The Title Race 2017/18 | Done and dusted.

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3 horse race for me. City, United and Spurs.

I think City will have their annual blip soon enough, United could then take the lead by being more consistent than brilliant, and Spurs have a real shot if they can sort out the Wembley thing.

Chelsea and Liverpool are already out of contention and will battle for 4th even if they massively improve they'll drop too many points they should be taking, Arsenal not even in the race from day 1 and probably looking at the Europa with genuine intent as their main objective.
 
Red Dreams said:
The old Fergie prediction. If we are 3 or 4 off the top after the Holiday fixtures, we have a solid chance of taking the title.

City will not keep up this pace.
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Is City's pace unsustainable? Does this work like a marathon? Like, the less brilliant you look early on, the more likely you are to outlast superior competition?
 
adexkola said:
Is City's pace unsustainable? Does this work like a marathon? Like, the less brilliant you look early on, the more likely you are to outlast superior competition?
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The league is a marathon. There will be mistakes along the way. But what is important is to keep pace with the leaders. We have a better squad than last season. It really is between us and City. Spurs don't have the squad to win it.
Most importantly Mourinho is the best there is.
 
adexkola said:
Is City's pace unsustainable? Does this work like a marathon? Like, the less brilliant you look early on, the more likely you are to outlast superior competition?
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For my money we still have the most balanced side on the evidence so far. Just two goals conceded in a bit of a weird game against Stoke - that’s it.

City’s fire power going forward is immense but it’s still just Stones and Otamendi marshalling the backline.

However, just as I’d place question marks on their defence I’d place question marks on our attack being able to consistently put even weaker teams to bed.

It’s a blinking contest and it’s about who blinks least.
 
Kraftwerker said:
For my money we still have the most balanced side on the evidence so far. Just two goals conceded in a bit of a weird game against Stoke - that’s it.

City’s fire power going forward is immense but it’s still just Stones and Otamendi marshalling the backline.

However, just as I’d place question marks on their defence I’d place question marks on our attack being able to consistently put even weaker teams to bed.

It’s a blinking contest and it’s about who blinks least.
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Think Spurs do.
 
Hullyback said:
3 horse race for me. City, United and Spurs.

I think City will have their annual blip soon enough, United could then take the lead by being more consistent than brilliant, and Spurs have a real shot if they can sort out the Wembley thing.

Chelsea and Liverpool are already out of contention and will battle for 4th even if they massively improve they'll drop too many points they should be taking, Arsenal not even in the race from day 1 and probably looking at the Europa with genuine intent as their main objective.
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Hope so. It would be criminal not to have the Europa League as our main target this season.
 
Can't see pass City for the title to be honest.
 
adexkola said:
Is City's pace unsustainable? Does this work like a marathon? Like, the less brilliant you look early on, the more likely you are to outlast superior competition?
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The league season is a marathon, full of momentum, turning point. It's not the way you're talking either.

It would be like this in a long run. Brilliant start. Once series of lesser performance come due to congested fixture, drained stamina, question would be asked about whether that team had peaked in that season. In case a shocking result, its effect run deeper. You see that unbeatable Arsenal got too inconsistent once their streak was broken. Chelsea home record started by Mourinho and continued for quite a while with different coaches. Mentally they would expect to redo the brilliant form anytime soon again from ground zero. So that would be a momentum other teams would jump at within a season. That's what I believe SAF meant by staying in catching distance till the holiday fixture.

Having the healthy lead like Chelsea last season, then we know it's pretty much over how brilliant Tottenham second half form was.
 
City have made such strong starts previously too but have gone on to feck it up. The worrying thing this season is not their start but how well they are coping with injuries to key players. Kompany, Mendy and Aguero are all injured but it doesn't seem to slow them down at all. They have enough top class backups for almost all positions.
 
What can help us is the boost of players like Ibrahimobic, Pogba, Rojo when they are back. I guess right now is a tricky period for us with all injuries. We can easily fall behind a bit. Very important to get 2 wins next week as it will get us into a very strong position.

Then we got some more big games and we can hopefully get some results in them.
 
Well, it's decided. City will get an invincibles season with over 100 points. After all, how can they lose with all their depth and quality. Teams with depth and quality never lose games do they?
 
abhayselvan said:
City have made such strong starts previously too but have gone on to feck it up. The worrying thing this season is not their start but how well they are coping with injuries to key players. Kompany, Mendy and Aguero are all injured but it doesn't seem to slow them down at all. They have enough top class backups for almost all positions.
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They started season 11/12 in virtualy the same manner and scored 33 goals in the first 9 games. Then they almost lost the title...
 
I'm pretty sure we're gonna win against Huddersfield next week and we'll keep the pressure on city.

The important game is spurs at home, we should win it. we just have to. after that well, we have chelsea away and City have Arsenal. there's a good chance we will be there or there about after this round.

Our games from that point to the city one on the 9th of december are all winnable. no team outside of the top 6 scare me, i don't think we'll lose much points against those.
 
The amount of people awarding City in October, after 8 games, with a mere 2 point lead is hilarious!

Goodness knows what this forum was like that year Chelsea bought about 6 £20m players when that was near top whack, and absolutely smashed it and set a record points total.
 
Mr H said:
I'm pretty sure we're gonna win against Huddersfield next week and we'll keep the pressure on city.

The important game is spurs at home, we should win it. we just have to. after that well, we have chelsea away and City have Arsenal.

our games from that point to the city one on the 9th of december are winnable.
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The Tottenham game is absolute must win. Re-assure us we can win some big games, and buy a little time while we await the injury boys return.
 
Sandikan said:
The Tottenham game is absolute must win. Re-assure us we can win some big games, and buy a little time while we await the injury boys return.
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Pogba and Fellaini might be back by then which would be a huge boost.
 
Sandikan said:
The Tottenham game is absolute must win. Re-assure us we can win some big games, and buy a little time while we await the injury boys return.
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Yes, win that one and don't lose against Chelsea and we'll be firmly in the title race. i wouldn't mind a performance like liverpool at all against Chelsea, we would have to support the caf but otherwise it would be very good.

Hopefully, we'll have Pogba by then, if we do, i'm fairly confident that we'll win.
 
To be fair, saying the league is not decided after 8 games is not really a prediction that’s just sense. Based on what has happened so far, it isn’t preposterous to claim City are a bit ahead with United/Spurs right behind. City may as well have blips but that could be the case with everyone.
 
Loads of twists to come yet. I think come the turn of the year it will develop into a four horse race with us, City, Chelsea and Spurs. We are in a fantastic position to have a real crack at this though. You wouldn't want anybody ten plus clear but for as long as we are anywhere around a maximum of five points off come January then we are right in it.
 
Sandikan said:
The amount of people awarding City in October, after 8 games, with a mere 2 point lead is hilarious!

Goodness knows what this forum was like that year Chelsea bought about 6 £20m players when that was near top whack, and absolutely smashed it and set a record points total.
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SAF past it, Ronaldo is show pony, Ferdinand traitor overrated... to name a few
 
Mr H said:
Yes, win that one and don't lose against Chelsea and we'll be firmly in the title race. i wouldn't mind a performance like liverpool at all against Chelsea, we would have to support the caf but otherwise it would be very good.

Hopefully, we'll have Pogba by then, if we do, i'm fairly confident that we'll win.
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With Chelsea struggling a bit now and without Kante we should be able to go for them a bit more.
 
City are favorites now, as they were expected at the beginning of the season, while Tottenham and us look solid for the 2nd spot fight, again, as they and us were expected at the beginning of the season. The only thing that has this shifted a bit is that we started too strong, and we're coming to normality now. I wasn't expecting us to win it anyhow, were not ready yet. This is not truly a Mourinho second season, since the team was really in shambles. Next year will be is true second season, winning the title. We just have to challenge and perform well on the Champions League.
 
Android1974 said:
City are favorites now, as they were expected at the beginning of the season, while Tottenham and us look solid for the 2nd spot fight, again, as they and us were expected at the beginning of the season. The only thing that has this shifted a bit is that we started too strong, and we're coming to normality now. I wasn't expecting us to win it anyhow, were not ready yet. This is not truly a Mourinho second season, since the team was really in shambles. Next year will be is true second season, winning the title. We just have to challenge and perform well on the Champions League.
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If next season is the true 2nd season then this season is the true first season , which makes last season his erm....ah nevamind.
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
With Chelsea struggling a bit now and without Kante we should be able to go for them a bit more.
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Just like Anfield, a draw at the Bridge will be an excellent result provided we defeat Huddersfield and Spurs. The Bridge game isn't a game I look forward to any season.

I'm looking forward for the Emirates and Wembley games and I think we can nick it in these 2 matches. Emirates is a favorite place for us ( and Jose as well ) while Wembley is more of a neutral stadium than an away game.
 
el3mel said:
Just like Anfield, a draw at the Bridge will be an excellent result provided we defeat Huddersfield and Spurs. The Bridge game isn't a game I look forward to any season.

I'm looking forward for the Emirates and Wembley games and I think we can nick it in these 2 matches. Emirates is a favorite place for us ( and Jose as well ) while Wembley is more of a neutral stadium than an away game.
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I Could be wrong but at club level, I think Lingard has a better record at Wembley than Kane!
So he should play in the away game to Spurs!
 
GlastonSpur said:
A projection (in this context) is a mathematical projection based on a particular model of comparison, assuming that the current figures used by the model to project forward don't change.

A prediction by a poster as to what will actually happen is something entirely different and may draw on many things outside the model.

To pretend that they are the same thing is just to play dumb.
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This makes sense, why are people attacking him?
 
el3mel said:
Just like Anfield, a draw at the Bridge will be an excellent result provided we defeat Huddersfield and Spurs. The Bridge game isn't a game I look forward to any season.

I'm looking forward for the Emirates and Wembley games and I think we can nick it in these 2 matches. Emirates is a favorite place for us ( and Jose as well ) while Wembley is more of a neutral stadium than an away game.
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I don't agree that one point is that great. Sure it is better than defeats. Although we had a long run unbeaten last season that did see us in 6th place last season. Mourinhos tactic works well in the cups and I really like his approach in those games as not being beaten will get you through. Although playing for 1 point can often get punished in the league.

For Real Madrid vs Barcelona I guess it could would work better since it is basically those 2 teams fighting for it so a draw is not 2 points lost, but actually things have not changed. While with 6 top teams playing for draws against them all will be a lot of points dropped. 1 win and 1 defeat is one point more.

I don't think we should be naive, but I want to see Mourinho having a go at teams a bit more at least in spells like the first 15-25 minutes in difficult away games. If we got a lead then playing defensively is certainly a fine way to defend those points.
 
manunited1919 said:
Why wouldn’t they? My understanding is they have solid backups for all positions all over the field. Not just solid, but expensive.
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No reason they can't, just unlikely.

In it to win it mantra. If you stay close to city and they do slip up you're there to capitalise and history shows that there is always a slip up, the question every year is who will slip and how badly.
 
haram said:
This makes sense, why are people attacking him?
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He's basically completely changed what a projection means and how they should be applied. Basically he's creating his own model that portrays Tottenham in the best possible light. As he always does.
 
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