The Manchester Title Race

The pressure during the run-in does tell eventually. Thats where the 'due to drop points' bit comes from. We have had a few close shaves. Norwich, Fulham.. Managed to win those so far.. Some tough opponent still left.
One slip up and the pressure grows.

This been posted?
Everton captain and former Manchester United defender Phil Neville on BBC Radio 5 live, talking about Manchester City players arguing on the pitch at the weekend: "What's going on with all these team-mates fighting each other? It's April. It's pressure time at both ends of the table. It happened to me once, I gave one foul away and I got an earful off Roy Keane. I gave another one away straight away and he pushed me. I turned round, saw who it was and said "No problem Roy. You're right."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17588747
:D
 
prateik said:
The pressure during the run-in does tell eventually. Thats where the 'due to drop points' bit comes from. We have had a few close shaves. Norwich, Fulham.. Managed to win those so far.. Some tough opponent still left.
One slip up and the pressure grows.

This been posted?
Everton captain and former Manchester United defender Phil Neville on BBC Radio 5 live, talking about Manchester City players arguing on the pitch at the weekend: "What's going on with all these team-mates fighting each other? It's April. It's pressure time at both ends of the table. It happened to me once, I gave one foul away and I got an earful off Roy Keane. I gave another one away straight away and he pushed me. I turned round, saw who it was and said "No problem Roy. You're right."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17588747
:D
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:lol:

I can still see Phil's face when Keano pushed him... priceless.
 
If there is any game where we will drop points in from now until the end of the season, apart from the city game, is home to everton I feel. That's only if there has to be one game. Away to Sunderland depends on if the title is over by then we will draw or if we need the points, in which case I think we would win it.
 
It's not really squeaky bum time unless and until either we have a couple of poor results or City get some good results. At the moment there isn't much tension in the title race. Which is fine.
 
prateik said:
Everton captain and former Manchester United defender Phil Neville on BBC Radio 5 live, talking about Manchester City players arguing on the pitch at the weekend: "What's going on with all these team-mates fighting each other? It's April. It's pressure time at both ends of the table. It happened to me once, I gave one foul away and I got an earful off Roy Keane. I gave another one away straight away and he pushed me. I turned round, saw who it was and said "No problem Roy. You're right."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17588747
:D
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:lol::lol: That's quality, would be awesome to have him back. Keane would be perfect for this run in.
 
Plechazunga said:
All it takes is for them to win at the Emirates and the pressure is back on us
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Not if by the end of this weekend we have an 8 point gap. Us having an 8 point gap with 6 games to go will be way too hard to come back from, almost impossible when you consider the fixtures the two of us have. So basically, I don't give a feck about that jinxing bollocks but if we win this sunday and they lose to arsenal, than we will have the title all but wrapped up.
 
Sultan said:
I reckon not being in Europe, and early exits from the cups have helped the team (a loss can be a victory) I'm not sure the squad would have coped with so many injuries - fatigue and more injuries would have occurred and we'd have suffered in the league, and likely ended up winning nothing.
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We did play quite a few games in Europe, just as many as City and more than Arsenal or Spurs if I'm not mistaken. We've not had to play in Europe for a week or two, but now we have more players fit to deal with it. We could use a game to give to Cleverley and the rest, if their appearance in a reserve match is anything to go by.

But having Rio fit does make a huge difference, SAF may have chosen to rest him in the league if we were in the CL still, hard to say.
 
bosnian_red said:
Not if by the end of this weekend we have an 8 point gap. Us having an 8 point gap with 6 games to go will be way too hard to come back from, almost impossible when you consider the fixtures the two of us have. So basically, I don't give a feck about that jinxing bollocks but if we win this sunday and they lose to arsenal, than we will have the title all but wrapped up.
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Well yeah sure if they lose, I'm talking about if they win
 
I think one of the things we can take in perspective is the reward we are getting now for the injuries earlier in the season.

Having weathered our injury losses then we now have an entire team of players not a single outfield player not having been out for some point since the start of the season, meaning they all had a break at some point.

City on the other hand were blessed with hardly any injuries which left them able play all their players all season long, some of which are visibly tiring now, and in general under that sustained play they are more likely to pick up injuries now too. They failed to pull far enough ahead when they had the advantage.
 
People keep saying that but I don't know if being injured really counts as a break. Yes they've played less football but surely their overall conditioning can't have been helped by spending several weeks out of training?
 
Yeah it's much more to the fact that we rotated much more than they did, partly due to our injuries but we still rotated players which is why you see most of our team being fresh. City hardly rotated anyone apart from dzeko and balotelli, but you never know what you will get from balotelli and dzeko is very much a confidence player so I think city players are just tired.
 
Theon said:
:lol::lol: That's quality, would be awesome to have him back. Keane would be perfect for this run in.
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I'd actually like to see a Keane whose legs are completely gone (so he can't do us any damage) in the same team with Tevez and Balotelli. Just for the comic relief.

I thought about it a little and it quite amazing how this season compares with 2002/03. OK, we had a better start this season, but back then we were also facing a team (Arsenal) playing excellent football, leading the table by a few points, we had a string of injury problems (the likes of Keane, Beckham and Rio all out at the same time), had a tough period, looked like recovering towards christmas (straight wins over Newcastle, Liverpool and Arsenal), only to ruin it all by losing twice in a row around christmas, being written off and left a few points behind, not playing particularly great football but still winning and suddenly overtaking the champions elect who were no longer playing freeflowing stuff anymore...
 
Nice to see City team mates sticking up for one another.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...o-Balotelli-is-a-fool-and-he-must-change.html

NIGEL DE JONG has told Mario Balotelli to stop acting the fool.

Manchester City midfielder De Jong said: “Sometimes Mario is a fool and at other times he is a genius — there are two sides to him.

“Lots of people expect him to pull off crazy stunts and as a result he feels he must do something.

“People like that need to have upheaval in their lives in order to perform.

“He is happy in his personal relationship. That is important and it makes him more focused.

“But he knows that he has to become more serious-minded.”

SunSport revealed on Monday how some of City’s squad feel that mad-cap Italian Balo is given special treatment by boss Roberto Mancini.

And De Jong believes the 21-year-old would have been a lost cause a long time ago but for Mancini.

The Dutchman, 27, added: “Luckily, we have a manager who has his say, otherwise Mario would have gone off the rails a long time ago.

“Problems also seem to come from the people who hang around with him.”

City defender Joleon Lescott is set to boost Mancini by returning for Sunday’s home game with Arsenal after a month out with a groin problem.
 
loki said:
I think one of the things we can take in perspective is the reward we are getting now for the injuries earlier in the season.

Having weathered our injury losses then we now have an entire team of players not a single outfield player not having been out for some point since the start of the season, meaning they all had a break at some point.

City on the other hand were blessed with hardly any injuries which left them able play all their players all season long, some of which are visibly tiring now, and in general under that sustained play they are more likely to pick up injuries now too. They failed to pull far enough ahead when they had the advantage.
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City weren't rotating. God knows where it's gone now but after 20 games I wrote a post about how many games the top City players had played and how many players they'd used. At the time they were top of the league and were using all the same players. I think it's undoubtedly caught up with them as they look tired.

Hart, Kompany, Lescott, Toure, Barry, Silva, Aguero seemed to play all of their games up to Christmas and beyond. The full-backs rotated a bit, as did Dzeko and Balotelli, with Nasri and Milner generally getting in.

I don't think they've utilised their squad at all.
 
At the moment City and even their fans look to have given up the ghost. However, a trip away to the Emirates may be a relief for the City players and they may come out of their coma and give a performance.

Whilst Arsenal have improved over the piece, their defence still looks vulnerable, and if an in form City turn up , they could pick the Bummers' pockets.

However, if City remain in their current torpor, then it could be game over very shortly.
 
QPR gave Arsenal a kick up the backside. They're still scrapping with Spurs and Chelsea for the Champions League so they should be well up for it. If we can win and pressurise City, Arsenal have a great chance of doing a job for us.
 
I don't know. I could see a reply from City this weekend and can see them beating Arsenal. Surely they have to win one of these massive away games and I can see this being the one. I honestly think that Arsene will do every thing he can to beat them given his outlook on football, but my predictions or the weekend are a win a piece or the Manchester clubs.
 
Irwinwastheking said:
I don't know. I could see a reply from City this weekend and can see them beating Arsenal. Surely they have to win one of these massive away games and I can see this being the one. I honestly think that Arsene will do every thing he can to beat them given his outlook on football, but my predictions or the weekend are a win a piece or the Manchester clubs.
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Even if both us and City win, we'll still be 5 points clear :devil:
 
Oh yeah, but not as comfortable as it could be. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place to be coming into April but as confident I am, I won't be counting my chickens as this one will probably come down to the last two games, and if City beat us at their place all it takes is for us to draw one more game to lose it.
 
Irwinwastheking said:
Oh yeah, but not as comfortable as it could be. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place to be coming into April but as confident I am, I won't be counting my chickens as this one will probably come down to the last two games, and if City beat us at their place all it takes is for us to draw one more game to lose it.
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Yes absolutely, I'd rather we win and City lose. If that happens, I do believe the fat lady can start tuning up, but all I'm saying is even if they do win (and we win of course), the gap is still 5 points. With six games remaining, it's a great position to be in.

We just need to keep our focus. I only realised this morning that we've won our last seven league games on the bounce, and they included some real tough games - Liverpool at home, then Norwich, Spurs, Wolves & Blackburn away. It was the wins away at Norwich and Spurs that convinced me we would win the league.

Our next four games are all winnable - QPR (H), Wigan (A), Villa (H) and Everton (H). But it's important that we try and keep this winning streak up. City's next four games are - Arsenal (A), West Brom (H), Norwich (A) and Wolves (A). I'd be very surprised if they won all four matches.
 
bosnian_red said:
Yeah it's much more to the fact that we rotated much more than they did, partly due to our injuries but we still rotated players which is why you see most of our team being fresh. City hardly rotated anyone apart from dzeko and balotelli, but you never know what you will get from balotelli and dzeko is very much a confidence player so I think city players are just tired.
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I think after our injury woes last year really got us used through the shuffling and coping of our injury woes this year. I remember thinking last year around march that if we were to win the title it would be the biggest accomplishment in Fergies tenure as far as being a master tactician and using his squad depth. This season PISSES on it and being that its City, and not Liverpool were fighting with ? Sweeter !
 
madhed said:
I think after our injury woes last year really got us used through the shuffling and coping of our injury woes this year. I remember thinking last year around march that if we were to win the title it would be the biggest accomplishment in Fergies tenure as far as being a master tactician and using his squad depth. This season PISSES on it and being that its City, and not Liverpool were fighting with ? Sweeter !
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You mean the Liverpool that finished 6th?
 
Lets take one game at a time, there is still 21 points left to fight for, it a bit cocky to assume the title race is over yet...
 
So according to SSN, Mancini has said if they don't win against Arsenal on Sunday that the title race is over - that obviously wouldn't be the case entirely but if he's making such claims public then it will be very interesting to see how his players react.
 
Bayern said they were out of the title race a few weeks back.
Pep said the same about Barca when Madrid had a 10 point lead.

It means nothing. It wont be over till its over.
 
It's odd really. Before the Blackburn game, Mancini was saying that we were going to "do a draw" (lol) and that it was still really tight and now he's claiming that they title challenge is over if they fail to win, away, against one of the form sides in the league. Does he really rate Blackburn so highly as to convince him that us beating them was a true sign of our Champion credentials?

I think not. It means nothing in itself but, with City's squad mental fragility at the moment, I don't think it'll do a lot of good. I imagine it's aimed to give them "one last push" to beat Arsenal but, if they fail to win, no amount of "we're still in it" is going to give the players the boost in confidence the players need.
 
I think City will win fairly comfortably on Sunday anyway. Arsenal aren't a match for City if they are fired up and know what's at stake.
 
decorativeed said:
I think City will win fairly comfortably on Sunday anyway. Arsenal aren't a match for City if they are fired up and know what's at stake.
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Yeah, just like Swansea, Stoke and Sunderland aren't a match for them.
 
Antisocial said:
So according to SSN, Mancini has said if they don't win against Arsenal on Sunday that the title race is over - that obviously wouldn't be the case entirely but if he's making such claims public then it will be very interesting to see how his players react.
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Well he's right, they'd be 7 or 8 behind if we beat QPR with only six more fixtures left, we'd need 11 or 12 points to secure the league. And we'll still have Villa, Swansea and Everton at home which should be 9 points.
 
Arsenal still seem like a team with really fragile confidence. The only players that come across with a strong mentality are Van Persie and Chesney. The rest look like lambs. I think Arsenal will bottle it, like they always do, and City will beat them pretty comfortably, 3-1.
 
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