SEVEN (games to decide the future of the multiverse)

Desert Eagle

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The first seven games of our league season are crucial to setting the pace for a title charge. We play none of the top teams while a lot of them play each other. Our fixtures are:

Leeds (h), Southampton (a), Wolves(a), Newcastle(h), West Ham(a), Villa(h), Everton(h)

Ideally we can win 7 or win 6 and draw 1. 5 wins and 2 draws is also acceptable if a little frustrating, we should really be thinking 15 points absolute minimum though.

Our three main rivals City, Chelsea and Liverpool have tougher starts especially the first two teams:

City have Spurs(a), Norwich(h),Arsenal(h), Leicester(a), Southampton(h),Chelsea(a),Liverpool(a) Thats 4 and a half tough games and they would be happy with anything above 13 points imo

Chelsea have Palace(h), Arsenal(a),Liverpool(a), Villa(h), Spurs(a), City(h), Southampton(h) Again 4 tough games in there and anything above 13 points would be great for them.

Liverpool have Norwich(a), Burnley(h), Chelsea(h), Leeds(a), Palace(h), Brentford(a), City(h) 2 tough games in there as well and they should be aiming for 15 points minimum.

IF we can win our first 7 games that would open up at least a 4 point gap over second imo and really give us the belief and momentum to think this could be our year. We have the squad depth, we have the quality. We hopefully have a rejuvenated Rashford coming back after this run of fixtures. One game at a time but this could be the start of a season to remember.
 

SirAnderson

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Desert Eagle said:
The first seven games of our league season are crucial to setting the pace for a title charge. We play none of the top teams while a lot of them play each other. Our fixtures are:

Leeds (h), Southampton (a), Wolves(a), Newcastle(h), West Ham(a), Villa(h), Everton(h)

Ideally we can win 7 or win 6 and draw 1. 5 wins and 2 draws is also acceptable if a little frustrating, we should really be thinking 15 points absolute minimum though.

Our three main rivals City, Chelsea and Liverpool have tougher starts especially the first two teams:

City have Spurs(a), Norwich(h),Arsenal(h), Leicester(a), Southampton(h),Chelsea(a),Liverpool(a) Thats 4 and a half tough games and they would be happy with anything above 13 points imo

Chelsea have Palace(h), Arsenal(a),Liverpool(a), Villa(h), Spurs(a), City(h), Southampton(h) Again 4 tough games in there and anything above 13 points would be great for them.

Liverpool have Norwich(a), Burnley(h), Chelsea(h), Leeds(a), Palace(h), Brentford(a), City(h) 2 tough games in there as well and they should be aiming for 15 points minimum.

IF we can win our first 7 games that would open up at least a 4 point gap over second imo and really give us the belief and momentum to think this could be our year. We have the squad depth, we have the quality. We hopefully have a rejuvenated Rashford coming back after this run of fixtures. One game at a time but this could be the start of a season to remember.
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We definitely should be winning those 7 first ones. Would be terrible to not be top of the table by the end of that SEVEN.
 

Champ

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I'd imagine the other 31 games are of equal importance too.
 

Jaxa

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On paper we should win all 7 but we will end up losing to Leeds tomorrow and the place will go into meltdown,

Also don’t we notoriously start the seasons quite bad? Even under SAF ?
 

Dante

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What's in the box!?!?! What's in the box!?!?! What's in the fecking box!?!?!

Not Martial.
 

edcunited1878

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You can't win the league at the beginning, but you can lose it. The first 3 matches won't dictate anything.

Even with last year's first two months, United were top of the league or near about it come January. It was only after that where they couldn't score enough goals or keep the defense tighter. And they didn't have any sustained breaks. Match congestion was ridiculous.
 

GMoore23

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Man city's start is brutal. If we're not at least 6 clear of them going into round 8 we have no chance at the title.
 

Desert Eagle

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edcunited1878 said:
You can't win the league at the beginning, but you can lose it. The first 3 matches won't dictate anything.

Even with last year's first two months, United were top of the league or near about it come January. It was only after that where they couldn't score enough goals or keep the defense tighter. And they didn't have any sustained breaks. Match congestion was ridiculous.
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Isn't that contradictory ? If you can lose the league it can obviously dictate something.

The point is not that the other 31 games don't count. Obviously the team that performs the best over 38 games will be champions but momentum and belief are huge in sports. With the fixtures we have, the chance to go 4 plus points ahead of our rivals early on in the season could be huge. Chelsea and City in particular would be doing brilliantly to get above 14 points which means we could be 7 points ahead of them 7 games in if we win these 7 games. Yes I just used 7 three times in one sentence.
 

Pavl3n

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We really have a chance to runaway with 3-4 points gap after this first run. That would be good advantage before returning from October's international games. After which we play Liverpool, Spurs, City, Chelsea and Arsenal.
 

Redlyn

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As it's 21 points up for grabs it's important. But no more than any other set of 21 points. Too early in the season to make or break it honestly. Last season we started off shockingly, caught up as others faltered, and then lost the plot. Hopefully we start this one better and keep it up.
 

edcunited1878

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Desert Eagle said:
Isn't that contradictory ? If you can lose the league it can obviously dictate something.

The point is not that the other 31 games don't count. Obviously the team that performs the best over 38 games will be champions but momentum and belief are huge in sports. With the fixtures we have, the chance to go 4 plus points ahead of our rivals early on in the season could be huge. Chelsea and City in particular would be doing brilliantly to get above 14 points which means we could be 7 points ahead of them 7 games in if we win these 7 games. Yes I just used 7 three times in one sentence.
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4 points is nothing at that stage. United will not go 7 wins in 7 games at this stage, that's just wishful thinking and going way ahead of yourself. If it happens, well then hot damn that would amazing and we'd all take it...but United will still drop points when other clubs will pick up points.

Take it as them come and every point counts of course, but even as bad as United started last year, their title challenge was woeful in crunch time, which was the back end of the season.

If you're 9 points within the title going into January after the Christmas schedule, you're within distance, especially when you have the head to head matches coming up against the teams that are ahead of you.

There's 114 maximum points. It's normal to drop points and anything around 87 will be a great total to challenge. That's dropping points in a minimum of 9 matches (all losses) to reach 87.
 

sullydnl

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Obviously mathematically the 21 points on offer from these seven games are the same as any other 21 points. But mood, momentum and narrative exist in football and impact results. If we get these 21 points then we go into the run of big games in confidence and looking/feeling like title contenders. And the easy run of fixtures gives us a better chance of generating that sense of confidence and momentum than more difficult fixtures would.

Plus on a more basic level, we're at our least prepared at this point of the season so if given the choice I'm sure any manager would opt to have that easy run now rather than be facing Chelsea's run, for example. It's an advantage and one I hope we make the most of.
 

Pogue Mahone

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sullydnl said:
Obviously mathematically the 21 points on offer from these seven games are the same as any other 21 points. But mood, momentum and narrative exist in football and impact results. If we get these 21 points then we go into the run of big games in confidence and looking/feeling like title contenders. And the easy run of fixtures gives us a better chance of generating that sense of confidence and momentum than more difficult fixtures would.

Plus on a more basic level, we're at our least prepared at this point of the season so if given the choice I'm sure any manager would opt to have that easy run now rather than be facing Chelsea's run, for example. It's an advantage and one I hope we make the most of.
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This is true

RedTiger said:
That's one of the hardest opening games for us in donkeys years.
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And so, unfortunately, is this.
 

Oranges038

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21 points is doable, but unlikely. Ultimately should end up with 15 to 18 points after those 7 games.

Leeds are cnuts and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they win tomorrow.
 

scottw

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RedTiger said:
That's true, but that Chelsea team wasn't too different from us fitness wise. This Leeds team is known to play a high tempo game and considering almost none of their players were involved with international footie, I honestly think they could run us ragged.
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This is my biggest fear too. Bielsa demands so much from his players, and with Phillips back there with pace, this will be a tough game for us. I sure hope we win to start the season, b/c you know the plastics will be saying "Ole Out' after 1 game with missing a great deal of our team.
 

Desperado

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38 finals, as they say.

I imagine we'll have ~15-17 points by the end of those first 7.
 

Brightonian

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League winning teams can string together a full run of wins in matches like that. If City had that set of fixtures you'd certainly be betting on them to just go and win them all. We aren't in that frame of mind as a fanbase because we haven't been that kind of team for a long time now. But I do remember the Van Der Saar-Ferdinand-Vidic years just knowing that we could sail through game after game against weaker opponents with very little risk of a slip-up.
 

MiceOnMeth

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Jaxa said:
On paper we should win all 7 but we will end up losing to Leeds tomorrow and the place will go into meltdown,

Also don’t we notoriously start the seasons quite bad? Even under SAF ?
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we lost game 1 in our last title winning season.. then we thumped swansea 4 nothing in Moyes first match and we all know how that ended.
 

Desert Eagle

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After 5 games :

Chelsea - 13 points +11 GD City (h) , Southampton (h)

Liverpool - 13 points +11 GD Brentford(a), City (h)

United - 13 points +9 GD Villa(h), Everton(h)

City - 10 points +10 GD Chelsea (a) , Liverpool (a)

Two home wins with our rivals playing each other two weeks in a row will probably have us top after 7 games. Chelsea have played away at Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal and got 7 points which is pretty impressive.
 
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