The Title Race - 2023/24

How many points will be needed to win the league?

  • Total voters
    446
  • Poll closed .
domalino said:
I genuinely think at any other team, with any other manager, we'd have been out of this season by now and sitting on the laurels of the treble win last year.

You're not supposed to win a treble and be back in the mix 12 months later.

You're not supposed to win the CL and be in the mix 12 months later.

No one has ever won 4 english titles in a row for a reason.
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I think Arsenal and Liverpool are both better than us this season but Pep is Pep. Only so much he can do though.

Arsenal are the best performing team in the league on and off the ball, Liverpool have the best fixtures and seemingly the biggest ability to deal with injuries as they can play whatever kid they like and nothing changes, we have the best manager and most experience. That’s how I see it.

Still think we’ll finish 3rd but it’s so tight and the margins are so small that for me this is a season where the saying “the best team always wins after 38 games” is not necessarily true. Arsenal are that best team statistically but they clearly might not actually win it.
 
domalino said:
I genuinely think at any other team, with any other manager, we'd have been out of this season by now and sitting on the laurels of the treble win last year.

You're not supposed to win a treble and be back in the mix 12 months later.

You're not supposed to win the CL and be in the mix 12 months later.

No one has ever won 4 english titles in a row for a reason.
Click to expand...
Also considering the squad is probably slightly weaker as well.

Although some renewal was essential, I'm not sure it's improved us for this season.
 
Blu3m00n91 said:
We currently have two wins (both vs United) against teams inside the top 6. That’s not good enough really for our team. Arsenal (H) Villa (H) Spurs (A) are the games we have left vs those clubs. We was unreal last season against the top clubs this year has been v poor.
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Liverpool haven't won vs us, Arsenal, Spurs and United so far. They were like that also in 21/22 when they were chasing the quadruple.

We have been a bit unlucky in those big games, yesterday apart. Could have easily won the home games vs Liverpool and Spurs.

If we win vs Arsenal, we'll be in a good position. It's a HUGE game.
 
Tricky_Trev said:
I think Arsenal and Liverpool are both better than us this season but Pep is Pep. Only so much he can do though.

Arsenal are the best performing team in the league on and off the ball, Liverpool have the best fixtures, we have the best manager and most experience. That’s how I see it. Still think we’ll finish 3rd but it’s so tight and the margins are so small that for me this is a season where the saying “the best team always wins after 38 games” is not necessarily true. Arsenal are that best team statistically but they clearly might not actually win it.
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EPL xG Table and Scorers for the 2025/2026 season | Understat.com

xG table of EPL standings and top scorers for the 2025/2026 season, also tables from past seasons and other European football leagues.
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On this model, we were slightly better than Arsenal statistically wise before the game yesterday and clearly better than Liverpool.

IF we outplay Arsenal in 3 weeks, we'll be the best team statistically wise. Won't be easy but is not unlikely to happen.
 
jimharri said:
How many games have we put in our very best level of performance? 1 in every 4, maybe? Even the 3-0 at the swamp; how good did we need to be, in truth. 7.5, maybe 8, out of 10. Similar with the big wins at home to Bournemouth and Fulham. Just how good were we in those games? How many 9/10 (or better) performances have we really put in? That we're still in with a shot at another treble is a remarkable testament to the players' mental fortitude, yesterday notwithstanding.
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Yeah I think it's noticeable that in the biggest matches we don't have that extra edge that's winning the tight games, and then against the others we always look slightly vulnerable rather than just swatting teams aside. We've just been waiting for the team to really click and despite the results, it's not really happening performance wise like you say.

But yeah, looking at the league fixtures if we get to the last 4 games in a good position, I think we've got a great chance of the league.

Be very surprised if we retain the CL, you need the combination of luck and that wee edge.
 
lot of it comes down to recruitment. we were fighting for long weeks for Gvardiol like Arse were fighting for Rice with WHU on the price.but then you compare what Gvardiol added to City and what Rice added to Arsenal and its night and day. even Havertz is a better transfer for them than any of our new signings. or Raya too an upgrade on Ramsdale easily.
also Liverpool lost experienced but very tired over the hill players like Henderson and Fabinho who dropped serious levels from where he was at the time they won the title and the CL. they were replaced by brutal workhorses in McAllister, Szoboszlai, Endo. young(er), quicker with immense workrate. much of dippers good run is down to that midfield running like crazy hope they run out of peds soon.

while our incoming transfers made the squad bigger but hardly do anything to our first eleven.Doku good might come good, but levels below Grealish in his best form in terms of off the ball play and also levels below Mahrez end product and ball control.

Gvardiol aint gonna make it at LB in the PL ever imo, and as big CL games coming up I bet Ake still will be first choice LB for Pep while even less chance that he puts Gvardiol to CB.
Kovacic can do about 30% of what Gundo could but that still makes him an important squad player.
Nunes, well a panic signing late in the window, he is getting about as much game time as someone we didnt really want to sign.

every summer every club need a new impulse from new players, ideally ones that improve the first 11. we couldnt make those signings while our rivals did.

says a lot when vs Liverpool away or rags at home or next game Arse home none of the 4 new signings are starting or in CL if we draw a real hard opponents after Copenhagen.
 
SSL2 said:
we only got let off through poor finishing. If that was Salah in the two positions Diaz was in we would've found ourselves 3-1 down.
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If people are saying we wet the bed because of the anfield pressure, can the same not be said for his misses, the composure of ortega and akanji with the madness of walker made him fluff his lines.
 
Withnail said:
Very little room for error now, we need to beat Arsenal and hope the Dippers drop points at the Swamp. Personally, I think we will just come up short as those draws against Palace, Spurs and Chelsea (both home and away) will come back to haunt us.
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I agree. Dips are dropping zero points, they won't be allowed to - PL want the fairy tale ending for the greatest ever German manager. Said at the time those draws would cost us the title. I hate Arse but much prefer them to win over the Dips.

I so want to be wrong but we really aren't at it, a credit to the team though to be where they are, Dips were no where near followiing seadon after their SINGLE covid title win.

Fwiw I don't think they will be next year either, new manager and many players will be cured of their * asthma ( I think they have been all 'poorly' again since just after 2022 World Cup, I saw massive 'improvement' in their results then.
 
bluemoon32 said:
We did brilliantly last season, trouble is, our current side isn't as good as last seasons
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This time last season people we saying we’d had a shit season.

We’d struggled at left back and Pep was trying to bed in a new system which a lot of fans hated.

Some fans on here said this should be Pep’s last season after we lost the derby at the swamp.
 
Withnail said:
Very little room for error now, we need to beat Arsenal and hope the Dippers drop points at the Swamp. Personally, I think we will just come up short as those draws against Palace, Spurs and Chelsea (both home and away) will come back to haunt us.
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Said something similar a few weeks back. Those draws that could have been wins used up so much wiggle room for the other occasional duff result. As you say, very little margin for error now.
 
domalino said:
I genuinely think at any other team, with any other manager, we'd have been out of this season by now and sitting on the laurels of the treble win last year.

You're not supposed to win a treble and be back in the mix 12 months later.

You're not supposed to win the CL and be in the mix 12 months later.

No one has ever won 4 english titles in a row for a reason.
Click to expand...
The only one I disagree with is the 3rd one down, a few clubs have won back to back Champions Leagues, so we are supposed to be in the mix for this one.
 
pee dubya said:
Also considering the squad is probably slightly weaker as well.

Although some renewal was essential, I'm not sure it's improved us for this season.
Click to expand...
Looking like that, none of Kovacic, Nunes, Doku, and Gvardiol looks to have improved us a great deal at all. 2nd season where it falls into place hopefully
 
Still right in the mix and it will go to the wire, with many twists and turns . yesterday was the minimum result we needed !
All teams will drop points .
We will beat Arsenal ,just like last season.
They’ve only beaten our injury hit side with a deflection.
 
I wouldn't be so confident that we'll beat Villa and Arsenal at home also, given our record against the top 6 this season, and our home form in general
 
pee dubya said:
Yeah I think it's noticeable that in the biggest matches we don't have that extra edge that's winning the tight games, and then against the others we always look slightly vulnerable rather than just swatting teams aside. We've just been waiting for the team to really click and despite the results, it's not really happening performance wise like you say.

But yeah, looking at the league fixtures if we get to the last 4 games in a good position, I think we've got a great chance of the league.

Be very surprised if we retain the CL, you need the combination of luck and that wee edge.
Click to expand...
I'd have actually gone the other way (as the actress said etc etc), and said I'd be more confident of retaining the CL.
 
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