Could we be potentially seeing the most competitive PL title race since 2003?

Mole already listed how the top 5 is gonna play out by the end of the season in original post

United
City
Chelsea
Spurs
Arsenal



subconsciously he already knows

2002/2003 was a 2 horse race, arsenal choked, man u won. 2003/2004 arsenal ran away with it, man u were in transition & CSKA chav were never a threat with ranieri. So i'm wondering what the hell you are talking about?

Tomwin Lannister wrote:I think the CL race will be more interesting than the title race personally.


I can't see past the two Manchester clubs. The way some people rate Mou is quite frightening though. As if adding him to a largely unchanged first team will guarantee 20 extra points or something

He's arguably the best manager in the league. He doesn't play attractive football, but he plays effective football. The win against Villa shows that. Winning those types of games wins you the league.

His team has improved with the likes of Lukaku, KVB and van Ginkel in the team.

They don't have to play 3 games in 1 week any more.

They don't have to make up a 20 point gap. They only have to make up about 10 as United will drop points because SAF is gone.

The win against Villa showed nothing but how poor officials can be and why we need technology


I can't credit teams for escaping the (blind) eyes of the officials and getting results because of that. You can't rely on bad officiating. I agree he's a very good manager. But 3 unproven players and a new manager (considering Rafa is no scrub) hardly seems like it's a huge difference maker to me.

Now if they bought Eto'o/Rooney we'll revisit this. But even then the 2 Manchester clubs are definitely my favourites.

You can't complain about officials for Chelsea and let United go out the window. They've been dominant for the last decade because of them... (not too sure about the early 90s as I didn't watch them then.)

Rafa never really had the support from the fans. Mou is considered a god to them. Massive difference, really.

I'm not here for an overall officials debate.

But you used the Villa game to suggest how Mou could get Chelsea valuable points. I'm just pointing out how it was nothing to be proud of. They didn't win the game by being a solid team, they won it because human error is sadly a huge part of football.

Oh and fans support is great to have long term

But booing the coach didn't knock a single point off of Chelsea. And Mou chants won't evolve into goals either.

I didn't say they should be proud, did I?

I'm saying keep winning games like that, and you'll be up there at the end. They played like crap but still managed to get the 3 points. That's all that matters, the 3 points.

They'll be there at the end of the season.

Yes

But they got 3 points from bad officiating. Unless you're telling me that they can steadily rely on bad officiatiing to help them then your point is invalid.


If you get your ass handed to you for 90 minutes, get 3 undeserved penalties and get the opposition down to 9 men from simulation, yeah you got 3 points and that's 'all that matters' but that is not something that can be relied upon. So as a one off it's fine. But this is over the course of 38 games.

Officials helped United, SAF is gone we will become crap blah blah blah

all this hypothetical non sense and no concrete reasons why we will decline other then deluded theories and hope

exact same squad is coming back + reinforcements eventually

You could argue Aston Villa got 3 points from bad officiating against Arsenal last week.

It doesn't matter.

They got the 3 points despite playing like a mid table squad.

And B-Mac, it ain't hypothetical. lol You're deluding yourself if you think Moyes will have the same influence as a whole in comparison to SAF.

something-red wrote:You could argue Aston Villa got 3 points from bad officiating against Arsenal last week.

It doesn't matter.

They got the 3 points despite playing like a mid table squad.

And B-Mac, it ain't hypothetical. lol You're deluding yourself if you think Moyes will have the same influence as a whole in comparison to SAF.

it is completely hypothetical your trying to determine the amount of points a manager adds to a team which is something that is impossible to determine

and you're deluding yourself because you have liverpool googles on and think moyes is still in charge of a mid table everton squad, who he managed to guide above your liverpool last season on god knows how much of a smaller budget

Do I have Liverpool goggles on or do you have red Devil goggles on? lol

He had the same squad for 5 years ffs. It took him 10 years to finally see his system work, and only really managed to overcome us because of the whole G+H saga.

Is saying City/United/Chelsea are favourites for the league a false statement because it's impossible to determine how many points they'll get? Come on now. Moyes has absolutely NOTHING on Fergie as a manager, and he's shown nothing in his 10 years at Everton that he'll match Fergie. You will drop points from last year because of him.

something-red wrote:Do I have Liverpool goggles on or do you have red Devil goggles on? lol

He had the same squad for 5 years ffs. It took him 10 years to finally see his system work, and only really managed to overcome us because of the whole G+H saga.

Is saying City/United/Chelsea are favourites for the league a false statement because it's impossible to determine how many points they'll get? Come on now. Moyes has absolutely NOTHING on Fergie as a manager, and he's shown nothing in his 10 years at Everton that he'll match Fergie. You will drop points from last year because of him.  

RVP will stop scoring because he misses fergie, ok I get it now

do you not understand that being Everton manager with Everton squad is a whole hell of a lot different then Manchester United and Manchester United squad? he can improve his squad without being restrained by a budget like at Everton.

and no saying city/united/chelsea are favourites is not impossible to determine because on paper we have the strongest squads, and the players are the ones who actually go out on the field and play the game and score the goals....why do I even need to explain this to you?

That's exactly what I said and I quote you by saying

it is completely hypothetical your trying to determine the amount of points a manager adds to a team which is something that is impossible to determine

hence why I asked the stupid question.

Granted, you said manager. But managers do make teams... Chelsea will be there. (Which was my initial point before you wanted to discuss Moyes...)

I also don't think you understand that "being Everton manager with Everton squad is a whole hell of a lot different then Manchester United and Manchester United squad" if you think Moyes will do the same job as Fergie... lol

You're merely hoping for it to be true.

This is Moyes first big break..Unless he's managed a big club before you cant possibly determine how he will fare at United judging by his time at Everton.Two entities with completely different ambitions and resources.

something-red wrote:That's exactly what I said and I quote you by saying

it is completely hypothetical your trying to determine the amount of points a manager adds to a team which is something that is impossible to determine

hence why I asked the stupid question.

Granted, you said manager. But managers do make teams... Chelsea will be there. (Which was my initial point before you wanted to discuss Moyes...)

I also don't think you understand that "being Everton manager with Everton squad is a whole hell of a lot different then Manchester United and Manchester United squad" if you think Moyes will do the same job as Fergie... lol

You're merely hoping for it to be true.

and you're merely hoping for the opposite....nothing to suggest we would decline under Moyes other then this hypothetical theories of SAF and referee's making this team 20 pts better then it is.

Pellegrini comes to 2nd place City in a new league coming from a average Malaga team last year "oh man imagine what he can do with the resources at city, Champagne football :wank: :wank: :wank: !"

Moyes comes to Champions United from same league from average Everton team last year "oh man screw United's resources, Moye's knowledge and experience in the league, he is shit cause he isn't south american/spanish/italian/portuguese....United are gonna be relegated!"

S wrote:This is Moyes first big break..Unless he's managed a big club before you cant possibly determine how he will fare at United judging by his time at Everton.Two entities with completely different ambitions and resources.

holy crap Surag we agree, I think I see jesus!

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Man Utd:

De Gea
Rafeal Vidic Ferdinand Evra
Zaha Cleverly/Fellaini Carrick Welbeck
Rooney
Van Persie

Man City:

Hart
Zabaleta Nastastic Kompany Clichy
Navas Fernandinho Yaya Silva
Aguero Dzeko

Chelsea:

Cech
Azpi Luiz Terry Cole
Ramires Lampard
De Bruyne Mata Hazard
Eto'o

Tottenham:

Lloris
Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Rose
Capoue
Paulinho Dembele
Lamela Soldado Chadli

Arsenal:

Cesar
Sagna Mertesacker Koscielny Gibbs
Ramsey Wilshere
Walcott Oezil Cazorla
Giroud

Obviously some of the teams could be different in some cases and some of these transfers might not take place but if they did i personally believe you have 5 teams which are very close on a talent level and would be a very interesting title race.

Hmm.Not quite.I dont think so.

Yep i agree i still have Man Yoo, Man City and Chelsea above Arsenal and Spurs.

Arsenal could have got there with a WC striker.

We're still one or two players away from really competing but I think we'll make the competition sweat a bit more now. If we can stay top 3 without giving up a significant lead in points to anyone by January, we could bring in a defender and a striker then, I think players that can put us over the top should be available then.

Well see how it goes

Saw a decent idea in the Liverpool section.

Liverpool have a lot of quality CB's, not really any exceptional wingers, an AM and 2 CF's. So a 5-3-2/3-4-1-2 could be possible.

Man Utd have 3 quality CB's, not really any exceptional wingers, an AM and 2 CF's.

----------------    Mignolet
------------Toure----Agger---Sakho
Johnson-------Lucas-----Gerrard------Enrique
----------------  -Coutinho
--------------Sturridge----Suarez


--------------------De Gea
----------Ferdinand---Vidic---Evans
---Rafael-------Fellaini----Carrick-----Evra
--------------------Kagawa
----------------RvP--------Rooney

MT spreading my ideas around

In all seriousness, tough, I really hope we go with that formation because we definitely have the personnel to do it. but Rodgers will have his own ideas and I'm fully backing his understanding over mine.

Meh,League is between two teams for me,City and Chelsea.

chelsea are weaker at cf than we are in cm. relying on torres and 32 year old etoo will get them nowhere.
citys problem is midfield. fernandinho is a middle of the road player who forces toure to play deeper and hinder his superman runs. navas  isnt all that while silva has faded really badly, never mind harte throwing them in. city have been shocking v cardiff and hull.
whu do people just give city their improvement without proving anything while utd will drop all these points because why?
were actually stronger than last year.

Too much hoofing. Looking at Chelsea, utd, and city's midfields is enough to make a purist cry. Great attacking players though.