Do you really believe the league is over...?

[Roachy]

None of the top brass at Chelsea are genuine football people. That's where the problems start IMO.

If we get our next appointment right, bring Batshuayi back as first choice, secure Hazard and Courtois to long term contracts, as well as fill several holes with top players rather than yet more squad players, I would be optimistic for next season. It's a long shot though. Half of our squad would immediately look like world beaters again, if we just had a more attack minded manager.

Anyway, trying not derail the thread with Chelsea stuff that most people couldn't care less about.

If City secure the title early enough, you can rotate as much as you need to keep players fresh for the FA Cup and the CL. It could be a historic season for you.

Serious question mate, why have Chelsea underperformed after being so strong last season?

 

[lozzers8]

I think it's because they didn't have the pressure of Champions league last year. Also Kante hasn't got anywhere near his usual standard

 

[mancity1]

Just a matter of when, not if.

Rags not able to score vs the Geordies under pressure to perform sums it up for me. No team, wrong tactics, poor attitude.
I guess the reddest rag fans have some problems believing in a turnaround watching Pogba and Sanchez.

Best thing about the 16 point gap is the comfortable situation of conducting our tight schedule the way WE want, in terms of rotation and resting players.
That's just wonderful and puts us in a superb position in the fight-for-four titles.

So for me it's not "win the title asap and go for the CL" but it's "have them all 4 in our target line and win the league on that way, whenever it is".

But there is another point, Bayern are discussing at the moment as well:

if you win the league early and give away the last league matches, you are losing you winning attitude for the big CL games. I think Pep has made that experience already and will have the right strategy to keep the whole ship on course, for as many titles as possible.

The team spirit is sky high now and you simply have to go on winning. Fatigue also is much worse when you've lost.

City is in an incredible position - now and in the near future - and the key is Pep. We can't sing his name loud enough.

Strange enough our biggest problems are around Etihad matchday topics/atmosphere/early leavers etc.
Some ok problems though.

The team spirit this season has been the key , never giving up winning games in the final minutes , coming from behind on numerous occasions and celebrating those performances with natural exuberance like their is no tomorrow.

The celebrations against Wolves and Leicester like there was no tomorrow are significant in themselves in an dispised Cup competition where you are in to your eyeballs in three others says it all about this squad and the leadership at management level and within the playing group particularly from our two veteran leaders that have played a small role on the field this year namely VK and Yaya.

The documentary will show just how significant these two have been off the field in the development of all the players which Pep is efficient at using.

Look at the Liverpool game , it was like ok we will give you this game and have your celebration like you have won the league by winning this game but here we are this is what we can do when you switch off 5 per cent.

In the last ten minutes we did to Liverpool what no side in our history has done before and that was without our best left back we have had in our side for sometime who will return next season having missed most of this season , his replacement who had to limp off and we have not seen since missing numerous games already , our leader and spirit giver on the field missing most of the season including that game and the list goes on.

That game our only loss of the season in the league so far which reads 35-3-2 in all comps was a clear marker of what Pep has instilled in the group this season.

Each season is different and presents new challenges but when you have all the managers on mass complaining about our "unfair" advantage and certain sides deliberately employing leg breaking tackles ( 11 of them at last count ) in an effort to slow our momentum because its the only way they no how and the refs not taking appropriate action on any of them because all of them under VAR would have resulted in red cards being issued and rightly so then you know the only unfair advantage we have is that our group are more focused , more talented , more desperate and have a greater mental fortitude than the rest at least this season and so far.

 

[Dogtanian]

No not yet but it’s great to be in the shake up now we are in the final 3rd of the season

 

[SuperKevinHorlock]

The team spirit this season has been the key , never giving up winning games in the final minutes , coming from behind on numerous occasions and celebrating those performances with natural exuberance like their is no tomorrow.

The celebrations against Wolves and Leicester like there was no tomorrow are significant in themselves in an dispised Cup competition where you are in to your eyeballs in three others says it all about this squad and the leadership at management level and within the playing group particularly from our two veteran leaders that have played a small role on the field this year namely VK and Yaya.

The documentary will show just how significant these two have been off the field in the development of all the players which Pep is efficient at using.

Look at the Liverpool game , it was like ok we will give you this game and have your celebration like you have won the league by winning this game but here we are this is what we can do when you switch off 5 per cent.

In the last ten minutes we did to Liverpool what no side in our history has done before and that was without our best left back we have had in our side for sometime who will return next season having missed most of this season , his replacement who had to limp off and we have not seen since missing numerous games already , our leader and spirit giver on the field missing most of the season including that game and the list goes on.

That game our only loss of the season in the league so far which reads 35-3-2 in all comps was a clear marker of what Pep has instilled in the group this season.

Each season is different and presents new challenges but when you have all the managers on mass complaining about our "unfair" advantage and certain sides deliberately employing leg breaking tackles ( 11 of them at last count ) in an effort to slow our momentum because its the only way they no how and the refs not taking appropriate action on any of them because all of them under VAR would have resulted in red cards being issued and rightly so then you know the only unfair advantage we have is that our group are more focused , more talented , more desperate and have a greater mental fortitude than the rest at least this season and so far.

Good post.

 

[mancity1]

Serious question mate, why have Chelsea underperformed after being so strong last season?

Conte hasn't got the players or the type of player he wanted ( better negotiators / scouts move on and are not replaced with better ones that are required to compete again ) , handled the Costa situation poorly , they haven't the depth as the poster alluded to compete on all fronts , the side like a lot of sides has a let down after previous success.

Hazard has been played out of position in a number of games the list goes on and from memory was injured for much of the early part of the season.

Their first game against Burnley said it all and despite some semblance of last years performances tight at the back and clinical on the break alot of that relied on Costa to finish that off and he is no longer at the club.

 

[mancity1]

Good post.

Cheers superkev most likely my first one (LOL).

 

[Dribble]

Yes its good to talk about the future even beyond this year and the past which you allude to in this post but I think its fair say the original post was referring to this season and whether the chasing pack can pack their bags now and as the title suggests the premier league as opposed to the other comps you refer to.

As I have said for some time now its over if we win 4 more games.

4 more wins or 12 points from our remaining 11 games and the title is ours and this will only be reviewed down at best with each passing round of matches or stay as is at worst for us.

Hence why I asked you do you think we will only win 3 of our remaining 11 games to play in the league.

As I recall you didn't answer the question specifically and I am not having a go at you for not nor am I having a go at you for saying you don't think the title is over yet as its clear you think their is still some uncertainty about us getting those 12 points at this stage ( may be less required as the season progresses ) required even though our form , the form of the chasing back , our results against the chasing pack , the reality and mindset of their managers that the title is finished for them and the fact albeit that its only marginally relevant that the bookies and pundits with no exception believe the title has already been decided.

In answer to do I feel we won't win the required matches to finish Champions, my answer is still I'm dealing with this season one game at a time. I'd never dismiss any PL team we face because Burnley & Palace have shown even they have the tools to disrupt our flow.

There are possibilities & probabilities, but has anyone considered what happened with our 'dead rubber' match versus Shaktar? We'd already qualified & had nothing to gain apart from a perfect record.... However Guardiola wanted to keep our same 'winning one game at a time' mentality in tact.

This is what serial winners do & it may seem odd to most that they can't look further down the line, get their calculators out & start calculating, but it's the nature of the beast.

We've had/are having our wobble, but even then we've maintained & increased our points advantage over the chasing pack. If this mentality has brought us to where we are, why would we want to begin looking beyond the next match or two now?

 

[mancity1]

In answer to do I feel we won't win the required matches to finish Champions, my answer is still I'm dealing with this season one game at a time. I'd never dismiss any PL team we face because Burnley & Palace have shown even they have the tools to disrupt our flow.

There are possibilities & probabilities, but has anyone considered what happened with our 'dead rubber' match versus Shaktar? We'd already qualified & had nothing to gain apart from a perfect record.... However Guardiola wanted to keep our same 'winning one game at a time' mentality in tact.

This is what serial winners do & it may seem odd to most that they can't look further down the line, get their calculators out & start calculating, but it's the nature of the beast.

We've had/are having our wobble, but even then we've maintained & increased our points advantage over the chasing pack. If this mentality has brought us to where we are, why would we want to begin looking beyond the next match or two now?

No one is , its a matter of opinion of whether we are comfortable in our skin when we say that 4 more wins which will get us the title is likely or not.

 

[BlueAnorak]

Anything could happen. Kev might elbow someone and get a seven game ban, Silva and Sané could have set backs in their recovery, Kun could be involved in another car crash and all miss chunks of the rest of the season and we might struggle. Or we could think it’s in the bag and take our eye off the league and start to think about not getting injuries so we’re fit for the cups and go in a terrible run. Or we might get everyone back for go on the greatest run of games ever seen and win the lot. Or anything in between.

As we’ve seen with the Scousers in red in 2014, don’t take anything for granted. Nothing is over until it’s mathematically impossible for anyone else to win it.

We're not taking anything for granted. The Scousers just had to mess up ONCE on 4 games in 2014 to let us in (they messed up twice). Utd had to mess up TWICE in 8 games in 2012 and we had to beat them in the derby to go above them. This is a whole order of magnitude different as we have to mess up SIX times MORE than Utd in 11 games. If we had Rodgers as manager then it would be a very remote possibility - we haven't we have Pep.
As i said it's WHEN not IF. I'm a glass half empty guy as well remember. I don't make statements like this lightly.
If we lose to Arsenal (a), Chelsea (h), Utd (h) and Spurs (a) we still have to mess up on another TWO occasions without Utd dropping any more points. That is the measure of the 16 point lead we currently have.