On the points highlighted, it's fair to say Livpl, Utd, Chelsea could go without titles for that 3/4 seasons, but if those clubs improve enough then it doesn't necessarily mean City will pick up all the titles inbetween. Some combination of league titles between Livpl, United, Chelsea, Arsenal (and City) for 3/4/5 seasons and longer is achievable.
It’s possible. No one knows and that’s why makes the new season exciting as everyone starts on a clean slate. But history suggests that city need an off year or another team need an incredible year to beat them. And at the moment I can’t see city having an off season for 2/3 years in a row. It hasn’t happened yet under pep and now they’ve won the CL, there’s not that focus on it as much where they may end up taking their eye off the league. Either way, it’s down to everyone to do their own thing. Win 38 games and no one is stopping you winning the title. The title is always in every clubs hands from day 1
Not just another team, but a number of teams/clubs need to up their game. Nobody (apart from Livpl) have played anywhere near good enough to deserve to win the league. That would apply even if there was no Man City. Seriously, can we honestly look at Chelsea, United, Arsenal and say they could've competed with any side that was winning league titles over the past 40 years??? Not one. What also happens when the bigger clubs improve is the results in that mini-league between the top 6 become far more unpredictable. The season you pushed them all the way and fell short was as much down to the others not being able to compete against City or Livpl as anything else. Every season, the results between United, Arsenal, Chelsea against both City and Livpl are predictable as fck. When that happens it's City whose the winner all day long.
Pep Guardiola, 3 Champions League titles in 13 seasons as a coach, after spending 2 billion pounds. ESPN: "The best coach of all time.” Zidane, 3 Champions Leagues in 4 seasons as coach after spending 30M. ESPN: "LUCKY”
If you ignore seasons where City won the title, Arsenal's 84 points would have been enough to win in about 40% of all seasons since Div 1 got replaced by Premier League. So most seasons that wouldn't have been enough to win, but for a sizable minority it would.
Closed my tables now... But obviously a lot fewer... Because we're well in the depths of oil sponsored clubs when you look at more recent years.
So since City's first title, Arsenals 84pts would have won the title once. 2015/16 Leicester 81 Prior to that 2010/11 Man U 80 2002/03 Man U 83 2000/01 Man U 80 98/99 Man U 79 97/98 Arsenal 78 96/97 Man U 75 95/96 Man U 82 92/93 Man U 84 (Arsenals GD is better) 9 out of 31 in total: 29% However before City that would have been 8 out of 19: 42% And after 1 out of 12: 8% Feels like the point at which Chelsea gain their money was the key turning point for needing 90 points or the very high 80s to win the league. (also that Man U seem to have won the league with fairly low points hauls on a number of occasions)
2 of those wins were also courtesy of him inheriting through the Barca youth team arguably the best ever player
so ignoring totally the ancient history period before rampant doping there was 1 occasion in 12 years which coincided with the final year of pelligrini and a city team totally disengaged. so arsenal point total was really not enough to compete with city and its doping. why compare the doping era with the merely rich Premier league era or the 1980s era either?
Well iniesta really was that good. but xavi and busquets were not too shabby either. there was some midget lad as well.
Well Milk posed the idea that Arsenal's 84 would have won them them title in about 40% of PL seasons, turns out this was wrong as it's 29%. However by comparing the pre and post oil era you can see that it is the 12 year period we're in now that is dragging that percentage down, 42% pre and only 8% post. Proving that what was once good enough before is no longer now. Yet more proof that keeping up and beating the likes of City is statistically alot more difficult than the past.
If you're looking at one club in isolation then yes it's a lot more difficult. But you also have to look deeper and ask why lower scoring points tallies were winning the league before? And that's because clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Liverpool at various stages throughout the past 40 years were able to take points off each other. What we've had for the past 5/6 years is two teams doing extremely well - on its own that's no different to the past 25 yrs BUT what's been different is the rest have been well well below par and they've not taken points off the top 2 which also impacts on the points tally for the top two. Money/spending may well have increased but the quality of the football and level of competition from top 6 teams outside the top 2 has decreased.
When you compare past winning points to present you also have to take into account past survival points compared to present. For a long time the accepted "safety" level was 40 points, this season you had to go all the way up to 14th to see 40 points. Is the top end of the table getting better/harder or is the bottom end getting weaker making the top points artificially higher.
again doping distorts the competition. very simple. massive reality check is needed here. neymar to psg, an oil doper club, for 200million as a massive look as us moment. Barca in desperation to appease fans buy coutinho for 140mil. Well guess what? lfc now get alisson and vvd and fabinho and make a leap forward. guess what then happens. lfc are temporarily able to do something but it can't be sustained as the club can't afford to keep it up. this is the reality of doping in the sport. the state of football overall is not about which club but it is down to this. fans are now absolutely treated like ****. be it games on TV at times impossible to get home from or be able to go to work the day after, be it major final debacle, be it massive costs to go or rampant other ways to be exploited. football is no longer for ordinary people really. the only time most city fans will have seen their players live is in a drunken celebration with the 12 other city fans that attend along with the out of towers and utd fans in disguise.
