2023/24 - The Race For..................

[bomberH]

December is massive for us. 7 PL games in 4 weeks,of which are at home.

City A
West Ham H
Newcastle H
Forest A
Everton H
Brighton A
Bournemouth H

Some tough games in there but also potentially we could win 5/6. If Maddison gets injured against City then it makes the rest a lot harder. Basically 2 games a week throughout the month and it will test our squad massively.

I’m hoping for Leicester luck, I don’t think they got any major injuries that whole season they won the league.

If we can still be top 4 by end of November then come away with a good December, not losing against our top 4 rivals like Newcastle and Brighton, add a couple of key players in January, then there’s no reason we can’t challenge for top 2 or 3. Big ask but doable for sure.

Edited to 4 games at home because I can’t count. .

 

[Mr Pink]

To be honest I am just enjoying the ride. I think City will end up winning it, but we should be well in the fight for 2nd.

Agreed.

I think we've a great chance at second if we can keep most of our key guys fit.

 

[EQP]

December is massive for us. 7 PL games in 4 weeks, 5 of which are at home.

City A
West Ham H
Newcastle H
Forest A
Everton H
Brighton A
Bournemouth H

Some tough games in there but also potentially we could win 5/6. If Maddison gets injured against City then it makes the rest a lot harder. Basically 2 games a week throughout the month and it will test our squad massively.

I’m hoping for Leicester luck, I don’t think they got any major injuries that whole season they won the league.

If we can still be top 4 by end of November then come away with a good December, not losing against our top 4 rivals like Newcastle and Brighton, add a couple of key players in January, then there’s no reason we can’t challenge for top 2 or 3. Big ask but doable for sure.

Add to that, we have another international break in November, which could seriously impact our season if certain players get injured on duty. I'm excited to see how it all plays out but I'm also nervous that we'll run into a stretch of bad luck as the fixtures begin to pile up.

 

[Cochise]

I think it is the games against Newcastle, Villa, Brighton and West Ham which will tell us more about the team. Those clubs are near enough our level, not part of the established elite but well run and pushing hard to make Europe every year the norm.

 

[Hotspur88]

December is massive for us. 7 PL games in 4 weeks, 5 of which are at home.

City A
West Ham H
Newcastle H
Forest A
Everton H
Brighton A
Bournemouth H

Some tough games in there but also potentially we could win 5/6. If Maddison gets injured against City then it makes the rest a lot harder. Basically 2 games a week throughout the month and it will test our squad massively.

I’m hoping for Leicester luck, I don’t think they got any major injuries that whole season they won the league.

If we can still be top 4 by end of November then come away with a good December, not losing against our top 4 rivals like Newcastle and Brighton, add a couple of key players in January, then there’s no reason we can’t challenge for top 2 or 3. Big ask but doable for sure.

4 of which are at home.

 

[Tucker]

December is massive for us. 7 PL games in 4 weeks, 5 of which are at home.

City A
West Ham H
Newcastle H
Forest A
Everton H
Brighton A
Bournemouth H

Some tough games in there but also potentially we could win 5/6. If Maddison gets injured against City then it makes the rest a lot harder. Basically 2 games a week throughout the month and it will test our squad massively.

I’m hoping for Leicester luck, I don’t think they got any major injuries that whole season they won the league.

If we can still be top 4 by end of November then come away with a good December, not losing against our top 4 rivals like Newcastle and Brighton, add a couple of key players in January, then there’s no reason we can’t challenge for top 2 or 3. Big ask but doable for sure.

That’s a month of heroes if ever there was one. We need to maintain our form going into December first though.

 

[sundanceyid10]

It’s been highly entertaining this season, I say end it now and all clubs just except the league position they are stuck with.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Add to that, we have another international break in November, which could seriously impact our season if certain players get injured on duty. I'm excited to see how it all plays out but I'm also nervous that we'll run into a stretch of bad luck as the fixtures begin to pile up.

Yea even with no europe our squad is pretty thin on quality, an injury to one of the CB’s or Son and Maddison and we will look a pretty different team but let’s enjoy the ride.

 

[panoma]

Surely the race has to be for winning the league at this point.

We don't have any european distractions and play some proper stuff this year.

If our first team stay healthy we should be in the mix for the league.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Surely the race has to be for winning the league at this point.

We don't have any european distractions and play some proper stuff this year.

If our first team stay healthy we should be in the mix for the league.

We have a long run in the FA Cup that could be a distraction starting in January. And, we are not a very deep squad. We should be lucky to make it through December still within a shout.

 

[soflapaul]

probably best not to get ahead of ourselves. there has been some lovely stuff but we have gotten some breaks. need to get to January relatively injury free and pick up a few players then to add squad depth and scoring. would like another CB to be honest

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Surely the race has to be for winning the league at this point.

We don't have any european distractions and play some proper stuff this year.

If our first team stay healthy we should be in the mix for the league.

I think we’ll get a few injuries to key areas and our results will eventually suffer but yea why not dream. City don’t look as good as last season (normal the season after a treble), Woolwich don’t look at it and have CL, Liverpool look better but VAR hates them, this feels like one of those seasons like the Leicester & Chelsea title chases where we are absolutely clicking and so aligned and the rest of the league aren’t quite at so there is a sniff of a title chance.

To Dare is to dream.

Still very early days but this is very different to when we were top under Jose for example, with Ange we are actually playing well and dominating games and showing amazing spirit and we have no European football.

 

[dontcallme]

For the 1st time since peak Poch we have a functioning spine.

Vicario has been excellent, Romero and VDV superb defensively and on the ball, Bissouma and Sarr winning the midfield battles and Maddison playing as well as any playmaker in the league.

Without European football, if one of our strikers can step up, anything is possible.

 

[zicomerc]

0 (0) Fulham
-2 (0) Crystal Palace
+4 (1) Chelsea
-2 (0) Wolvehampton Wanderers
+1 (3) Aston Villa
+2 (3) Manchester City
0 (5) West Ham United
0 (5) Newcastle United
0 (0) Nottingham Forest
0 (1/2) Everton
0 (5) Brighton Hove Albion
0 (1/2) Bournemouth

Our remaining games of 2023, the first number indicates how much rest advantage in days we have over our opponents, and the second number in brackets is how many extra games our opponents would have played before we play them.

 

[Styopa]

We have a long run in the FA Cup that could be a distraction starting in January. And, we are not a very deep squad. We should be lucky to make it through December still within a shout.

The FA Cup is different to Europe though because whole weekends are dedicated to it. The Premier League is postponed for the week, which makes it different in terms of weekly preparation than the mid-week/weekend cycle of being in Europe.

I know the deeper into the comp the more PL matches have to be rescheduled etc but it’s still minor in terms of weekly disruption compared to being in Europe. Especially now there are no replays from the 5th round onwards.

 

[Mr Pink]

I believe we would be in a title race if Richarlison stepped up.

Not meaning to pin everything on him, obviously.

But if he could just hit that higher level, we'd be destroying most teams I think.

I love his fight, just would love to see him with more composure in front of goal.

 

[SUIYHA]

City will win the league. 2nd and 3rd will be Liverpool and Arsenal (could go either way). The way I see it - we are currently leading a mini-league against Newcastle, Brighton, Villa, Chelsea and Man Utd for the final CL spot.

Good chance of getting there but still a long way to go and lots of potential things that could go wrong.

If we were in the current position in April/May then I might want City to drop points against Arsenal, until then it's an absolute no brainer - I hope they batter them. Arsenal can go top today with a two goal win.

 

[dontcallme]

I believe we would be in a title race if Richarlison stepped up.

Not meaning to pin everything on him, obviously.

But if he could just hit that higher level, we'd be destroying most teams I think.

I love his fight, just would love to see him with more composure in front of goal.

Agree. As per my post above we are a high performing striker away from being able to compete at the very top without European football.

If Son was at his peak we’d be unreal right now.

 

[Hotspur88]

No Saka today for Arsenal.

 

[Gedi]

Pl stitched us up with next game on Monday followed by game Friday

It sounds worse than it is. Yes we have a couple of less days rest than Palace (in the Friday game?) but the rest for us is no shorter than Wednesday to Sunday fixtures. We also then get an extra 4 days rest the following match on our MNF game against Chelsea.