Not had that thought I a bloody hope it doesn't happen too! I'm not going to go on about a certain player being a liability as I'm fed up of saying it. However, I do think our back line needs consistency. If that means that player playing week-in-week-out then so be it. With this being Man City, I'd prefer to go with a back line that has been playing together for a couple of weeks rather than changing it. I actually think it could be a high scoring game because we don't do defending in numbers, our defence is possession and attack. We'll have plenty of energy in the middle of the park, the defence hasn't been too bad bar set-pieces and we have the best forward in the league at the moment so we are by no means guaranteed to lose IMO. However, I think we will. I've gone for 3-1
Obviously, I never want us to lose, but I wouldn't be overly pissed off about losing so long as we play well. You expect to lose some games during the season and games away to the likes of Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea are the most likely, especially considering their home records.
Aguero being out is fortunate for you. In fact Spurs away right at the depths of their trough was fortunate for you too. Chelsea away before they can buy a striker is fortunate too. Maybe this IS your year?? :S
Cor all that luck! Must have had a lot of bad luck Arsenal over the past 8 years! Maybe its your year?
False position me tells ya, we should be sitting 10th at the highest. Second most goals this season, all bloody flukes! I hope this luck sticks with us so we can get the 4 points we need to avoid relegation before the season finishes. The way we're playing, I doubt it, the luck will wear off soon.
As I said above, I'm not convinced that would be a bad thing. It would keep us grounded whilst still not being that far off the pace; six points is the maximum assuming Arsenal win both and we lose both. Obviously, it would be better if we were still top though.
We have 2 very difficult fixtures and if we lose both and teams around us win then yes we will be outside the top 4 trying to get back in. The team have to look at the table and realise what these 2 games mean to our season. There has been half joking talk of a title challenge and most of us see it as just a dream and not reality surely the big money squads will eventually overtake us. If we win the next 2 games then we will be considered title contenders, some will scoff at that but lets see football can be strange and City are well due a loss at their ground and a win there will give us a huge boost in confidence going to Chelsea. It's all what ifs at the moment but on Boxing Day we will see how that first challenge goes.
Why do people keep talking about how City are this amazing team clearing up all competitions in their path and winning every game 5-0? From what I can see, they're behind us meaning their record overall is worse than ours. Away or home, who gives a ****, they're beatable. On paper they are the best in the league yet their form says otherwise. That means they either believe their own hype and are complacent, they bottle it and can't keep a run of form going, or people believe their hype and go to the Etihad expecting a loss. They have gaping holes in their defense and midfield but are dangerous in attack. Same as us but at least we're confident in our keeper. Said it before, it's all about mentality. Being away or home makes no difference other than if you let it intimidate you. They'll play more attacking because they're more confident there, but that means there's more space for us to get at them. If we play our normal game, no reason why we can't win. That's what these sport psychologists earn their money to do, get you to shut out the environment and play to your strengths.
we win both ways for me, obviously points would be better and a result against City and Chelsea for confidence etc, but if that dont happen we will be out the talk of title malarky and get on and just get the job done for top 4 finish without the title talk raising expectations and hope.
if everyone we beat is just luck and playing them at the right time but city are unbeatable then how come they lost so many this year inexplicably. boxing day game... you never know who will want it more.
They will probably only play 1 striker due to Aguero being injured so 3 at the back is a bad idea as they will then win the midfield battle. Just play an unchanged team.
Yes, unchanged. And by that, I mean Sakho and Skrtel at the back. Quite a few have been on about changing it, but it wasn't long ago when we were calling for consistency with our defence selection.
Reports are that Flanagan didn't train today and will miss the City game at the least. So I can see us going with Johnson at LB and Kelly starting. I don't love it, Kelly has really struggled to get back to his best but it probably beats playing Cissokho! That said I might still prefer Agger at LB, although his lack of pace really gets exploited there.
