The Title Race - 2023/24

[supercity88]

Arsenal have good young players and may become a more serious threat. Think Arteta has overused the forwards, though, and they have lost form. Martinelli and especially Saka have played too many minutes. Let's hope they don't click in the 2nd half of the season, their game vs Liverpool aside.

I can't see Arsenal ever challenging under Arteta in all honesty. We'll see.

I always felt Liverpool would be the bigger threat this season.

And as I said at the start of the week, I think we'll see a different level from City on our return from the winter break. Maybe not instantly, but for Pep to have two weeks to work on tactics with the players - I'd be stunned if he doesn't transform the team into a winning machine again.

 

[alexmcity]

I can't see Arsenal ever challenging under Arteta in all honesty. We'll see.

I always felt Liverpool would be the bigger threat this season.

And as I said at the start of the week, I think we'll see a different level from City on our return from the winter break. Maybe not instantly, but for Pep to have two weeks to work on tactics with the players - I'd be stunned if he doesn't transform the team into a winning machine again.

I think/hope you are right about Arteta. I tend to agree, but wonder whether they can reverse their fortune and have a stronger 2nd half of the season. Not likely, but who knows.. The recency bias may distort the picture somewhat.

I expect improvement from City, too. What's more, I think that a front 6 of Rodri, KDB, Foden, Bernardo, Doku/Grealish and Haaland has the potential to be truly extraordinary. Fingers crossed.

 

[Rammy Blue]

I can't see Arsenal ever challenging under Arteta in all honesty. We'll see.

I always felt Liverpool would be the bigger threat this season.

And as I said at the start of the week, I think we'll see a different level from City on our return from the winter break. Maybe not instantly, but for Pep to have two weeks to work on tactics with the players - I'd be stunned if he doesn't transform the team into a winning machine again.

I agree completely, they haven’t got the mental fortitude and that flows down from the manager, they aren’t our biggest threat.

Personally as well, as much as I hope they have the losing run sooner rather than later, I don’t actually rate the scousers as high as most either, and think they will have a bad spell soon.

 

[Coatigan]

Not good enough to win because they bottled it! Leicester weren't good enough to win the title but they had the mental strength and ability to go and get the job done. We got fewer points in the second half of last season than the first half, so that shows just how much they fell off the cliff. When we were down to the bare bones in 2021/22 our players stepped up and saw us over the line. There can always be excuses or mitigation, but people have to step up.

Leicester only needed to beat 71 points that year to win it. Arsenal needed 90 mate. Nothing at all to do with 'mental strength', just the level of the whole season and the opposition. You might as well go argue Leicester only won it because Spurs 'bottled it', which would be as unfair imo as your arguement is to us. We won the title. Arsenal didn't lose it.

 

[KingGeorge]

I can't see Arsenal ever challenging under Arteta in all honesty. We'll see.

I always felt Liverpool would be the bigger threat this season.

And as I said at the start of the week, I think we'll see a different level from City on our return from the winter break. Maybe not instantly, but for Pep to have two weeks to work on tactics with the players - I'd be stunned if he doesn't transform the team into a winning machine again.

Were you one of the posters who predicted Liverpool would be our main challenger in late September? I know there were a few guys that were adamant Liverpool would be our chief challenger at the time.

I can't remember the handles of the guys who posted that at the time, but kudos to the folks that did as they are looking more and more right with each passing day.

 

[chris85mcfc]

Were you one of the posters who predicted Liverpool would be our main challenger in late September? I know there were a few guys that were adamant Liverpool would be our chief challenger at the time.

I can't remember the handles of the guys who posted that at the time, but kudos to the folks that did as they are looking more and more right with each passing day.

Just having a quick scan back through my posts from that time, and I have a few mentioning Liverpool as our real threat.

Having said that, I also said Arsenal would be out of the race by Christmas which looks a bit hasty!

I feel even more confident now that we will win it, and that we'll finish above Liverpool by a comfortable margin (4+ points).

Peps got a couple of weeks now to really nail our strategy for the next few months, and coupled with our big hitters coming back from injury, I can't see anything other than us hitting top stride going into February.

 

[alexmcity]

Just having a quick scan back through my posts from that time, and I have a few mentioning Liverpool as our real threat.

Having said that, I also said Arsenal would be out of the race by Christmas which looks a bit hasty!

I feel even more confident now that we will win it, and that we'll finish above Liverpool by a comfortable margin (4+ points).

Peps got a couple of weeks now to really nail our strategy for the next few months, and coupled with our big hitters coming back from injury, I can't see anything other than us hitting top stride going into February.

I don't feel confident about your optimistic predictions. You were expecting record point differences, etc.

My prediction is that IF we win, it won't be by more than 1-2 pts. GD may play a role, too. It will be close.

 

[chris85mcfc]

I don't feel confident about your optimistic predictions. You were expecting record point differences, etc.

My prediction is that IF we win, it won't be by more than 1-2 pts. GD may play a role, too. It will be close.

I'm an optimistic person on the whole, and I've seen us win the league the last 3 years beating better teams than this Liverpool one.

I'll put my neck on the line and say that I think we'll be top of the league when we go to Anfield.

 

[KingGeorge]

I'm an optimistic person on the whole, and I've seen us win the league the last 3 years beating better teams than this Liverpool one.

I'll put my neck on the line and say that I think we'll be top of the league when we go to Anfield.

We have beaten teams better than this Liverpool team for sure, but we were also a better team ourselves.

We were on 45 points after 19 games last year. Arsenal falling off the pace threw us a lifeline coupled with Liverpool not running way. I guess we will see if we take advantage. If we can get by Newcastle the schedule does set up favorably.

 

[waspish]

We don't beat Newcastle away it be hard because we have to go to Anfield and spurs which we got zero points from last season!