The Title Race 2022/23

[alexmcity]

I fear a level of complacency creeping in. Having Liverpool as our main rivals in recent seasons has been horrible at times, but at least we knew where we stood, and I think the players felt the same. Effectively, win every week or we are fucked. It was nervy, but the need to win was clear and it gave us the motivation.

Liverpool falling away, and seemingly leaving us as runaway champions has led to some City fans thinking that it’s a formality. It’s a strange and dangerous position to be in, especially if that sense of invincibility creeps into the team. If this team thinks they have no competition for the title, it’s easy to take the foot off the gas and all of a sudden we have pissed it up the wall.

IMO this season is currently feeling a hell of a lot like the Leicester season. There are clearly better sides than Arsenal, I’m sure even Arsenal and their fans know it. It means nothing though if you don’t perform on the pitch. Leicester won a title because all of the better sides self-imploded. At the moment it’s happening again. Liverpool have been turd. Chelsea have lost the plot and City have arguably got more points than our form deserves.

Arsenal might be good enough to only get 85 points. If the teams around them keep fucking up…it might be enough to get the job done.

Things don't tend to repeat in football. Arsenal won't be Leicester, even though they are better than Leicester and will win more points than Leicester.

Arteta is not Pep. But it's telling a lot about Pep's philosophy that the current top teams in the two best leagues in the world are managed by Pep's disciples. The Michels-Cruyff-Guardiola line in football is the best in history. But Pep spends a lot, doesn't make changes and is hard to understand, so his success doesn't count :)

 

[MadchesterCity]

Arsenal will have difficult moments. Think they will drop 10 points over 7-8 games at some point of the season (that's 2 losses and 2 draws). The question is whether we'll be good enough to capitalise on their mistakes. Given our form under Pep since 2017, we are likely to go above 86 pts. Arsenal have a very good young team, but injuries and inexperience will stop them from going above 85 pts, imo, even if they are on course to 100 pts now. Things may go south quickly. As good as they are, they are not Liverpool good. Our games with them will be interesting. Maybe we'll be on form by then.

Jesus doesn't score many goals but makes Arsenal stronger. Would be a bitter lesson for his critics if he scores only 12 goals but Arsenal win the title. There's so much more to football than individual stats. Jesus is a proper team player and makes the other around him better.

Agree was gutted when Jesus left, his stats were actually the best of all our forward players

 

[supercity88]

Going to need a huge change in performances to win it. We have been poor so far. 5pts off top and it being Arsenal not Liverpool means we are still in it, but we need a big run of wins when we are back and to start playing with more balance.

 

[MadchesterCity]

We need to reset from the back. Get Walker Stones and Dias as first three names on the team sheet after the WC and start to defend better and keep clean sheets again.
The rest will take care of itself

Laporte was our best player yesterday, Stones our worst.

John Stones is a terrible right back from an attacking stand point

 

[Xhavenjoe]

We will still win it. Arsenal don’t look like Champions to me

They look more like champions than any other team

 

[alexmcity]

Going to need a huge change in performances to win it. We have been poor so far. 5pts off top and it being Arsenal not Liverpool means we are still in it, but we need a big run of wins when we are back and to start playing with more balance.

Stats paint a different picture, though. Ours and Arsenal's xG are very similar both offensively and defensively, and our xG was better before yesterday. People may trust their eyes, but personal impressions are highly unreliable.

It's true they've played more top 6 teams, but at home. They've been a bit luckier so far with injuries and referee decisions. Change in our performances is needed indeed, but not a huge change.

 

[alexmcity]

Laporte was our best player yesterday, Stones our worst.

John Stones is a terrible right back from an attacking stand point

Understandably, people have a soft spot for Stones and forget he is not available for many games. Also, he's not really better than the other CBs. Yesterday he was at fault for their first goal, for he played Toney onside, but people were angry about Cancelo who made no (significant) defensive mistakes and delivered some dangerous balls at the far post. Priorities and biases.

 

[MadchesterCity]

Understandably, people have a soft spot for Stones and forget he is not available for many games. Also, he's not really better than the other CBs. Yesterday he was at fault for their first goal, for he played Toney onside, but people were angry about Cancelo who made no (significant) defensive mistakes and delivered some dangerous balls at the far post. Priorities and biases.

Your right in all your points.
He was so deep for the first goal, he didn’t need to be but he was the reason Toney was onside. Probably due to him being a terrible right back he got his positioning wrong

 

[MadchesterCity]

They look more like champions than any other team

They look every bit champions to me, the one they lost they were by far the better team

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

Understandably, people have a soft spot for Stones and forget he is not available for many games. Also, he's not really better than the other CBs. Yesterday he was at fault for their first goal, for he played Toney onside, but people were angry about Cancelo who made no (significant) defensive mistakes and delivered some dangerous balls at the far post. Priorities and biases.

100%. Certain players benefit from fans having a soft spot for them. Mostly English players..."traditional" English players.