Title Run In

[Jase 43,479]

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admits it will be hard to catch leaders Chelsea

[kellzfresh 7,226]

Just seen Chelsea have more points this season (63) than in the same stage in 2009-10 when we won the double under Carlo (61)

Exactly! Comparing our squad now to what Ancelloti had, my goodness mourinho has done a fantastic job. Who would have imagined that if we win 8 of our last 10 games we would be finishing with 87 points we never got anywhere near that in the past 4 seasons.

I still think its City to lose. They will leave UCL, so they must win the PL. Its a long season, and the "we are playing bad, but keep winning" wont last forever.

On the positive side, manutd won the title so many times playing shit for 80mins and scoring 3 in last 10mins.

No one complained about that though.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I still think its City to lose. They will leave UCL, so they must win the PL. Its a long season, and the "we are playing bad, but keep winning" wont last forever.

I'll throw this out there now....City can beat Barcelona. Away from home, nothing to lose, Aguero back, Toure out to prove a point and Barca nowhere near the team they were last season could all combine to give City a great European night.

City can score two goals in the Nou Camp but it's whether they can keep it tidy at the back that's the issue.

I actually think that Wigan might be able to get a draw in the Cup game if City rest players and focus on the Barca game (which they absolutely should). Barca have a match away to Valladolid before that which could be a potential banana skin.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

That cup win yesterday, especially the way they came back, will be a huge psychological boost for City.

[Special Juan 27,111]

Points in the bag> Games in hand.

We just need to keep plugging away.

[magic weeds 446]

This is the only moment I am wishing for United to play Well and actually win a game. They should win against Pool and City.

[different level 1,056]

So far we have 63 points with 28 games played

Just for comparison I gathered our points tallies in the last 10 seasons after the same amount of matches. I'll let you make your own conclusions, but just look at Jose's only three full seasons with with us. Coincidence? I think not.

2012/13 - 52 pts

2011/12 - 49 pts

2010/11 - 51 pts

2009/10 - 61 pts

2008/09 - 57 pts

2007/08 - 61 pts

2006/07 - 63 pts

2005/06 - 72 pts

2004/05 - 71 pts

2003/04 - 61 pts

[edetarod 2,155]

So far we have 63 points with 28 games played

Just for comparison I gathered our points tallies in the last 10 seasons after the same amount of matches. I'll let you make your own conclusions, but just look at Jose's only three full seasons with with us. Coincidence? I think not.

2012/13 - 52 pts

2011/12 - 49 pts

2010/11 - 51 pts

2009/10 - 61 pts

2008/09 - 57 pts

2007/08 - 61 pts

2006/07 - 63 pts

2005/06 - 72 pts

2004/05 - 71 pts

2003/04 - 61 pts

[Rmpr 8,977]

So far we have 63 points with 28 games played

Just for comparison I gathered our points tallies in the last 10 seasons after the same amount of matches. I'll let you make your own conclusions, but just look at Jose's only three full seasons with with us. Coincidence? I think not.

2012/13 - 52 pts

2011/12 - 49 pts

2010/11 - 51 pts

2009/10 - 61 pts

2008/09 - 57 pts

2007/08 - 61 pts

2006/07 - 63 pts

2005/06 - 72 pts

2004/05 - 71 pts

2003/04 - 61 pts

The conclusion is that nothing of what you posted really matters.

The important thing is to know how far behind or ahead Chelsea were in comparisson to our opponents. It doesnt matter that we have 63 if City and Liverpool are less than a game behind!

63 points tied with City (assuming they win both their games) is worse than 60 points where the second has 55, for instance...

[BlueLion. 21,491]

26 more points will win us the title. Time to be confident and believe.

[different level 1,056]

The conclusion is that nothing of what you posted really matters.

The important thing is to know how far behind or ahead Chelsea were in comparisson to our opponents. It doesnt matter that we have 63 if City and Liverpool are less than a game behind!

63 points tied with City (assuming they win both their games) is worse than 60 points where the second has 55, for instance...

On theory, yes. But show me one season where that was the case. Of course the numbers don't show everything, but you can't deny the progress in comparison with the last 3 seasons. Also I don't think it's just a fluke that the last time we reached that amount and more at the same stage of the season was with Jose.

[Rmpr 8,977]

On theory, yes. But show me one season where that was the case. Of course the numbers don't show everything, but you can't deny the progress in comparison with the last 3 seasons. Also I don't think it's just a fluke that the last time we reached that amount and more at the same stage of the season was with Jose.

No, because, like I said previously, having 63 points doesnt mean anything in the end if your opponents are closer to you than when you had 59-60-61 points. It only counts if you compare the amount of points our rivals also had. Then we will be able to analyse it and trully compare how well we are doing...

But whatever, it is nice to see we are doing much better than in the past 3 seasons or so!

[Rmpr 8,977]

26 more points will win us the title. Time to be confident and believe.

I believe 22 points is enough (W7 D1 L2).

I dont think we need to go as high as 89 points in order to win the league. All teams are dropping points, 84-85 will definitely do!

[Barbara 15,149]

That cup win yesterday, especially the way they came back, will be a huge psychological boost for City.

It seems I'm the only one in the world not to think so.

Sorry winning League Cup - the most mickey mouse of all domestic cups (I only count FA Cup) - against Sunderland, currently in the relegation zone in the Premier League shouldn't give any boost to a team that has to play Barcelona and turn a 2-0 deficit away from home and that has to play against 4 out of the six best teams in the league soon.

Yeah, they're happy, they won the smallest possible trophy that was there (still Arsenal keep evading even this one), but why on Earth this should boost their confidence or affect them psychologically? It's not like they came back against Chelsea, Liverpool or Bayern. They came back against bloody Sunderland in a nearly worthless trophy.

If they can use any psychological boost is turning things around with Barça or winning all their matches that got moved further. I will never get why people magnify and overrate everything City related this season (not exactly what you're doing, but if you go back reading the pages in this very thread, you see how some put them in a special place, supposedly affected positively by irrelevant things and unaffected by major things - such as matches piling up and a squad relatively thin except in the striker position).

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

It seems I'm the only one in the world not to think so.

Sorry winning League Cup - the most mickey mouse of all domestic cups (I only count FA Cup) - against Sunderland, currently in the relegation zone in the Premier League shouldn't give any boost to a team that has to play Barcelona and turn a 2-0 deficit away from home and that has to play against 4 out of the six best teams in the league soon.

Yeah, they're happy, they won the smallest possible trophy that was there (still Arsenal keep evading even this one), but why on Earth this should boost their confidence or affect them psychologically? It's not like they came back against Chelsea, Liverpool or Bayern. They came back against bloody Sunderland in a nearly worthless trophy.

If they can use any psychological boost is turning things around with Barça or winning all their matches that got moved further. I will never get why people magnify and overrate everything City related this season (not exactly what you're doing, but if you go back reading the pages in this very thread, you see how some put them in a special place, supposedly affected positively by irrelevant things and unaffected by major things - such as matches piling up and a squad relatively thin except in the striker position).

Winning a cup will buoy them for sure. Its just whether or not they can ride the emotional high for long enough to see them across the finish line.

Any motivation you can draw from at this point in the season is a positive no matter how "mickey mouse" you consider it to be...

If we finish above City we will be champions of that I have no doubt. We have to win our games but more importantly than that is we need City to slip up and coming from behind to win a cup final is more a positive than a negative. All we can really hope for is fixture congestion and mental fatigue become major factors from here till the end...

[Barbara 15,149]

Winning a cup will buoy them for sure. Its just whether or not they can ride the emotional high for long enough to see them across the finish line.

Any motivation you can draw from at this point in the season is a positive no matter how "mickey mouse" you consider it to be...

If we finish above City we will be champions of that I have no doubt. We have to win our games but more importantly than that is we need City to slip up and coming from behind to win a cup final is more a positive than a negative. All we can really hope for is fixture congestion and mental fatigue become major factors from here till the end...

nah. I think it was just another day at the office for them, with a happy ending, nothing to have a psychological boost they'll certainly need to pass by Barcelona.

The thing is while they're very, very dangerous, people keep downsizing the big challenges they have. I think they should be more worried than us. They're in three competitions and they have a deficit to turn around away from home against one of the most successful teams in this competition in the last decade. Even if they lose to Barça - now that would have an important psychological influence - while everyone else (mostly) has to play another 9 matches after next weekend, they have to play 12 only for the league. They have at least two cup legs (Stoke and Barça) to add to those 12 EPL matches and they don't have that much of depth in defense and defensive midfield (Demichelis!!!!!). Knocks are so likely to happen with such a packed schedule and the smallest slip up can cause them to crumble (didn't they after losing to us?). So while I think they're dangerous, I'm convinced at this point it's as much their title to lose as it is ours (2 weeks ago I thought it was exclusively theirs, now I give 50-50), people seem to overlook their challenges.

They have much more pressure on them and much more on their plate than we do. They have to live up their favorite reputation, everyone's eyes are on them for a while now and only in February - after we beat them - we started dividing the spotlight with them (more like Mourinho dividing it, the media is only now starting to talk about us, until Mou decided to go low profile last week before Everton, they were talking about Arsenal, City, United - no matter what they always talk about United - and Mourinho, not Chelsea).

It was nearly established they're the team to be beaten (something 90% around here seem to believe devotedly), not us. So the pressure is on them. They have to win the two postponed matches they already have and if we beat Tottenham, they also have to win the third one, to pass us all while playing every 3 days, being part of two more competitions and having their squad tired as they don't rotate as much in some positions simply because they can't replace Kompany, Toure, Zabaleta or even Fernandinho and keep the same level.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

nah. I think it was just another day at the office for them, with a happy ending, nothing to have a psychological boost they'll certainly need to pass by Barcelona.

The thing is while they're very, very dangerous, people keep downsizing the big challenges they have. I think they should be more worried than us. They're in three competitions and they have a deficit to turn around away from home against one of the most successful teams in this competition in the last decade. Even if they lose to Barça - now that would have an important psychological influence - while everyone else (mostly) has to play another 9 matches after next weekend, they have to play 12 only for the league. They have at least two cup legs (Stoke and Barça) to add to those 12 EPL matches and they don't have that much of depth in defense and defensive midfield (Demichelis!!!!!). Knocks are so likely to happen with such a packed schedule and the smallest slip up can cause them to crumble (didn't they after losing to us?). So while I think they're dangerous, I'm convinced at this point it's as much their title to lose as it is ours (2 weeks ago I thought it was exclusively theirs, now I give 50-50), people seem to overlook their challenges.

They have much more pressure on them and much more on their plate than we do. They have to live up their favorite reputation, everyone's eyes are on them for a while now and only in February - after we beat them - we started dividing the spotlight with them (more like Mourinho dividing it, the media is only now starting to talk about us, until Mou decided to go low profile last week before Everton, they were talking about Arsenal, City, United - no matter what they always talk about United - and Mourinho, not Chelsea).

It was nearly established they're the team to be beaten (something 90% around here seem to believe devotedly), not us. So the pressure is on them. They have to win the two postponed matches they already have and if we beat Tottenham, they also have to win the third one, to pass us, all while playing every 3 days, being part of two more competitions and having their squad tired as they don't rotate as much in some positions simply because they can't replace Kompany, Toure, Zabaleta or even Fernandinho and keep the same level.

Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about... When you win at this point in the season it will buoy you! Winning is contagious and also great for morale. You don't remember when Chelsea won the title with Jose? How all the players took the Carling cup seriously and used it to spur them onto the title? Its about motivation and finding ways to win which is exactly what they did against Sunderland.

Not sure why you keep mentioning Barca, it was never gonna be an easy run in and without Aguero you can say they were even more underdogs. Europe you need to be lucky, in the EPL you need to be good...

I'm not talking about anything other than City using the cup run to spur them on... It is a good thing for them not a negative.

[dee25 1,044]

nah. I think it was just another day at the office for them, with a happy ending, nothing to have a psychological boost they'll certainly need to pass by Barcelona.

The thing is while they're very, very dangerous, people keep downsizing the big challenges they have. I think they should be more worried than us. They're in three competitions and they have a deficit to turn around away from home against one of the most successful teams in this competition in the last decade. Even if they lose to Barça - now that would have an important psychological influence - while everyone else (mostly) has to play another 9 matches after next weekend, they have to play 12 only for the league. They have at least two cup legs (Stoke and Barça) to add to those 12 EPL matches and they don't have that much of depth in defense and defensive midfield (Demichelis!!!!!). Knocks are so likely to happen with such a packed schedule and the smallest slip up can cause them to crumble (didn't they after losing to us?).

Generally agree, especially with the bolded part. I don't know if a cup final win against Sunderland is another day in the office for City though. Sunderland is like their bogey team and winning a trophy in a final against them will surely lift team morale, particularly at this stage of the season.

Up until now I haven't seriously entertained the thought of us winning the title but you're probably right that it's now 50-50, if we open a 9 point gap from them, then we're favorites imo. Like you said, It's very unlikely they will be able to catch up. A team would have to be very resilient (both physically and mentally) in order to cope with that pressure and I don't think they are.