This Weekend's Fixtures & Midweek Fixtures (13/14/15/18 May)

[Letters]

Neverton

[HCZ_Reborn]

I genuinely believe we'd have won the league if Arteta knew (a) how to adapt tactics, formations and lineup depending on the opposition (b) how to rotate the squad and (c) how to manage in-game situations

still he's only being paid £8.5m pa, so what do we expect

I dunno to be honest. I thought we played well at Newcastle last week but we were also massively lucky…in that they hit the post and had glaring chances to score which they didn’t take

West Ham and Southampton I think we definitely screwed up. Liverpool I agree with you that we definitely gave them the momentum to come back into the game but you’re also dealing with human beings and the players shit a brick.


It’s not to say you’re wrong but as much as tactical change ups have helped, it doesn’t strike me as merely incidental that we’ve had back to back wins after losing to city and all but handing them the title


It’s not a coincidence that the only team to deny City the title in the last five seasons did so by building up an unassailable lead. The biggest winning run we’ve been on this season is 7 wins in a row.

[Marc Overmars]

What can you do?

On one hand you can bemoan how we took our title destiny out of our own hands

On the other you have to say that City are just a beast of a team….the only games they haven’t won since mid Feb were draws away at Bayern and Real.

I’ll be disappointed not to take it to the wire but it’s not been in our gift to make sure that’s the case

Careless mistakes cost us the chance to take it to the wire and also losing both head to heads ensured we would never get away from City.

Philosophical about the season overall, not sure you can level too much at them if they finished with 90 points. Most enjoyable season in years but of course when you get so close you can’t help but think what if.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-3.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Careless mistakes cost us the chance to take it to the wire and also losing both head to heads ensured we would never get away from them.

Philosophical about the season overall, not sure you can level too much at them if they finished with 90 points. Most enjoyable season in years but of course when you get so close you can’t help but think what if.

Oh of course…and it’s totally reasonable to say we shot ourselves in the foot

It was incredibly frustrating. I think the only thing I’d say to mitigate is even title winning teams do fuck up. We’ve just never been afforded that luxury. Every game we’ve not won has been crucial points dropped and as much as I like many of the players and I find Arteta frustrating…90 points is (if we get it) far and away above anything I would have realistically expected this team to get.

Losing to city twice is for me more galling in the fact that we’ve lost twelve times in a row to them.

[Letters]

The head to head’s ultimately cost us. We slipped up here and there in other games of course, but all teams do. Well, all except City. It’s just relentless. I lost count but it’s something like 15 wins in 17 now. That isn’t normal. They’re just a level above us, as they showed against us in both games. But yeah, we could still get 90 points so I don’t really feel I can fault us too much. For every silly slip there are plenty of very good wins, some from losing positions. We’ve just been up against an absolute machine in City

[Mac76]

The head to head’s ultimately cost us. We slipped up here and there in other games of course, but all teams do. Well, all except City. It’s just relentless. I lost count but it’s something like 15 wins in 17 now. That isn’t normal. They’re just a level above us, as they showed against us in both games. But yeah, we could still get 90 points so I don’t really feel I can fault us too much. For every silly slip there are plenty of very good wins, some from losing positions. We’ve just been up against an absolute machine in City

The head-to-head point is valid and something i've said before is that in one way, we can't argue if, counting the FAC, we lost three times to Citeh in a season.

But away from that I'd argue we could have done enough with better management

It's too easy just to talk about Citeh being a machine, they slipped up a fair few times earlier this season, it's why we were top in the first place

[HCZ_Reborn]

The head-to-head point is valid and something i've said before is that in one way, we can't argue if, counting the FAC, we lost three times to Citeh in a season.

But away from that I'd argue we could have done enough with better management

It's too easy just to talk about Citeh being a machine, they slipped up a fair few times earlier this season, it's why we were top in the first place

Not in any big way. Throughout this season you will see that they’ve never gone more than one game without winning


Drew with Newcastle - then beat Palace and Forest

Drew with Villa - then beat Wolves, United, Southampton

Lost to Liverpool - then beat Brighton, Leicester and Fulham

Lost to Brentford - then beat Leeds

Drew with Everton - then beat Chelsea

Lost to United - then beat Tottenham and Wolves

Lost to Tottenham - then beat Aston Villa and Arsenal

Drew with Forest - then beat Bournemouth, Newcastle, Palace, Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester, Arsenal, Fulham, West Ham, Leeds and Everton

The last bit is most pertinent because it’s why I denied we were title favourites because of that ability of City to relentlessly win game after game when it matters

[Letters]

The head-to-head point is valid and something i've said before is that in one way, we can't argue if, counting the FAC, we lost three times to Citeh in a season.

But away from that I'd argue we could have done enough with better management

It's too easy just to talk about Citeh being a machine, they slipped up a fair few times earlier this season, it's why we were top in the first place

City don’t slip up when it matters though. They never let us get an unassailable lead and then when it mattered they just won every game (or close enough), including both head to heads. When’s the last time someone won the title having lost both 6 pointers against the team who finished 2nd?
Even with the other slips, we draw the head to heads and all other things being equal we’d be 4 points ahead with 3 games left instead of them being in that position

[HCZ_Reborn]

When’s the last time someone won the title having lost both 6 pointers against the team who finished 2nd?

The last time was 2016 - Leicester lost home and away to us

Also happened in 2009 when United finished above Liverpool in 2nd despite Liverpool doing the double

And also in 1995 where Blackburn finished above United despite United beating them home and away

That’s it for the premier league years unless someone is able to correct me?