That Chelsea side was stronger than the current City side because they had Jose, who is a FAR better coach than Mancini. We might have gone out to Bayern in the last 16, but City got dumped out in the bloody group stages and then went on and got knocked out of the Europa league too.
I think it's a little too early to compare sides with this current City one. This next season should be a better indicator as they would have settled down more and got used to the Premiership. Either way, City is the team to beat and Man U and Chelsea have acknowledged this by buying up some quality players.
?? Man U got outclassed twice against a Bilbao side that made it to the Europa League final but finished 10th in La Liga. Was the English league anything but a 2 horse race ? Was last season any different ? Real Madrid had an exceptional season hence their record breaking total points tally of 100 for the season, Barca finished on 91 and they didn't exactly have a bad season. The also rans in Spain included unliklies like Malaga and Levante. The level across the English league may have closed but the standard at the top has dropped.
The 07/08 team was worthy of the EPL. We looked so comfortable for almost 3/4 of the season, and then: DDDDLWDL. Bottled it hard.
Also, while I generally say that we would be worse off without Wenger in the current circumstances, it is really hard not to attribute most of the blame to him for the failures of 07/08. We went completely spineless at a critical time of the season and lost an incredible amount of points against lower sides. It was his duty to step up and convey the importance of the situation to everyone. Hard to imagine someone like Mourinho bottling it to that extent in the same circumstances.
True. But looking at your points totals from 05-10, they are 83 67 68 72 83 75. City got 90 points this season I think. Big difference
Points totals are relative - they should be compared with the winners and those around us during that season. The winner in 05 had 95 points, the winner in 06 had 91 points - so Arsenal were considerably further off the pace in 06 than 05, but there were some seasons where a low total wouldn't have yielded as big a gap to Man City's total this season
The 07/08 team was just better in almost every way compared to those that came after it, especially in quality and depth. Whereas we probably overachieved this season with the squad we had; we got lucky with players like Arteta and Benayoun adapting so well and Rosicky stepping up later in the season. (in retrospect it might be easy to say that these players have qualities, but no one expected them to have such an impact when the season started)
No mate, you said.. To which I replied I never claimed Chelsea are better than they used to be. I was saying I think the overall League is stronger.
I also think that team 07-08 was the best we've had since 2004. But that kind of proves the point I was making earler. It has'nt been constant decline since 2005 it's been up and down. (and the slumps normally followed the sale of major players)
Rubbish - we were good until February. No way that team was better than the 05 or 06 teams. Chelsea in 05 and 06 were machines, they were phenomenal and Man U were not too shabby either for going toe to toe with them. All 3 teams have gone backwards since then, which is why Liverpool missed the boat when Benitez had the chance to win the title but blew it, cos we were all relatively sh!t that season .. and have steadily gotten worse.
