To be honest, about as clear as mud in my opinion. The 3 teams predicted to be battling it out pre-season are certainly doing so as we approach the traditionally busy Christmas period and a very important time of the season.
Despite the obvious qualities all 3 sides have, all 3 teams have their own fragilities. Chelsea have seemed to struggle results wise against the better teams in the league, although you'd argue a point at Anfield is a good result. Man City do lack a true number 9 and people are very quick to point this out when they don't score and/or lose, such as Spurs and Southampton. Liverpool have a tendency to drop silly points, Brentford and Brighton the obvious games and January could be potentially sticky without Mane and Salah.
Essentially, anybody else have any thoughts on how clear the title picture looks? Or is anyone brave enough to stick their neck out and confidently name a winner? I'm on the fence as it is now, but it's fair to say that we will have a worthy winner come May.
Couldn't tag the Man City board.
How does the title race look now?
posted on 2/12/21
Lamps full interview with G Nev is out on The Overlap
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOrfD3Dumus&t=534s
posted on 2/12/21
Ooops, wrong thread!
posted on 2/12/21
It’s not difficult to call, it’s just impossible!
Too early to call, anyway. Let’s just sit back and enjoy the ride. We’re mere spectators in a fantastic competition.
posted on 2/12/21
City have to be the favourites, they have been playing some tremendous football and you almost never expect them to drop points regardless of the opposition.
I think Liverpool and Chelsea while top sides and certainly being capable will shed a few to many silly points over the campaign
posted on 2/12/21
before the season started i had liverpool.
ten games in i had chelsea.
i think if all three teams stayed injury free, or as close as you can get, then for me liverpool has the best balanced team and will win.
i think city is a great team but this year only third best.
lots can happen when you have three teams like this in one league. PL is head and shoulders above any other league.
posted on 2/12/21
Where Chelsea's goes, if we can survive January with Kepa in goal still top (assuming we don't trail off this month), the smart money's on us.
In all our PL title winning seasons we've spent a collective total of 13 days not occupying 1st place after new year. Nobody front runs quite like us & this team's got the same defensive stability all those other teams did.
posted on 2/12/21
comment by Sky-blue (U22529)
posted 6 hours, 55 minutes ago
comment by Fifty Years of Hurt (U12953)
posted 9 minutes ago
Whoever wins it is going to have to put up a monster points total. Because while one side might drop away, I wouldn't bank on two of them doing so.
Our current injury issues show that anything can happen. Before the season started I said that we had a good chance because we had the best 2nd 11 of the three. And squad depth was going to be key. But we've so many injuries that we're effectively having to use "third 11" players. And no side can cope well with that.
I think injuries are going to go a long way to deciding this season now. We've had our share of bad luck, the question is whether City and Pool suffer theirs.
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I think you are overstating your injuries. All teams have suffered injuries. Liverpool have had fabinho and Thiago out for a while, we have first team players out at the moment (Gundagon,KDB, Stones, Foden, Walker.
Think all teams will cope just fine against the rest.
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In the last match we had first choice LWB and RWB out. And the first 3 CM choices. Of our 7 players we started the season with in the attacking band, 6 were either injured or just coming back from injury.
We were playing a 3-4-3 without any of the 4 available, and with none of the attacking 3 fully fit. I'd say we've got a situation that is a degree or two worse than City at the moment.
posted on 2/12/21
Every team will suffer injuries, and while it’s a valid point to point out, it does come across as an excuse - in the sense that the two out of the three teams that don’t win the title may well point to injuries as a reason why, yet in doing so that reason will ignore the injuries that the eventual title winners will have also had to endure.
We see this all the time. People placing greater emphasis on the injuries of their own team, while downplaying the injuries that the other challengers have also faced.
For me, it simply boils down to how a team copes, and all three have had injuries so far, and all three are coping well. It hasn’t resulted in any team falling behind.
So far, Chelsea and City have dropped points in four games. Liverpool dropped points in five. And all three have dropped points in games that they would have expected to win. That will continue to happen throughout the season, but it won’t happen too often.
I can’t see any of the three teams going on a bad run. All three will push each other. This season, in my opinion, is going to go right down to the wire.
posted on 3/12/21
comment by RipleysCat (U1862)
posted 11 hours, 7 minutes ago
Every team will suffer injuries, and while it’s a valid point to point out, it does come across as an excuse - in the sense that the two out of the three teams that don’t win the title may well point to injuries as a reason why, yet in doing so that reason will ignore the injuries that the eventual title winners will have also had to endure.
We see this all the time. People placing greater emphasis on the injuries of their own team, while downplaying the injuries that the other challengers have also faced.
For me, it simply boils down to how a team copes, and all three have had injuries so far, and all three are coping well. It hasn’t resulted in any team falling behind.
So far, Chelsea and City have dropped points in four games. Liverpool dropped points in five. And all three have dropped points in games that they would have expected to win. That will continue to happen throughout the season, but it won’t happen too often.
I can’t see any of the three teams going on a bad run. All three will push each other. This season, in my opinion, is going to go right down to the wire.
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Thi.
I actually feel the fixture list has more bearing on eventual title winners than injuries which teams like City and Chelsea should be able to deal with given the size of their squads.
Only team that can cry about the impact of injuries is Liverpool because their bench doesn't match whats in the first 11. They may be reliant on key players like Salah but even if Salah was to get injured I think Liverool are now established enough to win games without him
I actually think the AFCON Thing is being overplayed because the fixtures they have in January dont really need a Salah.
When races are tight the fixture list and how you navigate tough fixtures has a huge influence. For example a very nice narrative had been prepared for us before the chelsea game. We had dropped points to the saints and most had us losing all 3 games (PSG,Liverpool)
We ended up coming out of it okay and immediately the picture changes. We lose all 3 then depending on the mentality of the players it can be curtains.
I haven't checked the fixtures but I hear Chelsea have the easiest run in.
posted on 3/12/21
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator