Will we win the league this season?

[jrb]

Who knows, but United and Liverpool won’t.

 

[Dax777]

TBH Chelsea are too inconsistent, and defensively suspect. They'll finish 4th. Realistically it's only City who can challenge Arsenal I think.

Long-term, sure. But for the next 7. Having a clustered top 4 with Arsenal dragged back into the fold was my point.

Id Chelsea wins next week and then Arsenal drops points unusually in another game, Chelsea and City might be 2-3 points behind come January.

BTW, all of this is just me hoping upon hope. For example, i see you are flying high inspire of injuries. Yet, re-integfrating the injured starters when they get healthy may very well mess up your current chemistry and open things up :)

I think catching you will be tough. But id like to see an attempt.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

If you were to pick them it would be 4 of Arsenal's and 3 of ours.

The seven home games?

 

[ChicagoBlue]

You're spot on about Arsenal's next few games and the odds of dropping points at Chelsea.

However you're cherry picking the seasons when City were strong enough to stay in contention, and ignoring our recent away results or individual performance

This feels more like one of those seasons when we never really recovered from a stuttering run of results.as United/Leicester/Chelsea/Liverpool pulled away.

We've now got a run of winnable home games, but we need more than that to be in contention.

We need Foden Doku and Cherki to start contributing goals.
We need a fully fit Rodri
We need to be dominating possession so that we concede less set pieces (where we definitely look vulnerable )
We need to be winning away games comfortably

All this and Arsenal to get bogged down with a few dropped points.

Well, of course, we are not going to win the League on current results!! HAHAHA!

I’m suggesting the team is starting to gel and poor finishing cost us against the Geordies!

 

[ChicagoBlue]

It isn't over but the problems we have need ironing out pretty quick. Losing away games to workmanlike, but not top quality teams doesn't help. Several players within the squad need to up it a fair bit as well to give us a fighting chance. I can't say anything about refs and VAR, they're a complete unfit for purpose law unto themselves.

They played their best game of the season and their striker and 5 man midfield pressed the hell out of us.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Amazing,. bordering on frightening,.when they show the stats for set piece goals and some teams are on 8 or 9 whereas City are down as 1 (and even that was a struggle to recall)

There was a move on Saturday when Bobb beat his man, but instead of crossing, just dribbled towards another defender, who simply showed him the line rather than let him come inside

Cue wasted corner

Arsenal were in exactly the same situation last month, but won from a losing position with two set pieces.

That has got to change, if only for a bit of variation and an added goal threat.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

I think we still have a chance because it will be won with a low points tally. It is like the Leicester season. Arsenal are favourites but have a long way to go. It is a free hit for Chelsea with no pressure. This weekend will be important when they play Arsenal. We can beat anyone but rely too much on the Viking King.

 

[Roachy]

They played their best game of the season and their striker and 5 man midfield pressed the hell out of us.

Yes, so any team that can replicate somewhere near that has a good chance of success against us. A few of our players need to improve, until then more of the same in all likelihood.

 

[Cobwebcat]

If it wasn’t for Arsenal yes. So no unfortunately.

 

[bridgeno1]

I think we still have a chance because it will be won with a low points tally. It is like the Leicester season. Arsenal are favourites but have a long way to go. It is a free hit for Chelsea with no pressure. This weekend will be important when they play Arsenal. We can beat anyone but rely too much on the Viking King.

Out of interest why do you think it will be won with a low points tally? Arsenal currently on track for 93 points having played most of the big boys away and with a lot of their 1st teamers injured and now returning from injury? If anything they should pick up the pace from now meaning that whoever finishes above them needs to be getting 90+ points.

I know it doesn't work like that and there's a long way to go however the evidence so far indicates that whoever wins it needs to get over 90 points (assuming a 2 horse race).

 

[LangleyBlue1970]

If it wasn’t for Arsenal yes. So no unfortunately.

You mean bottle job FC?

 

[argyle]

Amazing,. bordering on frightening,.when they show the stats for set piece goals and some teams are on 8 or 9 whereas City are down as 1 (and even that was a struggle to recall)

There was a move on Saturday when Bobb beat his man, but instead of crossing, just dribbled towards another defender, who simply showed him the line rather than let him come inside

Cue wasted corner

Arsenal were in exactly the same situation last month, but won from a losing position with two set pieces.

That has got to change, if only for a bit of variation and an added goal threat.

We've scored the same amount of goals as Arsenal.

The flip side to your argument is Arsenal are far too reliant on set piece goals and not scoring much from open play like us.

Sure, adding threats of goals from corners etc would be nice, but we're not doing too badly scoring.

I'd say a bigger problem is we're completely reliant on Haaland.

 

[richards30]

3rd I reckon again.

 

[Gorbachev]

Looking at the table, it's not inconceivable that every team outside of Arsenal by Christmas day could have lost at least 5 games.

When you take into consideration 5 games is the average limit of games a team can lose to win the title, Arsenal really couldn't have asked for a title on a silver platter if it goes like that.

I think if Arsenal beat Chelsea at weekend it's curtains.

 

[SpeaksForItself]

Out of interest why do you think it will be won with a low points tally? Arsenal currently on track for 93 points having played most of the big boys away and with a lot of their 1st teamers injured and now returning from injury? If anything they should pick up the pace from now meaning that whoever finishes above them needs to be getting 90+ points.

I know it doesn't work like that and there's a long way to go however the evidence so far indicates that whoever wins it needs to get over 90 points (assuming a 2 horse race).

I doubt you'll need 93 points.

In the Covid year, it was pretty clear after 2/3rds of the season we were the only side getting over 80. Likewise, last year after 2/3rds of the season it was highly likely only Liverpool were going to exceed 80.

Only yourselves and Chelsea (I'm discounting Spurs obviously!) are doing the business away from home and Chelsea have got too many losses-to-the-likes-of-Sunderland-at-home in them. (All teams have 1 or 2, but they have 4 or 5.)

So there's only 1/3rd of the season gone, but as of now you wouldn't bet on anyone other than Arsenal exceeding 80.

The only plus point from a City perspective is that Wolves is the only team we've played away from home who are currently in the bottom 10 just considering home results. Fulham will be a test as they are currently 5th best at home, and we've not played Fulham A in the "live" part of the season since 20/21.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

We've scored the same amount of goals as Arsenal.

The flip side to your argument is Arsenal are far too reliant on set piece goals and not scoring much from open play like us.

Sure, adding threats of goals from corners etc would be nice, but we're not doing too badly scoring.

I'd say a bigger problem is we're completely reliant on Haaland.

Surely they're both problems, especially as we tend to either steamroller teams or struggle for goals.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Out of interest why do you think it will be won with a low points tally? Arsenal currently on track for 93 points having played most of the big boys away and with a lot of their 1st teamers injured and now returning from injury? If anything they should pick up the pace from now meaning that whoever finishes above them needs to be getting 90+ points.

I know it doesn't work like that and there's a long way to go however the evidence so far indicates that whoever wins it needs to get over 90 points (assuming a 2 horse race).

I think there are a lot decent middle-ranking teams who will get points off the leading clubs. I don't think this Arsenal team will continue to pick up narrow victories from set piece goals. I think both City and Arsenal will go deep in the CL and this will have an impact. I believe Chelsea have a good chance because they have no pressure on them and nothing to lose. Arsenal are still the most likely but will drop points on the run-in as many teams do. City also have a fighter's chance but our defence is not good enough and 86 points or more will win the title.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

I think this thread needs to be split in two. One for the bedwetters prepared to concede a title not even a third of the way into the season.

And another for those of us prepared to knuckle down for a fight and not let or emotions completely sway on depending on each weeks results.

Have you read the thread title.
It is " Will we win the league this season?"
Not "Can we win the league this season?"
Of course we can but arsenal are clear favourites and playing better than any of their rivals. Most posters think we could win the league but cannot say that we will win it.
We'll know a whole lot better come the new year, especially after the Chelsea match in January.
If we are within 6 points or so of the leaders, then its all to play for.

 

[bridgeno1]

I think there are a lot decent middle-ranking teams who will get points off the leading clubs. I don't think this Arsenal team will continue to pick up narrow victories from set piece goals. I think both City and Arsenal will go deep in the CL and this will have an impact. I believe Chelsea have a good chance because they have no pressure on them and nothing to lose. Arsenal are still the most likely but will drop points on the run-in as many teams do. City also have a fighter's chance but our defence is not good enough and 86 points or more will win the title.

Fair enough. I don't disagree.

 

[Mancini’s Pastilles]

Lets see how tarquins handle it if they are 6-7 points clear with 10games to go. Will they hold their bottle