A chance

[Chazza]

Citys next four games before they play us:-

Sunday, 31 January 2010
Barclays Premier League
Man City v Portsmouth, 13:30

Saturday, 6 February 2010
Barclays Premier League
Hull v Man City, 15:00

Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Barclays Premier League
Man City v Bolton, 19:45

Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Barclays Premier League
Stoke v Man City, 19:45

6 Points from the 2 home games, would expect them to beat Hull and Stoke could get a draw

We need to get some points ahead to put the pressure on before they play Portsmouth

[Spionkop69]

I'm game if you are. What are the odds? I want to know if this will pay for my holiday this year.

And I disagree about winning all of our games. I think there will be sufficient ****-uppery in Manchester and London to enable us to draw a couple. We just need to make sure we take points off Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and City.

I've been backing us in small amounts to win the league this year (from profit from other bets) and IF we do win, then I'm on for a very tidy sum from less than a £100 outlay. I'll have to check but at one point I've backed us at 100/1 on Betfair, and I think the lowest was in the 30's/1.

If we come back into it and the price comes down, I should be able to lay it off a bit to guarantee some profit.

[Guest]

I like the cut of your jib Rowan. :rockon:

[Ben_Itez]

My boss is a big City fan and when i asked him about their easy run when Mancini took over he said they had a run of 10 winnable games. However, i think they have a really tough run in playing practically all of the top 7 (bar us) in their last 10 games.

[dww]

The thing is I don't expect Bolton for either us or them to be an easy game and Stoke while they can be vulnerable also have the capacity to cause problems. This year every game counts as winnable for any half decent team if you ask me. The problem is that along with that lower teams also fancy their chances which means that unlike previous seasons there are less occasions where one early goal guarantees you the match more or less.

I think City's lack of cohesion and experience having to put together a winning run under pressure will count against them. Only really Tevez has had to do that before in their squad. I guess that is why they bought Vieira.

[Mattshark]

It was more of the fact that so much was made about their main men going to African Nations and how they would struggle, yet they scored 7 for the first time in their Premiership history. Didn’t see match so can’t comment on how bad Sunderland were, but very few teams could lose their top scorer and best player as well as others and put seven past Premiership opposition.

Yeah, but we got the champions league's biggest win when Torres was unavailable for us.

[Armchairkopite]

I wont stop believeing until it becomes impossible.

Right now we have the resources to win the league based on the fact that the champions league and fa cup are out of the picture.

The reason behind this is because Rafa will be planning every game to a tee and he will have the players at a high physica level.
Other reasons are-
We always finish strongly
Maxi will give us something different and has proven quality
Aquiliani is startig to ooze quality
Ngog & Lucas have developed nicely through the season.
Torres and Gerrard haven't even started playing yet.

Sure its near impossible BUT if any team can do it its LFC.

[The_weatherman]

My boss is a big City fan and when i asked him about their easy run when Mancini took over he said they had a run of 10 winnable games. However, i think they have a really tough run in playing practically all of the top 7 (bar us) in their last 10 games.

Which kind of highlights that Hughes didn't stand a chance - they decided to sack him long ago IMO. He would have won these games as well, I think.

[Rowan]

Well if we win them all, we finish on 85. If we draw two and win the rest, it'll be 81.

Do you think 81 would win us the league?

I think it could be close to that, but i'm reckoning on a couple more. Maybe 84.

I stand by my view that we'll need to win every single game. And we wont do that IMO.

Oh ye of little faith. Looking at the table the averages would suggest that (on form so far this year) 80 points could win the league. The top teams still have to play each other again and I would fancy us against both Utd and Chelsea. The one I'm less sure about us beating is Arsenal but, again, think if we play like we did last night we could put them away as well.

I'm also convinced that there are more points to be dropped. Villa and Spurs are genuine threats and have demonstrated that they can perform against the top side but the teams lower in the league are demonstrating year after year that they are becoming more 'defensively astute'. I can see Utd increasingly struggle to get wins against teams (in the same way that we struggled last year). and think we can definitely haul them back. I also remain convinced that Arsenal will collapse at some point and history would indicate that will be fairly soon.

So that in mind it's all about what Chelsea do. As I've said earlier I've nothing but a gut feeling to back this up but i really believe we are going to go on one hell of a run and I hope that may just unsettle them a bit. If we do, and can get to 81, I think we'll have come damn close.

[frank the tank]

Last season, we only lost 2 games all year in the premier league.

I really would like to see us keep Kuyt up front until Torres is back and then use Ngog as an impact player only.

I would like us to keep Carra at right back until Johnson is fit - not degen in defence please. Degen is actually ok as a winger because he offers the defender some protection but still can get dowm the line himself also (it might actually be an idea to keep degen and play him with Johnson on the right - he could cover for Glen when he is attacking)

I would like to see us keep 2 of Skrtel, Agger and Kyriakos in central defense until carra can return....

I would like to see us keep riera on the left. When Yossi comes back i would like to see him play behind kuyt (if gerrard is unavailable) or else on the right.....

Most of all, i would like to see the fans get behind the team like they did last night. In every game. Even when we aren't playing under the lights. Imagine what we could do to the likes of Bolton, Hull, Burnley etc if the crowd was as intimidating as the game last night. We'd murder about 15 of the 19 teams that come of anfield each season in the first 20 minutes of each game. I would love for the club to come up with an idea to enhance the atmosphere each game........

[Marky]

4th Spurs P22 +18 38
5th Man City P21 +12 38
6th Liverpool P22 +14 37
7th Villa P21 +12 36

Tuesday 26th January
Wolves v Liverpool
Spurs v Fulham

Wednesday 27th January
Villa v Arsenal

Saturday 30th January
Birmingham v Spurs
Fulham v Villa
Liverpool v Bolton

Fulham are no mugs and will put up a fight at Spurs. They then put their good home record up against Villa - Craven Cottage is a difficult place to go these days.

Villa play in-form table toppers Arsenal before that, which they wont find easy.

The following week, Spurs go to Birmingham, who are on a record breaking unbeaten run and bang in form. Spurs wont find that easy.

And during that whole time, City dont play until January 31st, when they could go into their game looking up at us, 5 points ahead of them - which will put them under real pressure. Oh - and Villa play Spurs on 6th Feb as well.

All in all, we need to do our business, but with tonight's confidence boosting win (excellent performance too), we have to be looking to win at Wolves and then dispatch Bolton at Anfield.

If we do that, we'll be on a run of 6 wins and 1 draw in our last 7 league games, high on confidence and hopefully, with the others either not playing or facing some very hard games, in a much healthier position.

We have a chance to put ourselves into 4th place within the next 10 days and even just the sight of that, would put enormous pressure on the other three - let's remember, WE are the ones who qualify for the CL every season, not them. We're the ones who know what it takes. We're the ones who have the experience and the bottle.

Next week and half presents us with a chance to show it, and really put down a marker.

As a bonus, by the time we reach the end of January, Yossi should be back, possibly Agger and Johnson too, and Stevie will be close to returning too. This period of injuries is all about the remaining players to step up and do enough to keep us in the race, for the return of some big guns.

Jeezzzzzz, how many of these kind of threads are we going to have?

"Our next 3 games on paper are winable while our rivals for the top 4 could drop points and if they do we're in pole position"

Lets just focus on the Wolves game and take it from there.

[Craig_H]

If you dont like threads like this, fair enough.

What's the need to be antagonistic though? Dont like it, dont read it. Dont post on it. Leave others who want to, to do so.

[Spionkop69]

Jeezzzzzz, how many of these kind of threads are we going to have?
"Our next 3 games on paper are winable while our rivals for the top 4 could drop points and if they do we're in pole position"

Lets just focus on the Wolves game and take it from there.

Anyone know where I can get a stronger ironymeter? The one I've got keeps breaking!

[DannyMan2006]

We will be lucky to finish 4th if we don't bring in another striker. Simple as that. We lack quality out wide and up top when we have injuries.

To have any chance of the title we would need Maxi, Riera and Aquilani to suddenly hit form, buy a striker who has a massive impact, and Gerrard and Torres to come back flying.

But as pointed out above, the fact we are behind three top teams in the race really upsets us. Had we been chasing one it would have been very much on.

[Skillz]

If you dont like threads like this, fair enough.

What's the need to be antagonistic though? Dont like it, dont read it. Dont post on it. Leave others who want to, to do so.

TBF these threads are great. I especially liked you going out on a limb and suggesting we weren't going to every game IYO

I'm liking the optimism though as its been a tough year for us all and it feels good to have confidence in the team again, especially the defence.