Manchester City v Arsenal, 20:00 BST (26/04, BT Sport)

[HCZ_Reborn]

Have they, though?
I mean, you could look at Liverpool as 2 points dropped, but Liverpool aren’t a bad side despite their wobbles this year and they’ve got an excellent home record. Given the chances they had at the end you could equally see that as a point gained. West Ham was a shit show, no dispute that was 2 points dropped. Southampton…well, you could argue that if you’re 3-1 down at 88 minutes then rescuing a point isn’t bad…but you really shouldn’t be 3-1 down at home to the bottom side. So I’m more inclined to see that as silly points dropped. But you can offset that by games like Bournemouth where we got an important 3 points late on when it looked like we were going to lose. Overall it’s been 24 points in 10 games, it’s a points rate which over a season should win you the league or get you close. I can’t really fault our response to losing vs City.
But let’s say we had won all 3 of the above. We’d be 8 points above City and they’d have 2 games in hand. Which is basically 2 points. That’s only a draw when they win and they’d be above us on goal difference.
As we’ve seen in the head to heads they’re just better than us. They’re better than everyone, I don’t think anyone else has dominated us like that this season. And they’re just a relentless machine. I am disappointed we’ve made it easier for them than we should have but I can’t help feel they’d have run us down in the end anyway with our run in. As good as we’ve been we were in a slightly false position with 3 of the top 6 to play away in the run in.

Just forget the league season entirely and look at purely our record against Man City

They’ve beaten us 12 times in a row. Scored 31 goals and conceded only 5


I don’t think there’s any side who has played 12 league games over six seasons against City and haven’t taken a point or two somewhere

Everton, West Ham, Brighton they’ve all taken something in one game

Not us


Spurs seem to get more points against City than any other team does, beaten them four times in a row at home

We’ve lost six times in a row at home to them, lost seven times away

Suggests to me that it might be something we are doing wrong.

[Marc Overmars]

Have they, though?
I mean, you could look at Liverpool as 2 points dropped, but Liverpool aren’t a bad side despite their wobbles this year and they’ve got an excellent home record. Given the chances they had at the end you could equally see that as a point gained. West Ham was a shit show, no dispute that was 2 points dropped. Southampton…well, you could argue that if you’re 3-1 down at 88 minutes then rescuing a point isn’t bad…but you really shouldn’t be 3-1 down at home to the bottom side. So I’m more inclined to see that as silly points dropped. But you can offset that by games like Bournemouth where we got an important 3 points late on when it looked like we were going to lose. Overall it’s been 24 points in 10 games, it’s a points rate which over a season should win you the league or get you close. I can’t really fault our response to losing vs City.
But let’s say we had won all 3 of the above. We’d be 8 points above City and they’d have 2 games in hand. Which is basically 2 points. That’s only a draw when they win and they’d be above us on goal difference.
As we’ve seen in the head to heads they’re just better than us. They’re better than everyone, I don’t think anyone else has dominated us like that this season. And they’re just a relentless machine. I am disappointed we’ve made it easier for them than we should have but I can’t help feel they’d have run us down in the end anyway with our run in. As good as we’ve been we were in a slightly false position with 3 of the top 6 to play away in the run in.

They have as far as I can see.

Body language all wrong. No real intent or energy with their transitional play anymore, retreating deeper and deeper into their own half because they’re not confident enough to play their way out of trouble, players dawdling and getting forced into errors, it all just smacks of a team that’s shit itself. It’s harsh I know but confidence is a very fragile thing and it seems like whatever we had that took us to the top of the league isn’t there now. As I said earlier, the real disappointment comes from what happened in the previous 3 games. Tonight could have happened no matter what form we were in but it pretty much confirmed to me that they’ve thrown in the towel.

[Letters]

I dunno. After the City game at The Emirates some on here were predicting a complete collapse. I’ve teased NQ for his proclamation that Utd would finish 10 points clear of us. The response has been terrific. Sure those run of draws were disappointing but only the West Ham game was a complete capitulation. Liverpool have an excellent home record and we actually did pretty well to get a point in the end. Even the Southampton game, the way we came back at the end - we wouldn’t have done that last season and we might have nicked it at the death.
Last night…City just didn’t let us play. They really have the measure of us and it’s worrying. It was a big red flag when they beat us at The Emirates. But look at the players they can bring off the bench, they’re just better than us in every department. They know it and we know it.
But we know how they’ve got there and if the FA or whoever it is had any balls they’d have kicked them out of the league. So fuck them.

[KSE Comedy Club]

But how do you compete with this.
Look at the players City have on the bench.
I am a bit disappointed at the scale of the defeat but we knew they were going to do this.
They’re probably the best side in Europe and we…aren’t

See this is the problem.

It's the perception that City are some unbeatable side with all the superhero players in the world.

You compete by actually turning up and putting some fight in, not standing like rabbits trapped in the headlights for the first 45 mins and not even trying to play the way we have been for the two thirds of the season.

A win was always an outside chance but to just rollover and not even try is unforgivable.

[Marc Overmars]

See this is the problem.

It's the perception that City are some unbeatable side with all the superhero players in the world.

You compete by actually turning up and putting some fight in, not standing like rabbits trapped in the headlights for the first 45 mins and not even trying to play the way we have been for the two thirds of the season.

A win was always an outside chance but to just rollover and not even try is unforgivable.

The game wasn’t a contest and I would certainly believe that the players felt inferior before a ball was even kicked too, their body language told me everything I needed to know. City are probably the best team in the world but it doesn’t mean you can’t make it difficult for them. Lesser teams than us have taken points off them this season.

Beaten home and away 6 seasons running and a few cup defeats on top of that. Embarrassing record.

All boils down to how you handle the occasion, I would imagine there wasn’t a single person associated with City who felt any pressure last night. This is why I always felt them being involved in all competitions while us having just the league to focus on never meant anything. There’s no advantage to be had when the team you’re competing with is just streets ahead of you to begin with.

[KSE Comedy Club]

They have as far as I can see.

Body language all wrong. No real intent or energy with their transitional play anymore, retreating deeper and deeper into their own half because they’re not confident enough to play their way out of trouble, players dawdling and getting forced into errors, it all just smacks of a team that’s shit itself. It’s harsh I know but confidence is a very fragile thing and it seems like whatever we had that took us to the top of the league isn’t there now. As I said earlier, the real disappointment comes from what happened in the previous 3 games. Tonight could have happened no matter what form we were in but it pretty much confirmed to me that they’ve thrown in the towel.

Agree with all this.

If we had continued on with the way we have been playing we wouldn't be in this position now, it's almost as if we got too cocky. West Ham game was a prime example of that.
City were city last night, not anything special despite what all the pundits are saying whilst wanking themselves silly over.

We did not turn up AT ALL, for around 65 mins. Arteta, hell bent on not daring to make any changes and stick with a line up that has failed 3 times in a row, did the same as always and made good changes too late in the game to have any real effect on the outcome.

City are beatable - proven by teams beating them this season and holding them to draws.
But as usual we don't even try.

[KSE Comedy Club]

I dunno. After the City game at The Emirates some on here were predicting a complete collapse. I’ve teased NQ for his proclamation that Utd would finish 10 points clear of us. The response has been terrific. Sure those run of draws were disappointing but only the West Ham game was a complete capitulation. Liverpool have an excellent home record and we actually did pretty well to get a point in the end. Even the Southampton game, the way we came back at the end - we wouldn’t have done that last season and we might have nicked it at the death.
Last night…City just didn’t let us play. They really have the measure of us and it’s worrying. It was a big red flag when they beat us at The Emirates. But look at the players they can bring off the bench, they’re just better than us in every department. They know it and we know it.
But we know how they’ve got there and if the FA or whoever it is had any balls they’d have kicked them out of the league. So fuck them.

I think you'll find we did that ourselves, nothing to do with City.
Standing still in your own half for 45 minutes, shitting your pants doesn't show much of a fight to try and play and win the game.

[Letters]

It's the perception that City are some unbeatable side with all the superhero players in the world.

De Bruyne is surely the best player in the league right now and Haaland equalled Clive Allen's record last night with 7 league games left.
Last night they brought Mahrez off the bench, and then World Cup winner Alvarez came off the bench too
Come on, dude, they have quality all over the pitch, they're better than us in every department, they have players on their bench who would walk into our team.

They've won 9 and drawn 1 of the last 10 league games while effortlessly progressing through the cup competitions.
Despite the recent wobble it's hardly been a collapse, City are just relentless and with our run in they were always likely to mow us down.
The Saliba injury has clearly has caused us a big problem. City can just call on another top class player to cover any position, we can't.

City's points average over the last 5 seasons is more than The Invincibles got. The only time anyone stopped them was when Liverpool basically won every game till February and only took their foot off the gas when they'd all but won the title. I just don't accept we didn't try last night, we were just overrun by a side who are at a different level from us and pretty much everyone else. And we all know how we got there. Fuck them.

[KSE Comedy Club]

The game wasn’t a contest and I would certainly believe that the players felt inferior before a ball was even kicked too, their body language told me everything I needed to know. City are probably the best team in the world but it doesn’t mean you can’t make it difficult for them. Lesser teams than us have taken points off them this season.

Beaten home and away 6 seasons running and a few cup defeats on top of that. Embarrassing record.

All boils down to how you handle the occasion, I would imagine there wasn’t a single person associated with City who felt any pressure last night. This is why I always felt them being involved in all competitions while us having just the league to focus on never meant anything. There’s no advantage to be had when the team you’re competing with is just streets ahead of you to begin with.

Absolutely spot on

[selassie]

The game wasn’t a contest and I would certainly believe that the players felt inferior before a ball was even kicked too, their body language told me everything I needed to know. City are probably the best team in the world but it doesn’t mean you can’t make it difficult for them. Lesser teams than us have taken points off them this season.

Beaten home and away 6 seasons running and a few cup defeats on top of that. Embarrassing record.

All boils down to how you handle the occasion, I would imagine there wasn’t a single person associated with City who felt any pressure last night. This is why I always felt them being involved in all competitions while us having just the league to focus on never meant anything. There’s no advantage to be had when the team you’re competing with is just streets ahead of you to begin with.

Totally agree.