Added to that that City have basically been building the squad for Pep’s arrival since Cheeky and the other one turned-up from Barca and there’s no question that Pep started from a better position; Jose took-over a side that was designed by and for LVG and he’s had to make the squad for him, which is still a work-in-progress. Makes a big difference I think.
Yup. It's madness that people have forgotten how bad we were when Mou arrived and how off the pace we were domestically last season. I look at it like this:
Last season's order
Chelsea: lost their best striker and apparently Conte hasn't had the board's backing - big drop in performances/results in general is therefore expected
Spurs: similar team to last season, therefore you'd expect them to finish same/sightly lower given bigger investments by a number of other teams.
City: Massive investment in the team that finished 3rd, they have improved dramatically. 1st position is expected, style of football is a bonus.
Liverpool: Lost Coutinho but generally have invested. Expect them to finish similar position +1/-1
Arsenal: The usual slow decline.
Man Utd: Big investment and big improvement in results. Stylistically there are critics but +4 places in the PL on last year.
Current order
City: +2
Man Utd: +4
Liverpool: +1
Spurs: -2
Chelsea: - 4
Arsenal: - 1
Pep & City should take a lot of plaudits but I think Mou should get a decent amount of respect for dragging United past 4 very good teams in the table (hopefully we stay there). Conte has had an easy ride from the press given Chelsea were Champions and Wenger is just too old a story for people to be bothered with. They don't get many write ups but but for what it's worth Burnley are +9 places this year with a budget that's probably less than one City defender.