16 Jan 2022 22:18:16
I'm not ready to concede the league or anything else yet. Bring it.

16 Jan 2022 23:05:18
they will surely draw one game? We simply must beat them to get points from them. Its not entirely unfathomable as far as those conditions go, its staying pace with the rest of their results that is unlikely. 4 games to go 5 pts behind is my predicition on the table rifht now! could they choke it?

16 Jan 2022 23:13:29
Although it looks unlikely what we need to think about is city are 11 points clear.

We have a game in hand if we win that the gap is 8, we have yet to play city if we beat them the gap is 5.

If we beat them and reduce the gap to 5 points that's a lot of pressure piled on that they haven't had to deal with this season.

Also we both have tough games. City have west hame 2nd to last game kf the season who could be playing to secure champions league football!

Villa last game of the season, imagine if stevie seals the title for us with Aston villa!

I know it's all ifs and buts and long shots but it all starts with us slowly starting to close that gap. Anything can happen this year with C.V. etc also city have looked leggy in a few of their games, they aren't the gods of football that the press make them out to be.

I know it looks tough but pressure will start to mount if they can't shake us off.

16 Jan 2022 23:32:57
I’d just take a deep breath and focus on the Palace game.

Assume we aren’t going to win the league, take the pressure off and just enjoy the next match.

{Ed0666's Note - it’s not insurmountable

16 Jan 2022 23:38:36
We're not out of the title race mathematically, but it's City's to lose. Their squad depth and experience of being in this situation before are two massive advantages.
We have to be close to perfect for the remainder of the season to stand a chance. And we're going to be spread a bit thin still being in 3 cup competitions.
That's a tall order, in the same magnitude as the Barcelona 4-0 result. Not impossible though.

17 Jan 2022 00:00:13
Simply not happening.

17 Jan 2022 00:04:57
It’s not going to happen, but 1 thing is for sure, Man City want that Champions League. And they will gladly throw points away to qualify for future rounds.

17 Jan 2022 00:15:55
My belief in our chances took a knock with the Chelsea game, ngl. That was a game that we needed to see them to drop points.

If we can win at their place, which is a big ask, but we have done before with worse teams, there is a chance. This City team is, imo, not quite the same one that had Kompany, Fernandinho near his best and Aguero in it, that held us off for the latter part of the season as we breathed down their necks all the way to the line 3 years ago. They could wobble if we win there and win our game in hand, and close it up to 5.

But realistically, I think they'll need a bout of CV to either make them play without key players or pile up the fixture congestion late in the season to drop 8 points (even if we can account for 3 of those ourselves) more than us.

17 Jan 2022 00:44:04
We are 22 games in with 16 to go surely we can't be conceding anything as of yet. City will not win 16 games on the spin and will drop points. The league always throws in a suprise.

17 Jan 2022 00:54:51
City are in a similar position to what we were a few years ago (granted, it's about a month further down the line this time) . When we were 10 points clear at Christmas and threw it away.

That in its self shows that it can be done, but we are totally reliant on City dropping those points.

One thing I am quite sure about, is that City will drop more points, but I think it's very possible we will to.

17 Jan 2022 04:56:17
Let champions league come. Then city will fumble. Historically we have the worst of end December and january starts and city loose the plot in late feb early march.

We have to be in contention by that time and we will have good chance. But city just have been so good up untill now that we cannot really afford to drop any more points.

Have to hit 15 out of 17 wins and that should have a win on city at their home ground. Its kind of very close to impossible to be honest.

17 Jan 2022 07:10:43
I am the forever optimist. I guess it depends on your personality really. Yeah sure it's a big ask but it could be done so why not?

Do you look for problems or find solutions?

17 Jan 2022 07:28:13
Because it does not depend on us now, does it. We could win 15 out of 17 no doubt about that. But will city loose 5 games out of the 16. I highly doubt that.
Optimism should work both ways. There is nothing to suggest city would fall apart and we really have to up our game by two notches if we are to stand a chance. I would also look at the champions league. We have a real chance of winning that too.

17 Jan 2022 08:11:07
The way I look at it is this.

The gap is 11, if we win our game in hand it'd be 8. If we beat City it's 5.

They are currently on a 12 game winning run which stats would suggest it'll end soon, so call that a draw and the gap. In theory would be 3.

But all we can do, for the sake of keeping the season interesting more then anything else. Is win each game as it comes and see where we are when we face city in April.

City have always been capable of these long winning runs under pep but I still think there beatable. Problem is there like united of old, teams are beaten before they start.

17 Jan 2022 08:30:30
Id imagine Klopp and the players haven’t given up so that will be the key battle mentally. Hopefully some of the City players will think it’s in the bag and potentially take their eyes off the prize.

It’s a huge task though and all we can do is win every game. I wonder if UTD fans think they can catch us being 13 points behind with a game in hand.

17 Jan 2022 08:35:00
Do City need to lose 5 games out of 16? I think you will find at the minute Liverpool have lost as many games as City. Draws are handy ya know.

17 Jan 2022 01:09:20
Ed0666, in my opinion, it’s not over but that wasn’t what I was on about.

Basically, we have to do as well as we can and that starts with the Palace game. So, the thing we need to do is beat Palace. That’s what those who are inclined to worry about should focus on. If we beat Palace then the worst position we will be in is where we currently are.

We can’t change what City are going to do, so there’s no point worrying about that.

That said, I prefer that what if we beat them and they draw a couple discussion better than the one about the ‘sky falling in’. 😁.

{Ed0666's Note - I’m of the opinion we concede when it’s mathematically impossible to win. Conversely waiting for city to slip is well you know how that always turns out 😂

17 Jan 2022 09:22:57
Regardless of whether we can catch City or not, giving up right now is the wrong attitude to have and the wrong message to send to the fans and the dressing room. If that allows to funnel into the players' heads then you can say good bye to whatever chances we have of winning a trophy and finishing the season as strong as possible.

We need to get back to winning games consistently and once we can do that, we will see what happens. I'm not giving up on the title yet for the above reasons and nor should anyone, IMO.

17 Jan 2022 09:47:36
We don't play City until April, meaning we have to be near perfect just to stay within touching distance of them until then. Draws have been our downfall and I can see us picking up a few more of them before April unfortunately.

17 Jan 2022 11:55:17
Can we still do it? Of course. But it's a long shot because we've lacked the ability to manage games well in midfield and keep focused defensively. If that doesn't change then I only see City's gap increasing further.

We only have ourselves to blame for losing the lead in 5 games - 3 of which we were 2 goals clear in.

Btw this is not a great City side. They are just in better shape than everyone else in terms of squad balance and health (so far) .

They have also had the rub of the green on decisions (yes yes I know Milner was a lucky boy against them at Anfield) as well as luck (so far) with C.V.-related absences.

17 Jan 2022 13:04:12
We literally have to be perfect in every game and not slip up, something we have failed to be able to do thus far as we’ve thrown away leads, been too easy to play through and at times looked a soft touch. Mathematically, yes we can win, realistically? Well, that’s not so simple.

We are then relying on City slipping up and losing a number of games.

Unless City have some kind of horrendous injury catastrophe taking out De Bruyne, Pedri, Diaz and Silva all at the same time, I can’t see their run being stopped as they have shown the ability to edge out the right games and absolutely batter the weaker opponents without them laying a glove on them, the only thing that can stop them is Guardiola’s own hubris.

As far as it goes the title race is as good as over as City don’t tend to make mistakes at this point. History shows that. That said, we have to just win as many games as we can and focus on securing top four.,

17 Jan 2022 13:50:00
I don't think a Pedri injury will harm Man City too much. Considering he plays for Barcelona.

17 Jan 2022 20:12:22
It's going to be a close call. could come down to a point again.
City will be beat once or twice yet. Teams need to turn up against them first and foremost. And a few injuries would help.

17 Jan 2022 22:55:19
Jeez, I know what you are saying Magic but I honestly wouldn’t wish an injury on anyone mate.

If we win it we should win it because we are consistently the best team in the league.

18 Jan 2022 10:00:46
The fact that we are talking about injuries happening to other teams is baffling and flat out cowardly, IMO. For me, I want all our opponents to be fully fit so when we thrash them, no excuses.