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Eleven points ahead of Chelsea, arguably our closest rivals, after just five games. Is the gap already to big to bridge?

Chelsea have already lost as many games in the last four games as they did in the whole of last season. Their ageing defence is creaking like an unoiled door hinge and are conceding goals like never before. Fabregas and Hazard look shadows of the players they were a year ago. The first choice goalie is out for three months. The list goes on.

Out of the Prem teams, Chelsea and Mourinho are the ones I feel could turn it around by grounding out 1-0s, much the same way the rags did after the 6-1 hiding at the swamp. Before the season I predicted the title would either stay at Stamford Bridge or come back home up the M6. I haven't seen anything from Arsenal, rags or dippers to suggest they will eventually win it so far. As the old cliche goes, you can't win the league in September. But you can sure as hell make it extremely hard for yourself to win it. Chelsea with their start have made it extremely difficult for themselves to win it again.

I personally think the eleven point gap is a bridge too far as realistically they can only afford one more, or two at the absolute most, defeats for the rest of the season. Although mathematically and theoretically it can be done, I just don't think they will do it. I look at the league table and don't worry that the rags are second, five points behind. I look where Chelsea are, as for me, they are our challengers.

I would say it's done for them but this is the premier league so you never know? They have to rely on us saying losing 5 games a and themselves not losing two more all season and wining pretty much all the rest. Something is clearly wrong in they camp and I for one think it's hilarious.

Are they really our closest rival though? Coming in to the season youd obviously say so but now?
I wouldnt say theyre out of it but I would say its time for us to start trying to determine who our real challenger is.

We had 3 potential rivals at the start of the season. Chelsea are looking like also rans even this early in the season but as SoF says never say never. Apart from them its the Gooners and the scum so basically the only team that can stop us winning the title is us. We have to implode.

But wait... the greatest young footballer the world has ever seen has just scored for Salford so they are now odds on favourites to win every game they ever play so we are officially buggered.

Yes, they've no chance.

Saul Goodman wrote:Are they really our closest rival though? Coming in to the season youd obviously say so but now?
I wouldnt say theyre out of it but I would say its time for us to start trying to determine who our real challenger is.

Only two teams capable of mounting a challenge I think.I still think Chrlsea are the best of the bunch regardless of how bad they've been this season, I'm just happy to be enjoying the dip in form while it lasts.Arsenal are playing well but I'm just not convinced they can perform consistently over the course of the season.

The rags look dire even today beating the dippers today they looked very limited, as bad as the rags are Liverpool look to be in really bad shape at the moment.The first half of that game is as bad as I've seen in years.

Saul Goodman wrote:Are they really our closest rival though? Coming in to the season youd obviously say so but now?
I wouldnt say theyre out of it but I would say its time for us to start trying to determine who our real challenger is.

As with last season, only we can fuck it up for ourselves.

Green & Blue wrote:

Saul Goodman wrote:Are they really our closest rival though? Coming in to the season youd obviously say so but now?
I wouldnt say theyre out of it but I would say its time for us to start trying to determine who our real challenger is.

Only two teams capable of mounting a challenge I think.I still think Chrlsea are the best of the bunch regardless of how bad they've been this season, I'm just happy to be enjoying the dip in form while it lasts.Arsenal are playing well but I'm just not convinced they can perform consistently over the course of the season.

The rags look dire even today beating the dippers today they looked very limited, as bad as the rags are Liverpool look to be in really bad shape at the moment.The first half of that game is as bad as I've seen in years.

I agree. Chelsea are the one team you could imagine going on a run of winning ugly. The rags look poor going forward and only a rank dipper performance papered the cracks. Arsenal don't have strength in depth to last the season. It's a long way to go but if we keep our heads we needn't pay too much concern to others.

Nah. At some point the gap will probably drop to about 7 points or sumat and that'll give them enough confidence to make it tricky for a while. I fully suspect we'll win the league, but its not over obviously.

I think it would be wonderful if City win the PL title, with a complete surprise team like Leicester City or Crystal Palace stealing 2nd place away from City's usual rivals!

WhyAlwaysMe? wrote:I think it would be wonderful if City win the PL title, with a complete surprise team like Leicester City or Crystal Palace stealing 2nd place away from City's usual rivals!

Chelsea has a far better chance of winning the league than either of those teams making the top 4.

Don't let early form fool you. Every year a team bolts out the gate and people start dreaming of cl contention. Off top of my head Southampton, west ham and us under Sven have all had top 4 spots for a while before the half way mark and dropped off massively.

Yes they are. They can't afford more than one more slip up and we're just about to go on the grind of Wednesday/Saturday football.

I don't think we can say for sure they are out of the race, but it's starting to look more and more difficult. The season we won the league under Pelligrini, I think it was after getting beat by Sunderland in November (our 5th loss?) that it started looking like we had just given ourselves far too much to do. Then we had an amazing ~20 games or so and dragged ourselves to the top of the table.

I still think Chelsea will finish ahead of Utd (for sure) and probably finish ahead of Arsenal.

Their next game is against Arsenal. If they lose that and we win again, then a 14 point lead just looks like too much. We'd have to implode. There are 114 points to play from at the beginning, so they'd only have 100 available. Probably we will finish close to 90, so they would have to win at least 28 of their remaining 32 games. They look a long way away from that right now.

We couldn't have dreamt for a better start.

Get a bid in for Hazard.

No they are not 5 played not 5 left anything can happen.

They have fared worse than all three promoted sides after Week 5, and as Piccsnumberoneblue said, the games will be coming thick & fast from now on.
They will need an impressive turnabout for the rest of the season to even compete for top 4 and can achieve it with the quality they have in their squad, but with regards to the title, it is highly unlikely at this point.

On a lighter note, Maureen seems to have lost it, given his odd facial expressions and posing at the GQ with his half-naked daughter, so his psychiatrist will need to increase his dosage asap to get him back to reality. Let's hope Eva has that extra qualification and is given the green light to take on the task.

Last year we were about 8 behind Chelsea in October and caught them on by New Year before they opened a bigger gap by the end of the season. And then there were the two seasons we won it.

They're not out of it yet, but they will need to put in a good run. Our danger is we concentrate on the gap to Chelsea and forget about the others. It's ours to win or lose, but let's not turn up in league winner's t-shirts just yet

Do people have short memories or what? It's been five bloody games and we have 33 left!

We were 8 points behind rags with six to go and we did it. now they have 33 games time to claw back 11.

or, another example. Last season, after 21 games & after 32 games:
Chelsea 49 -> 73p
City 47 -> 61p
rags 37 -> 66p
arse 36. -> 65p

so, arse took 16 points more than us, rags took 15 points more than us. and bloody no-one predicted after those 21 rounds that arse would then win 10/11 and especially that City would be as shite as we were.


Good teams can suddenly go on an amazing run. Good teams can suddenly hit a rough patch.
IT HAS BEEN ONLY FIVE ROUNDS FFS.

It's not looking likely and I wouldnt put money on them, but far too early to rule them out.

Moonchesteri wrote:Do people have short memories or what? It's been five bloody games and we have 33 left!

We were 8 points behind rags with six to go and we did it. now they have 33 games time to claw back 11.

or, another example. Last season, after 21 games & after 32 games:
Chelsea 49 -> 73p
City 47 -> 61p
rags 37 -> 66p
arse 36. -> 65p

so, arse took 16 points more than us, rags took 15 points more than us. and bloody no-one predicted after those 21 rounds that arse would then win 10/11 and especially that City would be as shite as we were.


Good teams can suddenly go on an amazing run. Good teams can suddenly hit a rough patch.
IT HAS BEEN ONLY FIVE ROUNDS FFS.

It's not looking likely and I wouldnt put money on them, but far too early to rule them out.

You mention good teams. My point in the OP was that Chelsea at present are really struggling. It's not as if they have been really unlucky either with injuries or fixtures or just in decisions against them in games. They look a shadow of the side that started last year. Maybe it is a side effect of being reined in after January to just grind out results out and win and this is a rut they can't get out of? Who knows. The defence which is a cornerstone of any title side looks all at sea and Terry's loss of form and the non signing of Stones will seriously hamper them. Pretty much starting next week they have to start winning and continue to do so to exert pressure on ourselves. I don't for one minute suggest the title race is over as history shows only a fool would predict that so early. More that one of biggest rivals has started poorly and posing the question of have they left themselves to much to do.

That is not to say the rags or the arse will not mount a challenge. Though I find it unlikely given their respective form and squad depth.

nottsblue wrote:

Moonchesteri wrote:Do people have short memories or what? It's been five bloody games and we have 33 left!

We were 8 points behind rags with six to go and we did it. now they have 33 games time to claw back 11.

or, another example. Last season, after 21 games & after 32 games:
Chelsea 49 -> 73p
City 47 -> 61p
rags 37 -> 66p
arse 36. -> 65p

so, arse took 16 points more than us, rags took 15 points more than us. and bloody no-one predicted after those 21 rounds that arse would then win 10/11 and especially that City would be as shite as we were.


Good teams can suddenly go on an amazing run. Good teams can suddenly hit a rough patch.
IT HAS BEEN ONLY FIVE ROUNDS FFS.

It's not looking likely and I wouldnt put money on them, but far too early to rule them out.

You mention good teams. My point in the OP was that Chelsea at present are really struggling. It's not as if they have been really unlucky either with injuries or fixtures or just in decisions against them in games. They look a shadow of the side that started last year. Maybe it is a side effect of being reined in after January to just grind out results out and win and this is a rut they can't get out of? Who knows. The defence which is a cornerstone of any title side looks all at sea and Terry's loss of form and the non signing of Stones will seriously hamper them. Pretty much starting next week they have to start winning and continue to do so to exert pressure on ourselves. I don't for one minute suggest the title race is over as history shows only a fool would predict that so early. More that one of biggest rivals has started poorly and posing the question of have they left themselves to much to do.

That is not to say the rags or the arse will not mount a challenge. Though I find it unlikely given their respective form and squad depth.

just as easily a team can lose form when it looks unlikely (look at us last season) they can pick up form when you are playing shit (again look at us last season).
Yes they are struggling but they are a good team. it could be that all they need is a dodgy decision (red card & peno) next week to get them a big win to boost their confidence. then the week after they could start to actually look like a top team again?