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City
18.Sep UCL: ManCity vs Real Madrid A
23.Sep EPL: ManCity vs Arsenal H
25.Sep COC: ManCity vs Aston Villa H
29.Sep EPL: ManCity vs Fulham A
03.Oct UCL: ManCity vs Borussia Dortmund H
06.Oct EPL: ManCity vs Sunderland H
20.Oct EPL: ManCity vs West Brom A
24.Oct UCL: ManCity vs Ajax A
27.Oct EPL: ManCity vs Swansea City H
03.Nov EPL: ManCity vs West Ham United A
06.Nov UCL: ManCity vs Ajax H
11.Nov EPL: ManCity vs Spurs H

Utd
19.Sep UCL: Utd vs Galatasaray H
23.Sep EPL : Utd vs Liverpool A
26.Sep COC: Utd vs Newcastle United H
29.Sep EPL : Utd vs Tottenham Hotspur H
02.Oct UCL: Utd vs CFR Cluj A
07.Oct EPL : Utd vs Newcastle United A
20.Oct EPL : Utd vs Stoke City H
23.Oct UCL: Utd vs Braga H
28.Oct EPL : Utd vs Chelsea A
03.Nov EPL : Utd vs Arsenal H
07.Nov UCL: Utd vs Braga A
10.Nov EPL : Utd vs Aston Villa A



I thought yesterday’s Stoke game wasn’t that bad. All players contributed pretty well and all the new additions made a good impression. Referee was simply shitttt, but Mario had a great game and helped out a lot with defending, something he usually doesn’t bother to do. Garcia is without doubt our best signing of the summer, and a great prospect for the future. A point at the Britannia against a starting 12 is probably a fair result.
My only concern is the newly well-established habit of conceding first, and only then, finding the urgency to equalize within minutes. The season is still long, however, if this issue remains unresolved, valuable points are going to be lost in the long run and our main rivals (Rags) are going to take full advantage of it whenever possible. Nonetheless, Utd’s next 12 fixtures aren’t doing them any favours (See table).
A combination of midweek Champions League and League Cups games followed by weekend League fixtures against some tough oppositions will tire and possibly cause them some injuries. Some might argue that their weak CL opponents won’t force them to play their best availabe XI and rather rest them for the big weekend games, but exactly that arrogance prevented Utd to progress to the CL’s knockout stages last year. Having said that, Baconface will probably aim to finish first in the group to avoid winners of other groups and increase their chances to progress further. Aiming high in Europe to generate much needed revenues and avoid repeated embarrassment will definitely affect their domestic performance in a continuous run of tough fixtures.
To be bit fair and realistic, let say they draw all their next 6 League fixtures against Liverpool (A), Spurs (H), Newcastle (A), Stoke (H), Chelsea (A), Arsenal (H) and beat Aston Villa (A). That’s a total of 9 points from a possible 21 points. Add that to their current 9 points and they would possess a total of 18 points by the mid of November. Even if they beat Spurs, Stoke, Arsenal, Villa and lose to both Liverpool/Chelsea and draw against Newcastle, they will only gain 13 from a possible 21 points. Nevertheless, three or more defeats in their next seven fixtures will create a sweet gap between us, provided we win all our next seven domestic fixtures.
Genuinely speaking, our tough CL opponents will test our mental and physical competency to the limit. But hey, we are the Champions of England and no other team in Europe has the depth and diversity of world class talents in their squad, not even Barca, given you exclude Xavi, Iniesta and *The You Know Who*. The point is, we have the depth and quality to beat Arsenal (H), Fulham (A), Sunderland (H), West Brom (A), Swansea (H), West Ham (A) and Spurs (H), even after a tough midweek CL game and still gain 21 out of 21 points. Add that to our current 8 points and we could be running away with 29 points by the mid of November with a potential gap of 11 points ahead of the Rags. Arsenal, Sunderland and Spurs are the only potential fun spoilers in these run of games. Nonetheless, our incredible home record speaks volumes and the likes of Mario and Dzeko will undeniably try to shine/impress Mancini in these particular fixtures to secure a starting role at the European stage. The same would also imply for Garcia/Barry/Rodwell and Silva/Nasri/Sinclair/Milner to remain/contest in/for the starting XI in Europe. Therefore, I personally believe that the individual efforts/commitments of our non-regular or sometimes underperforming midfielders/forwards would increase in domestic fixtures.
Our next seven domestic fixtures could be the gateway to a second league title. It will create a leading gap which might prove vital during Yaya’s absence in January or, if we progress to the advance stages of the CL. One of the reasons of last year’s triumph is credited to the fact that at some point during the season we led the table by 5-8 points or so, and a deep drop in form, the Tevez saga, biased refereeing and Yaya’s absence among other issues saw us drop points to a low 8 behind the Rags. If it wasn’t for the lead established early in the season and astonishing goal difference, we would have never won the title last season. Surprisingly, the Rags got a tough run this time around and we should fully capitalize on it and seize the maximum points for grabs. Otherwise, one could imagine a, ‘’Aguerooooooooooo’’ written all over the skies again… This time, some might not survive it, including myself …

Aside from the CL and Arsenal I think we shouldnt struggle at all

We were never 10pts ahead. Most was 5pts between mid Oct and start of December.

Great analysis mate. Rags fixture list definitely looks harder than ours, especially when you throw in the fact that they have to go away after every CL match. I just hope our CL matches don't knock the wind out of our sails.

Great analysis mate. Rags fixture list definitely looks harder than ours, especially when you throw in the fact that they have to go away after every CL match. I just hope our tough CL matches won't knock the wind out of our sails.

Great analysis mate. Rags fixture list definitely looks harder than ours, especially when you throw in the fact that they have to go away after every CL match. I just hope our tough CL matches won't knock the wind out of our sails.

The league fixtures look to favour us but our Champions Lg games are hellish. If we are still level with the rags after these group games, we will have done really well, (or they've done badly) irrespective of the league fixtures.

No two seasons are the same (except the ones where the whole league capitulated & let the rags stroll it) so there's no telling what pitfalls await from one game to the next. Imo, we just played our best ever game at Stoke but got Clattenburged. The same could happen v some other mid table teams, whilst the rags may play shit but get 6 pens in 6 games.

Sure, if it was just the league games you would expect us to take more points than the rags but it's not. The whole period needs to be taken as a whole & ours is the more difficult.

We have been incredibly unlucky to get two groups of death running. It just shows how important it is for us to get in pot A asap. Still I don't suppose the other teams are thrilled with the draw either. With our home record no one's going to fancy coming to the Etihad. I'd rather have had De Rossi but Garcia is definitely an improvement on De Jong and if he can pinch a goal at the Bernabeu to get us a point I'll be thrilled. We mustn't be too hard on the team if they lose though.

blues2win wrote:We have been incredibly unlucky to get two groups of death running. It just shows how important it is for us to get in pot A asap. Still I don't suppose the other teams are thrilled with the draw either. With our home record no one's going to fancy coming to the Etihad. I'd rather have had De Rossi but Garcia is definitely an improvement on De Jong and if he can pinch a goal at the Bernabeu to get us a point I'll be thrilled. We mustn't be too hard on the team if they lose though.

Any result is possible in Madrid imo, including either side getting hammered, but I don't think we will get anything from the referee. The ref is one of my biggest concerns.

blues2win wrote:We have been incredibly unlucky to get two groups of death running. It just shows how important it is for us to get in pot A asap. Still I don't suppose the other teams are thrilled with the draw either. With our home record no one's going to fancy coming to the Etihad. I'd rather have had De Rossi but Garcia is definitely an improvement on De Jong and if he can pinch a goal at the Bernabeu to get us a point I'll be thrilled. We mustn't be too hard on the team if they lose though.

Our group is made up of the best team from each pot. Real Madrid will probably be most upset about it.

I hope the linesmen are a better standard than in the spanish league. I watched RM v Granada and they seemed to be completely oblivious to the offside rule.

Ted Hughes wrote:The league fixtures look to favour us but our Champions Lg games are hellish. If we are still level with the rags after these group games, we will have done really well, (or they've done badly) irrespective of the league fixtures.

No two seasons are the same (except the ones where the whole league capitulated & let the rags stroll it) so there's no telling what pitfalls await from one game to the next. Imo, we just played our best ever game at Stoke but got Clattenburged. The same could happen v some other mid table teams, whilst the rags may play shit but get 6 pens in 6 games.

Sure, if it was just the league games you would expect us to take more points than the rags but it's not. The whole period needs to be taken as a whole & ours is the more difficult.

Edit: Clattenburgled!

Ted Hughes wrote:

blues2win wrote:We have been incredibly unlucky to get two groups of death running. It just shows how important it is for us to get in pot A asap. Still I don't suppose the other teams are thrilled with the draw either. With our home record no one's going to fancy coming to the Etihad. I'd rather have had De Rossi but Garcia is definitely an improvement on De Jong and if he can pinch a goal at the Bernabeu to get us a point I'll be thrilled. We mustn't be too hard on the team if they lose though.

Any result is possible in Madrid imo, including either side getting hammered, but I don't think we will get anything from the referee. The ref is one of my biggest concerns.

My biggest concern also, Ted. I don't mind if we have a poor result due to our game but when we get the likes of Clattenburg or that chap who reff'ed us against Bayern last year, you just cannot account for it.

One game at a time, all this looking at the next 5, 10 or 12 games is bollox as so much can and does change for all sides. On that note I'm just off to write the match preview for our match with Reading in December.

Chinners wrote:One game at a time, all this looking at the next 5, 10 or 12 games is bollox as so much can and does change for all sides.

This