It’s not all doom and gloom. ‘Cautious Optimism’ is what my teacher used to call it when we wrote codes in C++ on a vi editor – chances of it to fail were various, you could easily miss out a semicolon and things won’t work, the error descriptions weren’t ‘descriptive’ enough and you would have to start from line 1 to debug and fix the problem. Mikel is trying to do it on a football ground with 25 players from last 3 seasons and he is still to run it, successfully.
It was called a ‘Good Job’ when we finished 2nd for the first time in 2022-23 season. We lost the games in 36th and 37th week, against Brighton at Home 0-3, and Forest Away 1-0 and we lost the title by just 5 points. It wasn’t a bad result for the club and the fans, in a sense that we finished 2nd after a very long time, the players had the better days ahead and we had built a solid defensive unit. After the defeats, we picked ourselves up, and started from scratch in the next season.
2023-24, we finished 2nd again against Man City who were in tremendous form in the second half of the season. They had 91 points, we had 89 by the end of it. This time, we did well towards the end winning 6 out of last 6 games, beating Chelsea and Spurs on the way. Aston Villa did beat us which allowed City to go in front and they never dropped a point after that. Arteta & Co. were beaten by Pep and his players in a title run. We did well, very well and learnt from some of our earlier mistakes. Mikel bolstered the back up options in an attempt to keep the injury factor away. Alright, lets go again, boys.
2024-25, we finished 2nd again but it hurt this time. Almost everyone struggled but Liverpool, because of an extra ordinary season from Mo Salah, won the title with 84 points. We finished our season with 74 points, not good enough considering our points tally had dropped massively, we had improved in every area of the field, we had better back up players and almost everything else was in a better shape around the club that earlier seasons.
So far, this season, we have been doing good, again. We are sitting at the top after 21 games with a 6 points difference to our rivals – Man City, amidst injuries to many players. Martinelli was out for few games, Gabriel / Saiba partnership wasn’t available for few games, RB was a problem, Madueke picked up an injury, Saka was out after ages and Havertz / Jesus has made it for the selection only now. We have also managed to beat Unai Emery so, yeah.
There has been some concerns apart from the injuries. We spent some money in the CF department which hasn’t paid well, but it has been the system more than the player in my opinion. If Arteta things Havertz and Jesus will better suit his style, they are available now and he can do what he wishes. Bukayo has some drop in form, and it hasn’t costed us still but we surely need the best player in his best form if we are going to compete at all levels and win something of importance.
Premier League – sitting up top with 6 points lead and 17 games to go. It’s achievable and let us just agree that not winning from here should be called a bottle job.
Champions League – we haven’t dropped a point in Champions League so far and we have beaten Atletico and Bayern in the process. We were beaten by PSG in Semi Finals last season, and they went on to win the title, so it wasn’t a all-sad affair. We can do better than that, this season. We can go all the way.
Carabao Cup – We are playing Chelsea in a 2-legged semi finals. Chelsea has sacked Maresca and we can take advantage of that. It’s not easy considering we will face one of the Man City and Newcastle if we manage to beat Chelsea but again, it’s achievable. We have beaten all three and we know how to do that.
FA Cup – FA Cup third round got us some very unexpected but sweet results. Forest lost to Wrexham in a penalty shooutout, Newcastle somehow managed to win against Bournemouth after a 3-3 result in regular time, Tottenham lost to Aston Villa (lol) and Brighton beat Man Utd. We beat Portsmouth 4-1 after going down in 3rd minute which was expected. We are going to play Wigan Athletic in 4th round. We will have a 5th round, quarter finals, semis and finals – so it’s a long road and we have just got started.
Yeah, we are doing well. I am Cautiously Optimistic.
Could it have been better?
Certainly.
Are we struggling in some departments?
Yes – because some of those games in PL were won by set pieces and our open play goals had dried up.
Can we make it to the end?
I hope so, considering we have 3 seasons of falling short and we have practically 2 playing XI that can finish the season in the top half of the table.
See you in the comment section.
Marc
I think he will be the one who decides he has had enough. Besides who would want to live in Manchester.
Great tackle by Mosquera but then what a finish by Sucic.
Good start to things, as Inter appeared totally unprepared to deal with our press, but since Jesus’s rather fortuitous tally, Inter has found their legs and tied things up with a glorious strike from outside the box…this could be an interesting watch unless both managers apply the brakes after a fairly frantic first 20
Norg
I wasn’t suggesting he’d be sacked more that what’s happening will make him think time to move on.
As for living in Manchester? He should have become ManU’s manager then he could have lived in Surrey with most of their fans.
Marc
Perhaps he is thinking of moving to Old Toilet.
Meanwhile back in Milan the stadium is alight. AFC havent lost when they have scored first in the CL this season.
Inter should have scored there.
Shocking defending by Inter there.
MLS making fun of whoever that was in blue shirt.
Marc—our little interloper failed to mention the -9 degree weather, the artificial turf, the starting of two youngsters in their backline and the sending off Rodri in the 62 minute(two yellows in 54 seconds)…that said, I do agree with you regarding the possibility that Pep might want to move on…personally I feel as if Pep has been “forced” to stay on, certainly much longer than he might have otherwise, because ownership knows that if he had departed before this recent “retooling” they would faced considerably more scrutiny regarding their financial practices…it wouldn’t have been a good look for Pep either
(please don’t repeat fucktard nonsense being spewed by that orange-haired fuck regarding Maturo’s supposeed approval ratings—that’s like assigning credibility to Putin’s approval rating)
*supposed
if Inter weren’t so dreadful in and around the box, they could be sitting on a lead going into half…fun watch though
TRVL
The Maturo approval rating thing is being joked on by a news channel over here – no mention of Trump its about having a laugh at Starmer.
I hear Canada’s about to be invaded by Trump – have you been drafted yet?
Jesus having a miraculous evening. Showing some genuine poacher’s instincts. I thought we’d find it tough with that team tonight but Inter aren’t all that.
We need a traitor like the Kremlin favourite Farage in charge in London right? A proper, fully fledged and corrupt cunt who’ll suck Trump’s withered cock with gusto and betray lumpen Brits who’ve fallen into his cult. And he’s a Palace fan so what could possibly go wrong? There, geopolitics solved for the simplest of people.
if that piece of human shit were to invade I wouldn’t need to be drafted, I would fucking volunteer
we all know that Jesus has the odd purple patch…unfortunately it’s usually followed by incredibly long dry spells and/or some sort of reconstructive surgery…the only real saving grace of him getting minutes is it means that Havertz is sitting on the bench
(please don’t repeat fucktard nonsense being spewed by that orange-haired fuck regarding Maturo’s supposeed approval ratings—that’s like assigning credibility to Putin’s approval rating
Good try Vieira but it doesn’t work. There’s no arguing with unpatriotic self proclaimed patriots under the thrall of extremism. They’re happy to sign Britain over to some real bastards, all because they’re scared of non-white people and too posh/constrained to say so. Sadly, this bullshit passes as political opinion in Ingerland these days.
KP—it’s all the rage here too…I had this ginger fuck close friend of mine actually say to me, after an argument involving the sensless killing of a drunk black man in a fast food parking lot because he ran away from an officer, that he was the least racist person I know…btw he justified the shooting by somehow employing the old “pulling up oneself by their boot straps” right wing caucasoid trope
TRVL
The actual likely hood of the US invading Canada or even Greenland is nil if for no other reason when presented with orders to invade a NATO ally or one of its territories most of the senior military commanders would resign.
The constitutional ramifications would cause chaos.
I can’t figure out why so many leaders in Europe seem desperate to convince their populations that we’re going to war.
It’s a fucking grim world these days Vieira. Full of white lumpen racists who have unfailingly placed their trust in an especially nasty strain of capitalist over lords. They’re way too thick to realise they’re being manipulated into blaming people who are lower on the ladder than themselves even though the greed, inequality and misery are bring caused by a few greedy cunts at the top, abetted by a completely bent broadcasting client media . They prefer to punch down and conveniently not ask themselves if it’s the right target. Always been racists and suck ups to their bosses but now emboldened to say so. All the relevant parallels with late 30s Germany are installed.
Looks like the lads need to screw the nut for the final 20 minutes.
Merino.might be the dirtiest player in Europe presently…nothing worse than being a weasel and a flopper
Merino can be a clumsy fucker.