Title Decider next Saturday

Why not tobes these are two best teams!

They are contenders , but you have to consider how easy they've both had it from the fixtures so far.

Arsenal lose this one and then United Away and suddenly they will be down in 3rd or 4th and the focus will all be on whether they can qualify for the Champion's League as per usual.

Will they lose at united though they are struggling to get past soton snd stoke! Wide open this year for me city are average without Kompany thats for sure!

Arsenal could win both ! That would be interesting . No results would surprise me , all these teams seem very closely matched .

Odd when you see how pundits rave about City and laugh at Man U,   when United have had much tougher fixtures and are only 2pts behind them

As much as I hate to say it, given the fixtures so far, Chelsea are the team that look most likely to win it at this early stage. Things can quickly change though.

Yes, i think if you adjusted the table for fixture difficulty Chelsea would be top.

Can't believe this chelsea team might win it! Wtf has happened :D

I'm now kicking myself for not laying Man City top 4 as well as Man Utd top 4

I got nice chunks done at 1.11, 1.13 and 1.16, could have done the same with City

can't see both making top 4 now

only I didn't do the City trade, blast it

what has happened, is that the Premiership, is totally over-rated. Man Utd won the League last year, yet were a pretty average side, but were less average, than the rest.

indeed, despite the billions spent the standard is pretty low

Agree with the above ^

Chelsea to win the league is a very sound bet. (Unfortunately)

yes the more you look, the more it seems obvious that Chelsea are going to go very close for sure and will prolly win it

Liverpool title contenders - no chance

Yes they have the best striker partnership right now but dont think their squad is good enough, obv time will tell but they are too reliant on SandS, if one gets injured they could suffer

Suarez and sturridge have scored 14 of their 17 goals
and only 4 different scorers overall

6 different city scorers
9 different arsenal scorers
10 chelsea scorers

if one gets injured they could suffer

Sturridge was on his own for the first 6 games

Chelsea have been certs from the start...not even fergie could stop Mourinho (again, sadly).

certainly between chelsea/city

im sure tobes has a tongue in his cheek with this fred.

Chelsea were a decent bet at the start and probably still are now, given the upcoming fixtures for the so-called challengers. But if you're not on them yet, it might be worth holding fire - the Chelsea price has the potential to drift a bit before next weekend (my theory is that Arsenal might beat them in the meaningless cup - Mourinho doesn't give a feck about that tourney, and then the market will back Arsenal more for the league, wrongly IMO but that's whats likely to happen, and so Chelsea price improves a bit).

I don't see any value in Arsenal or Liverpool now (but WD to anyone who got on at big prices early doors).

If you're still looking for a nice trade, you could do a lot worse than Spuds at current prices.

arsenal have been playing well for too long this year to be dismissed so easily, by so many. girouds improved ramseys back and better than before, if they get another striker in jan they could do it.

Arsenal mostly play well and perform above their ability due to their world class manager.

But when you have players like rosicky or bendtner appearing then the alarm bells ring. they still have a weak defence and really need flamini to stay fit. and not to play wilshere.

"Title Decider next Saturday" - but Everton v Tottenham is on Sunday

City defending really badly of late

with kompany they are ok, but Hart is scaring the back 4 bigtime.

today, if he stood still he would had caught the ball.

A dodgy keeper affects a defence worst than anything.

don't forget the shocking goals conceded at Aston Villa

...... and Cardiff

oh aye I did forget that!

both away, think foreign managers treat away games as difficult when in the epl they are not.

joe hart is poison.

I always think the title winners have a world class keeper, this season could be different though.

as I said, I am kicking myself for not applying the same argument to Man City as I did on Man Utd

could have laid chunks at sub 1.15, didn't have the imagination to see the new manager + dodgy keeper + Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool challenge

blast

Still think the winner this season will be won by default, its who beats the bad teams, like manu have done for the last 10 years.

Sturridge was on his own for the first 6 games


Good point, but if one was too be injured mid season, when the fixtures pile up when the cup games come might be more difficult plus their early fixtures havent been to tough, but still overall, I don't think even Lliverpool fans think they are realistic title challengers, when you compare squads, city and chelsea for me are too strong, it will be chelsea-city-arsenal-united in that order imo

Liverpool are realistic challengers at the moment,and all the time they have their 2 strikers fit will continue to be imo.
Anyone tipping UTD to threaten needs to look at the way they are playing and the teams they have just managed to beat after going behind.....Stoke and Sunderland!!! Add to that losing at home to WBA!! They have played 3 of the top sides and got 1 point,and got thrashed by City.
Arsenal have been playing the best football so far and deserve to be where they are, and look to me that will be around at the end.
Chelsea will be major challengers,and City need Company back to be the same,otherwise they wont win anything imo.
So I expect the league to be won by Arsenal,Liverpool or Chelsea,and city if their skipper plays enough.
Cant be confident enough to name the winner,too early and too open for me.

Have United's fixtures been so tough
Liverpool away city away Chelsea at home Swansea away
Westbrom Sunderland palace stoke Southampton

think saturday could go some way to show if arsenal or liverpool can finish in the top 4. 

you have city, chelsea and man u all going for the title with arsenal, spurs, everton and liverpool all going for 4th place.

southampton deserve to be where they are, but they have no strength in depth and losing a couple of players to injury or suspension could see them slip up as the season goes on.

way I see it at the moment,you have 6 teams going for the title who actually think its possible to win it.
Those making the best show of it so far are Arsenal,Liverpool and Chelsea,followed closely by spurs.
The 2 Manchester clubs are languishing.

Much better though and interesting for the neutral to see it like this. Not as boring this season :)

I think a lot of people are a bit upset that team's like Liverpool Everton Southampton are sitting where they are in the table and are predicting expecting them to drop out

With each week this continues these people will get a little more irate it may well last into the new year before these teams disappear

arsenal and liverpool have both had very soft starts. just 1 home game each so far against the supposed top 6 teams. arsenal especially have played mostly relegation candidates

Liverpool have played the same team's as United apart from Chelsea and city this will be the first team above them in the league they have played though

Liverpool have played the same team's as United apart from Chelsea and city

Quite a big difference 9 games in to be fair RP!

Spurs have had a soft enough start too Mafe. Not that much different to Liverpool's.

Liverpool will be found out by Christmas




remember all the muppets last year calling for Wengers head

not while they have those 2 up front they wont,all the time they are fit I expect Liverpool to be challenging at the top.

Coutinho hasn't even played with Suarez and Sturridge yet.

CCM, wouldn't disagree with that at all. however everyone going massively overboard about arsenal and liverpool on the basis of a handful of winnable games

wouldn't say any of us are more than a point or 2 in front of what you expect from the respective fixtures lists so far

Yep don't disagree. But we are 5 points ahead of last season based on the same fixtures which suggests improvement.

without checking i'd guess there'd only be a handful of points between the big 6 on the 2013 league table. arsenal definitely top, we must be 2nd or 3rd

Liverpools league opponents this seasons are currently 17th, 13th, 8th, 9th, 5th, 19th, 20th, 11th and 12th. Got to be a lay.

Have a look at Arsenal's Harry....

Liverpool and Arsenal would be lucky to get 3rd place. City and Chelsea have 1st & 2nd wrapped up, hopefully in that order too as I would hate for such a scum team like Chelsea to win the league.

city keep dropping points though, can't do that and expect to challenge

city will get consistency though....might take till next season though as pellegrinis methods can take a little time to sink in.

if they don't win it this year they will win it next and probably most years whilst pelegrini is there.

I've never known a season where the fixtures have worked out like this. Take the top eight and how many times they've played each other:

:: Arsenal have played Tottenham
:: Chelsea have played Tottenham, Man City and Man Utd
:: Liverpool have played Southampton and Man Utd
:: Tottenham have played Arsenal and Chelsea
:: Southampton have played Liverpool and Man Utd
:: Everton have played Chelsea and Man City
:: Man City have played Chelsea and Man Utd
:: Man Utd have played Chelsea, Liverpool, Southampton and Man City

Everton are in sixth place with 18 points from nine games. A total of 76 points would see a team finish third in most seasons. There will be a huge change in the table in the next few weeks.

Can't see it changing much between now and the season end some possible shuffling but nothing major imo

interesting info what do i do now

All Over

Liverpool still stuck in the eighties.

I take nothing for granted, but this result along with the others inconsistency makes me think we can really challenge now.

Even if not this year, the foundations are more than there now. I can truly see us becoming a force in the next few years.

have liverpool conceded to arsenal in winning the title yet???


The arrogant twonks

this form from arsenal is actually a continuation of their form in the second half of last season. and they have a better squad this season.

they dominated a good liverpool team today. they have a real chance.

they would have a much better chance if all their players were fit

two more picked up niggles tonight and may be unavailable in the week ahead - Gibbs a calf strain and I forget the other one

true, but look who they have to come back. wilshere, walcott, ox-cham, flamini, podolski, sanogo. mostly imminent.

centreback's going to be their real problem, I think.

they do need them all

I still see Arsenals weakness as being too lightweight, they've always had the ability to pass their way through opponents on their day better than anyone, but they always fall down in deep mid winter in the slop, let's see how ozil and co fancy slapping about when their fingers and toes get cold

?

bit lightweight? beat both champs lg finalists on there own patch, and stopped a free scoring s&s last week, they,re not doing bad imo. watch this space