The Manchester Title Race

apotheosis said:
I expect them to go all the way too, but for me their home form was never going to be a question. They have been outstanding all season at home, so winning against Chelsea wasn't a turning point for me.

Let's look at their away form instead. Is it 4 points out of the last 6 away games? It's not much better than that even if that is not entirely accurate. They lost convincingly to Swansea despite the scoreline, and they now have tricky away fixtures at Stoke and Arsenal.

If they come through those 2 games having reversed their recent away day blues then i will give them more credit for that than winning at home which they have been doing regularly anyway. The test for City has been away from home, and the next few games will determine whether City have recovered from a tricky spell or whether they have bottled it away from home.
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I can agree with that.
 
  • Stoke have picked up just 13 points from 13 games since sending a weakened team to play Manchester City at Eastlands.

Interesting. Assuming they don't write off tomorrow's game as well, I'd be happy with that average to continue and make it 14 points from 14 games.
 
MG said:
You keep mentioning our form in Europe and failing to mention the fact we're top of the league, ahead of a team that's spent about £500million in the last 3 seasons, after having a massive injury crisis most of this season whilst the team who've spent £500million have had virtually their whole team fit all season.

We all know we've been poor in Europe this year, but our form in the league shows we're hardly going through a terrible decline.

Although we always seem to be going through a terrible decline actually, if you believe some of the people on here.
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An EPL who had lost players like Fabregas and Ronaldo and saw key players like Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Scholes and Giggs growing old and never really replaced. The results are all to be seen. Im not saying that the EPL is shit (its still a pretty strong league) + many EPL sides had been unlucky (us included), however the standard is nowhere near to what it used to be in the past.
 
devilish said:
An EPL who had lost players like Fabregas and Ronaldo and saw key players like Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Scholes and Giggs growing old and never really replaced. The results are all to be seen. The EPL is not shit and many EPL sides had been unlucky (us included), however the standard is nowhere near to what it used to be in the past.
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I think Mata, Van der Vaart, Silva, Aguero, Toure and Suarez coming in have been good replacements over the last 18 months to two years.

Whilst Modric, Bale, Nani and RvP have really stepped up having been around longer.

Those guys you mention have contributed, but age catches up with the best of 'em. I don't believe the standard has dropped.
 
Cling Bak said:
I think Mata, Van der Vaart, Silva, Aguero, Toure and Suarez coming in have been good replacements over the last 18 months to two years.

Whilst Modric, Bale, Nani and RvP have really stepped up having been around longer.

Those guys you mention have contributed, but age catches up with the best of 'em. I don't believe the standard has dropped.
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Mata had joined an ageing squad. If you ask any Chelsea fan to choose between Mata and a younger Terry,Lamp,Drogba and Essien then...well you know the answer. VDV joined a team of bottlers. Suarez is one of the very few beacons of talent in a team made up of average players. Shitty got stronger but they still lack that experience to do well under pressure. Mind you they are good players but they are still nowhere near to Scholes, Giggs, Lampard, Gerrard, Rio, Essien, Ronaldo, Fabregas and Terry, that's for sure.

The EPL is weaker then in previous years. There is nothing to be ashamed about since it happens to every league. For example The Serie A had been in crisis for quite some time and is now slowly recovering. Its not easy to replace such instrumental players. Some of these players are a 1 in a lifetime talent.
 
Cling Bak said:
I think Mata, Van der Vaart, Silva, Aguero, Toure and Suarez coming in have been good replacements over the last 18 months to two years.

Whilst Modric, Bale, Nani and RvP have really stepped up having been around longer.

Those guys you mention have contributed, but age catches up with the best of 'em. I don't believe the standard has dropped.
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Well said, totally destroys Devilish's post IMO. :D There are plenty of younger players stepping up, big gossip names coming over as well as the big names already here like Rooney etc. Look at our club alone as example, we don't stop just because a big name player leaves, we make/buy more new names and the club goes on, so it'd be silly to think other clubs don't do also to an extent.

Devilish could say the same about Shearer, Ferdinand, Cole, Yorke or Henry etc.
 
devilish said:
An EPL who had lost players like Fabregas and Ronaldo and saw key players like Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Scholes and Giggs growing old and never really replaced. The results are all to be seen. Im not saying that the EPL is shit (its still a pretty strong league) + many EPL sides had been unlucky (us included), however the standard is nowhere near to what it used to be in the past.
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You fail to mention all the very decent players City have brought in the last few seasons for literally hundreds of millions... which was my point. The Premier League is as strong as ever with the investment of City's owners; what I was saying is that we're doing remarkably well to be just ahead of a team that is spending vast amounts of money on very strong players.
 
devilish said:
An EPL who had lost players like Fabregas and Ronaldo and saw key players like Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Rio, Gerrard, Scholes and Giggs growing old and never really replaced. The results are all to be seen. Im not saying that the EPL is shit (its still a pretty strong league) + many EPL sides had been unlucky (us included), however the standard is nowhere near to what it used to be in the past.
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In some ways though, while the league is nowhere near as strong as it used to be, it is better in a way. The league is now a lot more exciting than it used to be. Yes, there are generally still a few select teams who can win the league, but at least we've gotten rid of the big four.
 
You get the feeling if we get a 3-4 point gap when they play Arsenal away, we probably won't be caught. Big match versus Stoke right now.
 
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Four points more than City when we go to Etihad.

And beat them.

And win the league at their stadium.

Please.
 
Fantastic that their away form has become 'a thing' for them. Their next away match is against the Arsenal. Tick tock!
 
Perfect weekend so far. If we win against Fulham, Blackburn and QPR we'll make it very hard for City to come back into this. Being six points apart from us before their game at the Emirates will crush them.
 
They will drop more points at Arsenal in a few weeks. The Arse seem in good form at the moment. They may also run into problems at Norwich. We could be up 7 points when we face them.
 
Jacob said:
Comments like this make me wanna lose the title, almost.
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Why would comments on an Internet forum would make you(almost) hope that we lose the title. What a bizarre comment.
 
They'll drop points at Arsenal, and possibly Norwich. They'll beat Wolves.

Let's get the win on Monday, and we're right in the driving seat towards number 20 :devil:
 
The title is far from in the bag. It's very arrogant to suggest that it is when there's still a lot of points up for grabs, and City are only three points behind if we can beat Fulham on Monday. I doubt they will, however they could go on a run until the end of the season and end up winning the title. Far from in the bag.

Still, good result for us tonight. Eases the pressure on us a little bit for our game against Fulham, however there will still be a lot of pressure on us to win.
 
our tough matches left are probably blackburn, city and sunderland away on the last day of the season.
 
we're bound to drop points somewhere but city will too

I'm slightly worried about blackburn away as they may be under pressure with wigan and one or two others picking up points

i think we'll get a result at their place which will effectively seal it

couldnt help but feel last week we have the momentum - 3 points on monday please
 
There's still a long long way to go in this yet. All this talk of City 'definately dropping points at Arsenal, Newcastle and Norwich'. Thats by no means guranteed, they might win all three. And we've still got to go to teams like Wigan and Blackburn, fighting for there lives, which will be no easy task.

There's a long way to go, and they'll be plenty of twists and turns yet. Really could go either way.
 
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