The Title Race - 2021/22

[SidJames]

Get Wednesday out the way then we can move on with the same games played.

When was the last time we lost 2 on the bounce ?

Would rather get it out of our system now, and still be clear no matter what going in to next weekend.Which we will be.

A lot being made of their fixtures.

They still have some tough games.

After the Scousers put 10 past Leeds under 6 on Wednesday.

They have west Ham home, Brighton away,Arsenal away, then the Rags at home who have quite a good record there,then us.

Long,long,way to go yet.

 

[Katsunari Takayama]

Brilliant as they can be, there has always been a sneaky yellow streak in this group, especially if things aren’t going their way. Porto the prime example.
They are prone to throw in a shitshow like this now and again. It happens. But it is worrying that the first sign of pressure this season and they buckled. Bottled it and utterly shat themselves.
There was zero leadership out their today.
Everton away is enormous now, as much a test of bottle and character as anything else

No Longsight you don’t mean that. What about Anfield this season or Arsenal away to name but two. These guys are mentally strong, serial winners - yesterday was an anomaly.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Get Wednesday out the way then we can move on with the same games played.

When was the last time we lost 2 on the bounce ?

Would rather get it out of our system now, and still be clear no matter what going in to next weekend.Which we will be.

A lot being made of their fixtures.

They still have some tough games.

After the Scousers put 10 past Leeds under 6 on Wednesday.

They have west Ham home, Brighton away,Arsenal away, then the Rags at home who have quite a good record there,then us.

Long,long,way to go yet.

Yes. We really need to watch how we play against United though. They are crap at the back but if we play like we did yesterday then they will get chances. We need to go into total control mode for that one like how we played at the swamp.

 

[lasereyes]

Let's start with the obvious. Liverpool can win the title. But it's nonsense to say they are favourites. Aside from the fact that we are 3 points ahead (assuming they beat Leeds), there are several other things:

1. Fixtures: they are somewhat similar with the important exception that they have to come to the Etihad. The media rhetoric since we drew with Southampton has been the assumption that they will waltz onto our turf and brush us aside. Ignoring the fact that they haven't won here for 6 years and have suffered at least two major spankings. Ignoring the fact that we dominated them at their hallowed sanctuary and would likely have won if Milner had been called for 2 of his at least 3 blatantly bookable offences.

2. History: yes they love to use that word, but the reality favours us. We have been there and done it 5 times over the past decade, three of which have been razor tight. They have never won a tight title race and bottled 2018/19 despite the ref'ing outrageously favouring them

3. The Run-in: in all our 3 tight title races, we have finished very very strongly. 6 on the bounce in 2012. 5 on the bounce in 2014. 14 on the bounce in 2019. And several tough crunch games in all of those runs.

4. Wake-up calls: in every title year, we have had some inexplicable setback in the Jan-Mar period. And it has been a galvanizing force. Who thought we would grab the title when we lost at Arsenal in 2012 or at Anfield in 2014 (another game we would have won with halfway non-corrupt officiating) or at Newcastle in 2019. We made some schoolboy errors yesterday - Rodri, Walker and Dias in particular, but Pep will go right back to the drawing board and my bet is we will see a much tighter defensive setup going forward. Maybe (hopefully?) featuring Stones.

5. Pressure/Quadruple: I think this has hurt us in past years. Well this time the shoe is on the other foot. If the scousers win the League Cup next week, watch the media wankfest launch into full swing. I am hoping Chelsea roll them over as I dont want them winning anything, but I actually think their lifting that trophy will paradoxically hurt their league chances.

 

[lasereyes]

I actually think you are way off the mark and Klopps team and the fact we went a goal down shows that Liverpool have to put their best they can out every game. It demonstrated that it doesn't take much for the wheels to come off and once again that the squad depth simply isn't there.
Puuki should have put Norwich ahead in the first few minutes and that could have really changed the way they played the rest of the game.
The fact that City lost at home to Spurs shows again that there are strange results and it may well come down to the match between City/Liverpool.
I see both teams dropping points in other games aswell.

Agree with this. Who saw yesterday's result. Or Liverpool losing at Leicester. IMO, 2018/19 was a freak that may never be repeated. And even there, Liverpool had 3 draws in the run-in that allowed us to overtake them. They have played without pressure for a while as the media had ridiculously already annointed us as champions and the league as uncompetitive. Let's see how they do when there is a real race and real tension afoot.

 

[yankblue]

We'll be fine. Can't win them all. We've seen this before. A small hiccup, and we'll go on a run to rebuild the lead. Liverpool will drop points and if they don't fair fucks to them.

"Bottled the league" get out of here.

 

[Deleted member 81382]

Let's start with the obvious. Liverpool can win the title. But it's nonsense to say they are favourites. Aside from the fact that we are 3 points ahead (assuming they beat Leeds), there are several other things:

1. Fixtures: they are somewhat similar with the important exception that they have to come to the Etihad. The media rhetoric since we drew with Southampton has been the assumption that they will waltz onto our turf and brush us aside. Ignoring the fact that they haven't won here for 6 years and have suffered at least two major spankings. Ignoring the fact that we dominated them at their hallowed sanctuary and would likely have won if Milner had been called for 2 of his at least 3 blatantly bookable offences.

2. History: yes they love to use that word, but the reality favours us. We have been there and done it 5 times over the past decade, three of which have been razor tight. They have never won a tight title race and bottled 2018/19 despite the ref'ing outrageously favouring them

3. The Run-in: in all our 3 tight title races, we have finished very very strongly. 6 on the bounce in 2012. 5 on the bounce in 2014. 14 on the bounce in 2019. And several tough crunch games in all of those runs.

4. Wake-up calls: in every title year, we have had some inexplicable setback in the Jan-Mar period. And it has been a galvanizing force. Who thought we would grab the title when we lost at Arsenal in 2012 or at Anfield in 2014 (another game we would have won with halfway non-corrupt officiating) or at Newcastle in 2019. We made some schoolboy errors yesterday - Rodri, Walker and Dias in particular, but Pep will go right back to the drawing board and my bet is we will see a much tighter defensive setup going forward. Maybe (hopefully?) featuring Stones.

5. Pressure/Quadruple: I think this has hurt us in past years. Well this time the shoe is on the other foot. If the scousers win the League Cup next week, watch the media wankfest launch into full swing. I am hoping Chelsea roll them over as I dont want them winning anything, but I actually think their lifting that trophy will paradoxically hurt their league chances.

Top post.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

Could so with them slipping up in the next 5, dont think i can handle watching them play us with it all on the game. lol

I'd still take our position and run-in given the choice. Need to put City Legend Lampards Toffeees to the sword next week, shut the media up.

 

[bernard o'silver]

They didn't fold in the 100 points season, it's just that we were ridiculous

Erm 98 point season - 18/19 , 100 points was season before - 17/18 and we were ridiculous, in both !!

 

[Tangled up in blue.]

they will drop points. sooner or later.

Hopefully but I think it will be just the odd point, if that