You see and hear a lot of our fans playing down our season by saying we aren't title challengers, which I myself agree with. BUT then I thought........ There is a very good chance we will be top of the league on 25th December - how can we possibly not be challenging for the title if this is the case? Don't get me wrong, if I had to put a £1,000 on a team to win it, then my money would be going on City but just interested to see what other peoples views are on this? If we are top and have a Sturridge/Coutinho type January...... Fairy tale ending?
The "title race" doesn't exist in my mind until the last third of the season. If we're still second at that point, then we're title challengers for sure in my mind. But there's a way to go yet. and we have to repeat what we've just done this season again + longer!
We won't be challenges for the title. We do not have the squad to sustain a thirty-eight game season so inevitably we will have a bad spell at some point. It is about managing that slump and limiting the damage it could cause so that we are still in with as good shout as possible for the top four. However, as far as the players, coaches and BR are concerned, we should be aiming for the absolute best from every game and, in turn, believing we can not only mount a title challenge, but actual win it. If we aim high and fail we are still likely to achieve a happy ending. Aim for top four and fail...
That's interesting. So by game 24, if we are just a few points off then we can look back next season and say "in 2013-2014 season we challenged for the title"?
A draw against Cardiff and two away wins still gets seven points. He saying if we don't lose and only drop points in one game, we have done incredibly well and everyone is entitled to start getting carried away
The old cliche of you can't win a title in December but you can lose one. Well we haven't lost it yet. Last two games of first half are perfect litmus test. We've matched those two all season, let's say it plays out in similar fashion second half; well then the results against them will see us above or below them come May. (Dont forget Arsenal!) Table says we''re currently contenders but more comes into play in the final third of the season. We have an incredibly young team that as a group have never had that final run in pressure. Same goes with the manager.
The team top on Christmas day never wins it so obviously being top will just be a sign of #naivety and weakness from us
see where we are come March April time, if we are still having this conversation then, then yes we would have to be serious title contenders. Arsenal are always mentioned every year as contenders because of where they are in the league, but it goes pete tong for them towards the end of each season. if we can come out this dodgy period with some healthy points to show for it and buy or have money to spend in Jan on some quality, then who knows.