Premier League 26/27: Defending Our Crown

[Red London]

Chelsea and City will be our competition I think.

 

[fute]

Will win this by January.

 

[buckley17]

Gunna hit so hard when we go unbeaten

I'm worried we go unbeaten and still lose the league due to too many draws.

 

[HighburyHigh]

I think we could be City's main competition providing we can create 1/2 chances per game and then take them.

 

[Tomb Bomadil]

It's just peak Arsenal to go into the summer transfer window needing more creativity generally and a refresh on the left wing to coming out having failed to do much there.

I don't think overall we're in bad shape and the doom and gloom is a bit much but honestly it was such an obvious weakness last season.

Reasons to be happier though;
- Could be a breakthrough season for Dowman, he'll get significantly minutes most probably
- MLS is establishing himself as first team, or near to it
- Nwaneri kept and good loan with a recall; if we struggle for creativity and he does well first half of the season with BVB then he's an option
- Tzolis had a promising start and pre-season and could replace Trossard without much of a drop off if we're lucky
- proactive move to cover Saliba with Konsa
- Bruno is a level raiser in midfield and * may * add to our creativity (not convinced he does this significantly)
- Better place with injuries generally than last season, so long as this lasts

I would add:

• Saka, Havertz, Ødegaard, Merino missed a lot of games. That should make our attack better
• Ødegaard looks fitter and already in better form than whole last season
• I would say Saka is our only world class attacker. Him fit and in form will be the biggest boost we can get. So please take care of him Arteta.

 

[BanterJenks]

I seriously wonder how the rule changes around set pieces will affect us

 

[Barry]

I had Chelsea as dark horse to finish second before the end of the transfer window... With no Europe they've still got a chance but their midfield looks weak as. City did some very good business and they look like our main rivals again. Whether it's enough to make up for the weaknesses they had last year combined with the loss of Rodri /Bernardo/ Pep - I don't know.

 

[Barry]

I would add:

• Saka, Havertz, Ødegaard, Merino missed a lot of games. That should make our attack better
• Ødegaard looks fitter and already in better form than whole last season
• I would say Saka is our only world class attacker. Him fit and in form will be the biggest boost we can get. So please take care of him Arteta.

If Saka and Ødegaard are carefully managed and replicate their previous form we'll win the league easily I think

 

[Sapient Hawk]

A bit worried about Chelsea. Think they’re gonna potentially have a season similar to when we were surprise title contenders after signing Jesus and Zinchenko.

The difference is Chelsea have 0 Europe (we had EL which actually got Saliba injured), and we are no prime City.

Chelsea’s attack is nothing short of tantalising. They’re certainly in the dark horse category.

Their attack is very good but their midfield is threadbare & their defense is garbage. Their gung-ho approach, which somehow managed to barely work against Fulham & Brighton, will seem them torn to shreds against us or City.

 

[Rasputin]

It's us or City. Whoever gets the best run with injuries.

 

[DanDare]

City have 1 striker. Yes it's Haaland but he can't play 60 games for them without some drop off even if he manages to stay fit the whole season

We are going to win the league again but people are too busy being negative despite every other team having worse holes in their squad

 

[Aubamabludclat94]

City have 1 striker. Yes it's Haaland but he can't play 60 games for them without some drop off even if he manages to stay fit the whole season

We are going to win the league again but people are too busy being negative despite every other team having worse holes in their squad

Remember when Haaland was missing like 1/3 of the season every season and then that mysteriously stopped once he moved to City… yeah I remember that

 

[Tnegs]

We have to be favorites here. We are the defending champions and the only club in the list of challengers with a manager who has been in charge for more than 3 months. Our squad is very well settled with most of our key players having been here for at least 3 years and being fully familiar with the managers style of play. Rival clubs will be getting players to buyin to the process while ours is already completed and now being refined. The failure to sign an attacker is an annoying setback but we still have the Jan window plus existing players can step up. No reason why we won’t win it again.

 

[dashsnow17]

City have 1 striker. Yes it's Haaland but he can't play 60 games for them without some drop off even if he manages to stay fit the whole season

We are going to win the league again but people are too busy being negative despite every other team having worse holes in their squad

Only just realised City haven’t signed a back up for him. Knowing their luck he’ll play every game the jammy gits.

 

[Jason Jace]

City hasn’t been that impressive so far but they are just picking up maximum points which is worrying.


I need them to start dropping point soon. They more they win the more belief they get

 

[dino bravo]

City hasn’t been that impressive so far but they are just picking up maximum points which is worrying.


I need them to start dropping point soon. They more they win the more belief they get

They have had 2 home games and both were very unconvincing narrow wins, they always win at home and usually better than this. They will falter, don’t worry.

 

[BaZZe]

Actually pathetic that people are scared of this City side. They're so mid.

 

[Aubamabludclat94]

Yeah it’s early days everybody needs to relax. If you’re already freaking out, you need to tune out the game for a bit.

 

[Clrnc]

Yup. There's no competition ffs especially this season. We are the biggest outright pre-competition favorites for the league since City in 2018 at 1.67.

Our odds at 1.83 implied that we have a 55.6% chance of lifting the title, 2nd best odds ever since 1992.

Only 2 times in history have a team with odds of less than 2 pre-competition then failed to lift the title, United in 97-98 (odds 2), and Chelsea 15-16 (odds 1.99)