2023/24 - The Race For..................

[dirtyh]

am not getting ahead of myself as it's early in the season and a million things can change. city as we know always go into a different gear after christmas and whilst teams look shit now (united/chavs) it often doesn't last.

regardless, am loving the unity, football and mentality on show. Think pinky was spot on, if we had a firing striker and/or a 10-15 goal guarantee outside of sonny we'd be right in business. lets just see how we go.

and can you just imagine the piss that would be boiled if we did actually do it? now that's the stuff of dreams.

 

[Frank Blank]

If we had played this run of fixtures in the middle of the season, I reckon much less would be made of the quality of (some of) the opposition. 6-2-0 is a good run no matter who we have played, and especially when those matches include Arsenal away and Liverpool (and United, who've had our number despite being varying degrees of shite in recent seasons).

That said, I agree that we'll get an even better idea of where we are when we've played Newcastle, Brighton and Villa, but the importance of beating the bottom teams (away) shouldn't be underestimated.

No it shouldn't. However, it's better to face lowly teams now rather than towards the end of the season when they may by fighting for their Premiership lives.

 

[chas vs dave]

What a lovely day of draws thus far

It was great until the arsenal City game strode in like this:

 

[ReadieSpur]

The media seem desperate for there to be a rivalry between arsenal and city. It surprises me at just how seriously everyone takes them after one decent season last year, even though they completely fell apart and bottled it and so many other teams were poor, giving them a free run at city. This was after they finished below us for what, 5/6 seasons?

Yesterday was a good result for us as it keeps us top and takes points off city. Both teams looked poor, I don't think we should be worried about playing either of them. If we can keep our first team fit (achievable with 1 game a week) then I think we can run them close.

 

[Cochise]

The league is looking more and more of a two tiered league. You've got your super rich as well as the well run European chasers making up the top 10. Then you've got the rest in the bottom half.

Mid table sides that were just as likely to upset a big team as they were to lose to a relegation candidate aren't so common. Palace and Wolves maybe?

 

[BorjeSpurs]

City being City you just expect them to be favorites for every game, but while Arsenal and Spurs fans have been discussing who have had the more difficult start, it really is City who have had the most favorable start of fixtures (bar non in the league).

Having back to back losses and going into the following fixture list will be a challenge, even for them.
Brighton (H)
United (A)
Bournemouth (H) - well, okay
Chelsea (A)
Liverpool (H)
Spurs (H)
Villa (A)

 

[Wig]

It was great until the arsenal City game strode in like this:

View attachment 133195

Ahh, screw them. Their result keeps us top of the table.

 

[Scot-Spur]

We have 4 pretty nice fixtures on paper ahead. Hopefully we can continue the form.

We haven’t been at our best the last few but dug out the results. Hopefully the break will give us a chance to reset and go again.

 

[Tucker]

The league is looking more and more of a two tiered league. You've got your super rich as well as the well run European chasers making up the top 10. Then you've got the rest in the bottom half.

Mid table sides that were just as likely to upset a big team as they were to lose to a relegation candidate aren't so common. Palace and Wolves maybe?

It’s early days. The promoted teams almost always struggle to adapt before Christmas, then sack their managers and suddenly start grinding out results. There’s always a bit of naïveté to begin with and then suddenly desperation and survival kicks in and you start seeing the relegation fodder taking points off bigger better clubs.

Can definitely see the likes of Bournemouth, Fulham, Everton and Wolves getting sucked into the mix at the bottom. It’s hard to see which way the cards are going to fall before there’s a couple of sacking and the winter window changes things too.

The top end of the league will be tight too. We are doing great so far, but I fully expect United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Brighton, and Villa to be competing for the 3rd to 7th positions. It’s going to be super competitive this season.

 

[Nerine]

Can we?

 

[aliyid]

Having back to back losses and going into the following fixture list will be a challenge, even for them.
Brighton (H)
United (A)
Bournemouth (H) - well, okay
Chelsea (A)
Liverpool (H)
Spurs (H)
Villa (A)

Hadn’t realised they go into our game off the back of playing Chelsea & Liverpool.

Usually see a few fireworks in the City Lpool games so every chance they could pick up a suspension or two trying to prevent Liverpools quick counter attacks

 

[Styopa]

The league is looking more and more of a two tiered league. You've got your super rich as well as the well run European chasers making up the top 10. Then you've got the rest in the bottom half.

Mid table sides that were just as likely to upset a big team as they were to lose to a relegation candidate aren't so common. Palace and Wolves maybe?

I think it can seem like that because so many teams are in the mix for Europe.

Mid table is your teams like Palace, Wolves, Brentford and West Ham who are more than capable of producing the kind of unpredictable form you are describing.

 

[Cochise]

West Ham this season are going back to what they know and do best. I expect them to be far more stable playing counter attacking football every week.

 

[Styopa]

The top end of the league will be tight too. We are doing great so far, but I fully expect United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Brighton, and Villa to be competing for the 3rd to 7th positions. It’s going to be super competitive this season

I think the likes of Brighton and Villa will make up the top seven but they have both been a bit inconsistent so far. Brighton losing 6-1 to Villa, Villa losing 5-1 to Newcastle, Brighton losing 3-1 at home to West Ham, Villa losing 3-0 to Liverpool.

I think because everyone is caught up with how well those two are doing, their big results tend to catch the eye whereas their more disappointing results tend to go under the radar.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

There is no reason to get ahead of ourselves and think we are in contention after a very good start to the season, we still have 70%+ left to go.

Let’s see where we stand after 20-25 games and then we can start to dream.

A top 4 finish from here would be an incredible first season with Ange and I’d be more than happy with that.

 

[Mate]

Only posted an hour ago, so I doubt anyone has put it up yet.

Anyway, a very interesting piece from the Beeb - statistically looking at outcomes after getting 20 points from eight games.

#####Note######.........None of the outcomes see us not finishing in the top four. Indeed, none foresee us finishing outside the top three. However, I expect the Dippers to be there or thereabouts, which is why I referred to top four.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67048872

To save you the time, here are previous finishes in previous seasons. Of course, the Scum can equally use this argument. Saying that, the portents look good.

View attachment 133185

Not to put a downer on things, but I'm not reading too much into this as I think this season is pointing more towards a gulf in quality between top half/bottom half than anything else.

Even more so for the bottom 5. Sheff Utd are shocking and will be lucky to end the season with more than 20 points. Likewise Luton. Burnley may put up a fight but between them, Bournemouth and Everton there isn't much.

Essentially it just means that it'll take more points than usual to get top 4 this season, let alone the title.

 

[SUIYHA]

The media seem desperate for there to be a rivalry between arsenal and city. It surprises me at just how seriously everyone takes them after one decent season last year, even though they completely fell apart and bottled it and so many other teams were poor, giving them a free run at city. This was after they finished below us for what, 5/6 seasons?

Yesterday was a good result for us as it keeps us top and takes points off city. Both teams looked poor, I don't think we should be worried about playing either of them. If we can keep our first team fit (achievable with 1 game a week) then I think we can run them close.

Maybe because they finished with 84 points last year and have just spent £200m on trying to go one step further?

City are still favourites, but make no mistake - if they have another off season like they did in 2019/20 or if they're as inconsistent as they were in the first half of last season again then Arsenal have every chance of winning the title. It's just fingers in the ears stuff to pretend otherwise.

 

[SUIYHA]

There is no reason to get ahead of ourselves and think we are in contention after a very good start to the season, we still have 70%+ left to go.

Let’s see where we stand after 20-25 games and then we can start to dream.

A top 4 finish from here would be an incredible first season with Ange and I’d be more than happy with that.

Even with 20-25 games gone I'd still have us as third/fourth favourite if we were in this position at that point. At the moment I feel confident playing anyone, but an injury to any of Maddison, Van De Ven or Son and that could change very quickly.

We're leading the pack chasing 4th place. I don't see us in realistic contention for anything more than that right now without some serious luck going our way.

 

[RuskyM]

Can we?

Of course.

Should we is the better question. Should we? Yeah, why not. Might be nice.

 

[RuskyM]

If my maths is right we’ll finally be at 1000 come next game. Few months until we knock Leeds off their perch.