The Manchester Title Race

Rooney24 said:
Only 3 wins out of 9 for City in all competitions. If this is there blip and it is to continue we need to take full advantage.

Fairly confident we can take 4 points and maybe even all 6 from Chelsea and Liverpool. If we can do that we are in a fantastic position.
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The thing is, even if we do take 4 or 6 points from those two games, the two following that are Spurs and Norwich away, two more very difficult games.

City's next four, by comparison, are Fulham, Blackburn and Bolton at home and Villa away, a run of fixtures you'd expect them to pick up ten or twelve points from. If City do their job properly, we'd do well to be within three or four points of them by early March.

Having said that, our fixtures after that, apart from City away, are not too daunting, so that particular game could well be the decider in the end.
 
^^ yeh that's why the Everton game was such a big result.

We absolutely WILL drop points in our next 5 games. Probably in more than 1 game too.

If at the end of this sticky period we're within 4 points off City I'll be optimistic.
 
Yup, that loss to Blackburn is a killer - our points dropped against Newcastle would be their Everton. But the shocker against Blackburn, in what should have been a gimme is :(

That 3 point buffer could have been very useful with the run of games we have coming up.
 
Plechazunga said:
Unbelievable. Alex Ferguson = God.
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Bryan_Munich said:
https://www.redcafe.net/f6/great-man-decline-347857/

Makes threads like that all the more pathetic.
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I know, we're the most injured team in the league and we're joint-top with the least injured team. THAT shows how awesome Fergie is as a manager - no other manager in the world would be able to keep a team with the most injuries in the league on the same amount of points as a team that's spent half a billion on players in the last 2 years and has the least amount of injuries of anyone.

He's an absolute genius to keep us right up there when we've practically currently got an Injured XI out - a team that would probably make the Top 4 themselves.
 
Neutral said:
Yup, that loss to Blackburn is a killer - our points dropped against Newcastle would be their Everton. But the shocker against Blackburn, in what should have been a gimme is :(
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True, but you never know, maybe City have their own "Blackburn" to come; maybe against Fulham or Bolton. Or even Blackburn.
 
Updated the OP with the remaining fixtures, best I can see these are the key dates in the title race;

Code: 
[B]5th February:[/B]        Chelsea v [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR]
[B]11th February:[/B]       [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR] v Liverpool
[B]4th March:[/B]           Tottenham v [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR]
[B]10th March:[/B]          Swansea v [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR]
[B]18/19th March:[/B]       Wolves v [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd  [/COLOR]      
                     [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR] v Chelsea
[B]24th March:[/B]          Stoke v [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR]
[B]7th April:[/B]           Arsenal v [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR]
[B]28th April:[/B]          [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR] v [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR]
[B]5th May:[/B]             Newcastle v [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR]
[B]13th May:[/B]            Sunderland v [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR]

So that's 6 key fixtures for both teams, no doubting though that our trips to Chelsea & Tottenham on paper are far an away tougher than anything City have though

Other key weekends could be;

Code: 
[B]25th/26th February:[/B]       [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR] v Blackburn
                          Norwich v [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR]

[B]14th April:[/B]               Norwich v [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR]
                          [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR] v Aston Villa

[B]21st April: [/B]              Wolves v [COLOR="Cyan"]Man City[/COLOR]
                          [COLOR="Red"]Man Utd[/COLOR] v Everton

April's a pretty good month for us with favorable home and away games whilst City have got a couple of potential banana skins away from hom
 
Don't forget to factor in our usual slip up during the run in when no one expects it. I'm betting Wolves away or Villa at home. City will do the same. That's where the title will be decided imo, not in the big games.
 
If that was aimed at me then you obviously haven't read the post
 
Gameweek 24 done. Not so sure if City will be 'delighted' in the manner of today's result. Points dropped and gaining breathing space yes but the performance of United was very good. Had more purpose after the penalty, goals change games after all.

Cliché but whoever drops the most points from now until the end of the season will win the league. So imperative that United can cut out the niggly mistakes against Liverpool and put in a performance for the whole match.
 
City will be annoyed with that the result. They will also worry a lot about our spirit in fighting back from 3 down.We go top next sat morning if we can win putting all the pressure on them away to Villa on Sunday
 
All the City players would have been watching that thinking game over, three point gap. Couldn't have been nice watching us comeback.
 
If we manage to leap frog City, I think they will crack and we'll cruise past the finish line. If City manage to keep ahead of us, even marginally, until the final games then I think they'll keep their confidence high and edge us to the finish line.
 
Pexbo said:
If we manage to leap frog City, I think they will crack and we'll cruise past the finish line. If City manage to keep ahead of us, even marginally, until the final games then I think they'll keep their confidence high and edge us to the finish line.
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They will buckle soon me thinks. They haven't been all impressive away. That article summed it up for me where Joe Hart said they feeling the pressure at being top. They're inexperienced when it comes to winning the title and I'd still say we have a slight edge.
 
Guy Incognito said:
Cliché but whoever drops the most points from now until the end of the season will win the league.
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Whoever drops the most points will win? Somebody should have told Fergie that today then, threw away a great opportunity at 3-0 down ;)
 
Utd heap said:
We're gonna win the league.

:cool:
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Whilst I'm not convinced about that just yet we are coming into form bang at the right time especially with the fixtures we've had/got. Injuries look to be clearing up as well and by injuries I really mean Cleverley

I reckon we'll fall further off the pace before we close the gap again though, getting 3 points at Spurs is going to be very very difficult
 
4 points from the Emirates and Stamford Bridge is great. If we get another 4 from Liverpool and Spurs I think City are going to start feeling the heat big time.

It may well come down to the Eastlands match now.
 
Norwich and Spurs away will be very very difficult. I'd be happy if we get 4 points from these two fixtures. Hopefully Villa gets something today.
 
Villa are good enough for a draw unless they concede early. If they do they will do the standard "McLeish against superior opposition" tactic of damage control with Bent isolated up top alone for the remainder of the game.
 
I'm going to be on City to win today. I can't remember the last bet that came through for me, it's always a garentueed curse :D
 
City will cruise to victory today. I wouldn't get your hopes up lads.
 
cw1984 said:
City will cruise to victory today. I wouldn't get your hopes up lads.
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[jinx] of course, City will win, no doubt about it. There is no way in hell that any team managed by McLeish could engineer an attacking move meant to score against The Best Team in the League . I expect nothing but deserved win but City, of course with many goals added to their GD. [/jinx]
 
So, after our run of tough matches, we're just two points behind them.

Not bad.

Next five games:

25/02, 17:30 - City v Blackburn
26/02, 14:30 - Norwich v United
03/03, 15:00 - City v Bolton
04/03, 16:10 - Tottenham v United
10/03, 00:00 - Swansea v City
10/03, 00:00 - United v West Brom
18/03, 13:30 - Wolverhampton v United
19/03, 20:00 - City v Chelsea
24/03, 17:30 - Stoke v City
26/03, 20:00 - United v Fulham
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I'd be ecstatic if we can keep it at 2 after the next two games. City have consecutive home games against relegation fodder while we have away games against 2 very in form sides.
 
Another decent weekend for us overall.

City are at home for the next two, and we're away for he next two. I wouldn't be surprised if we drop back a bit, but generally the last month has gone well.
 
The next two matches are massive. Get though them without dropping further behind and we've got an excellent run of eight fixtures taking us through to the derby.
 
I seriously can't believe there's only 13 league games left, we're getting very close to squeaky bum time. Usually around March time it starts once you start counting the league games down and furiously trying to work out how many points you need to potentially finish top.

Our remaining fixtures:

Norwich (A), Spurs (A), West Brom (H), Wolves (A), Fulham (H), Blackburn (A), QPR (H), Wigan (A), Aston Villa (H), Everton (H), City (A), Swansea (H) and Sunderland (A).

City's are:

Blackburn (H), Bolton (H), Swansea (A), Chelsea (H), Stoke (A), Sunderland (H), Arsenal (A), West Brom (H), Norwich (A), Wolves (A), United (H), Newcastle (A) and QPR (H).

The next two matches are crucial. They have two home games which are bankers IMO, while we have two tough away games. Good thing our away form has been very good this season.

And, even though City won today away at Villa, it has to be said that City's away form hasn't been very good for most of the season. I understand they'll be favourites because they're top, but it's far too close to tell just now.
 
The way i currently see it, we'll lose at Spurs and draw at Blackburn and City

City will draw Chelsea and us and lose at Arsenal. I don't know how that will work out in the end, but hopefully just one of Swansea or Newcastle or Stoke can at least take a point in City's away fixtures
 
13 matches left, let's hope we can win at least 10 of them, then perhaps draws at Spurs, City and probably Blackburn (when was the last time we won there?).

Like I say, City haven't been great away most of the season, and they still have a few aways which could be real banana skins for them.
 
I would shite myself if this goes to the last day of the season. City have QPR at home. While ourselves the MON effect should hopefully die down by then
 
Don't think it'll be settled on derby day though. In fact i would take a draw right now if it was being offered to me now
 
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