A win on Wednesday would make me believe it's possible again, but we all know that isn't going to happen.Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
A win on Wednesday would make me believe it's possible again, but we all know that isn't going to happen.
Remaining Arsenal (81pts) fixtures:
Brighton (H)
Notts Forest (A)
Wolves (H)
Man City (82 pts) fixtures:
Everton (A)
Chelsea (H)
Brighton (A)
Brentford (A)
City's GD is effectively an additional point, so we need them to drop 5 points in these games, something they've shown little sign of doing, hence this not really being a 'title race', but as people have been saying we need to run them as close as we can
We also need to be giving players like Tierney and Nelson plenty of minutes in these games to try and hang on to them - as Tierney showed yesterday, these two things aren't mutually exclusive, if we'd brought him on at a similar time in the Liverpool game we'd almost certainly have won it
If I recall Tierney although played well yesterday was terrible against Liverpool. Not to do with when in the game he came on, he looked out of condition. In terms of tactics the worst thing Arteta did that day was to replace Odegaard with Kiwior.
I think West Ham and Southampton were really the two games that killed our title chances
Should have won both comfortably, yes we’d be at a disadvantage in the title race but City would go into those games knowing they had to win all four. They need only three wins from four to guarantee the title now.
Everton? Are dead and buried. They’ve just completely given up
Chelsea. It’s as much as they can do to win at Bournemouth
Brighton…can spring a surprise
Which leaves Brentford…and possibly a title race decided on the last day like last season
The thing is, IMO the Liverpool turnaround is the reason we folded against West Ham and struggled against Saints, we lost our composure after playing so well at Anfield but then chucking it away
And exactly, if Tierney wasn't his best at Anfield it's precisley because Arteta has criminally underplayed him
We had the title won, it's actually nothing to do with City, Arteta blew it by not using his squad effectively
We desperately need to hang on to the squad players we'll need next season, lose them and it could be a pretty painful watch next time around
Not really convinced we’ll beat Brighton at home anyway. We’re so generous at the Emirates and a team like Brighton would definitely exploit those periods of the game when we start sleep walking.
We did blow it but never in a million years did we have the title won
Had we won at Anfield would we have won the title? Maybe we’d have still lost at city and no guarantee we’d have got the result we did yesterday.
a look at the table tells you that if we'd beaten Liverpool ,W Ham ansd Saints we'd have ended up top regardless of the City result, all else staying the same
I don't know why you bring the Newcastle game into question, we won it, end of
Hopefully Citeh drop points in one game before Brighton so at least it could go to the final day - as I'm absolutely sure they will beat Brighton if the title can be won that game. And I think they'll beat them anyway.
Realistically them dropping points in another after that isn't likely.
Get to 90 points and I can't really say anything too negatively about this team.
Because who is to say If we’d beaten Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton that we’d have beaten Newcastle
Could if not equally be possible that the city loss would have started a collapse?
But on top of that, win our next three games that’s 28 wins from 38 games. That this is not enough to win the title says that it very much is about City. Of course we should have done better in the four games we dropped points
But then again we should not have lost to Man United, we should have beaten Southampton away from home , Newcastle and Brentford at home. The fact is as stubborn as Arteta is for not rotating….before five years ago or so you would expect to be on course to win the title on our points accumulation and there would be an expectation throughout the season that points will be dropped.
Who is to know if we’d have beaten West Ham and Southampton if we’d beaten Liverpool.
I get it, Arteta did fuck those games up with his stubbornness but to me there’s no guarantee they wouldn’t have gone south anyway. And it is undeniable that when we’ve won all but ten games this season that to say it’s nothing to do with Man City that we aren’t going to win the title seems baffling at best.
Given that if not for Man City and their relentless winning machine we would be winning the title (this is the team that has done the double over us let us not forget). No I’m not saying it wasn’t possible for us to win the title and that we shouldn’t be disappointed for letting ourselves down, what I’m saying is the points dropped have only cost us because it’s City
Its easy to be captain hindsight and yesterday's excellent performance/result may well have been partly the result of less pressure on a team that has already blown its realistic chance at the title.
But given how Jorginho and Kiwor performed, it is so difficult not to wonder what could have been if the manager had trusted them and been brave enough to freshen the team up just a couple of games earlier.
Arteta's stubborn perseverence with players who are under-performing is a big blind spot that I really hope he looks at going forwards. It irks me that Vieira has been trusted more than the 2 above players previously - where the nervousness transmitted down the spine of our team with Partey and Holding has for me been the single biggest reason for our recent dropped points and sub par team performances.
Its not the first time, either. Certain players who have performed for us in the past like Eddie and ESR were only given a chance becuse Arteta was forced into it.
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
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