logic all things considered. We played well for 45 mins against Brentford.

You need to be strong and consistent. We have played 9 games and dropped points in 4 of those already. Two of them from winning positions and two of them we never looked like scoring in. This level and standard is not enough to win the league, which as I say is completely fine I have no issue with us not being quite there yet, I just disagree with the logic that this could be a title winning side.
 
Marvin. said:
They look like the same Arsenal as last season only this season Liverpool have fallen away.

I thought we might win at Villa but we came up a little short. It's too early to know how City will evolve. We are a young side and have players like Khusanov, Cherki, Marmoush and Rodri who have not played much football this season. I think we are stronger than last season and we will get better.
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I believe we are stronger, just not strong enough for a title run yet. The messing about with defenders doesn't help the situation either. We do have them quoted players to hopefully come in and make an impact like you say, in theory we should only improve and gain consistency.
 
87 points left to play for and Arsenal are 6 ahead of City. I'd say we were home and hosed if there were 15 points left to play for but 87 is a hell of a lot and statistically we are bound to have a blip sometime.

We have an easy-ish run of games until after the international break and then it gets tough so I think if we get to New Year still 6 ahead I'll get more excited but until then it's 1 game at a time.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
If Rodri gets back to full fitness?
If our injury prone defenders stop being injury prone?
If we play with more attacking freedom?
If Doku and Savinho improve?

We've definitely got a chance, but after a strange season when the "flappers" and "fannies" were actually proved right, we'll need a bit more than blind faith.

City finally buying a Left Back and Foden back in the goals at the CWC is a better place to start.
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I wrote this in July and I'm not convinced that anything has really changed.

In fact, the only time I ever feel relatively confident about City winning the PL is when I watch the other teams.

I'm still reading posts about Rodri needing time to regain his fitness, and where do you start with Doku and Savinho?

I was at Villa yesterday, and it was obvious from the first minute that nothing has really changed with Savinho and his clumsy mix of wastefulness and occasional brilliance ( despite the increasing abuse from those around me, he actually produced a couple of good assists for chances that weren't converted)

It's the same with Doku and whilst we're almost a quarter of the way through the season, neither player has scored a PL goal.

Foden did okay, but played too deep and needs to be more assertive rather than continually recycling.
Bobb gets bullied on the wing and needs to play more central (or not at all) where his quick feet are an advantage
Reijnders was too passive and Villa had done their homework deliberately backing off when he had the ball

Meanwhile, after finally buying a Left Back we let him watch Reilly's impressive cross for Haaland's header v Everton and then start with neither at Villa Park
 
Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
How on earth is it over now? There’s a few points in it and most of the season to play yet
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3 defeats in 9 games to Arsenals 1 defeat(at Anfield)..how many more games can we afford to lose?..2 maybe 3 maximum. Our current squad is 3/4 top players short. It’s another battle for top 4/5. There will be plenty more yesterdays to come this season.
 
Yes, we have a very good chance to win it IF Rodri is available.

No, we won't win the title IF Rodri isn't fit and available.

It's that simple.

Rodri gives us stability, structure and rhythm. This is the platform for making the whole greater than the parts.

Without Rodri we can win many games but not enough to compete for the title. Nico G has a bright future, I like him a lot, but he isn't ready to replace Rodri. But he may be more useful than Reijnders who struggles with the defensive responsibilities in midfield. Having both Reijnders and Foden makes us soft and lightweight in the middle. Even Rodri may not be enough to rectify that. Play both Rodri and Gonzalez in difficult games.

Also, Stones and Ake should be used only to give other defenders a rest. Both are on the wrong side of 30, have had many injuries and should be no more than squad players at this stage. Tinkering with the defence to make room for them would be a mistake. Play them mostly in the cups or vs. weaker PL teams.
 
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I agree with a lot of the recent posts on this thread. We are short of where we want to be but so is the rest of the league. So, while the title is very possible it is not very probable. We need to keep plugging away and hope the gunners drop soft points because we are going to have more days like yesterday and upping our levels to beat them in the return fixture won’t be enough.
 
We lost away at Villa. It’s a tough place to play away at and the result is unfortunate but we move on. Just can’t let arsenal get out of sight it’s as simple as that. I am so convinced that the next 1-2 months decides where the title ends up.
 
dubblue said:
3 defeats in 9 games to Arsenals 1 defeat(at Anfield)..how many more games can we afford to lose?..2 maybe 3 maximum. Our current squad is 3/4 top players short. It’s another battle for top 4/5. There will be plenty more yesterdays to come this season.
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It’s completely different to a few years ago. The top teams are losing more games.

Also 9 games at the start of the season, isn’t enough to go off at all.
 
Marvin. said:
They look like the same Arsenal as last season only this season Liverpool have fallen away.

I thought we might win at Villa but we came up a little short. It's too early to know how City will evolve. We are a young side and have players like Khusanov, Cherki, Marmoush and Rodri who have not played much football this season. I think we are stronger than last season and we will get better.
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Eze is a big addition for them and a far better option than Martinelli. They've also added Zubimendi whos a really good player. Those two alone make them a lot stronger than last year. Not sure about the striker they bought, not seen anything of him to suggest hes anywhere near the player they paid for him.

As for us, i think we will have a fair few days like yesterday. We will get better as we are such a young / new side, but we are miles off a title challenging side at the moment.
 
If teams can figure out how to defend their set pieces arsenal are going to drop a bucketloads of points.

It’s a bit embarrassing that teams 2 years later still have no real answers. Ironically Liverpool who have been embarrassingly bad at defending set pieces this season have probably handled arsenal the most effectively.
 
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