The Title is there for the taking...

[jonmcity]

Can we just take one game at a time for now?

Seriously we should be winning at Stoke however at the mo I will be happy to get a point.
As a previous poster said though I feelit is imperative we beat the rags at our place.
It's gonna be rocking that day.

correct same three points available lets hope we take the six.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Traditionally, the league is decided not by how you perform against your peers, but how well you do against the rest. But this season, I think the top 5 or 6 are SO much stronger than the rest, I expect the top teams will win the vast majority of their games agains the lower sides, with few dropped points.

How we fare playing against our direct competitors will be vital this season I think. And also the Cardiff dropped points is a mistake we can ill afford repeat too often.

 

[Anonymous]

Traditionally, the league is decided not by how you perform against your peers, but how well you do against the rest. But this season, I think the top 5 or 6 are SO much stronger than the rest, I expect the top teams will win the vast majority of their games agains the lower sides, with few dropped points.

How we fare playing against our direct competitors will be vital this season I think. And also the Cardiff dropped points is a mistake we can ill afford repeat too often.

I think in the last 10 years of the premiership only once has a team not won the top 4 head to head mini league and still won the league so on that basis results against the rest of the top 4 are always important.

 

[Any1aBlue]

And then you wake up, Utd have strengthened with a great buy. Chelsea have Eto and Torres, We now have a weak midfield due to yaya not being active enough to play with only 1 man next to him. And a defence with the speed of a cripple on a stairlift. It is going to be a tough season, Arsenal still won't be contenders their defence is worse than ours.

Not quite as bad as this but i do agree with the sentiment

So do I.
Not 'raggish' at all - stating facts;

We do look pedestrian and clueless at the back, yaya carrying a bag of coal, and only negredo has started well of all our signings. Navas too lightweight, jovetic injured, fernandhino (who?).
Aguero has started where he left off last season - ineffectual. Same goes for Silva and Hart.
Our best player IMO is Milner and his partnership with zabaleta is the best in PL having right side sewn up - yet it has been split up - why?
We havent offloaded Lescott and Garcia and Kolarov - why?

So, before anyone else makes crass pronouncements of an implosion across the road and elsewhere and we can strole to the title- we need to get our own house in order bloody quickly, because from where I sit we'll be lucky to make top four at the moment..................

 

[BobKowalski]

Always interesting to see where the mood lies and overall it seems fretful.

Last year we finished second to ManU and a wounded Taggart who was determined to go out on a high and purchased the leading goalscorer in RVP to make it so which RVP duly did. This year they remind me of us last year when we were bereft of leadership at the top and made a pigs ear of kicking on from winning the title in terms of signings. For me our positions are very much reversed hence my optimism which is pretty much all down them having Moyes at the helm who along with Woody the cowboy provided such rich entertainment yesterday with the Fellaini fee fiasco and the imposters wandering around Spain trying to buy players with non existent funds. As with Chelsea I was concerned that they would strengthen in areas that matter and overall neither have which leaves us, in terms of squad balance and strength, in pole position when looking at the 'big three'

Below that Arsenal. Liverpool and Spurs have strengthened plus have the benefit of continuity of manager. But Spurs also lost Bale and they will need time to bed the new players in. Arsenal still look light upfront and at the back but Ozil will give them a huge boost and could be the surprise element in terms of a title race. Liverpool have bought reasonably well but their focus will be top 4 as will Spurs - not dissimilar to our targets for the 10/11 season.

I was optimistic about our title chances this year prior to a ball being kicked based on signings and the sense that we are now moving forward with renewed purpose. My one caveat was what ManU or Chelsea did in the transfer window and to be honest it went well for us.

That we are fretful is unsurprisingly based on our performances at Cardiff and against Hull and yes there are issues of concern which have been discussed to death on here but no one has yet to put a consistent performance over the first three games - in truth the football has been a bit dull overall. But now the phony war is over and we all know what we have squad wise until January and personally I think there are more grounds for optimism than worry.

 

[hgblue]

Always interesting to see where the mood lies and overall it seems fretful.

Last year we finished second to ManU and a wounded Taggart who was determined to go out on a high and purchased the leading goalscorer in RVP to make it so which RVP duly did. This year they remind me of us last year when we were bereft of leadership at the top and made a pigs ear of kicking on from winning the title in terms of signings. For me our positions are very much reversed hence my optimism which is pretty much all down them having Moyes at the helm who along with Woody the cowboy provided such rich entertainment yesterday with the Fellaini fee fiasco and the imposters wandering around Spain trying to buy players with non existent funds. As with Chelsea I was concerned that they would strengthen in areas that matter and overall neither have which leaves us, in terms of squad balance and strength, in pole position when looking at the 'big three'

Below that Arsenal. Liverpool and Spurs have strengthened plus have the benefit of continuity of manager. But Spurs also lost Bale and they will need time to bed the new players in. Arsenal still look light upfront and at the back but Ozil will give them a huge boost and could be the surprise element in terms of a title race. Liverpool have bought reasonably well but their focus will be top 4 as will Spurs - not dissimilar to our targets for the 10/11 season.

I was optimistic about our title chances this year prior to a ball being kicked based on signings and the sense that we are now moving forward with renewed purpose. My one caveat was what ManU or Chelsea did in the transfer window and to be honest it went well for us.

That we are fretful is unsurprisingly based on our performances at Cardiff and against Hull and yes there are issues of concern which have been discussed to death on here but no one has yet to put a consistent performance over the first three games - in truth the football has been a bit dull overall. But now the phony war is over and we all know what we have squad wise until January and personally I think there are more grounds for optimism than worry.

I don't think we've had nearly as good a transfer window as people make out. We've strengthened in midfield areas where we were already strong, and failed to sign a top quality centre back to compliment Kompany or replace him when he's injured. We now have no decent holding midfielder at the club, and a middle two of Yaya and Fernandinho who struggled to cope with Hull City. If Kompany's injury problems persist and we don't ditch the current formation quickly and add some steel to the middle of the park (Rodwell? Milner?), we can kiss goodbye to the title, and top 4 will be a stretch.

 

[OB1]

Chelsea have confused me the most to be honest. Really thought they would add a world class striker and at least De Rossi or Khedira to their midfield. I think Mourinho will try and bore his way to another title with what he's been given; doubtful they'll be as gungho as Abramovic's purchases of every available ACM on the market would have you believe. Could end badly, who knows. Rooney bid never materialised, very surprising.

The Rags have been laughably amateur. They were never going to get him, but Fabregas would have been a huge upgrade. Thiago would have been better than Zinedine Cleverly. Modric better. Khedira better. The list goes on. Snubbed by all of them, and I'm sure Fellaini feels hugely valued that they went after seemingly every central midfielder in Europe before him.

Arsenal don't have enough depth. Ozil makes nice headlines but it was a position they didn't need to fill with a 40m pound player. Could have addressed more pressing problems if Arsene wasn't such a stubborn idiot.

Spurs are building a formidable side, but like us after our first big spree, it takes time to peice that together. They may find some of their signings simply don't work, it's never guaranteed.

Liverpool are very young, but have been the most impressive this season to my eyes so far. Still lacking goals it seems but they're playing tidy football, good work ethic across the park; doubt they can sustain it for a whole season but with no Europe you never know. Regardless, top four at absolute best for them.


Then you've got us. Now the window has shut I'd say we still have the most balanced squad. We may not have the abundance of wingers of the rags, or Acm's of Chelsea, but we have the best spine (providing Kompany can stay fit) and generally a good squad. Our main problem is ourselves. We've looked far from convincing, but if we click into gear we could see some very, very good football.

Loads of different permutations to consider for the league; staying in Europe longer than anyone else, cup competitions etc, but I'm chucking my hat firmly into the 'ours to lose' corner. No arrogance, just think after no-one has shown themselves to be clear front runners, we have the most in reserve.

That's a good summing up of how I'd view things. I think the only reason not to make us favourites for the title at this moment is Mourinho. We have the best squad but we don't have the best manager. I still believe that Manny is a good enough manager to take us to the title but it won't be a breeze; unless the players very quickly adapt to what he wants or he adapts his tactics to the players. However, my current view is that we make for too many excuses for our players in terms of saying that they are being asked to do things that they can't. I think they can if they want to or have the mental fortitude and physical application to play the more aggressive game that Manny refers to. BobK talked about the team's mental application in another thread and I think that is the most crucial factor in our chances this season.

I think I said in some discussion about the Cardiff game that City cannot be expected to play every game like a cup final (and yes I can spot the irony of that statement); what I didn't say is that City bloody well need to try and play a lot of games as if their lives depended on it: if City put the effort in, they will go a very long way towards winning the title back.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think we've had nearly as good a transfer window as people make out. We've strengthened in midfield areas where we were already strong, and failed to sign a top quality centre back to compliment Kompany or replace him when he's injured. We now have no decent holding midfielder at the club, and a middle two of Yaya and Fernandinho who struggled to cope with Hull City. If Kompany's injury problems persist and we don't ditch the current formation quickly and add some steel to the middle of the park (Rodwell? Milner?), we can kiss goodbye to the title, and top 4 will be a stretch.

I agree with you regarding the centre half situation, however as Pellegrini said, there wasn't a plethora of top class defenders available, and none of them would've come to City without the guarantee of first team football. Which would've been cruel on Nastasic because frankly on last season's showings he deserves to be first choice.

Totally disagree with the rest of your post. We have significantly strengthened both wide left and wide right attacking options by adding Navas and Jovetic. We've significantly strengthened central midfield by adding Fernandinho, who has tons more ability than Barry.

Overall I'd give our business an 8/10 and I think we've certainly done far better business than Chelsea or the rags.

 

[inchy14]

[
From what I saw from Chelsea against United and Bayern, Mourinho looks like he will take them to the title in a very typical Jose style!

Chelsea will win the league - their defence was immense against Bayern and Hazard was MOTM. Torres is banging them in for fun[/quote]


Fuck me, if one goal after 4 games is banging them in for fun, i'd love to know what you think Negredo or Yaya are doing after 2 in 3!!

 

[coleridge]

Some good points.

Our business is as good as it could have been. MP cannot know more until the season rocks on a bit. Personally, I think Aguero and others will go once the World Cup is done. Wouldn't surprise me if this was Yaya's last season, for example. Just an opinion, that's all. Then We'll see a full upgrade from MP, getting ready for the next manager in waiting [we know who].

Yeah, Chelsea confuse me. Don't understand the Mata & Ba business. Do they want to play for them now? Maybe Jose thinks he can grind it out. I am not so sure. I believe our goals may set us apart form the rest. Here's hoping anyway!

What I always agree with Jose on is the 2 player per position philosophy [barring long tern injuries]. You can't expect top quality players to hang around on the bench or in the reserves. Spurs seem to have made the classic mistake of getting big cash and then going mad on half a new squad. Why?

As has been said, Arsenal made a good singing but their supporters are moaning that they didn't spent the other £50m. The answer to that is clearly Wenger, great manager, difficult person.

Liverpool will do well to finish top four. They look lightweight to me. The two little fella upfront on Sunday just looked out of their depth. If Danny gets injured, they are fucked.

Fuck the Rags. I had messages yesterday saying they didn't need anymore players. Deluded fans, deluded club. It did amuse me to hear them creeping round Spain with bags of cash. I've lived there [didn't like it but each to their own] and they love their unhelpful, obstructive paperwork... so no surprise to me but very funny all the same.

I like this quote from a Rag on the BBC site though, completely failing to see the irony as he wrote it. 'Fellaini will not be a bad signing, 11 goals from midfield for Everton, more than any of United midfield. Keep the faith!' HAHAHA