Long post coming. So 20 league games have been played already and we are first at the time of writing this thread and we just beat Sunderland 3-1 in the FA cup so things are 'okay' so far. Hoping El Neny signs soon and more signings come. However, our remaining matches this month are against Liverpool (A), Stoke (A) and Chelsea. Liverpool have a bad injury crisis and to be honest, I am expecting a win. It's the best time to play them and even though it's at Anfield, I would be disappointed with a draw. They've played more games than us and have more injuries there should be no excuses. The two games afterwards are tough though. We haven't beaten Stoke at the Britannia since 2010 (a victory that was more remembered for the unfortunate Ramsey leg break...) and I do worry about that. To win the league you need to win at grounds that you normally have a bad record at. Afterwards is Chelsea at the Emirates and we haven't beaten them in the league since 2011/12 so again, that has to change. Our fixture list in February gets harder. Southampton (another 'bogey' club who do well against us), Bournemouth (A), Leicester, Man Utd (A) and also add the Barcelona match (but that's UCL, I'm focusing more on the league at this point). Early March we face Swansea (again, another team that usually plays well against us) and then go to Spurs. We haven't beaten Spurs in the last three league games and they are really good this year. Our remaining fixtures that month are against West Brom at home and then Everton (A). The Everton Goodison park trip is 3/4 days after we travel away to Barcelona. I think the key point here is that we have very tough fixtures in the January - March period. The last time we had a similar fixture list like this was in 2013/14 season where we faced Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Spurs, City and Everton in a 2 month period and after all those fixtures, we were out of the title race. This period will define our season I think. If we manage to be in a good position by the end of March then I think we will win the league because the fixtures in April and May aren't as difficult in comparison. We only face City near the end but who knows where we will be at that time.
we need to forget Barca...Messi always seems to score against us, let him have three or four...we have more pressing issues now. We need to beat Leicester, United, and Tottenham and win against the other "lesser" teams. it's not impossible, but we need to be there or there abouts come April, when we play a lot of the "shitty teams".
Well well. This was all the way back in January. League games in March have finished and now we are 6 points behind Spurs and 8 behind Leicester. Imagine if we won the games vs Southampton and Swansea? and took at least a point out of the Chelsea and Man Utd matches?