First international break what is your assessment of City and our rivals?

I don’t think 4 games in, getting lucky with injuries is pretty unusual. We have just been incredibly unlucky with ours and neither were bad fouls.

They have had one to their keeper who is actually pivotal to how they play.

We and they are just so much better than the likes of Burnley/Watford etc that I expect both teams to win all of the matches against the bottom 10 sides bar 1/2 slip ups. I can see both teams getting 53/55 points out of 60 against those sides. It will come down to the matches against the top 10. They are the ones to focus on
 
We only have 1 rival this season and that's Liverpool.

I'm a little worried to be honest, they play like they're possessed and the league will mean even more to them after what happened last season. The luck they seem to get with bizarre goals and injuries is likely to be coupled with a few favourable VAR decisions (probably against us) and they once again look good for a 90+ point season. They'll also probably do what they did last season and not bother with either domestic cup and focus mainly on the Premier League.

We looked fantastic against Spurs but the last 2 games we were decent in patches but not at full flow but we rarely have to be against sides like Bournemouth and Brighton. The big games against Liverpool are to be key in my opinion and a few of our players who may not get into the limelight as much as Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne etc are going to have to step up in the huge games similar to how Sane did in the game with Liverpool at the Etihad last season. Mahrez, Jesus, Otamendi and Zinchenko are all going to be relied upon a lot this season. I'm nervous as hell already about this season but I'm still hopeful that we'll get a 3rd Premier League trophy on the bounce and that for me would be a bigger and more satisfying achievement than a Champions League trophy.

As for the rest. I think West Ham have an outside chance of breaking into the top 6. Both Everton and Leicester will also compete to break into the top 6 as for me man Utd and Chelsea look very vulnerable. Top 4 will be us, Liverpool and both the North London clubs. As for the bottom end of the table, Norwich the way they defend will see them relegated no matter how many goals Pukki may get. Regardless of their win against Spurs, Newcastle look shit and will struggle and I've a feeling Bournemouth might really struggle this season. I can't see anyone really being adrift though so the relegation battle will go to the wire and there's 7 or 8 you can make a claim for with regard going down.
 
I think we've looked okay considering the type low intensity pre-season we had. To get 10 points from our opening 4, as well as the Community Shield is pretty much bang on.

My worry is how strong Liverpool look. I think they'll be around the same points total as last season. I think taking Kompany out of our squad could be the difference because he really dragged us to that title last season. I also think we might have more than 1 eye on the Champions League.

I still want us to follow Pep's philosophy of prioritising the next game. Don't favour any competitions, we're strong enough to win the all. If we try and win 4, we might fail and win 1 or 2. If we put all our eggs in one basket we might end up with nothing to show.
 
City:
  • I like the hunger. Having won the domestic treble, and losing Komany I wondered about attitude. That's answered.
  • New signings. Rodri has been excellent. Cancelo. We wait and see. Kyle Walker playing very well so maybe it has already had an effect.
  • Downside. Bad injury to Leroy. I hope Laporte is no more than 6 weeks. Laporte is not just a defender but a playmaker. We can't afford to lose him for months on end.
  • Bit disappointed Foden has not played. I don't expect him to start yet, but he should be coming on as a sub when 3-0 up.
The rest:

Liverpool. Picked up where they left off last season. Their first XI is as good as City, but if they have injuries the like of which City have had then they have no chance.

Man Utd: Ole is at the wheel and forced Lukaku out, and they can't play in their forwards. Mid-table looms

Chelsea: Think they will be top 4 now that Abraham has found the goals. Rudiger, and Kante will make that side solid when they return.

SPurs: Potential implosion. NLD and aftermath could be very important.

Arsenal: Fantastic forward line if Emery can work up the courage to play them, but the rest of the side is wide open.

Leicester and West Ham have an opening.


Great start, but unlike Liverpool, we've already suffered from VAR and bad injuries.
Will this balance-out over the season? Probably not.

I don't like Rodgers, but Leicester are looking strong and might break into the Top 4.
Wolves are starting to suffer from Europa League fatigue, but there might be an opening for Everton to finish above United and Chelsea.
 
Probably wishful thinking, but wouldn't be surprised by:

1 - City
2 - Liverpool
3 - Arsenal
4 - Spurs
5 - Leicester
6 - Everton
7 - Chelsea
8 - United
 
Compared to the same four fixtures from the last season:
+ drop in ball possession in all of the four games
+ more total shots, more shots on goal and better ratio shots to shots on goal for about 5% or something like that
+ we allowed almost the same number of total shots to our opponents, but more of those came Eddie;s way, although some of those were mere passes
+ we have drop of 25% in corners, but we allowed the same number of corners as the last season
+ we scored almost the double number of goals , but also conceded three while we kept clean sheet in all four corresponding games, compared to the last season

So, my conclusion so far - if a conclusion can be made after four games only - our opposition has been trying to hog the ball as much as possible ,even if in their own third(Spurs, Brighton and to certain extent WHU) in order to minimize our own possession, while we are playing more slower from the back and transition, but extremely quick and direct in and around the opposition box. We became almost like the British Army, 95% logistic and maintenance and 5% extreme violence.
 
A lot of people shitting bricks over Liverpool it seems - their prognosis would look quite a bit different if Ings had slotted a pretty easy chance. They started off even stronger last year, but looked quite sketchy away from home in several games as the season went on. Expect the same this year.
 
A lot of people shitting bricks over Liverpool it seems - their prognosis would look quite a bit different if Ings had slotted a pretty easy chance. They started off even stronger last year, but looked quite sketchy away from home in several games as the season went on. Expect the same this year.

Yeah I'm surprised by the reaction to Liverpool. They really struggled against Southampton, Burnley were causing them problems until they gifted them a goal and Arsenal would have scored 2 or 3 goals if not for Pepé's terrible decision making ruining genuinely 8 or 9/10 goalscoring chances.

In general they seem back to the team that clinically punishes opposition mistakes, but doesn't create a whole lot of chances themselves at 0-0 - which is what they were doing when we overcame a 7 point deficit in 18 games.

I think they'll be behind us before the Anfield game. If we win that, I think we'll win the league by double figures, if we lose, it'll be tight.
 
We are by far the best team in the premier league but we do seem to be unlucky with these long term injury's.
Saying that Pep has the squad working like clockwork & players filling in know the system.
I fully expect us to go on again to win the premier league & hopefully CL.
 

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