It's been a maudlin season. It's a bit easy to blame individuals but in each case the "relationships" are as much at fault.
By the time this season is done we'll probably have gone five months without Øde and Saka both fit and firing, Martinelli hasn't gelled with anyone at centre forward or left 8 since Xhaka's last season, Calafiori has been crocked, Havertz's game is too much about being a will-o'the-wisp to be the foundation of an attack, and so on.
Nevertheless, we're still in second place and only second to a Liverpool side that's had all of its luck as well all stealing all of ours.
We're hanging by a thread, but it's still possible we inch closer to Liverpool over the festive season and that's what we have to hope to do. They're not that good.
