Will we win the league this season? No

finger crossed this would be a match around the same time three years ago (4:1), but it may end up being one of the last two matches (both draws). I just feel the pre-match hype is too heavily for City, which might not be a good thing on the title decider game.
 
Gordyola said:
Arteta just needs to stick a picture of that bloke and his little "Arsenal tears" bottle on the wall of the Arsenal dressing room

That was my thoughts exactly


Like Pep team and players you keep your powder dry
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I think if Arteta does that then his bunch of set piece specialist mard arsed tarquin **** players will just think about us more and shit themselves more
 
Xhavenjoe said:
Hopefully.
I'm happy enough to see them get to the semi final but no further.
Could be Barcelona though and arsenal are well capable of beating them
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Arsenal are living off Autumnal reputation. Their XG in open play is atrocious, and the set pieces have dried up. I'd put money on Barcelona doing them over two legs as well.
 
This moment, today, is the most i've believed we can chase Arsenal down. I will admit that now, despite being very sceptical about our chances of the title.

However, a draw at the Etihad next week will hugely dent that. All we can do is get ready for Sunday and give it our all.
 
Like I said we the fans have a huge role to play in this now. Let’s get the Etihad absolutely rocking.

Even if somehow we find ourselves behind we keep atmosphere at fever pitch.

Arsenal WILL crack
 
BlueMoonRisin’ said:
Good post, pretty much how i see it right now.

I went the game yesterday and stayed to watch the players celebrate. I saw close up the joy of them winning and their belief is getting stronger each game. Pep has instilled their belief and player unity within the squad is solid. All the newer players in particular were joyous and happy, they really want to win more silverware.

Khusanov looked like he's fully part of the team now he's learned English, Cherki the same. Momentum is building and the league is ours to win or lose, but i feel confident we'll build on winning yesterday.

Huge game against Arsenal, could go either way but i think we'll beat them if we go into the game at the same level we finished against Chelsea.
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Yes, all the main keywords are in there, momentum, confidence, belief, unity and most of all they LOOK like a team hungry for it rather than one that simply thinks they're better than the opposition. Arsenal on the other hand look fractured, devoid of ideas, unsure etc.

Will be an interesting match for sure, first goal is key. If they get it they'll park the bus.
 
Blue Maverick said:
Nah you need Arsenal to go through to lump more pressure on them, if they get dumped out by Madrid and we are neck and neck with them in the league their confidence will be low, just one more loss in the league apart from us beating them hopefully I think they’ll fall apart totally.
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Totally agree with this, scraping through on penalties after a tough night would be the ideal scenario from our point of view. Also means they'll not know whether to try to prioritise the league or the CL and there's the chance of more injuries. If they have another two matches to play that will suit us just fine.
 
paulchapo said:
For me, as good as it is we've been given yet another chance to win it, ( How many openings have we fluffed? ) if we don't beat them on Sunday for me that really will be it over, particularly if they win it. Of course if we do win then it could totally shatter their confidence, although there will still be a lot for us to do. We have a lot tougher set of fixtures than theirs. Brentford, Everton, Villa, Bournemouth, Palace and Burnley. Everton and Bournemouth away look especially tough as they're both bang in form. Villa are a tough nut too. Having looked at their fixtures i only see West Ham and Palace being tricky, although they usually batter West Ham. Newcastle can't buy a win atm and Fulham flatter to deceive, as we saw this weekend at Anfield. Still we've been given yet another chance to put it into our own hands and i guess that's all we can ask for. Fingers crossed we do it!
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I don't see it as having fluffed chances. There are no guarantees, you can play a team off the park and lose, we have done many times. But we're a team in transition and nobody - NOBODY - backed us to get this far, to have a trophy in the cabinet, another FAC semi final and be in with a realistic chance of the title, so if anything we've overachieved and are in a better place than were expected to be. Especially in the eyes of many on this forum. Hardly anybody gave us a shout at the start of the season and we've had plenty saying Pep (and others) should go.
 
East Level 2 said:
Every sensible analysis, usually with 2012 comparisons, has included the requirement for us to beat them at home, and I still believe that.
Win next week and it's a battle of nerves. Can't be arsed looking at Arsenal's fixtures but only Bournemouth away should cause concern for us even if we often struggle to get going against Everton.
Lose next week and the huge psychological boost will give them the title.
A big win for City, by three or more goals, will have Arsenal dazed and confused even if they don't like Led Zeppelin.
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The analysis is more to do with the mathematics of it. Any team would be hot favourites if they win given that they have a 6 point lead now, which would be 9 points with the win.

But for me they're already dazed on confused. It not just the last couple of games, in which they were beaten fairly easily by us at Wembley (in fact the looks on their faces as we lifted the trophy was one of "we're screwed here, we're not going to get over the line against this lot). They then lost to a Championship side in the FA Cup when everyone expected them to come roaring back and they never looked like beating Bournemouth at home this weekend.

But it's not just that. They scraped past Lisbon unconvincingly with another late goal, needed a 90th minute goal to go in front at Everton, were totally unconvincing against Brighton despite taking an early lead, and also laboured to beat Mansfield in the cup by the odd goal and Chelsea in the league, who played for over an hour with 10 men.

So on current form we look likely to win every match while they look like they're struggling to beat anybody. I agree that they're hot favourites if they win next week but that's just the maths - 9 clear with 5 to play. But if they labour to scrape past and continue on current form they could easily drop another 3-6 points. We look far more capable of winning all our final matches than they do.
 
cleavers said:
Of late ? Been nearly all season for me, they're top, but they've had quite a bit of fortune.
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Absolutely spot on. Look at their last 6-7 results, even those they have won have been by the odd goal against 10 men for over an hour v Chelsea, struggled v Mansfield, Everton, Brighton, last minute v Lisbon and only won all of these by the odd goal - OK 2-0 v Everton but one was 90th minute and the second was a breakaway after Everton threw everybody forward for a set piece.

And that's not even considering the League Cup final defeat to us, home defeat to Bournemouth and defeat to Championship team in the FAC. Every single one of those matches (that they won), they only just scraped through and more by luck than resilience.
 
East Level 2 said:
Every sensible analysis, usually with 2012 comparisons, has included the requirement for us to beat them at home, and I still believe that.
Win next week and it's a battle of nerves. Can't be arsed looking at Arsenal's fixtures but only Bournemouth away should cause concern for us even if we often struggle to get going against Everton.
Lose next week and the huge psychological boost will give them the title.
A big win for City, by three or more goals, will have Arsenal dazed and confused even if they don't like Led Zeppelin.
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The dippers beat us at their place deep into the 2014 run in to gain a psychological advantage or so it was claimed. Look how that turned out for them.

Next week is a massive game but it’s not must win
 
IrishBlueSince92 said:
I've been a non-believer all season, but if we win on Sunday we'll be favourites.

We have our tails up at the minute, look a fresh squad and are coming good at the right time.
Arsenal have looked decidely average of late.

I don't see Sunday as a given though, these sorts of games when everyone expects the same result sometimes don't work out like that
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I've been the exact opposite. I've seen this team improving, results improving, goals starting to come, better defensive performances and that's just a natural progression of a well run club that has brought in new players. A top class recruitment policy has recognised the players we needed in January and it's delivered in spades.

I have never, for one second, understood those who thought we were screwed because we lost to Spurs, or because we were off the pace at the top. We're a club rebuilding vs a club that's had 5 years to work out how to win the title, yet here we are, relatively comfortable win against them in the Carabau final and a trophy in the cabinet, a statement win v Liverpool and a semi-final FAC place while they couldn't get past a Championship side in a match where they were expected to show what they were made of after the final defeat by City, and then losing to Bournemouth in what most would have considered a likely home win while we go and thump Chelsea away in another statement win and clean sheet.

Even in many of their previous matches they've scraped through. They have scored something like 20 LESS goals than us from outfield play, and have scraped countless wins with late goals or scrappy 1-0 wins. They haven't looked convincing for a long time and to start to bottle it when you're 9 points clear tells you all you need to know about how well prepared they are compared to us.

Sure, they're likely to have enough if they beat us next week, to pretty much goes without saying but on current form of both teams, we look like we could still win every remaining match while they look like they could struggle to win half of them. All we can do is wait and see, but I'm still backing us as I have from day one.
 
Ivan Lentil said:
The dippers beat us at their place deep into the 2014 run in to gain a psychological advantage or so it was claimed. Look how that turned out for them.

Next week is a massive game but it’s not must win
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Absolutely 100% correct. ON current form they could scrape a win but lose at least two of their remaining matches, while we look like we could go and win every one.
 
Kerry said:
finger crossed this would be a match around the same time three years ago (4:1), but it may end up being one of the last two matches (both draws). I just feel the pre-match hype is too heavily for City, which might not be a good thing on the title decider game.
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It will affect the fans but not the players. Pep and his staff know how to handle it, while it's something Arteta is clearly struggling with. You would have expected them to batter Southampton are losing the Carabau to City, to try to make a statement but they weren't capable of doing it. Then they blew another chance with a home match against Bournemouth while we passed a test that on paper is likely to be our most difficult away match with flying colours.

During that sequence they've lost 3 matches while we've scored 9 without conceding against what on paper look like three very tough fixtures, Arsenal at Wembley, Liverpool at home and Chelsea at the Bridge. They won't be relishing next week's match at all whereas we look like we're really up for it. And they have the Lisbon match to think about too.

I don't even think it's a title decider, not for us anyway but if they lose I don't think they'll come back from it.
 
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