Tbf they think we're away on saturday so I'm not sure I'm gonna put much stock in their ramblings.

And if arsenal take even a point on Saturday, city are no longer 1st.

Not getting smashed could become quite important...

The only reasonable response.

It's a good question. I really don't know. It feels like coaching is part of it but equally there have been huge numbers of injuries across the league so it maybe just the sheer amount of football being played.

It's also worth noting that injuries have really hampered our ability to rotate. Put Merino back in and I think you see better squad management. Same for odegaard etc.

The other thing to bear in mind is that it's easier to muddle through in that upper mid table region. We did it under arteta with an absolutely bollocks squad. Cedric ffs. There's more margin for error. There isn't when you're going for the title.

Pedro was more than either gyokeres or noni and has fewer goals than gyok. Both Mbuemo and cunha cost more and both have scored fewer goals the gyok.

I'm assuming LW is the focus for this summer, but that noni/eze would play there. Then saka odegaard get injured and that dies.

It's kinda crazy that they lost their best defender to injury, so just went and bought the best outside the top 3 without any thought or care. Had a bit of wobble out wide so bought the best winger in the league.

Yeah tbh if we'd kept Kai, odegaard and saka fit, with the signings backing them up I think we'd have been delighted with the business. The injuries have shaped the issues this season, not the signings.

This could be the big one. Bournemouth pushing for Europe.

Say what now? I'm surprised any model has us ahead now. I guess it's because actual points are better than potential points?

No one really talks about how they've spent over 100m more than us in arteta's reign (officially...) . We've replaced the entire squad for that.

We needed a striker and we needed cover for saka. Gyokeres was the cheapest to move. Semenyo didn't want to move in the summer apparently. (I wonder what changed his mind in January...). But I'm not sure you get 2 better players for the same money. Would you prefer sesko but no eze?

Ah fuck. I hadn't seen that. Why give me hope?!?

I think Erik means if you mapped last season's results to this, we'd win out. I'd expect them to be marginally ahead now. But it's basically a coin toss. It'll go to the last day. "bakayoooooooooooo" anyone?

5 lots of 5-0. Easy.

I know they won't but wouldn't it be hilarious if they fell on their face against Burnley.

To add to this, in the time we've fully rebuilt our squad from 8th to title challengers, city have spent over 100m more than us on transfers. As have united, and Chelsea have essentially double the gross spend.

Also worth noting, city have spent more than us this season alone.

Except that the signings for the latter don't happen without the former. The summer was clearly about raising the floor of the squad, not necessarily the ceiling. And it has been a success. We missed them last year and were out of the title race in February. This year, we're top in April.

Yep. I'd add that them saying the two wingers with the most minutes were already here doesn't really tell the whole story as well. Because we have saka, we've not prioritised that area. We've had to compromise because it was unlikely you'd dethrone B. Look at liverpool's right.

We are very capable of scoring 2/3/4 goals in any of our games. The odds probably favour them now but it's 60/40 not 95/5.

Yep and then it's a straight shoot out. My point is we're not behind them. We don't need them to screw up to win it. We need to do better over our final games than they do.

So noni was brought into replace saka? We spent the same on noni as Gyokeres. Gyokeres was never going to get ahead of Kai. Eddie Nketiah had the 14 shirt at one point.

Saka and noni basically swapped injuries for the season. Noni started, saka was hurt. Saka came back, noni got hurt, and so it continued all season long.

I don't think so. I think the noni signing was specifically to be able to take saka off at 60 minutes.

It has been improving. Just not in that central pair. The merino injury really hurt us there. If he'd been fit, the 3 could have rotated quite happily.

They desperately want a rivalry. Whereas most people are either indifferent or disgusted by them. There's no respect there. I hate that United team. I hate Alex Ferguson, Neville, Keane, etc. But there's still a begrudging respect there. They were a fantastic team. Whereas city is just soulless.

Odegaard and Havertz have collectively played 300 fewer Premier League minutes this season than Guehi and Semenyo have *for Man City*.

The norgaard signing is such a strange one. A decent midfielder signed as cover and then just black holed.

This year is showing pretty categorically that cheats do prosper.