The narrative at the begining section of the season, where we were scarred of conceding a bleeding goal as a way to preserve the record that Chelsea set all of those years ago. Compared to the tail end of the season and weāre routinely dropping clangers demonstrates to drop in form for this team. Itās not to say we were playing beautiful, free flowing football (a few exceptions of course), but we were more resolute as a defensive unit.
We have come unstuck in recent months, if we can find that defensive form again, weāre winning the league.
Thereās too much focus on attacking prowess when it comes to analysing the title race between Arsenal and City but a big reason why City bridged the gap is actually their improvement defensively and at the same time our decline in that.
Mind you, having watched recently both luck has certainly helped in that but sometimes you make your own luck.
Iāll reference the last two times City beat us to the title, look how clean their defensive record was in that time.
Post Liverpool-City, I expected us to drop points at least twice between Brentford, Wolves, Spurs, Chelsea and Brighton.
I thought Brentford and Spurs were certain slips and then I expected one of Chelsea and Brighton to potentially be a third.
Iāll be confident in us getting it over the line if we maintain that 5 point gap after Brighton.
I think City will have some tricky fixtures from that point on before we face each other in the PL. That will really test their title credentials.
I think that not playing Ode and having Eze changes us a fair amount. Teams seem to get through our midfield a bit too easily as our pressing is not as effective. Ode has been poor this season but man puts in a shift. Add to that some inexplicable actions like Zubi trying to provide opposition with assists and we concede more. Conceding goals the way we have gives opposition belief, creates nerves with our players and this is where we now are.
Think thereās many factors tbh. It may not be as low as earlier in the season but the amount of attacks we concede is still pretty low all things considered. Itās just that theyāre much costlier than before.
I boil it down to a three things: Tiredness, pressure and luck.
Obviously the team is fatigued quite a bit at thi stage of the season and that can lead to us not having that extra recovery when defending or perhaps a lapse in concentration.
Then you have the pressure. Biggest sign of pressure/awareness is when your technical level randomly drops off a cliff. Zubimendiās not the only one suffering from it, weāve seen it from Rice, Saliba, Gabriel and others as well. Picking the wrong options or executing the simple things poorly.
And then luck, happened one too many times recently where we conceded on the first real chance our opponent created.
They were nervous against Newcastle. They were nervous and scraped through against Leeds.
They have tough away trips to Chelsea, Everton and Bournemouth in their run in. Plus a final day against Villa who will be battling for a CL position.
We need to get through Brighton on Wednesday then our run becomes āeasierā on paper. I know we are going to be nervous, but my point is that City will drop points. They are not the machine from previous years. Their fixture list is objectively harder than ours.
On top of that, their CL schedule is going to be absolutely brutal if they get past Madrid (which they should). They also have a trip to Newcastle in the FA Cup, which will be tough but they should again get through.
More games piling up with a harder fixture list. We have the advantage in the run-in. Weāve never had that in previous years.
Strap yourselves in the for narrative come May. We either bottled it for not being tough enough or we won it playing ugly football. Itāll stick and on those āLooking back on 2026ā documentaries theyāll be saying āYouād never get away with all that contact in the penalty area nowā. Ignoring the fact that it was PGMOL rule changes that led to this becoming a thing in the EPL over the last year.
Itās never a problem until Arsenal use something to their advantage. Those twats singing āSame old Arsenal, always cheatingā are idiots who believe everything the press tell them to think.
Same here lol and itās super easy for me because itās usually overnight. So I can just wake up and be a little bit annoyed rather than spending 90 minutes to get there.
Same, although I donāt think itās helped in this case because the impression thatās giving me is that City are in their usual āinevitableā mode for this time of the season because they keep winning, but the people whoāve watched them seem to be saying theyāre struggling just as much as us.
big game today in title race and probably our hardest game apart from City at Etihad. but then again we drew against Wolves as well lol.
Anyways in normal circumstances, if we win today, this will be a great return from three tough games , Spurs, Chelsea and Brighton, two of which are away.
After this game onward, again in normal circumstances, we should win 7 of the remaining 8 games.
I had the misfortune of listening to it and he said draw at Brighton, lose to City, draw to Palace. For City he thinks theyāll win all except Chelsea (draw).
Your guess is as good as mine why the graphic is like that. Probably to bait people.
much prefer ignoring it then checking the full time score.