Honestly this just gets overplayed. City and Liverpool are well run clubs and will address this going forward.
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supposed… but no guarantee
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I’m a lot more confident in City doing it than Liverpool. City have fewer older players, a few pre-prime that are already huge stars, and a bottomless pit of money to spend. Liverpool in the past few years have signed players that are generally good but not quite as good as the players they are replacing, and if they completely miss on a big transfer (like they may have with Nunez, a little early to write him off obviously) it actually hurts.
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There’s loads of things though that can happen. Lets not forget our age limits down but we are carrying kids who won’t be getting much time this season.
We are actually under staffed going into Christmas at the very least.
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Demographic wise we look good bar coming towards the end of a peak at the CM position.
No sure things in sport with how that’ll translate though, especially in a sport that the top clubs can spend whatever they want and aren’t restricted by drafts and salary caps.
Hopefully it works out for us and we have a window of opportunity in 2-3 years though.
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We have come a long way from being a meme about being in the worse covid tier (remember them!) 
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We are as dangerous as any other team on the break right now. The two goals from play today were as good as you will see. Great pace, movement, passing and positioning. Superb.
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The last two times a club started the season with 8 wins in 9 games was Arsenal in 04-05 and Arsenal in 07-08 
Let’s hope it’s a case of third times the charm rather than history repeating itself…
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I think that’s the last two times a club did that but didn’t win the title. Surely a bunch of other sides have done it and gone on to win the title (ie, Liverpool a couple years ago were insane for the first half of the season).
I guess its a consolation that those two Arsenal sides got 83 points and lost the title to arguably two of the best ever teams of the PL era.
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If we have an 80 point season I’d be ecstatic with that. That’s some serious progress.
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Looking at this I think you’re right, either way it’s a pretty good sign…just a shame we’re up against one of the best and most consistent teams in PL history now as well.
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I said to my bother last week, an 80 point season, keep playing this fluent football for the majority and break the duck against either Liverpool or City and it’s a quality season.
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Just over 1/4 of the way through now. We are 4 points clear and 9 wins from 10. We’ve played and beaten Liverpool and Spurs and negotiated a tough tie away to Leeds, we have responded to challenges thrown at us during games thus far and we look to have a bit of fight about us.
On the flipside, we still have a lot of tough ties to come, 7 more games against the Top 6 to come with games away vs Pool, City, Spurs and Chelsea while home to United, City and Chelsea as well. There are also some tough games against the likes of Newcastle. We have also had a pretty decent run with injuries thus far.
I’ve said from the start that I don’t think we are genuine contenders and I’m still not convinced as I think we are still a bit short in the squad.
What does everyone else think? Are we genuine contenders now?
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squad depth problems kick in in the 2nd half of the season, that’s our biggest challenge. First choice IX looks crisp. Many of our rivals have started unusually poorly.
Another thing is that getting top 4 is a step up from recent seasons and the CL would be good for our reputation, and worst case we have built up a points cushion if we have one of those Arsenal Novembers or Februaries or w/e the months are when we typically collapse.
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If we can maintain a top two spot and strengthen in January we’re going to be a fearsome side going into the second half of the season.
Let’s see what it looks like with 10 games to go
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Aim is to stay with City for as long as we can.
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I think top three is possible, although I’d settle for fourth and finishing above spurs and then strengthening at the end of the season.
There are several teams to contend with and, despite being four points clear, Man City, Chelsea, spurs, Man U and Liverpool aren’t that far behind.
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Wow, two pretty bang average performances against sides that could have beaten us and we came away with wins both times. Rode our luck today and our talisman, Jesus, looks out of sorts. Leeds certainly had a good game plan and probably deserved something today.
Not complaining though. We can play better and we’re top. Onwards.
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