Quote Originally Posted by Letters To Santa View Post
We're top of the league and got through a CL group most of us thought we'd struggle to qualify from.
You haven't had much opportunity to be critical. A few bad results and BAM, you're back...

I'm not sure we're coming unstuck, we've had a tough few games and we've struggled a bit in them but we've also had quite a few games this year in which the results have been better than they would have been last year. Even on Saturday we looked good going forward, City had only conceded 2 at home all season before we went there. We were defensively weak but City have scored 35 in 8 home games now, they're pretty much unstoppable although at times we made mistakes which made it easier for them than we should have.

After last season all we could reasonably hope this year was to see improvement, to see we're heading in the right direction. The Ozil signing and the obvious improvement this year have shown that. We're not the finished product but so long as we keep heading in the right direction I'll be content.

I agree with some of what you've said but if anyone expected us to go from a side who struggled to finish 4th to champions in one season then they were deluded.
Right now I'm enjoying the football we're playing far more than last season and have more hope for the future than I've had for a long time. For now, that's enough.
We're top of the league for now yes and we've done well in the league but the signs are when we come up against top sides and sides we historically have struggled against in the last 8-9 years we still lose, as for me being back after a few good results, well to be honest it's mainly because there's little to discuss when we're winning, there's no real discussion and it is pretty dull, what makes discussions interesting is people having different viewpoints not agreeing on how well we played etc.

We've lost to City and Man U away (and they're rubbish to be honest) and have beaten Liverpool and Spurs (again who are rubbish this season) at home and drawn with Everton as well (we've also lost to Chelsea in the CC cup though that's a different competition), our record against the best sides isn't great, we've got Chelsea next and I really don't fancy us against them. The teams we've got results against have largely been sides we should beat (I know it's not that simple but it's true) and sides we did beat last season on the whole.

I didn't see the match on Saturday so can't comment how good each team were, what I can say is that City scored 6 and that's an awful lot of goals, not many sides have conceded six goals against them. In addition we're top of the league and thus should be better than the sides they've beaten and yet seem to have been well beaten in the end.

There's an improvement over last season because let's face it last season we had a nightmare start dropping points left right and centre, it's only fair to see where we are at the end of the season before judging how much better we are, though the Ozil signing was a positive step (though we should have done more in the transfer market IMO, we had enough time).

After 8 years with a trophy we should expect to challenge because it's about time, AW doesn't really have any excuses left now he needs to deliver, if he didn't do enough in the summer that's down to him and his team, we should have signed the 3-4 players we needed to compete it's as simple as that. This is probably going to be our best chance to win something seeing as other sides have had changes of management and have stumbled this season, it'll be harder next season when those manager's get the teams setup more to their liking and make more signings to change the team to suit their style.