Who will be our main rivals this season?

[Petetheblu]

I fear it could be over well before the clocks move.

Pep and the team seem to be looking for excuses even this early?

Liverpool and United haven't really played anybody of note yet, so I don't even factor them as contenders.

It will be Chelsea by December or we will somehow wake up these next two league games.

I couldn't agree more mate, we had the best posterity to push on and slept on it, the best coach in the world and the club fucked up. Not for the first time either, the VInny replacement was poor and I expect the Kun replacement will be nothing but a long drawn out farce.

Frustrating.

 

[bluemoon32]

Early signs don't look too good but there's still a long way to go.
Chelsea look strong & are my pick for the title, wouldn't surprise me if we fell away in the league but won the CL

 

[Petetheblu]

Id have Harvetz for starters....

Who is their left back...?

Id also have Kante

Their keeper Mendy is fantastic.

He constantly makes saves.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Did you see that depth against Southampton? It's complete nonsense. Our squad has depth on the flanks but we don't have an experienced specialist centre-forward and we have a 36 year old defensive midfielder. Our squad was unbalanced, more so by a farcical transfer window.

We also have players with questionable fitness. KDB should be a jewel but hit fitness is a massive concern. This for some reason is being ignored but he is well below what he is capable of. How KDB recovers, and Foden's role in the side, will decide the outcome of our season. Those two players have peaks which are extraordinarily high. Can they both recover from pre-season injury and how long will it take. Those are the key questions.

Mostly agree but Southampton was hopefully just an off day (clutching at straws here), and our main rivals have much weaker squads.

I've got my fingers crossed for top 4. Think we'll be OK for that.

KDB has always had injury lay offs with us and we've been fine. It's up to players like Mahrez and Sterling to get their acts together and earn their money for a change.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Early signs don't look too good but there's still a long way to go.
Chelsea look strong & are my pick for the title, wouldn't surprise me if we fell away in the league but won the CL

Not a hope of the CL imo. Pep blew our best chance ever last season. We won't get near the final again without a top class striker or DM.

Concentrate on top 4 and write the rest off for this season at least.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

I fear it could be over well before the clocks move.

Pep and the team seem to be looking for excuses even this early?

Liverpool and United haven't really played anybody of note yet, so I don't even factor them as contenders.

It will be Chelsea by December or we will somehow wake up these next two league games.

I think that everyone should remember that Liverpool were crowned champions in December last season. Chelsea have been very solid since Tuchel arrived and they’ve now added Lukaku to do what Werner couldn’t, finish their chances. However since Tuchel arrived he’s been basically a long honeymoon.

He had an excellent squad to begin with, he added some tactical nous and set up their defence properly. He hasn’t had to deal with any real adversity, no one has fully got to grips with their system and they have that air of inevitability about them that Liverpool had until they won the league. However it took Klopp 2 seasons of high pressure and ridiculous points totals (97 and 99) to win it once.

I have a suspicion that Chelsea are very much, like ourselves, a first goal side. We score first and we win, often comfortably. We concede first and all bets are off, especially in the league. Chelsea are very difficult to breakdown at the best of times but once in front they’re a very good counter attacking side. It’s what happens when they concede first that will tell us a lot.

Personally I see a lot of teams taking notes from Southgate against Germany matching the 3 at the back and making it difficult for Chelsea to get mismatches on numbers. Wouldn’t be surprised to see us play with a variation on 3-4-3 against them on Saturday.

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

Retaining the title seems a bridge too far at the moment.

A clearly pissed off Pep trying to get the squad to go again doesn't appear likely but as Bobby Manc used to say 'Is football'. Maybe our rivals will take lots of points off Chelsea and we nip through on the inside.

 

[youngbob]

Chelsea have been my pick to win the league since about three weeks into Tuchel's reign so it's no surprise to see them really kicking on. They're solid all over the pitch and have a very balanced squad, which is basically the perfect recipe to win titles. Tuchel might revert to type and chuck it away, but who knows?

It's no big deal if we don't win the league this season anyway. It's not possible to be the best all the time and we'll still play entertaining football that's worth turning up for and will keep us in the title picture until about February at least. I didn't even expect to see us win the league once, even after the takeover, never mind five times.

And besides, we don't create squads for right now, we build them for five-year cycles -- we aim to win 2/3 out of every 5 league titles. We've won the league five times in ten years with three different managers. Clearly the general infrastructure is alright and we'll most likely win it back very soon.

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

Retaining the title seems a bridge too far at the moment.

A clearly pissed off Pep trying to get the squad to go again doesn't appear likely but as Bobby Manc used to say 'Is football'. Maybe our rivals will take lots of points off Chelsea and we nip through on the inside.

Retaining the title is always difficult, it’s only been done once in the last decade. There is always that drop off after winning the league having to attempt it again playing a false 9 system whilst our rivals have all improved will be a very tall order.

The scheduling from the covid restart into the Euros to where are now I imagine will be fatiguing on the players. Chelsea at the weekend, last time we went there we were on the bare bones with a covid outbreak in the squad, no one thought we would get anything from the game but City managed to go on an unbeaten run to bat every other team out of the title race. You never know another backs against the wall performance might happen on Saturday.

 

[SleepingBlueTiger]

I've actually been really impressed with Liverpool this season, more so than Chelsea. They remind me of the side that romped to title 2 years ago.
If they beat Brentford and us over next 2 games I think they'll be very difficult to stop as they will go from strength to strength.