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State of the title race

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Oh get a grip will you, you could also argue that us beating them in the cup semi could have refocused their league form. Pep didn't beat klopp that day, it was a draw, like it was at Anfield. City dominated us for large parts in that game too but we were unlucky not to win it near the end. City are a fantastic side, they usually dominate possession against but if we stay in the game we will get chances


Look it’s great you’re a cheerleader. We deserve it for sure. But to win this league we had to go the Ethiad and we were outplayed. We did great to get back in the title race and this is an incredible team. But that right there was our chance to sneak ahead and we were outplayed to the point of being lucky to come away with a point.

once we drew that, we all knew it was highly unlikely city would drop points. We blew it
 
Look it’s great you’re a cheerleader. We deserve it for sure. But to win this league we had to go the Ethiad and we were outplayed. We did great to get back in the title race and this is an incredible team. But that right there was our chance to sneak ahead and we were outplayed to the point of being lucky to come away with a point.

once we drew that, we all knew it was highly unlikely city would drop points. We blew it
Cheerleading is for American sports, has nothing to do with football. City were always going to outplay us as such, they are a top team. They play a different brand of football. There is always the chance that city might drops points, I actually think we hadn't dropped points to spurs that city may well have. That result gave city they needed after the Madrid loss. This attitude That we blew it is like it was some big fuck up. I'm amazed that we were able to turn this season around but to say its the city result that lost us the title is wrong in my eyes. Getting a draw against city when they were the better side was a positive result not a negative one. If city win the title and they really should it will be because they deserved to win it, we definitely didn't blow it. What is 13 wins and 3 draws in 16 games?
 
Cheerleading is for American sports, has nothing to do with football. City were always going to outplay us as such, they are a top team. They play a different brand of football. There is always the chance that city might drops points, I actually think we hadn't dropped points to spurs that city may well have. That result gave city they needed after the Madrid loss. This attitude That we blew it is like it was some big fuck up. I'm amazed that we were able to turn this season around but to say its the city result that lost us the title is wrong in my eyes. Getting a draw against city when they were the better side was a positive result not a negative one. If city win the title and they really should it will be because they deserved to win it, we definitely didn't blow it. What is 13 wins and 3 draws in 16 games?

Deffo we had a great run. Lots of good points. But if we wanted to win the league, that was a golden opportunity. They excel in these situations of having it all in their hands.

But they've won it. It's done.
 
Just some thoughts on the title race as it's shaping up. It is of course too early to be counting points or comparing the difficulty of the remaining fixtures like you would do in the final stretch - sometimes what initially looks like a tight race turns out to be one-sided once the season really gets into a groove. But at the moment it does look like the top 3 teams - Chelsea, ourselves and City in current order in the table - are pretty evenly matched and what makes it even more interesting is that the respective teams' strengths and weaknesses pretty much mirror each other.

City have the deepest pool of creative talent, they can saturate the midfield with top-class attackers who are all also tactically savvy and hard-working and so will dominate most games. The way they schooled Chelsea and starved us of oxygen at Anfield in the 1st half was seriously impressive. However, their lack of reliable cutting edge up front means that they will either be blowing teams away when they are playing well or failing to make their dominance count when things are just a bit off and that's what we saw in the games where they've dropped points. That being said, if Guardiola gets the personnel and the rotation decisions right, they have the best chance of all 3 teams to go on a long winning run that can propel them to the title.

We have unquestionably the best starting 11, a world-class striker in the best form of his career in Salah, a great CB pairing, best creative full-backs in the country and a front 3 or 4 with serious cutting edge and a variety of threats. Being highly efficient in both boxes means that we don't necessarily need to dominate in midfield to win – as long as we don't lose the midfield battle, we're probably OK (a mirror opposite of City for whom dominating in midfield is the basic prerequisite to any kind of positive result). Our fatal flaw is the small squad, so we're are the most likely of all the contenders to be affected by an injury crisis or accumulation of fatigue. Some of these concerns have been somewhat ameliorated with the positive contributions from the likes of Tsimikas, Jones and Origi and the hope for quick recovery by the exciting Elliott, but I still need to see some consistency in midfield selections before I can start getting more confident about our chances.

Finally, we have Chelsea who have a completely different set of strengths – a near impenetrable defensive unit with good depth and excellent balance of youth and experience in every position in the back 7, but at the moment their expensive attackers are all misfiring – Lukaku hasn't scored for 6 games running, Werner is doing some useful things in stretching defenses, but his finishing is still Werner-esque and Havertz, Pulisic, Zyech and others seems to be losing rather than gaining in confidence. Will the goals from the likes of Chilwell and Chalobah eventually dry up and thus put even more pressure on the misfiring offense or will Tuchel gradually solve the issues up front, which will probably have them coast to the title? A related problem is that as good as their defense has been, it is reliant on the numbers compensating for the relative lack of individual quality; they have to play with a back 3 because Rudiger is no Van Dijk or Dias, they don't have defenders comfortable with covering a lot of space by themselves so the whole balance of the team tilts towards defense, leaving their forwards chronically outnumbered (which partly explains why they are struggling).

So to summarize, for City to win the title, they have to get their most effective attackers into red-hot form all at the same time and then go on a deep winning run that will leave everyone else in the dust (they've done that before). For Chelsea to win the title, they need to either find the front 3 that works consistently or tilt the balance of the team a bit more towards attack without losing the solidity (Chelsea have done that before too, but not with these attackers). And for us, we just have to keep the current excellent balance and go through the season relatively injury-free, so that our best players can be rested and fresh for the final stretch. Which of the 3 is more likely, in your opinion?

We are going to get all 4.
 
Hate to say, but it really bothers me that if we beat Spurs we would have had it in our own hands.
 


Fucking hell, is this true? That would be very much against the spirit of the sport.
 


Fucking hell, is this true? That would be very much against the spirit of the sport.


Excellent.

Not Gerrard has another reason to motivate his team against City.

He was extra eager for his team to give their all against his former team. He won't want anyone saying they let City win to get an extra 15 million.
 
Excellent.

Not Gerrard has another reason to motivate his team against City.

He was extra eager for his team to give their all against his former team. He won't want anyone saying they let City win to get an extra 15 million.
Am I the only one that thinks that is actually quite serious ? I know clauses like that are built into contracts that if player x wins this or that to the buying team then they owe the selling team X amount...BUT this situation is totally fucked !! Even Gerrard will be thinking that's an extra 15M for his transfer kitty for next season. If there is any truth in this, what's the funking point of Sundays game, fuck that.
 
Am I the only one that thinks that is actually quite serious ? I know clauses like that are built into contracts that if player x wins this or that to the buying team then they owe the selling team X amount...BUT this situation is totally fucked !! Even Gerrard will be thinking that's an extra 15M for his transfer kitty for next season. If there is any truth in this, what's the funking point of Sundays game, fuck that.

Win and he solidifies his status as a manager, and among the Villa faithful.

Lose and the next manager gets 15 million to spend.
 
Seriously though, why worry about Villa?

They're 14th in the table, and lost to Wolves, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal. City are the greatest team in the world, and have the smartest, bestest manager in the world. They're supposed to beat Villa. With their eyes closed. There's nothing Stevie G can do about that.

If they drop points against Villa, it won't be because Villa is motivated. It will be because City players lost their nerve at the last minute and bottled it under the pressure of winning a game so eminently winnable.
 
Seriously though, why worry about Villa?

They're 14th in the table, and lost to Wolves, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal. City are the greatest team in the world, and have the smartest, bestest manager in the world. They're supposed to beat Villa. With their eyes closed. There's nothing Stevie G can do about that.

If they drop points against Villa, it won't be because Villa is motivated. It will be because City players lost their nerve at the last minute and bottled it under the pressure of winning a game so eminently winnable.
As others have said. Pressure.

They only beat Villa 2-1 at Villa Park. At home they've drawn 0-0 to Southampton and lost 0-2 to Palace & 1-2 to Spurs (plus drew with us). So 4 times they haven't won in 17 games. They also have their worst defensive lineup all season. It's not a foregone conclusion. We should remember they didn't beat QPR in a similar situation until Aguero scored in the last seconds (97th min)? Pressure can do strange things.

On the downside they haven't lost back to back points this season. First time for everything perhaps.
 
City should beat Villa at home 9 out of 10 times. Lets hope its that 10th time thats goes wrong on Sunday.

An early City goal will result in an easy win I reckon. But if Villa put up a fight it might be tougher than they think.
 
As others have said. Pressure.

They only beat Villa 2-1 at Villa Park. At home they've drawn 0-0 to Southampton and lost 0-2 to Palace & 1-2 to Spurs (plus drew with us). So 4 times they haven't won in 17 games. They also have their worst defensive lineup all season. It's not a foregone conclusion. We should remember they didn't beat QPR in a similar situation until Aguero scored in the last seconds (97th min)? Pressure can do strange things.

On the downside they haven't lost back to back points this season. First time for everything perhaps.
93.20

I know because they stop the fucking clock at that in injury time.
 
City should beat Villa at home 9 out of 10 times. Lets hope its that 10th time thats goes wrong on Sunday.

An early City goal will result in an easy win I reckon. But if Villa put up a fight it might be tougher than they think.
That's how I see it. City have been humping teams when they score first. Its something ridiculous like 20 straight wins this season alone after getting the first goal.

They also like to score before the 15th minute.

Every minute after that the tension will build.
 
Villa are 14th but could possibly climb to 10th with wins over Burnley and City. That's an extra £10m in revenue so screw the Grealish add ons
They’ll get that Grealish money at some point anyway.
 
As others have said. Pressure.

They only beat Villa 2-1 at Villa Park. At home they've drawn 0-0 to Southampton and lost 0-2 to Palace & 1-2 to Spurs (plus drew with us). So 4 times they haven't won in 17 games. They also have their worst defensive lineup all season. It's not a foregone conclusion. We should remember they didn't beat QPR in a similar situation until Aguero scored in the last seconds (97th min)? Pressure can do strange things.

On the downside they haven't lost back to back points this season. First time for everything perhaps.
Rewatch that final section of the game. It stinks of bribery.
 
Way better than I thought (under 10%) so happy to take that !

According to the Euro Club Index, Manchester City have an 86% chance of winning the title on Sunday, while Liverpool have just 14%.

FTBJCCOWAAIGJZ2


 
Way better than I thought (under 10%) so happy to take that !

According to the Euro Club Index, Manchester City have an 86% chance of winning the title on Sunday, while Liverpool have just 14%.

FTBJCCOWAAIGJZ2



Yeah that seems about right to me. The main thing is Villa just getting to 20 minutes without conceding. If they manage that then you just never know.
 
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