I think Liverpool are just borrowing the title for one season and do not think they are anywhere as near as good as Man City. This season has been strange because City have been off colour and not really pressed Liverpool for the pole position. As I said previously, there is a massive gap between the 1st and 2nd positions and similarly between 2nd and 3rd. There is currently a 4 point gap between 3rd and 4th. Further down the table, there are also teams well adrift from the top 3 and seemingly 2 bunches of teams in mid-table before the low-point scoring teams in the relegation zone. Looking at the league as a whole, Liverpool should not be too over-confident as it has been a weak one this season. The teams who should have been putting in a challenge haven't and the worst teams have been awful. I agree that Liverpool have been exceptional in 19/20 yet the quality of competition they have faced has been below the usual standard. I don't believe it is open to debate as to whether they were the "greatest ever" Premiership team. They have not matched the consistency of Man Utd under Ferguson and as much as I dislike Utd, I think that they were consistently excellent across all competitions and for a far longer period than Liverpool's dominance in the 70s and 80s. During these two decades, it is worth noting that they were pipped to the title on numerous occasions by teams such as Derby, Villa, Forest, Leeds and Everton - an unlikely set of champions in 2020! There were 7 titles for Liverpool in these decades. In the Premiership era up to 2013, Man Utd won the title 13 times, nearly double that of Liverpool in a similar period when the Scousers were believed to be at their finest. The current Liverpool team is very good but I cannot see them defining an epoch like Utd. For most of this period, it is worth noting that Utd had to see off competition from exceptional Chelsea and Arsenal sides too. It was harder for Utd to win these leagues than has been the case for Liverpool this season and they did it consistently. Liverpool will never reach the heights of Ferguson's Man Utd sides. However, when it comes to the style of play, I feel that the recent Man City teams have been out on their own. They win games by shear elan and they are a job to watch. The style and approach in which they win games is preferable to the intimidation meted out by Utd and I was glad that the European ban was overturned. Neutral fans don't hate City quite like they hated Utd and City generally seem to be admired rather than disliked. I still cannot get over the novelty that it is Man City who are achieving this when, for most of my life as a fan, they have been subjected to ridicule and derision. Hard to believe than Bally took them down to the third tier 25 years ago! Few English clubs have played attractive football to this kind of standard. They have really raised the bar. As a neutral, I think that they are more likely to dominate future seasons than Liverpool whose title success this season is probably a one off, rather like Leicester City. They will put in a proper challenge next season along with Utd but I think City will ultimately reclaim the honours come the end of 20/21.
I definitely agree that neutrals don’t dislike City like they do United and Liverpool, in fact I rather like City. There is more than one good manager in the world, but I think a lot of City’s potential success in the coming years will be dependent on Guardiola. The only thing he’s yet to win with them is the CL, and potentially he’d have ambitions to win three titles in a row as only Fergie has done that. So I’m unsure how much longer he’ll be with them.
Only just seen that . ****ing joke of a decision . On another day Wood takes his eye out , hes that high.
correct me if I’m wrong (opens door for Tom...) but I thought that a ball striking a defender’s arm in the box was not a penalty now unless a deliberate handball, but it is a foul if it hits a strikers hand/arm??? clear as mud then.
Quite an interesting tool on the Premier League website which tracks each team's league position over the season. Here's ours: After our win vs. Sheff Utd (our 5th game of the season), we went 8 games without winning, losing 6 and drawing 2, leaving us 19th and four points adrift. I obviously didn't (and Sky won't allow me to) forget about the 9-0, but it just goes to show how important the 7 games over Christmas and New Year were when we won 5 and drew 1, especially in games we weren't expected to get much - Chelsea away, Tottenham home, Leicester away. Something else I took from this is that Palace have lost all of their last five games. They could be in the fight next year, particularly if Zaha goes.
That 8 games without a win early on really put us in peril. Such a good turn around from Ralph and the lads. Very proud of the resilience that has been shown.
The Premier League are going to be hard pushed to get the league fixtures sorted, ahead of the new season, unless they have already run the programme with a variety of teams being relegated/promoted, so that it is ready to be issued after the final whistle goes on 26th July.
Not if we have resolved the two really troublesome positions. But my greatest fear is we end the season strong, and the owner pulls the rug out. When things go well for the saints, there seems to be a cloud lurking.......
On a similar vein, if we don't win tonight this will be the only time outside of that eight match run where we've gone three matches without a win. That's pretty impressive. (And also kind of weird, because it doesn't feel like we're on a bad run right now - in fact, totally the opposite. Ultimately explained by a massive lack of draws this season, up until a week ago.)
