PL 23/24
Lol, you guys really wasted your time watching a Spurs game hoping they would do something?
Arsenal have broken my heart too many times, no way I was going to let Spurs do it too. Only one way this was ever ending.
We had our chance and put up a good fight. Feels bad to come so close and not win, but overall we can still be proud and call it a good season. If we can repeat this kind of 90-point-ish season over the next few seasons, we're bound to win one.
Segway That moment's a bit like the anti-Thomas ... "it's not up for grabs now"
RocktheCasbah I have faith in Arteta now. He will get Emery back next season 
Ridiculous. Juiced up fuckers
Really shows that the start and end of our season was ok - it was that mid season blip that cost us
Mirth Yeah, we dropped 11 points in short order in that stretch.
Though we gnashed and wailed quite a bit about the season probably being over, there was no real sense of our best shot at a title in forever going by the wayside over two points.
I reckon we'll start next season with a lot of dressing room angst about every point dropped.
naz nothing unexpected. Most of us expect this. City is like this in the run in. We saw that last few seasons as well.
I don't know why so many people were confident they will not win every match. You look at the fixtures and you can't even see which match they will drop points. They are more likely to be perfect than not
Mirth Really shows that the start and end of our season was ok - it was that mid season blip that cost us
We weren't great in the first half of the season, the blip was always going to happen sooner or later as we weren't creating chances. Once Havertz moved to 9 and Rice to 8 post Christmas things clicked together. It took Arteta a while to figure out how to best utilise them, I think he had different ideas for how to evolve the team on from last season. Hopefully next season we don't have that problem and we can start more coherently.
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Clrnc agree albeit my outtake would be that given we were near perfect in our run-in despite it being the toughest one on paper, the only thing we don't have that City do is experience. And that's why it's easier for them to churn out the results.
Clrnc I don't know why so many people were confident they will not win every match. You look at the fixtures and you can't even see which match they will drop points. They are more likely to be perfect than not
Yeah, this is true. Even I've learned my lesson after last season. But this record also shows you how difficult it is to get past them. Their last loss was matchday 15 and they've dropped eight points out of the 66 available to them since. That is a level of relentlessness that is going to be very difficult to come by and, much as I'm sitting here thinking, "we will have them next season, for sure!" we all know they ain't going anywhere.
Maybe as well knowing how ruthless they are with most other teams the head to head is where you have real autonomy to hurt them and get some space. Do you go for the win away at theirs? I understand how we approached it this season and we got what we set out for but do we need to maximise them dropping points next season?
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To be fair we've picked up more points in the last 10 games and we've arguably had the much tougher run in. It's not the run in so much as they've been near perfect for the last 20 games. The only games they dropped points in were against us and Liverpool ffs.
I think going for the safety first approach at the Etihad was a decent bet that did leave the title in our hands. But maybe a win there was the blow we needed to give them, because City looked like they were happy to give us a point and back themselves to out do us in the games that followed.
Burnwinter Yeah, we dropped 11 points in short order in that stretch.
City had a similar run a few f weeks prior to that. Goes back to what I was saying yesterday. It's not so much how, who or when you drop points, you're going to have variation on that each season. All that matters is how many.
awooga83 I think this is the next bit of our development, at least I hope so. I know that we were contending with our history at Old Trafford on Sunday as well as what it would mean if we lost that game, but I think we saw that whilst we are an excellent team, we aren't quite the finished article yet. I find it very difficult to believe City wouldn't have put 3 or 4 past that United side. And I think that goes back to goon's oft made point about Arsenal playing with the swagger and authority of a genuinely great team.
Similarly, we were able to shut City down in both league games this season, but having the confidence to go and attack them in the way that Liverpool did in the second half of their most recent game (and of course coming out victorious) would be huge for this team. Whether we will ever get to that level I don't know, but it's where we need to get to imo.
City are obviously very very good. But I think it's worth keeping in mind that their performance yesterday merited a draw. Son spit the dummy.
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goon To be fair we've picked up more points in the last 10 games and we've arguably had the much tougher run in. It's not the run in so much as they've been near perfect for the last 20 games. The only games they dropped points in were against us and Liverpool ffs.
I think going for the safety first approach at the Etihad was a decent bet that did leave the title in our hands. But maybe a win there was the blow we needed to give them, because City looked like they were happy to give us a point and back themselves to out do us in the games that followed.
Safety first approach is definitely the way to go. Don't lose 6 pointers, and win all the easy games. We failed on the 2nd part. If we have gone h2h with City that day they would have tore us apart. They are a better team than us.
I remember posting City's record since December (GW14) and it's impressive as hell, in the thread where many were confident City will drop points in the remaining matches which I didn't understand why. They kept up with the pace without KDB for first half of the season, then kept up the pace without Haaland. When they are both back you know the game's up. I think many people viewed Liverpool as a threat and wanted them to draw at Anfield, but I was the minority that really wanted Liverpool to win and throw City off the boil.
I am still quite proud that despite such a tough run in, we are a routine home win against Villa from winning the title. We went through so many tough obstacles, disappointment obviously that we didn't achieve the home run but to finish 2 points behind them considering the stage we are at in December is commendable.
nothing is wrong with a draw at citeh, we took 4/6.
this is the sorta revelation liverpool had and followed it up with that damn near perfect season where they had the league wrapped up before the covid stoppage.
the seriousness you'll see next season will not be familiar to us. we're getting 100 pts next season. bet on it.
89 pts wouldn't be enough to win any of the top 5 leagues.