Erikse

Amorim out! Get van Nistelrooy back in there!

Yeah, input is allways great though. Difficult question, but do you expect Johnson and/or Maddison to match or get more g/a the coming games? Son is a difficult one for me to predict this season.

How often does anyone do that in january? That's completely unrealistic imo. See what I posted about their spending. They won't change completely and go crazy just incase they have a small chance of catching up. They're not acting like Chelsea, and even if they were, it doesn't necessarily work. It took Chelsea a long time to make it work, and they bought some seemingly great players. Quick fixes are very hard to pull off in january, for any team.

This is purely based on transfer fees, they've obviously spent a lot more in other ways. 10 teams in the league has spent more on transfer fees in the last 5 years. Those teams include Forest, West Ham and even Palace(!). Even Ipswich gets kind of close just with their summer window before this season. I don't think they will panic and overspend in an expensive january window, it's not like they are that depserate for another league win (especially being that far behind anyways), but I also wonder why they are not spending more.

They spent 120 mill euros on Doku and Nunes last season, while selling Palmer for 47m.. Gvardiol in for 90m, massive price, but he has been good enough. This summer was strange. They sold players for a total of 141 mill euros, but yet all they got was Savinho for 25m euros and Gundo for free. Their net spent for the last 2 seasons is close to 0 in transfer fees. What's going on with that? Is their wage budget and ammortization from older signings causing trouble for them in terms of PSR? They should have lots of price money aswell.

This is the first time since Guardiola took over that I'm basically writing Man City off before christmas. It's not just based on the fact that it's an 8 point gap, they just don't have a good enough team to catch up this season, as they would have relied on Rodri. Rodri was a massive contributor to all of their comebacks in the past, the few times they've had to play without him, their winrate has allways been very different. Arsenals and Liverpools starting lineups are currently consitenly one step above Man Citys in quality, and this has never been the case before during Guardiolas time here. Basing your opinion purely on historical events is meaningless without all the other context. I'm not writing Arsenal off yet, though.

That's just how they roll mate.

@leffe186 How do you feel about Son lately? Is he just being managed after injury and internationals?

I think Arsenal are way more likely to catch up than Man City. Can't see the current Man City squad winning 19 games in a row. They will most likely keep losing points here and there until christmas aswell, and I think Arsenal with Øde back are going to be stronger. They're even much stronger defensively with Øde.

Klopp got 97 points without winning the league. Man City currently falling matters a lot. But I think the current squad suits Slot more than it did Klopp. They were at their prime under Klopp with a different team. If you look at Man City and Liverpool during the peak Klopp years, you'll see that Man City had nearly if not as good of a starting 11, but with much better squad depth. Klopps Liverpool were competing against the highest scoring PL team ever point wise.

I think we would have player him as a right winger in the 4-3-3. Not sure how good he would be there?

Rodri is out for the season, and Walker being a shadow of his former self. De Bruyne is also aging, and hasn't been at his best for a very long time. Their summer window looks pretty bad, bought Savinho while selling Alvarez. Haaland being their only striker in their squad currently. They have the worst squad the've had in many years, they have more injuries than they've had in many years, and they are breaking records for worst run of form in both Guardiolas carreer and their own form the last 17 years or so. They just lost 4-1 and 4-0 to Sporting and Spurs (at home), 5 losses in a row. The eye test for the last few games has told the same story. I have never seen them play like this under Guardiola before, and they haven't look like their former self in a single game since Rodri got injured. Before these 5 losses they barely managed to beat Fulham, Wolves and Southampton. This is not like every other year at all.

He'll keep trying as his mates at Paqueta island are banking on it.

I think Arsenal will hit form with Ødegaard back, they are even much better defensively with him in the side. But I doubt they will catch Liverpool regardless. I can see them getting another 2nd place finish this season.

Spent 12 points on these subs last 2 gameweeks. Last round it was -4, but my subs earned me 13 more, so net 9 points. This round it was -8, but it has given me 11 more with Hall still to play (net 3 so far). Sometimes it works. (don't ask me about Gabriel out and then back in please)

I think it was @Ronaldo who suggested that we should have beat them that day, considering how they played. That started some heat, but I quietly agreed. We weren't at our best, and yet they were even worse. Obviously facing them now would be even better for us though, that's for sure.

Imagine if Pep quits or gets fired a few games after the contract extension. Would be something.

Just got that new contract.

I wonder how many City need to lose in a row for people to realise that they are just a bad team now..

What a bad signing Nunes was if he wasn't good enough to start today, considering their lineup.

I think it just got better, it did for me without logging out. Edit: nevermind.

It's true, but Man City are just not very good lately in general. Isn't this going to be their 5th loss in a row if they lose? Kovacic being out was just the tip of the iceberg. Their midfield has barely any defensive power at all.

Lewis, Gundogan and Foden as the midfield 3 today. Seems pretty weak defensively..

Not being able to score at home with 11 vs 10 for an hour against a team who has conceded 2 goals per game on average so far. Another Dyche masterclass.

I have Cunha and Jackson, so I can't complain really. Would have liked for Palmer to score that incredible miss that Madueke saved, though, as that would've given me 10 more points.