Agreed, they've pace and trickery on both wings so it'll be extremely hard to cut out the threat from counters.Palace will be more of a threat attack than Watford
Always Everton. Weird.Everton away, back in early January.
The timing of the fixtures should work in our favour for one specific reason, it gives our opponents less time to practise a gameplan to stifle us, whereas we approach every opponent in more or less the same fashion.These 4 Xmas PL fixtures are like a mini tournament due to them all falling in a short space of time.
Apart from Walker, no other player who started against Bournemouth played against Leicester in the cup so they were all fresh for the start of these fixtures.
I think the timing of them (and ignoring the distances to travel) have been kind to us in that we have at least 3 clear days between each fixture with the exception of Watford but that is tempered by the fact we are playing at home.
Add to this the return of key players, we are in a great position to get maximum points which we have started with the win over Bournemouth.
I've probably jinxed us now:-S
I think we will get maximum points before we go to Anfield. And any trip there usually fills me with dread, but I can see us getting some sort of result there, which is probably the most confident I've ever felt about City.
The timing of the fixtures should work in our favour for one specific reason, it gives our opponents less time to practise a gameplan to stifle us, whereas we approach every opponent in more or less the same fashion.
Same style mate, not same tactics, unless you think the teams in the bottom half have 9 outfield players in their own box for 90 minutes against each other? A day between games is plenty of time to tweak things, but not to redesign a team and formation.We don’t actually. We adjust for almost every opponent. I’d be extremely surprised if any manager does more homework on the opponents than Pep. Every pre match press conference you hear him namecheck about 8 of their players and where the danger lies. Never hear that from other managers.
How funny would it be if Pep won four in a row before January, bearing in mind Mourinho failed to win a single Manager of the month award in a title winning season at Chelsea.I think 1 win from the next 2 games would give Pep manger of the month for the 4th consecutive time.
How funny would it be if Pep won four in a row before January, bearing in mind Mourinho failed to win a single Manager of the month award in a title winning season at Chelsea.
Roy of Crystal palace has he's Hat in the ring for this one, he has had a stunning month of December so far..........but the acid test will be his final 2 games V Arsenal & City.
A long way from the days back in the seventies and eighties when 4 away wins in a season was a reason to fap.We can equal yet another record tomorrow, consecutive away wins (11) by beating Newcastle.
Err 2 wins and 3 draws, all against teams they might expect to beat or draw, barring Leicester away, a major improvement but hardly "stunning".Roy of Crystal palace has he's Hat in the ring for this one, he has had a stunning month of December so far
May go to Fat SamI think 1 win from the next 2 games would give Pep manger of the month for the 4th consecutive time. Another record.
Someone asked earlier in the thread, does anyone have the list of records broken by City? I keep losing track. Never thought I'd hear myself saying that :)
3 wins and 3 draws, including a derby draw, and a chelsea draw, better than Woy.May go to Fat Sam
We weren't tested though, haven't played anyone decent yet ;)3 wins and 3 draws, including a derby draw, and a chelsea draw, better than Woy.
Pep 5 out of 5 so far, including an away derby win, beating Spurs 4-1, and scored 4 in 3 consecutive league games.
Southampton gave us arguably our hardest game so far. Bet they won't be as resilient at the weekend.We weren't tested though, haven't played anyone decent yet ;)