They improved massively in the 2nd half of the season and were unbeaten v Chelsea/City. Given they have Suarez (best striker in the PL IMO) I find it possible to discount them completely. Their First XI is competitive with any PL side, but like Spurs last season there wasn't much squad depth.
If you look at the leagues at the beginning of the PL in the early 90's The ONE Dominating team over the PL period is Man U. Early years featured teams like Villa, NUFC, Notts.Forest, Blackburn, Liverpool and then Arsenal & Mau U shared the spotlight before Chelsea received their windfall and later City. Go back further and Liverpool dominated. So I think it's too simple to say 2 teams dominate the rest traditionally. Anyway what do Chelsea know about tradition! They don't have any.
I am not discounting Liverpool just using the same parameters that are used to distance us from you or City.
At the start of the summer DL was prophesising that we should be worried about Chelsea, United, City, Arsenal and Liverpool all spending big and overtaking us or getting even further ahead of us. Going further back and at the start of last season he was predicting Liverpool to finish ahead of us. He might not admit to it, or even realise it but the references to Liverpool catching us up are a gentle attempt to wind us up and put us in our place(which is not near Chelsea in his view). LDL's the same and if we ruin there party at the top they'll hate it more than most. DL and LDL, we're coming YOU
Fair enough Spurm, but I would, it's simple maths. If we take 10 points from the first 4 games, over the season that's 90+ points which is title contending form. It's almost certainly title-winning form, but I was being conservative I'm not saying we are title contenders, I'm said it's the start of title contenders. It would be a classic set of results for a title contending team, beat all the teams you are 'theoretically better' than, and draw away to one of your main rivals. If we then get 4 from the next 2, that will keep us on title contending form. 14 from 6 = 89 pts from 38. Going back to the 10 from 4 scenario, what's perhaps more relevant at this stage of the season is that we'd be way ahead of schedule on last season. We got a mere 5 points from the corresponding games last season, we would have double that this season. Now we're not going to end up with 144 points, but 77 (72+5) would get us top 4 almost for sure, and probably top 3.
In fairness nobody could foresee Real Madrid chucking that kind of money at Bale. Following Barca's acquisition of Neymar, it seems Madrid are desperate to send out a political message by signing Bale and will use a blank cheque to do so. As for Liverpool, given they were FA Cup and Carling Cup finalists and strengthened, whilst Spurs weakened I don't see why predicting them to finish above Spurs was inconceivable, but that's the beauty of hindsight I guess. Unlike LDL, I welcome challenge so have no real issue with any side challenging the upper echelon but for me City, Chelsea and United are ahead of the rest as they all have squads with experience of winning things and experienced managers. Liverpool, Arsenal or Spurs either have one or the other but not both. Before Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool can realistically challenge they need a trophy under their belt. For United it was the 1990 FA Cup, for City it was the 2011 FA Cup and for Chelsea it was the 2005 Carling Cup. Even if you look across other sports I.e Andy Murray in the 2012 Olympics. Once he got that Gold his career has taken off winning both the US Open and Wimbledon. Nothing to do with wind ups or ruining parties just saying it from a position of experience without trying to sound patronising. Paulinho and Lamela would get into any PL side. Chadli, Eriksen and Chiriches not so much but still decent squad players. Plenty to be excited about if you're a Spurs fan.
Did you forget about Capoue and Soldado! we have been quite busy. You are still basing your arguement on what has been rather than what is. This season is not about what happened last season, if it was then Chelsea would not be seen as title contenders would they. The 3 'Super Teams' all have new managers that means there whole sides have to gell AGAIN. This is an unknown just the same as Spurs new squad or Liverpool's new players. The only 'known' quantity atm is Arsenal who finished the last season in contender form, so using this logic they should win the league. Anybody expect that? not really unless you are an Arsenal fan of course. No I am pleased to say that this season is an unknown in many ways, how it will all pan is going to be very interesting.
No offence but they simply would NOT. You think Lamela would get to start at City with Aguero, Jovetic, Negredo, Dzeko fighting it out?! Or Paulinho would get a look in ahead of Mata, Oscar, Willian, Lampard, Hazard etc..?? Both Paulinho and Lamela have good potential but neither are what I would call 'Would Class'.
Bradford were Carling Cup finalists and Wigan won the Fa Cup. I don't see either of those squads as having a "winning mentality" or whatever this missing ingredient is supposed to be. I'm not saying Liverpool had no chance of finishing above us, just that it was very unlikely unless their form took a significant up turn or Avb turned out to be a charlatan. You were seeing it the way you wanted though and that's with us being overtaken whilst those above us speed off to a safe distance. As I said, intentional or not you put importance in whatever Spurs don't have because it's an uncomfortable thought. There are reasons I can think up that mean Chelsea won't win the league this year, or that United shouldn't have won it last year but it doesn't mean they have much impact. So theories about previous years cup runs and how many years experience the manager has but ultimately they're not much more accurate reasons for predictions than flipping a coin.
It's all up in the air, it will be a good year for the bookies (as always) Chelsea City Arsenal Spurs Man U. Liverpool Placing them in order right now is pretty much impossible, and that's great for the PL.
I think Lamela could possibly get a game in a wide position for city, and I think Paulinho would be a contender for fat frank's place. If you look at our front 6 options, which include : soldado, defoe, lamela, holtby, paulinho, sandro, capoue, carroll (plus lennon, townsend, dembele, chadli, sigg...) then that's a contest for any squad. we may not have the out and out strike power options city have, or the attacking midfield options chelsea have, but overall it would compete with either squad. we also have 4 quality centre backs and one one of the best keepers in the league.
Willian? his reputation is no better then Paulinhoi, in fact Paulinho is more highly rated in Brazil. As for the players at City, Lamela was just as successful in Italy in Jovetic, even though both top young talents, so of course he could play for city if Jovetic could, anyhow Negredo and Jovetic have both barely featured, no one knows how good they will be yet in this country. As for Dzeko, good sub and will always grab goals, yet hes a donkey overall, bad touch, misses sitters and then scores when coming off the bench. As you can see all the top four have "decent squad players" and I would say overall out of the top teams we actually have the best potential of talent, whats missing for us is that world class player at his peak, yet out of all them names you mentioned most aren't at that level. Aguero is out of favour, but players like Silva, Toure are what make the difference for city. Man Utd have RVP. Chelsea have that overall experience, the world class manager thats been there done it and a wealth of talent and what sets them apart for me is their manager and his ability to pick up points, they can go on a 20 match unbeaten run, barely conceding. Once we manage to create or sign them real top level players, then I can see us being right up there, but this year is a tad too soon IMO.
Why would Lamela be contesting a position with Jovetic, Dzeko and Negredo? They're centre forwards, Lamela is right wing/ inside forward or can be used as a number 10... I don't think he's ever been used as a number 9 before. Paulinho would get into any of the top Prem teams' XI in my opinion. > Cleverly. > Fernandinho. > Ramsey. > Ramires.
I would be very interested to see the other leading team's 1st and 2nd xis compared to ours. is there a way of multiboarding on here to do an article on that ?
Brazils national manager disagrees with you... Since 2011, Willian 2 caps Since 2011, Paulinho 18 caps Of the Chelsea players you name, 4 of them don't even play in his position! Lampard is the only one, so why bring the rest up?? For City you name strikers to compare Lamela to, have you got the right bloke?? "The Argentine notched 15 league goals in 33 appearances - hugely impressive particularly given the miserly reputation Serie A carries. This haul would have been welcome for many a wily striker, let alone a wiry, fledgling midfielder. Yet this is part of Lamelaâs appeal. At 6ft tall, he is yet another member of the new breed of wide forward â fast, direct, and with an ability to win a match single-handed." Do you have any understanding whatsoever of football?
Disagree there, IMO he would walk into any team in the PL maybe even ahead of Paulinho and I know its your own opinion but why do you think Suarez is the best striker in the PL ahead of RVP, Aguero, Negredo, among others
I have!!! I watch Ajax regularly, Eriksen is a gem of a player. Mate have a look at our transfer thread(s) over the past 18 months or so, I rarely stopped banging on about him (as did Roo). He's a player I rate massively.
