Title Race

[kev776]

I'm just happy to be still interested in the league in November, normally our season is over by September.

[RedReet]

Also good going into the International break on the back of a decent win. Nothing worse than stewing over a defeat for 2 weeks.

[PTP]

it's unbelievable start to the season though - 3 or 4 teams out of that top 8 at some point are going to fall away a little.

you'd expect it to be southampton and everton and one other but who knows, anything can happen

[Lee]

Also good going into the International break on the back of a decent win. Nothing worse than stewing over a defeat for 2 weeks.

Can't believe how close it is at the top. If we can get through that tricky run in December and still be in a similar position to what we are now then I'll be very confident about finishing top four.

[Sarb]

I remember the days we used to lose before almost every international break. Now we just **** up after them

[RichC]

Can't believe how close it is at the top. If we can get through that tricky run in December and still be in a similar position to what we are now then I'll be very confident about finishing top four.

Completely agree, if we can get ourselves to January in a similar position and get one or two extra players who can put pressure on the starting 11 straight from the off.

It'd be great to see a few sides who you'd expect to challenge for the top 4 faltering in a similar fashion as the weekend just gone.

[Lee]

Completely agree, if we can get ourselves to January in a similar position and get one or two extra players who can put pressure on the starting 11 straight from the off.

It'd be great to see a few sides who you'd expect to challenge for the top 4 faltering in a similar fashion as the weekend just gone.

I know we're only 11 games in, but I genuinely can't remember a time where the top eight has been so close. Looks good though doesn't it, 23 points from the opening 11 games.

A goalscoring midfielder / forward is a must in January. We're doing bloody well so far but we can't rely on Suarez and Sturridge to carry us throughout the season. I imagine Coutinho will start to chip in soon but other than that, we don't have a lot of goal threats in our team.

[RichC]

Neither can I, strange league this one. Sort of feel the real quality at the top has come down allowing the teams below to get much closer in terms of quality.

Yup, you can tell from the sorts of players we were looking at in the Summer that we were looking for that type of player, hopefully if we're still in a good position come January there will be players available who might have not fancied coming here previously that look at us as a viable place to come.

I will say this though with playing two up top you would expect the majority of goals to come from the front two but we could certainly do with some additional fire power to allow for off days that will bound to happen.

[BigChief]

As its mostly a 'friendly international break' (other than Suarez/Uruguay obviously) there's a chance most of the big club players will have pretend injuries (ala Gerrard ). Hopefully, Sturridge etc will not see much action.

That leaves 'secondary big clubs' to have their players blasted out and I'm thinking Everton and Southampton here. Specially with the callups for Lallana, Jay, Baines, etc.

This could be a vital international break for us, one that's always gone against us in the past.

[BigChief]

Oh, and as its the correct thread my signature says it all about what I thought of the race since the summer.

[Lee]

Neither can I, strange league this one. Sort of feel the real quality at the top has come down allowing the teams below to get much closer in terms of quality.

Yup, you can tell from the sorts of players we were looking at in the Summer that we were looking for that type of player, hopefully if we're still in a good position come January there will be players available who might have not fancied coming here previously that look at us as a viable place to come.

I will say this though with playing two up top you would expect the majority of goals to come from the front two but we could certainly do with some additional fire power to allow for off days that will bound to happen.

Good point about the two up top.

Yep, you can see why Rodgers was looking at Costa and Mkhtarian (ffs ****ing name that is) to add goals to the team.

Then again, we have Aspas coming back soon.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

I think you are using hindsight to pick our ‘tricky’ fixtures to emphasise your point.

Villa were on the back of a big morale boosting win against Arsenal and we beat them at their place. If we’d have dropped points there it would have been seen as a tricky fixture.

Even though we were expected the beat Sunderland, they had just sacked DiCanio which often gets a positive reaction from the players.

Even Stoke at home, we always struggle against them so again was in no way straightforward.

I think it is you who is using hindsight mate, before the season started no way would you have called Villa away a tough game. Swansea away is always tough as is Arsenal and United at home that's 3 of my games, Southampton I said given the way they have started and Newcastle I personally think they have a decent team and last season they struggled because of the EL.

I'll also add you don't become a title winning side because you beat Stoke at home and Villa away those are the type of games you'd need to be winning as a starting point, we haven't been winning those games and we've been finishing miles behind 4th. So winning those will improve our chances of finishing 4th but to win the league you have to do better in the tougher games, picking up points home and away.

Anyway for me before the season I'd have sighted Arsenal, Swansea, Newcastle and United as our toughest fixtures and we have only won 1 of those, I threw Southampton in there based on how well they have started so I think my point stands.

[RedReet]

I think it is you who is using hindsight mate, before the season started no way would you have called Villa away a tough game. Swansea away is always tough as is Arsenal and United at home that's 3 of my games, Southampton I said given the way they have started and Newcastle I personally think they have a decent team and last season they struggled because of the EL.

Anyway for me before the season I'd have sighted Arsenal, Swansea, Newcastle and United as our toughest fixtures and we have only won 1 of those, I threw Southampton in there based on how well they have started so I think my point stands.

The same Villa who stuffed us at home last year? It's a game we should be expecting to win, but it's still a tricky fixture, especially under the circumstances.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

The same Villa who stuffed us at home last year? It's a game we should be expecting to win, but it's still a tricky fixture, especially under the circumstances.

You're cherry picking.

The same Villa that we played AWAY this year and beat 1-0 and played AWAY last year and also won 2-1.

In the EXACT fixtures we have picked up 4 more points, we have won 1 game that before the season started I personally would have said 'that's a tough game' to win the title you need to do more than that.

We have already lost 2 games and we still have to play;

Chelsea (h) & (a)
Tottenahm (h) & (a)
Everton (h) & (a)
City (h) & (a)
United (a)
Arsenal (h)

To even consider the title we have to do a lot better against the bigger sides, especially now there are more of them. That's 10 games there with 5 of them being away and using hindsight you'd have to include Southampton and make that 6 very tough away games left. IF we don't start winning some of those games how can we even entertain a title challenge, lets just be realistic. We've improved, we are scoring more, we don't have the Europa League as a distraction and teams are struggling to frustrate us. That's good enough for me and I'm happy to be in the mix for top 4.. I've heard people calling us **** this year because we don't win at Swansea or Arsenal but they're probably the same people who think we're challenging for the league.

[Darkon]

Neither can I, strange league this one. Sort of feel the real quality at the top has come down allowing the teams below to get much closer in terms of quality.

Yup, you can tell from the sorts of players we were looking at in the Summer that we were looking for that type of player, hopefully if we're still in a good position come January there will be players available who might have not fancied coming here previously that look at us as a viable place to come.

I will say this though with playing two up top you would expect the majority of goals to come from the front two but we could certainly do with some additional fire power to allow for off days that will bound to happen.

I'd rather argue it's down to every single PL club having tons of money because of the TV-deals. It's ridiculous amount that even the mid to bottom table teams have to spend. Look at the quality teams like Southampton, Norwich, Swansea, Cardiff etc. have managed to bring in. There is genuinly few teams that seems to lack any sort of quality player and it's made it increasingly hard to get the 'easy' points - or the lack of and hence a more tight top of the league.

Another thing is the manager changes at the top-3 clubs last year, that have impacted a lot as well and I suspect at least 2 of them getting a lot better in the coming months.