Will we win the league this season?

LongsightM13 said:
They’ve won it tonight, the league and the CL, apparently, against a team shorn of 3x vital suspensions via yellow cards, and a ludicrous second yellow not given
Let’s see if that gets the same attention over five days on SkySports
Bring these cowards and shitbags on, they’re not built for it
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You forget Rice and Calafiori were out but also forget that you are literally about to play a Sunderland side missing Ballard and its AFCON players and a Chelsea side missing Caicedo! Swings and roundabouts.

Merino should have been sent off just like Dias was lucky against Forest not to be dismissed (according to refwatch) Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don't (e.g. the ridiculous decision not to give Foden a pen at Newcastle). But let's try and be a bit balanced about the fact decisions go both for and against teams over a season.
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
This. Beat Arsenal at home (and match their points tally either side of that game) and it’s ours.
Watched the first half v Villa and Villa should / could have been 2 up.
Switched over at half time as the rags game looked like it would be more hilarious to watch and was surprised at the final score from Arsenal. Certainly didn’t reflect the first half
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Yet for 30 mins in that second half they (spit and cokehead) made it sound as if they were world beaters against a Villa team that lost Onana just before the 2nd half collapse and were already missing 2-3 of their best players. Talk about overhype!
 
Yes it was an Impressive day out for Arsenal but before we go over praising just think about this for one second. Aston Villa at Victor Lindalof playing in their backline. This guy was a bench player at the swamp ffs.

Let’s also not forget that as shite as villa were they still probably should have come away with at least 2 goals. Arsenal definitely have vulnerabilities…
 
Danny Tiatto said:
Yes it was an Impressive day out for Arsenal but before we go over praising just think about this for one second. Aston Villa at Victor Lindalof playing in their backline. This guy was a bench player at the swamp ffs.

Let’s also not forget that as shite as villa were they still probably should have come away with at least 2 goals. Arsenal definitely have vulnerabilities…
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What is really strange is there are several strong teams this season, but nobody seems to be performing consistently. Most of the teams we had as cannon fodder, have become bogie teams over the last few years but we seem to be doing well against them this year.
 
Danny Tiatto said:
Keep pecking away? The league is in our hands. You make it sound as though they have a double figure gap on us
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Technically yes but with 20 games to go you're getting a bit ahead of yourself imo. If we had this gap with 8 games to go I'd say it's in our hands, but 20 games out there's still a lot of time for various acts of god.
 
Dobsy said:
Technically yes but with 20 games to go you're getting a bit ahead of yourself imo. If we had this gap with 8 games to go I'd say it's in our hands, but 20 games out there's still a lot of time for various acts of god.
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And PIGMOL manipulation!
 
A very good win for Arsenal. Villa had their chances early doors and missed them. Another dodgy set-piece goal that I thought should have been disallowed. The Arsenal player led with his elbow on the keeper. The level of foul play at corners is now ridiculous. Everyone is wrestling. This is across the game, and this development stems from Arsenal.

Arsenal showed their strength last night. i turned over at 2-0 to watch Utd v Wolves because it was game over. Utd were terrible, and yet they are 6th, level on points with 5th placed Chelsea. I think that there is great depth in the Premier League but the quality is missing from the top 6 sides. Perhaps that is partly why Arsenal and City are having good seasons. There are very few other good sides.
 
bridgeno1 said:
You forget Rice and Calafiori were out but also forget that you are literally about to play a Sunderland side missing Ballard and its AFCON players and a Chelsea side missing Caicedo! Swings and roundabouts.

Merino should have been sent off just like Dias was lucky against Forest not to be dismissed (according to refwatch) Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don't (e.g. the ridiculous decision not to give Foden a pen at Newcastle). But let's try and be a bit balanced about the fact decisions go both for and against teams over a season.
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Come on you know every ref cheats us, every other team tries harder against us and then dont turn up for the cartel for no apparent reason whatsoever :-)
 
Exactly half way through the season. Even if we were to lose at the Stadium of Light (I don't think we will, the team is now looking menacing), we'd be five points behind. You know what? I'll take that, at this stage. If we win, we'll be a mere two points behind. I'd more that take that. We've had to make up much more ground, much later in the season, in many of our title-winning years. Most of them, in fact. Going back to ’68. (Not sure what happened in ’37, calling @Gary James )
I still have Arsenal favourites, but only marginally. They're a good team, no question. Not exactly sure why they are allowed to systematically bully keepers on set pieces. It's become a significant part of their game. (Mainly looking at Gabriel on this, but others are prepared to take on the bully boy role). Surely if you block a player on any other part of the pitch, with the ball nowhere near, it's a foul? When did it become ok on keepers? It's spreading, too, now that Arsenal have led the way with impunity. Forest were doing it to us.
Fucking cut it out! Give them one warning, then card the players doing it, it would stop it dead in its tracks. Like rolling around on the ground when you've taken any kind of ball to the head, at any speed, it is anti-football. As is VAR taking five minutes over decisions, although that's a different problem. I speak as a football fan here, not just as a City fan.
So many things ruining the flow of the game.
 
MCFC1993 said:
I was curious about the narrative that Arsenal have played harder games, so wanted to look at it. We've both played 7 of the top 10, they've played 3 home, 4 away, we've played 4 home, 3 away. However, we've been to their place, they haven't come to ours, so I would say that's even.

You could maybe make the argument that Newcastle and United would be top half. Newcastle we've both played away, United I just wouldn't call a difficult away game, traditionally it's always been hard for Arsenal which is why they say as much.

You would probably expect Sunderland to drop, removing one of their top half away games and they have 7 players at AFCON when we go there.

They've also play 4 of the bottom 5, 6 of the bottom 7, most at home which are essentially gimmes.

ArsenalCity
HomeAwayHomeAway
1. Arsenal 33 pointsN/AN/A(18 Apr)*1 point
2. City 31 points1 point(18 Apr)*N/AN/A
3. Villa 30 points(30 Dec)0 points(24 May)*0 points
4. Chelsea 25 points(28 Feb)*1 point(4 Jan)(11 Apr)*
5. Everton 24 points(14 Mar)*(20 Dec)3 points(2 May)*
6. Crystal Palace 23 points (14g)3 points(24 May)*(21 Mar)*(14 Dec)
7. Sunderland 23 points(7 Feb)*1 point3 points(1 Jan)
8. Liverpool 23 points(8 Jan)0 points3 points(7 Feb)*
9. Spurs 22 points3 points(21 Feb)*0 points(1 Feb)
10. Brighton 22 points (14g)(27 Dec)(4 Mar)*(7 Jan)0 points
11. Newcastle 22 points(25 Apr)*3 points(21 Feb)*0 points
12. United 22 points (14g)(25 Jan)3 points3 points(17 Jan)
13. Bournemouth 20 points(11 Apr)*(3 Jan)3 points(17 May)*
14. Brentford 19 points3 points(11 Feb)*(9 May)*3 points
15. Fulham 17 points (14g)(2 May)*3 points(11 Feb)*3 points
16. Leeds 15 points3 points(31 Jan)3 points(28 Feb)*
17. Forest 15 points3 points(17 Jan)(4 Mar)*(27 Dec)
18. West Ham 12 points (14g)3 points(9 May)*(20 Dec)(14 Mar)*
19. Burnley 10 points(17 May)*3 points3 points(25 Apr)*
20. Wolves 2 points (14g)(13 Dec)(21 Mar)*(24 Jan)3 points


Now I'm not expecting us to win the title this season, I do think Arsenal have looked better so far but I am optimistic that it could start clicking for us soon, granted we've only 14 or 15 players I semi-trust.

Ultimately though, the point of the post is that I think our fixtures have been pretty even and we've had the benefit of going to their place already...And we were a last minute goal away there from being 1 point top ourselves.
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I did this 3 weeks ago:


ArsenalCity
HomeAwayHomeAway
1. Arsenal 45 pointsN/AN/A(18 Apr)*1 point
2. City 40 points (18g)1 point(18 Apr)*N/AN/A
3. Villa 39 points3 points0 points(24 May)*0 points
4. Liverpool 32 points (18g)(8 Jan)0 points3 points(8 Feb)
5. Chelsea 30 points(1 Mar)1 point(4 Jan)(11 Apr)*
6. United 30 points(25 Jan)3 points3 points(17 Jan)
7. Sunderland 28 points (18g)(7 Feb)1 point3 points(1 Jan)
8. Everton 28 points(14 Mar)*3 points3 points(2 May)*
9. Brentford 26 points (18g)3 points(12 Feb)(9 May)*3 points
10. Newcastle 26 points(25 Apr)*3 points(21 Feb)0 points
11. Crystal Palace 26 points (18g)3 points(24 May)*(21 Mar)*3 points
12. Fulham 26 points (18g)(2 May)*3 points(11 Feb)3 points
13. Spurs 25 points (18g)3 points(22 Feb)0 points(1 Feb)
14. Brighton 25 points3 points(4 Mar)(7 Jan)0 points
15. Bournemouth 23 points(11 Apr)*(3 Jan)3 points(17 May)*
16. Leeds 20 points (18g)3 points(31 Jan)3 points(28 Feb)
17. Forest 18 points3 points(17 Jan)(4 Mar)3 points
18. West Ham 14 points3 points(9 May)*3 points(14 Mar)*
19. Burnley 12 points(17 May)*3 points3 points(25 Apr)*
20. Wolves 3 points3 points(21 Mar)*(24 Jan)3 points

So on the basis of who has had the harder games as the table starts to settle, they've been away to everyone in the top 8 apart from us. Although I think you could make the argument that United, Everton and Sunderland wont finish top 8. Which leaves them having been to Chelsea and Liverpool over us.

If they continue to beat the rest then we're going to have to be nigh on perfect.

Although they have played 10 home games in their opening 19, we will have played 10 away games.


On a comparative fixture basis this season with us, they are 6 points up:
They've beat Newcastle (A) and Spurs (H). We lost both.
We can beat Sunderland (A) tomorrow to reduce this to 4 points.


On a comparative fixture basis to last season:
Arsenal 74 points last season. +12 on last season so far.
United (A) +2
Leeds (H) 0
Liverpool (A) -1
Forest (H) 0
City (H) -2
Newcastle (A) +3
West Ham (H) +3
Fulham (A) +2
Palace (H) +2
Burnley (A) 0
Sunderland (A) -2
Spurs (H) 0
Chelsea (A) 0
Brentford (H) +2
Villa (A) -3
Wolves (H) 0
Everton (A) +2
Brighton (H) +2
Villa (H) +2
City 71 points last season. +15 on last season so far.
Wolves (A) 0
Spurs (H) 0
Brighton (A) 0
United (H) +3
Arsenal (A) +1
Burnley (H) 0
Brentford (A) +2
Everton (H) +2
Villa (A) 0
Bournemouth (H) 0
Liverpool (H) +3
Newcastle (A) -1
Fulham (A) 0
Sunderland (H) 0
Palace (A) +2
West Ham (H) 0
Forest (A) +3
For the above, based on how they were promoted. Leicester become Leeds this season. Ipswich become Burnley this season. Southampton become Sunderland this season


So that's what some of the stats say, I personally think it's going to take 90 points to win the league and the game at the Etihad in April is going to be really important, as in, we'll probably have to win it.
 
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