Who called it first?

The Albert
61

Hi, Matty!!!

Welcome!!!

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62

Refused to acknowledge it until after West Ham at Anfield, but realistically after the City and Newcastle wins in February — I knew Arsenal were not as strong as the last couple of years, but didn’t feel comfortable until then. At the start of April, I was super jaded from the Goodison draw and knew the return fixture would be a tough game, as well as Fulham being the classic banana skin, so if you’d said that we’d win 6 in 7 after the Villa draw — textbook example of a “good point” in hindsight :slight_smile: — and clinch in April, I’d have laughed in your face.

League results thus far (MW34):

  • 25 wins, 7 losses, 2 draws
  • Sequentially: WWWLWWWWDWWWWDDWWWDDWWWDWDWWWWLWWW

Observations:

  • At halfway, we had 46 points, Arsenal had 39. A seven-point lead at Christmas is far from unassailable in my eyes, and I fully expected more of a “wobble” than a pair of back-to-back draws and the Everton-Villa week where we still won a game in between.
  • Our longest winning run was 4 games (x3), compared to 18 in the title-winning season (August-February).
  • We also have 10 points fewer after the same match week (but who gives a fuck).
  • The biggest thing that stuck out to me, however, is that we never went more than 2 consecutive League games without winning…and in each of those four games, we managed draws after conceding the first goal. The adage of turning draws into wins was equally reinforced by turning potential losses into draws.
  • In that context, the Brentford away and Wolves at home feel big in terms of retaining some momentum and preventing a “true” wobble. Obviously Arsenal acquiesced in terms of failing to win when we dropped points: I think they were +2 on the Notts Forest week when they won NLD and +1 getting a point at Goodison when we lost at Fulham.
  • My biggest thing was to not allow them any encouragement post-break, so their draw at Goodison was helpful but I didn’t see the dropped points to Brentford or Palace coming…perhaps I should have!
  • We’re fucking Champions and we’re celebrating it properly this time!
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63

I think when they dropped points to West Ham and we beat Wolves the following day (though not the best display) I felt we were going to do it.

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