I think it's unfair to characterise Chelsea as a defensive team. Being good defensively (which we are currently) is not even close to being the same as being defensive.
We've only scored 1 goal less than City and Arsenal tbh
Doesn't mean you won't win the league of course.
Leicester weren't better than lots of teams last year and won at a canter.
I think Chelsea are very efficient though and Conte is playing to your strengths.
You've also done well with injuries and suspensions.
Nah that's not what the table says though, how do we quantify better? It's never just about points.There's no way we should have been beaten by them.
And therein lies the problem. We could also say 'there's no way we should've dropped 6 points at home v Everton, Southampton and Middlesborough (because like against Chelsea, we were the better side on the day) but we did, and Chelsea did beat us.
Chelsea are a lot more ruthless and more consistent than us. This is why we are 7 points adrift at the midway point with an inferior GD having already had the 'advantage' of the home game v them.
The table cannot lie after half a season. They are clearly better than us.
Nah that's not what the table says though, how do we quantify better? It's never just about points.
Are they playing better or more entertaining football? Did they dominate us or outplay us when they faced us? Nope and definitely Nope... We were all over them for 80% of the match wasted our chances and the ref was a disgrace who helped them all day. That one ref performance will be remembered for a long time for all the wrong reasons, it managed to top the one at Tottenham away.
That said are they favourites to win the league moreso than us? Yes "the table doesn't lie" applies here. They and Liverpool are enjoying the advantage of fewer competitive games and less disruption to their schedule which the CL league brings(comparing this to a league cup game at MK Dons and the like is missing the point, the CL is a different kettle of fish) but we wouldn't have it any other way, it's where we want to be and we don't want to take the easier path to the title. Even if they win the title I still wouldn't swap places with them because I can see our path will take us on to better things, defensive frailties aside we are already playing better stuff than Chelsea(solid defence, deadly on the counter) and Liverpool for me.
There is absolutely no way a team scoring one goal less than us, who slapped us 3-1 and Utd 4-0, with players such as Hazard, Pedro, Costa and Willian can be classed as 'defensive'.
Knowing how to defend competently and being 'defensive' are wholly different things.
It's like I said, how do you quantify better? This is not something you get to decide sorry as much as you want to tell me that it's just about the points, that's your own personal opinion on the matter which I disagree with(it's not the be all end all, the current Champions are Leicester City need I remind you?) and many a City fan will disagree with you too. I say the purer attacking football IS better any day of the week. You say the old defensive win at all costs as long as you get the points you are happy? Fair enough you stick with that outlook if you want. I'm just glad there are fans who are smart enough to see what we are trying to achieve.Of course it's about points. Especially with half a season gone. Points win prizes.
Playing 'entertaining' football also doesn't make one team 'better' than another. As an aside, if you genuinely believe we're playing entertaining football we must be watching different games.
And this bit - We were all over them for 80% of the match - turn it in mate. Official possession stats were 60/40 to us, shots on target 5/4 to us. Hardly representative of what you're suggesting.
Thanks to Sky/BT they have the longest rest between games over Christmas. Maybe Maureen's rant when he was their boss about a certain team being favoured by clever TV scheduling has become apparent?Without checking their fixture list, they must have some difficult games coming up. Seem to have had hell of a lot of "easy" games in the last couple of months
How come they don't have to play two games in 48 hrs over New year like us?
Read my post again and try and understand it before you start making requests.Give us this list of 'lots of teams' the team who won the title by 10 points, winning more games than any other team (23) and losing less games (3) than any other team, weren't better than......
Superb post.It's like I said, how do you quantify better? This is not something you get to decide sorry as much as you want to tell me that it's just about the points, that's your own personal opinion on the matter which I disagree with(it's not the be all end all, the current Champions are Leicester City need I remind you?) and many a City fan will disagree with you too. I say the purer attacking football IS better any day of the week. You say the old defensive win at all costs as long as you get the points you are happy? Fair enough you stick with that outlook if you want. I'm just glad there are fans who are smart enough to see what we are trying to achieve.
More possession not representative of us being the more dominant force in the match?(even taking that stat on its own 10 percent is not insignificant, it at least says if either team edged it, it was us) How about when we add more passes, more possession/passes in the final 3rd, more passing accuracy, 9 corners to their 2(showing just how much more of our play was around their box)... do you get the picture? We were ahead in almost every stat(this is where you say apart from goals but save that gem for another time).
Stats aside we had the better chances and should have been out of sight as said by everybody. Yes even Sly Sports said it post match, so I don't get this stance that we weren't the better side at all from you(are you trying to appear more impartial to add weight to your arguments?). They mainly threatened on the counter(they didn't open us up the way we did them) bar their equalizer which I said at the time was just a good cross by Fabregas(although Costa did use the top of his arm to control it which Aguero never gets away with but whatever I'll let them have that one), nice bit of play. We on the other hand created clear cut chances, I'll just give you two of the best ones to refresh your memory and put this argument to bed for good: De Bruyne hitting the bar(this counts as off target btw which shows picking and choosing your stats does no good on their own I'm adding context which as equally important), Aguero having the keeper beat but not spotting the defender getting back on the line when he should have buried it? We were opening them up even though they were sitting back and waiting to counter most of the match (that's without mentioning the 2 penalties we could have had) = all over them for... ok maybe I should have said 70% since we lost our way towards the end of the match(happier with that?).
So in your humble opinion you don't think if we had gone 2-0 up we would have closed that game out and possibly added a third since we would have been able to actually have some defenders back in our own half and possibly do some countering of our own?
Also yes we must be watching different games... especially if you think Chelsea are the pinnacle of what the Premiere League has to offer this season. I'm not saying they are not good(they are a good side with good players clearly, but do they play the best attacking football? Not for me), like I said they are absolutely lethal on the counter which is good to watch but I honestly think we play the better football.