How big will the gap be at the end of the season?

[711]

Depends how Mourinho and his bosses view our priorities given we're not going to win the league this year:

CL qualification; Second place in the league as this gives much greater CL cash the following year; Winning the CL; Winning the FA Cup; Closing the gap between first and second by a few points.

 

[MrBest]

City are 9 games from the title or 8 wins and a draw. 87 points will defo seal it. I think they may bewal points record

 

[FootballHQ]

I haven't given up yet which is why I get so P'd off when we drop points.
We beat Newcastle when they had a 15 point lead at the the turn of the year.

Didn't Man. United at that stage have about three games in hand on Newcastle?

I'll say a gap of 7-8 points. As other posters say when you win a league in April the intensity drops so that can certainly happen to Man. City.

 

[Pexbo]

Sounds about right.

If City have bad luck with injuries - say, losing De Bruyne for as long as we lost Pogba - then I could see us "winning" the second half of the season on merit. Otherwise, we'll be relying on them to take their foot off the gas.

On the flip side of that, are you saying that City’s “first half of the season win” over us wasn’t on merit as Pogba was out for 3 months?

 

[yumtum]

We'll win the league by a few points.

 

[tonnas]

it all depends if will drop points in the next 3 games.. after that they have arsenal and chelsea and cl at one go... obviously we need to win our games, i reckon the at the end it will be 6-10 points

 

[Pogue Mahone]

On the flip side of that, are you saying that City’s “first half of the season win” over us wasn’t on merit as Pogba was out for 3 months?

Injuries happen. Of course it’s on merit. I just think a similar slice of bad luck as happened to us would make getting more points than them in the next 14 games a lot more achievable.

 

[Von Mistelroum]

Larger than twelve points sadly.

 

[afrocentricity]

I'm with the squeaky win on goal difference crowd...

 

[Salus Populi Suprema Lex]

Much will depend upon whether City take their foot off the gas when it's won. I will take a guess at fifteen points, but could be miles out.

 

[simplyared]

No gap!

We can finish on level points with City if the following happens for example:

1. We win all our remaining games apart from the away games against Spurs and City in which we get draws in both.
2. City lose their away games against Arsenal and Spurs and draw the following.

City draw these games:
Burnley (a)
Chelsea (h)
Everton (a)
Man Utd (h)
West Ham (a)

Difficult games for utd to get 3 points imo would be:
Chelsea (h)
Liverpool (h)
West Ham (a)
Arsenal (h)

3 pts for the taking should be:
Huddersfield (a)
Newcastle (a)
Palace (a)
Swansea (h)
West Brom (h)
Bournmouth (a)
Brighton (a)
Watford (a)

City 91pts: Utd 91pts
Come on you reds!

 

[Adisa]

10.

 

[sun_tzu]

Depends... If city are competitive to the semis or final in the cl I can see them resting a few players and the intensity in the league dropping and still winning at a canter say 10 points

If they drop out of the cl I can see them pushing on for the points record and winning by a long way... Say 15+points

 

[MickyOT]

Around 10-12 points.

Whilst City will likely focus more on cups as 1st place becomes secure (assuming they are still in the FA and/or Champions League at the back end of the season), so to should United once the gap between us and 5th place means top 4 is secure. I believe all of the above will happen, and we'll drop a similar amount of points.

Importantly, from next year onwards there is no advantage in finishing 2nd/3rd beyond coefficient points as 1st-4th in the top 4 leagues all go straight into the Champions League group stage.

 

[Tincanalley]

Four points. We won't catch them, but ...
EDIT: I know I said wafer thin a while back, but I had drink taken.