Fair enough, I've missed the context! It was a pretty good weekend in my view. The teams that won are not the ones we should be keeping an eye on and if we do our jobs in the next few rounds, it will become very, very clear how much of a progress has been achieved.
Never a good idea to look back and think about 'what if' situations but if we did win against City, we'd have been 3 points off top with a game in hand. Not that it would've stopped the Ole Out guys...
For me, I would have preferred to discuss other things than the manager post, because apart from David Moyes I think most actual evidence shows that the manager position itself has been the least of our worries for a good few years now.
I’m happy registering that we have four straight wins including Everton, West Ham and Southampton (who all were in the category ‘above us but I think we’re better’ when we met them) and a draw (City, who were behind us but whom I still consider ‘better than us’ atm). Going by results, chances created, yards run, shots made etc, we are a whole other team than we were in the first part of the season, and more like the team we were in the restart period and in the winter. We’re inconsistent within games still, but our consistency across games seems to be gradually improving.
Then again, this season is going to be an anomaly for everyone, and in general, the PL is stronger and tighter than it has ever been. Being five points off the top with a game in hand after no preseason, six CL games and a disastrous start, I think that’s pretty good going. Still, I’m expecting at least a couple of the major teams to get some real wobbles this season because noone has any experience really with how hard you can push squads in a season such as this. It’s bound to be a bit hit’n miss even for the most experienced coaching teams.