The Title Race - 2023/24

[Xhavenjoe]

We have to make up less than half a goal a game on Liverpool to overtake them on goal difference.

The way the other two are going we will have to score over 4 per match.
The positive at the moment is we are not conceding many.

 

[justsaying]

If we win against Arsenal, we will win the Title.

 

[citymad]

If we win against Arsenal, we will win the Title.

You’ve forgotten about the dippers, they’re in the title race as well

 

[Axel Freed]

Well said @alexmcity

Instead of fretting about our form, I always put myself in the shoes of our competitors.

Imagine being a scouser today. On the razzle in West London with his scally bezzies. Settling down in a shitty Wembley pub to watch Ikkle Citeh. Having to watch the game, totally engaged until the 97th minute because we might just drop points. Edge of his seat, swearing at the TV, raging at the ref, cursing our luck, falling out with his bezzies as the tension mounts, sweating like a suckling pig. The night of their wet dreams, celebrating City's demise, royally fucked up by our stout defence and the bottle of champions.

We're that annoying wasp that just won't go away. In their heads day and night. Affecting everything about their daily pox-ridden lives. Even ruining their pre-Cup Final piss up. Salty tears running down their pock-marked faces as they realise, as shit as some Blues think we're playing, we are up their arses just a point behind.

I know who I'd rather be.

Up the fucking Blues.

Great comment

 

[Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese]

Win or lose, it won't come down to goal difference

 

[citymad]

big time underestimated what Rice is giving to Arse. so far he worth every penny for them. never injured, provides even attacking help to them while helping the defence a lot, give them much better mentality, loads of stamina in the middle, motivates others...
a million times better signing so far than Caicedo to Chelsea for similar price, and certainly a player that already brings in class performances in his first season. also a huge upgrade on Xhaka.

if we just got Bellingham (for his goals, sheer power through the middle) or Rice do create a Rodri-Rice duo which would have been absolute killer in the PL and utter complete control of midfield (and to prevent Arteta getting him!) we are probably couple points ahead now in the title race and we were bidding for both but couldnt close the deals. felt like we are taking ong long time on the Gvardiol deal and were slower on the midfield deals which than left it late for Paqueta then the panic and Nunes option. tha handling of the Gundo renewal/not renewal also was bit strange.

it will be brutal hard to win the title in a 3 way race, as per current form we are grinding out results but playing rather bad, and finishing chances even worse rate while both rivals score 3+ on a consistent basis, they dont take the extra touch, they get in on target, they punish teams when they are down and kill off games in the right moment, also they play quicker, lets hope that form changes quick because its hard to see otherwise them dropping points in more than 2 games this season.

thats my main issue going back to the transfer window, Arsenal lost Xhaka they went out and replaced him with Rice.
we lost Gundogan we replaced him with Kovacic or Alvarez being played lot deeper than it suits him.
we won the treble, we had the money in the bank, while Gvardiol/Doku gives us more option they aint making our first 11 stronger (yet). neither Nunes while Kovacic does get his job done more or less but overall he is very limited compared to Gundogan and not much of end product from him in terms of goals/assists albeit his one ball in for Haaland today was very nice also quite rare.

add to that we also lost Mahrez's contribution and experience while Grealish's form fell off a cliff and KDb was out for so long, and Haaland's also scoring around / under his xG rather than way above it like last season, would have to say given all these and the transfer window mistakes we did being alive in 3 competitions still is quite huge.
of course neither the plyers or Pep would be happy to be in it in March but end up empty handed in May.

our defending is fragile, even a shit Bournemouth did cause lot of issues, finally the 1 shot = 1 goal did not work, otherwise we would have been punished, there are some proper dangerous teams in March ready to attack our defence, we need to raise our levels if we dont want to lose a couple games.

Word, Keeping it real! Good post

 

[Inter Me Nan]

If we win against Arsenal, we will win the Title.

If we win every game, we will win the title.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Well said @alexmcity

Instead of fretting about our form, I always put myself in the shoes of our competitors.

Imagine being a scouser today. On the razzle in West London with his scally bezzies. Settling down in a shitty Wembley pub to watch Ikkle Citeh. Having to watch the game, totally engaged until the 97th minute because we might just drop points. Edge of his seat, swearing at the TV, raging at the ref, cursing our luck, falling out with his bezzies as the tension mounts, sweating like a suckling pig. The night of their wet dreams, celebrating City's demise, royally fucked up by our stout defence and the bottle of champions.

We're that annoying wasp that just won't go away. In their heads day and night. Affecting everything about their daily pox-ridden lives. Even ruining their pre-Cup Final piss up. Salty tears running down their pock-marked faces as they realise, as shit as some Blues think we're playing, we are up their arses just a point behind.

I know who I'd rather be.

Up the fucking Blues.

Like a stinky fart that lingers around and won’t go away .

 

[Alfie Budd]

We have to improve on the goalscoring front because if it comes down to goal difference at the end of the season we'll be well down. These last three performances have been well below par but we're bang still in it

In the 50+ seasons since goal difference was introduced in English football, it's been required to decide the champions of the top flight twice.
Of course I'm aware that one of those involved us and that's possibly why a lot of people here seem to get a little stressed about it but while it's a nice buffer to have, history tells us that it's unlikely to be needed once everybody has played 38 games.

 

[Middedon]

thats my main issue going back to the transfer window, Arsenal lost Xhaka they went out and replaced him with Rice.
we lost Gundogan we replaced him with Kovacic or Alvarez being played lot deeper than it suits him.
we won the treble, we had the money in the bank, while Gvardiol/Doku gives us more option they aint making our first 11 stronger (yet). neither Nunes while Kovacic does get his job done more or less but overall he is very limited compared to Gundogan and not much of end product from him in terms of goals/assists albeit his one ball in for Haaland today was very nice also quite rare.

I agree with this to a certain extent, but I feel like the real issue was specifically the midfield window- which I think is what you’re saying. I don’t think Gvardiol and Doku make the window bad because they’re not instant starters. We have world class players/good coverage in those areas (and realistically they probably played more than initially intended due to injuries). They were/are buys for the future. Midfield was the one area we were light to begin with and even the talk about Paqueta seemed more last minute - like there was less of a short or long term plan. And I’m still not even sure he’d be a guaranteed starter.