How important was today’s win?

Mirth

It's a pretty significant win - as last season showed, you can be exceptional against 18 other teams in the league but if you lose both head to head games then you have a mountain to climb when it comes to the title.

Also it breaks an unnecessary record so that's always helpful.

Clrnc

Significant win because we really didn't play well at all but got all 3 points. Also cleared the mental block.

In terms of our title ambitions this confirms we are title contenders. Last year we lost the league thanks to h2h 2 losses so if we are consistent this year we might look back at this moment for years

RocktheCasbah

Clrnc Significant win because we really didn't play well at all but got all 3 points

Disagree with this. Yes, the attacking performance wasn't quite there, but football is about defending as much as it is attacking and in that part of the game, we were absolutely magnificent. City were completely neutered. The last time we did that to them, Kevin Keegan was probably their manager*

George Graham must have been so proud of us last night.

*Okay, that last bit may not be 100% correct - I'm exaggerating for comedic effect.

IBL

We have to follow it up now with wins against teams we're expected to beat otherwise it will be an opportunity lost.

Burnwinter

Massive win on a pure points basis. Would be bigger still if we hadn't already pissed away four points versus Fulham and Spurs so I'm hoping we keep sharp.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Burnwinter

Spurs result I can live with. Even in our invincibles season we drew with them, NLD’s are hard. Fulham I can’t accept but yesterday made up for it a little.

Need to go on a proper run now. We got Chelsea and Newcastle away in 2 out of our next 3 games but other than that we play shit teams till 2nd week of Dec.

Qwiss

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Chelsea are rubbish, anything less than a win there is a poor result. I'd take a draw in St. James Park but a win would be another real marker if we can do it.

JazzG

Another thing I should add is winning the match is the easy part, how it changes our mentality going forward is the crucial thing and the hard part. In the past we have shown too much complacency and that has to change. We got a clean sheet at home and apart from the first 5 mins didn't really give City much of a sniff. It is important we show that same intensity and focus in all our games going forward.

This win is far too early on in the season to have any real meaning for the Title race. We are playing with CL football pressure as well so things will be tough in the next few months so we need to stay focussed and resolute.

awooga83

Individual result wise, it's important for the psychology of the team to know they can beat city and pierce that sense of invincibility they've had over us in the league.

Beyond that while it's a big win, last season that was the primary difference so this looks like an incremental improvement the test is how much of the results last year can we replicate. We need to beat Chelsea, Liverpool and avoid the Fulham type results otherwise we will have just exchanged where we dropped points and that will only really understand through the course of the season.

We don't want the achieve a big result that we don't anticipate then drop points in games we should win and overdo the individual significance. It's a great moment but the next game your don't get credit for that you have to earn the next result all the same.

flobaba

The points we have dropped so far have been due to silly team or individual mistakes. Avoidable. We also are still geling or to use an Artetaism: gliding, with a new, constantly changing midfield.

The question can we beat City has been answered though, and that will instil confidence not just against the big teams, but help further reinforce that control ball works. The players will be even more committed to the vision now and will try to execute similarly against the "smaller" teams.

I think it was an extremely important win. I was so pissed off in the Xhaka game against them in January 2022? Where we could have won until he single handedly lost us the game - I think he conceded a penalty or some dumb Xhaka shit. Our learning curve would have been accelerated significantly if we had pulled it off back then because the belief would have been there, and who knows how that might have influenced how last season panned out.

Burnwinter

That's true flobaba—we've been looking competitive in this fixture for two years now, and it's very important to win it.

For starters it's three points we've got that City don't. I don't know about taking durable courage and motivation from the result, but it's an encouraging start to the season if we're ahead of our robotic rivals in mid October—and could be very different.

QuincyAbeyie

Burnwinter