Smile with conviction and belief...

tolmie's hairdoo said:
Manchester United are counting on many things, but the one thing they should never be able to influence is the support we give our own team.

A recent look at United's fixtures since we hit them for six should now bring a few things into perspective.

The current Premier League now represents an abundance of cannon-fodder for the supposed elite. An away trip to Everton, aside, United have simply gone about the job as you would expect of reigning champions, who, outside, of City, are utterly ruthless (barring the occasional fuck-up, for United, read Newcastle, us yesterday at The Hawthorns).

Games which are invariably a showcase for lots of goals and plenty of boastful claims in the aftermath. The Premier League hype machine lives and breathes contradiction and hyperbole from week to week.

Surely, few City fans could not have expected a team which still includes Rooney and Nani, fail to provide United with enough quality and competitive edge to overcome the likes of Sunderland, Wolves and Wigan at home?

Or, for that matter, Swansea, Villa, QPR and Fulham, on their travels?

From a blue perspective, during the same period, City have had away fixtures at both Liverpool and Chelsea, home to Arsenal, yielding four points from nine. Not great, but on balance, still FOUR POINTS MORE than we achieved in the same corresponding fixtures last season. Mancini has set a target of 90 points for us to win this league. Considering there are still 20 games to play and a maximum target achievable of 105 points, again, it would serve both our sanity and our team well to balance this between now and the final curtain, another 15 points would need to be dropped just to attain Mancini's 90 point target.

City have dropped just NINE going into the the New Year and the Sunderland game. We have scored a record 53 goals during this period, conceding only 15, one less than United, despite them shutting up shop, defensively, in the immediate aftermath of our win at the swamp.

We have the second best defensive record in the entire league, having conceded only one more than both United and Liverpool on 14.

It's a sure-fire bet there will be plenty more bumps in the road, defeats, draws.

Tell yourself that, reconcile yourselves, and days such as yesterday will not linger longer than it rationally needs to, nor a need to over-analyse both the strengths and weaknesses of both ourselves and United.

It could well take more than Mancini's 90 point target to win the league, all guesswork at the end of the day, but it is reasonable to suggest both teams will continue to throw down the gauntlet and respond in kind.

Personally, I do not see City dropping more than 15 points in the second half of the season, but even nine or twelve brings City in at a phenomenal 96 and 94, respectively. All which could represent four more defeats, two defeats and six draws, etc, all entirely feasible.

It's completely understandable to vent your spleen at shite showings, we see the potential in this City team like perhaps no other. Expectation is no bad thing, but it is not just the players who are new to all this, until a day comes when there is nothing we can't put right, out on the field of play, City supporters need to let our excitement and desperation not get the better of them.

There should be no sense of panic from us or the team, this is what Ferguson and his sycophants would dearly hope for. City are a very good team, one day, they could become a great one.

English football has been conditioned to think in a particular way purely as a result of United's achievements over the last two decades. It is comfortable for opinion and statement to conform to the norm, to trot-out the usual cliches and take the safe default position of familiarity.

It is not just the players who can deliver us the title, City fans have always been the greatest asset this club has had. Time for us to play our part and trust Mancini and his squad of players to continue to lose a few battles along the way, but ultimately back them to the hilt and win this phoney way.

Because that is what all this is. Outside factors trying to divert focus from the long-term job of proving what we should all know, that deep down, this team has champions stamped right through them and we can play a huge part in it.

...And Let United fans concern themselves with possibly needing to rewrite every Premier League record in the process, to actually consider eventually getting the better of us.
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Good post! apart from the goals conceded part which is incorrect. United have the joint best goals conceded record in the league (14 conceded, same as Liverpool; we've conceded 15). 14 goals coceded and 6 of them were in one game, that's 8 goals in 17 games which is impressive, fair play to em. I'll judge United off that rather than one individual game where it's apparent it was just a bad day at the office for them, there are plenty of Blues who aren't doing that and for some reason aren't taking United seriously.

I posted during pre-season that the average Premier League title winning points total is 78 since the league became 20 teams. So my aim for us this season was for us to get that. If we don't win the league but better 78 points that would be an amazing feat and I'd be well happy - we're only going to get better next season and I never thought we'd win the league until 2013.

We've got Sunderland(a) Liverpool(h) Wigan(a) Spurs(h) Everton(a) Villa(h) coming up in the league. With United(h) in the FAC and a potential replay or 4thRound tie, Liverpool(h+a) in the LC and a potential final, as well as Porto(h+a) in the EL in and around all of these games too. If we keep accumulating points (we don't have to win every game) we will be doing well.

If we're still within the top points and top places in the league come February 26th, as well as United and Spurs (who i definitely think will be up there), then we'll challenge all the way to the end of the season. And my Dad keeps saying that we won the league at St James' Park in 1968 and we go there on the penultimate game of the season this season.

Let's be positive and get behind the boys. The atmosphere at the Etihad has been better in the last two games after a very flat start to the season, so let's keep that going.
 
Pam said:
Cobwebcat said:
tolmie's hairdoo said:
I know where you are coming from mate, but 80 points plus is the usual barometer for a title winning team, we would have done nothing out of the ordinary, save for it being City.

Anything in the 90 points and I would share your pride, but not in the 80s.

That would represent a sizeable collapse of form at some stage over the final four months.

Liverpool lost only twice a couple years back and finished on 86 points, finishing second.

90 points/dropping another 15 points, is pretty realistic for this City team, even taking in any further loses against the likes of Spurs, United, Arsenal away, Liverpool etc.

I don't see this race being about City, more can United expect to go a level above anything they have done before.

And looking at their team, their injury omissions, I seriously doubt it.

Forget the sabre rattling of week to week, Sky and Talksport et al, trying to talk up a product, trust the stats as they currently stand.

You won't go far wrong.
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The thing with the rags you have to remember is that they always do enough to win. Looking at points totals from previous years is irrelevant. If they can win the league with 80 points and concentrate on other trophies they will. If they need 90 that's what they will go for.

Doesn't matter about squad or injuries (unless they are very severe) because it's all about Baconface and his nouce (god I hate him) Just retire you fool!

We can't do much more than we are doing but if we want the big pots then we are either going to have to wait for Bacon to give up or smash him to bits until there is no possibility of a comeback.
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I vote that we smash him to bits.
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SECONDED
 
There's a lot of nonsense that gets spouted at this time of year - largely because it suits the media's desire to impose a narrative upon a set of forthcoming, unscripted events.

We were never going to 'win' at this time of year. If United went top, they were clicking into gear because "they always get better at this time of year" (never mind the facts, they just do, ok?). If United stayed second, they were "breathing down our necks/ turning the screw/ blahdy, blahdy blah".

You can forget about Fergie's supposed fairy dust that he sprinkles on his players at Christmas time; his patented "Mystic Alex's mind games" and all of the rest of that bollox-talk. None of it exists. They're second, level on points with us. The situation is no better or worse than that.

They are in the middle of a very kind run of fixtures (just like we were around September).
They have a much harder run of games looming ahead of them, in the New Year.

We have a much, much stronger squad than them and they know it.
Players like Evans, Jones, Smalling & de Gea (and a few more) are cornerstones of their title challenge but would certainly not be relied upon by us.

Their current giddiness at being second in the table - to us - speaks volumes about where they see both themselves and us right now.
We have a huge advantage over them, insomuch as we have never bought into their bullshit and we're not going to start now.

We'll win this - and with a bit to spare.
Then, of course, they'll start banging on about money buying success, running us close with thier kids, building a great team and definitely being stronger next year; oh, and being more of a family than a club etc, etc, et-f**king-cetera.

It's ours to win. They know it. We know it.

Happy New Year. It'll be a good 'un.
 
Didsbury Dave said:
I don't think we will drop 15 points in the 2nd half of the season. And I think they'll drop more than that.

The simple, unavoidable fact is that we have a better team and a better squad than man utd. That's why we will win the league. All this 'united know how to win titles' stuff is bollocks. A winning team is a confident team, and that's what we have had since April .

We've dropped some points recently but I've seen nothing in our performances to worry me. I just hope we don't get sidetracked by the cups. The title is there for the taking. Nothing else matters. These players are a bunch of professionals. They're hungry for it
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No, it's not simple. It's never as simple as that.
 
Wasn't Dowd the same ref that did our game against chelsea, and didn't give our dave his penalty. Hmmmmmm?????????? (closet rag me thinks) but not so closet as its blatantly obvious, with the sending off off the wigan player against scum and not giving us the penalty.
 
foreverbluemcfc said:
Wasn't Dowd the same ref that did our game against chelsea, and didn't give our dave his penalty. Hmmmmmm?????????? (closet rag me thinks) but not so closet as its blatantly obvious, with the sending off off the wigan player against scum and not giving us the penalty.
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Nah, that was 'hair transplant'.
 
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