I have always remembered that Sturridge carried us for those missing games, am I thinking of a different season?
He was utterly unplayable, one of our best ever strikers. Caveat, when fit.
No, I think you are some what right, we sort of ambled along when Suarez was missing picking up points but not impressing performance wise, then when Suarez returned (against Spurs?) the team performances jumped and we started thrashing teams in that blitzing style that came to define the season.
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He missed the first 5 league games of the season. We fell from first to second in the final match of his absence after losing to Southampton in a game in which we were pretty dire. It is notable though that we were also without Phil in that game, which I think illustrates the point of that season. We could accommodate 1 missing player. Not 2, which is a big part of why Hendo’s suspension at the end of the season hurt us so much.
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And this is what makes Manchester City pretty much unbeatable over the course of a full league season. When you can spend £50m plus on backup players and entice them with silly wages to just sit on the bench, your squad isn’t going to have too many holes.
Throw in the fact that the football establishment are all in thrall to money, meaning that the officials often show City preferential treatment, and the result is that a team has to be superhuman to wrestle the title from the oil cheats.
We were superhuman in 2019-20; Arsenal have unfortunately fallen short of that this season.
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Did Arsenal really even challenge City? I not sure they did.
Since early Jan they have been out of all the cups and only had 1 game a week. Yet they lost to City at home in Dec and City were never worried as they knew they would beat Arsenal at home.
We took them to the last quarter of the match last season having played every game there is.
Thats a title challenge.
But then sometimes I think I am being harsh and Arsenal now know what we know - its hard to beat a team with financial doping who can have £50m+ players on the bench and more sitting in the stands if needed so that they are never weakened.
Until they are found guilty then it will just continue - City are about to land their 4th title in 5 years and thats no good for Premier League.
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They were in the Europa League until late March, and it was in that final tie that they lost their key defender to what now appears to be a season ending injury. Since that day they won just 4 of their 9 games and conceded a flood of goals in the process.
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It just seems a bit childish to be honest. It’s framing it as Arsenal fucking it up rather than the reality which is to beat City to a title you pretty much need to hit the mid nineties in terms of points which requires an astronomical level of performance, consistency and luck.
And that’s the issue. City have turned the league into something where it’s almost impossible for good teams win or compete consistently with them. We shouldn’t be laughing at Arsenal fans for getting excited at the prospect, we’ve been there and done that and had our dreams crushed.
What we should be doing is questioning the health of the league where that level of performance is needed to compete with a team who has blatantly cheated the system.
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Maybe if you lived in north London and had the unbearable cunts for neighbours and go into a office Monday to Friday and 90% are arsenal fans talking shite you might understand instead of getting wound up about a rival bottling the league.
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Tru dat, but I’m at the point this season where I’m struggling to remember which shit decision went with which games.
Yep. That comment did confuse me a bit, as we won the first three, then drew one, then lost one. 10/15 points. Not a bad haul really.
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Are there any football fans we don’t think are cunts? I mean, it seems to be every time we play someone there is some reason why we should fucking hate them.
On all honesty, are we any different? I’d imagine we were pretty unbearable when we were winning the lot. I draw the line at tragedy chanting and stuff like that (which is why, on balance, I’d sooner see the back of Leicester than Everton) but it seems to me that bigging yourself up a bit goes with the territory?
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really disappointing that another club picked up the gauntlet to have a run at the title against City and. and once they can’t sustain the point tally they’re called “bottlers”?
really do detest the football culture sometimes. the mentality behind it, is atrocious behavior
Just taking the piss, hey? 
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I remembered we were doing well points wise but not that we were top. I dont think we were playing that well, though in those first few matches despite getting those points.
Mate, I live in Leicester and had to put up with those dicks gloating about winning the Premier League before Liverpool did. I know the pain of dealing with cocky pricks rubbing stuff in.
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It’s only football at the end of the day Mascot, it’s nowhere near hate levels…we can dislike a team we’re playing for 90mins (even then it’s more banter) and then after that as far as I’m concerned it’s back to every day life.
The only fan base and team I’ve hated growing up was Utd, City have slowly and now surely entered that frame & it’s easier that way as now I can class the whole of Manchester football fans as being cunts, cut from the same cloth.
I’m not sure which cap you’ve got on today but to say you’d rather see Leicester down than Everton is incomprehensible on any scale. It’s a borderline criminal offence.
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It’s the people you know the most, the worst fans for me hav always been Chelsea, Everton and Man Utd fans, I knew enough to think they are arseholes.
One of my best mates is a Leicester fan so I’m feeling for him to be fair and he’s never not wanted us to gazump City and wants us to get top 4 after last night.
Ones that truly baffle me are Spurs fans as there seems a split between entitled wankers and long term sufferers
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He did but Suarez was missing and he would have made a huge difference. Points dropped needlessly.
The problem is, it’s gotten to a point where it’s difficult to identify a set of match day supporters who DON’T chant vile Hillsborough references when their team plays us. It seems to happen in each and every game now. It’s quite beyond me. I have absolutely no idea what’s going on inside their tiny brains.
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There is one specific set and I can’t think of them but it sort of surprised me how pleasant they were.